S7 Video Recording FUBAR: Samsung's Biggest Mistake?

[CTIGUK]

When I first picked up my Galaxy s7 Edge on Sprint, I wrote a post about poor quality, lack of stability, and a lot of people told me I was imagining it, or put it down to YouTube. Now watch this...

https://youtu.be/gF_PRYBFS84

That is a video I took in FHD60 (i.e. 1080p and 60 frames per second) - skip forward to 8 seconds. Unacceptable isn't the word. It's not usually as bad as this - usually it's a still unacceptable jarring stutter once every 10-15 seconds or so. Some videos are almost normal, too. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnRAHEE-nB4

This one is 4K. Not as bad on the face of it, but the weird motion blurring and blockiness present is ...well, it doesn't feel very 4K. I also experience some skips/frame drops when filming in this mode.

I took approx 130 10-30 second videos over the weekend and skipping is present in most of them. I've even got to the point where I try and film everything twice (panning across a landscape) so i can hopefully minimize the likelihood of skipping.

This is my second S7 edge, after the first one developed a dead pixel within the first 2 weeks. I've updated the firmware to G935PVPU2APD3.

From what I've read online in forums, one user claimed that on a live chat , Samsung are refusing to admit it publicly, but there is nothing they can do to improve it. I believe this is a problem mainly with the US Snapdragon 820 chip - but I dunno, it could be an issue with the International version too - either way, I'm not happy but it looks like we have to put up with it.

 

[SpookDroid]

Still think it's a particular hardware issue. I haven't seen any of that on my recordings. Granted, I take more pictures than video, but so far I haven't seen any artifacts on mine. You can watch AC's video test, too, and there's no mention of those problems in their review unit.

 

[sangs]

Obviously I see that it's happening to you with the samples you've provided, but I haven't noticed it on any of my videos. Did your first Edge (the one with the bad pixel) do this as well?

 

[CTIGUK]

I'm on the Snapdragon processor with Sony image sensor. It's just crazy I'd have two back-to-back with this issue. Currently seeing whether Spring can help me at all. I filmed one last week and the video managed to crush into a tiny cube back and forth...

 

[tomatosouplabs]

I have done some videos at HD 30 fps. I found it to be jerky at times when I had digital image stabilization turned on, just panning slowly around my room. It works much better with it off. I did not try the higher frame rate or resolution yet. I was also just writing to internal memory.

 

[marlin29311]

OP, are you using a SD card at all?

 

[Wizzy]

I had some jerkiness in a video I was taking. I turned video stabilization off and on again and it seems to work fine. I'm guessing it's a software bug that can be fixed.

Posted via the Android Central App from my S7 edge

 

[Dopaliscious]

Sorry to hijack but is there a way to switch to video mode without record automatically starting?

 

[SpookDroid]

Sorry to hijack but is there a way to switch to video mode without record automatically starting?

Not on the stock camera, nope. You can change settings for video without recording, but for certain 'specific' settings, you have to be recording for those to be available and/or to take effect.

 

[torbach1]

OP, are you using a SD card at all?

This is a very good question. I also don't have these issues with my T-Mobile unit which also has the snapdragon and the Sony camera. If you're using an SD card that has a slower write speed, that could be the issue, although I imagine you've ruled that out by now.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[CTIGUK]

OP, are you using a SD card at all?

Originally I was (A class 10 card), but I have taken to recording directly to internal memory in the hope that this would help it... it clearly did not!

 

[SpookDroid]

I also have a T-Mobile unit, so maybe this is a Sprint-variant issue? Wizzy might confirm if that's the case, too.

 

[Wizzy]

Nope. Mine's an unlocked international version (with the Samsung camera, I might add.)

 

[CTIGUK]

I've managed to minimize the issue by turning off stablization, but it's still present. It also introduced massive stuttering when i connected to wifi and my phone began updating apps. It seems that FHD60 recording pushes the US version w/Sony camera to its absolute limit, and if anything else is taking place on the phone, the stutter is really pronounced. Also, the slow motion video still stutters with my phone.