Can you increase the sound quality of the camcorder?

[TerryMasters]

According to this video, the Incredible only captures audio at 8000Hz.

YouTube - iPhone 4 vs HTC Droid Incredible HD 720p Shoot-out video camcorder (6:53)

In my experience, it definitely sounds like it. I know this is a cell phone and everything, but the audio really sucks in my videos. Is there any way to increase it? Check out this video someone took at a concert they were at.

YouTube - Steve Miller Band Clip

If there's no official way to increase the frequency, does anyone know if it would be possible to fix it after rooting?

 

[TerryMasters]

I guess that's a no

 

[huix0018]

I have been wondering this also. The video is bare-able but the audio is horrendous. Will they update it with at least 96 kpbs bit rate?

 

[Fahrenheit]

I was checking out the camera settings file located in /data/data/com.android.camera/shared_prefs/com.android.camera_preferences.xml. It doesn't look like there is a setting for audio:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?> 
<map>
<string name="pref_camera_metering_mode">_average</string> 
<string name="pref_flicker_adjustment">auto</string> 
<boolean name="pref_camera_auto_focus" value="true" /> 
<string name="pref_camera_storage_location">main_memory</string> 
<string name="pref_capture_resolution_photo_second">SXGA</string> 
<boolean name="pref_front_camera_mode" value="true" /> 
<boolean name="pref_camera_record_with_audio" value="true" /> 
<string name="pref_camera_contrast">2</string> 
<boolean name="pref_camera_image_ratio" value="true" /> 
<int name="version" value="20100621" /> 
<boolean name="pref_camera_timestamp" value="false" /> 
<string name="pref_camera_effect_2nd">none</string> 
<string name="pref_capture_resolution_contact">CONTACT_STYLE</string> 
<string name="counter_imagefolder">100</string> 
<string name="pref_capture_resolution_video_mpeg4">720p</string> 
<boolean name="pref_camera_geo_tagging" value="false" /> 
<boolean name="pref_face_detection" value="true" /> 
<string name="pref_camera_recording_limit">unlimited</string> 
<string name="pref_capture_format_video">mpeg4</string> 
<string name="counter_video">21</string> 
<boolean name="pref_play_shutter_sound" value="true" /> 
<string name="pref_camera_flash_mode">auto</string> 
<string name="pref_set_resolution">8 M (3264 x 1952)</string> 
<string name="camera_capture_mode">camera_capture_mode_photo</string> 
<string name="pref_camera_shaprness">2</string> 
<string name="pref_capture_resolution_photo_main">EIGHT_MEGA_5_3</string> 
<string name="pref_capture_format_image">jpeg</string> 
<string name="pref_camera_brightness">3</string> 
<boolean name="pref_grid" value="false" /> 
<string name="pref_camera_capture_quality">_super</string> 
<string name="pref_camera_self_timer">none</string> 
<string name="pref_camera_review_duration">5s</string> 
<string name="pref_camera_saturation">2</string> 
<boolean name="pref_camera_switch" value="false" /> 
<string name="counter_image">44</string> 
<string name="pref_camera_iso">auto</string> 
<string name="pref_camera_effect">none</string> 
<string name="pref_camera_white_balance">auto</string> 
</map>

It seems like the hardware is capable, just no software support. I imagine the camera app would one day get updated to change the audio settings. Either that, or I wonder if there are any other video recording programs...

EDIT - WHOA, I just watched that iPhone\Incredible shootout above...very telling. It's almost embarrassing how poorly the inc camera performs. As my friend says about the iPhone OS versus Android, "It's all about the software." The inc has the hardware to make great videos, however it appears the software lacks the coding to take advantage of it.

 

[theguy386]

Oh....... My...... God!!

I knew our DINC's had problems with the video camera, but WOW! I didnt realize they were really this bad

 

[Revolutionary]

That video is doctored or poorly shot. I shot HD video all week last week on my vacation and the sound is not nearly that poor. Particularly narration by the shooter at only 2 feet away. He sounds like he's speaking through a telephone butted up against the phone's mic. Maybe he covered it up with the janky tripod (or his finger)? Either way, my experience directly contradicts his result. You can take that FWIW (I'm not going to post my family vacation vids on youtube...), but dude has zero credibility to me.

 

[tjubb]

I shot a bunch of video at a recent Rush concert and none of the clips are usable. This was my first real world use of the HD cam. The audio is so distorted you can't even tell which song is being played. We were even out on the lawn away from the large PA inside the pavilion. I will not be using the Incredible for any future concert videos, I'll stick to my Sony Cybershot which did a phenomenal job.

 

[benlevy]

I shot a friend's band, and some at a Jeff Beck show. Both sounded like the Steve Miller clip linked above. It does not sound like a sampling rate problem to me. Sounds more like the mic is getting clipped. If there was a way to turn the gain on the mic down, it may mitigate it.

 

[ShannonDavis]

The poor audio is by design. Either the mfg (HTC) or carrier (Verizon) does not want you to make quality audio files using any device. Copyright is one issue. Also, if you have quality audio files you can create your own ringtones without purchasing them from Verizon. I know there are ways around that but that is the idea behind poor audio. I haven't had a phone in years that makes a decent audio recording.

 

[whipstitch]

The poor audio is by design. Either the mfg (HTC) or carrier (Verizon) does not want you to make quality audio files using any device. Copyright is one issue. Also, if you have quality audio files you can create your own ringtones without purchasing them from Verizon. I know there are ways around that but that is the idea behind poor audio. I haven't had a phone in years that makes a decent audio recording.

The phone is capable of high quality audio. Try the tapemachine app. It sounds great with the internal mic. (With an external mic... not so much)

My guess is that the phone can't handle hi-res video and hi-res audio at the same time so they sacrificed the audio. 720 video in low light drops down as low as 9fps. If it was pushing more bits in audio, it would be even worse.

BTW, the music mod app (in the market) lets you select any song on your phone and make it a ringtone - much better to do it that way than to try to record a song using the phone.