We've had the HTC Desire, complete with Android 2.2 Froyo upgrade, on test for a while now and there are a few new features that have been pleasing.
Better battery? Check. Improved stability? Yup. But HTC also added 720p video recording into the mix, in a bid to improve the shaky camcording on the HTC Desire.
We've tested both handsets with our...erm... dancing guinea pig to see how the camera handles quick moving scenes in averagely-lit areas.
HTC Desire Android 2.1 (Éclair)
Here's the original Android 2.1 video:
As you can see, it's a bit grainy and low-resolution, with a lot of motion blur, and brightness levels flickering all over the place.
HTC Desire Android 2.2 (Froyo)
Compare that now with the Android 2.2 video recording, which is sadly still compressed into the 3GP video container, despite the ability of the Desire to playback MP4 files:
As you can see, the motion blur and detail perception is awful, with bright flickers of light reflecting off even normal surfaces. You can't really see it as HD either, as the mess of blur ruins any perception of sharpness.
We tried dialling down the brightness, but the effect was minimal:
So to summarise - while the HTC Desire Android 2.2 upgrade is a great thing overall, the HD video isn't that much of an improvement. We'd like to see some better overall image stability, as this would help in fast moving situations.
Your comments (6) Click to add a new comment
romi
August 19th 2010
6. The HTC desire video recording quality is weak, i have sent the feedback straight to the HTC product development department. One would expect video functions on mobile phone to by as good as dedicated camcorder by now, video has been on mobiles for a decade with minor increments in quality. The guts of the flip mino circuitry need to be integrated into the mobile phone.
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badgerboy1977
August 19th 2010
5. Apologies, scratch what I said about it saving as mp4 it does indeed save as 3gpp instead, it just gives the option to encode as mp4. Oddly though my vids from 2.1 are saved as mp4 which is what threw me I think, however I do stand by the quality appearing to be better than those in the article although that could be down to improvements in the custom Rom I'm using I suppose.
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badgerboy1977
August 19th 2010
4. Mine seems to save the files as mp4 rather than 3gp even those I took before I rooted and got 2.2 and has the option to encode as H.263 and 4 (though not in HD for those of course), for some reason my desires footage seems to be a lot better than those in your article.
I got mine as soon as they came out so its an amoled version, whether that makes a difference or not I wouldn't know but I suggest you try out a few different revisions as the difference in quality is remarkable.
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garethtbeavis
August 19th 2010
3. Si_smith The 3GP container does still compress the video slightly - it's not in its raw footage.
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cowbell
August 19th 2010
2. Wow, really not as good as I would have hoped...the motion blur almost seems worse on the 710p vids! Oh well. Wonder if the Desire HD (or whatever it ends up being called) will be any better...
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si_smith
August 19th 2010
1. Why should I listen to the opinion of someone that does not understand the difference between containers and codecs?
3GP and MP4 are CONTAINERS.
AVC/H264,MP3 are CODECS.
Codecs are what matters. You are judging the tech equivalent of chocolate bars by the wrapper not the taste of the chocolate inside.
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