Severely worse video camera?

[kyle0k]

Anyone else notice the video camera is way worse? I came from the note 4 and you would think it's an upgrade, but I'm finding this phone a downgrade in so many ways other than the trivial "ooo its pretty" ways (I would get an iphone if I cared solely about that). I guess that's what most people care about considering Iphone and the new generation Samsungs are hot sellers, so a big win for Samsung. /rant

Anyways, as far as the video camera goes, I'm not talking about a small difference. It's a bunch of small things that add up to a way worse end result. I use the video camera on my phone all the time to record riding on my boat and it's almost painful to watch the note 7's videos. I had 2 people comment on 'why do these videos look so bad' compare to my normal videos. At first I thought it was just processing and down sampling of the video on the phone display but then I uploaded it to my computer and I see its actually the video itself that's garbage. They are all shot in 1080 at 30fps. The new video has random pixilation everywhere and the colors are all goofy.

Here is an example. The first video is from my note 4 and the second on the note 7. Both are in bright environments (perfect) and in the same location. You can see the pixilation in the sky on the note 7 portion. Unfortunately it's a bit hard to tell in the compiled video because after Premier and youtube gets done with it, the quality is so smoothed over and so processed that you don't see all the artifacts and differences that I'm talking about. However if you look close enough you should see what I'm saying. Better yet, record a video while moving outside on your previous phone (note 4 or 5) and on your new one. You should see clearly then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWYUdQf1kn0&feature=youtu.be

Am I missing something here? I think its probably software related and not the hardware because it kinda just looks like they might be overly sharpening the video and cranking up the saturation.

 

[SpookDroid]

If you notice the stabilization is a lot smoother on the last video, so are you keeping that on? Maybe the stabilization cropping/processing is causing the issue? I haven't seen any major issues on mine, BUT I haven't recorded that many videos and definitely none with that amount of movement, so I can' really compare.

 

[EnemiesInTheEnd]

It just looks like the second video is more compressed. Seems like something YouTube or an editing program is doing to me.

 

[ajb1965]

I have had zero issues with recording video. Looks as good as my S7.

 

[EnemiesInTheEnd]

What resolution are you recording in, kyle?

 

[kyle0k]

I will look into the stabilization thing. I will check both of those settings on both phones when I get home.

As far as the compressed thing, I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. Youtube and the editing program made the 2nd video look a ton better than the raw footage I have sitting on my computer/phone. The video from the note 4 looks about the same when compared to the 'raw' footage. However the note 7 footage got better because it looks like the compression smoothed over a ton.

I am using the 1080 30fps recording resolution on both phones. I wish I could show how bad it is on the note 7. Maybe some screenshots will help.

 

[kyle0k]

OK here are some screen shots:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

These 3 screenshots are taken one after another on the same jump. Focusing on the sky makes the pixilation the most apparent. Look at 1,2 &3 at full size. You will notice there is serious pixilation, then it goes away then it comes back. This keeps happening over and over in the videos to a certain degree. So much so that to the unsuspecting eye it just looks like a bad quality video, certainly not 1080!

 

[slackerjack]

You're seeing color banding in the sky there...that's not pixilization. At a guess, it's your video editing software applying some low color node or filter that's compressing the 32-bit color to something lower (even if it's 24-bit)

 

[kazman12]

Definitely image stabilization.

 

[kyle0k]

I just went outside and tried video taping with stabilization on and then off. Makes no difference.

You are probably right about it being color banding. I'm not sure what the technical term is, I just know it makes the video look terrible. I urge you to try it out for yourself if your lucky enough to be in clear skies whether. You just have to have the camera face the sky a little and move it around a little. I don't know why you mention the video editing software because I'm talking about the video straight on the phone looks bad, before video editing (unless your saying thats the reason it gets better.

 

[SpookDroid]

Which version are you using? I do remember someone having similar issues on an S7 Edge but most of us couldn't replicate it. I'm on a T-Mobile version (same with the S7 Edge before).

 

[kyle0k]

AT&T

I will try to replicate it on my wifes phone today or tomorrow.

 

[byrds8]

I dont know about video, but I think the camera is worse. It seems to have more washed colors than I am use to. For instance instead of my walls looking dark brown like they are they look light brown. Same goes for pretty much other colors as well. They are all lighter than what they really are like the color got washed out.

 

[kyle0k]

I agree. Camera overall is definitely worse from my standpoint. Blah blah blah, I get it that it DOES take better night photo's. I take most my photo's and video's outside in ample light conditions. My note 4's pictures were big and beautiful. Who cares if the photo's are a little better in the dark now. It's still NOT going to be great pictures in the dark, just a little better. Photo's taken at night are more for memories sake and noone expects a great picture. It can be difficult taking a great photo at night even with the insanely large sensor (comparatively) in a DSLR. So it went from taking amazing daytime photo's and OK night photo's to good daytime photos and marginally better than OK night photo's. Sweet trade off guys.

Oh well. Unfortunately there are alot more iPhone type buyers (ooo look a pretty phone) that set the standard so thats where the money is. They are in the business of selling phones, not making customers happy.

I do have to admit though that the camera app itself is AWESOME. The pro setting is really cool to play around with. If only they kept the megapixels.

As for the video camera, I still haven't found a solution to the pixilation.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

Well, I'm not sure if it's down to the megapixels.

Note that the main benefit of a 16MP resolution is the 16:9 crop. You get more pixels on the left and right. 12MP sensors are usually 4:3.

Interestingly, the Note7 has a higher vertical resolution than some other 16MP sensors.

 

[skatergirl]

I will be doing some videos in the next few weeks. Anxious to compare to the Note 4.

 

[wookiee2cu]

Were you by chance recording the video to the SD card? If so try switching it to record to the phones memory instead and see if that makes a difference. Sorry if I missed it but I didn't see this mentioned above.

 

[skatergirl]

If you notice the stabilization is a lot smoother on the last video, so are you keeping that on? Maybe the stabilization cropping/processing is causing the issue? I haven't seen any major issues on mine, BUT I haven't recorded that many videos and definitely none with that amount of movement, so I can' really compare.

So do you think it is best to keep video stabilization on? I will be doing a number of videos next week and I want them to turn out as great as possible.

 

[SpookDroid]

Well, I haven't seen any difference in quality by turning it on or off, but videos do look smoother with stabilization on if you're moving a lot.

 

[donm527#IM]

With the Note 7 are you videoing directly to SDcard or internal memory? I saw a review where a person commented poor video quality and noticed the record was defaulting to SDcard. When he changed it to internal memory the video quality had improved greatly.