Dear Droid X... I hate you today.

[Danja]

I'm a midwestern boy on an internship in California. I don't see pretty nature very often. Mostly I see corn and soy fields. So when I get an opportunity to travel somewhere and see amazing things, I take it and whenever I can I record it for posterity. In fact, the reason I picked the Droid X over other phones was its 720p recording ability. I was looking forward so much to having an HD camera.

Soon after I got, I had the issue others seem to get where the video would record but the save would corrupt. I thought that buying a class 4 SD card would fix it, and for a while it did. Until last week, where I recorded myself saying a toast to my girlfriend on the night of my 21st birthday and it corrupted. I decided that the next step in troubleshooting the problem would be to root and install Gingerbread. Maybe they fixed it there.

I didn't have much opportunity to test the camera over the past week but it seemed to function fine. So today I was extremely excited to bring it with me as I took a whale watching trip. I love animals and I love boats, so it was the perfect trip and I was not disappointed. We went through two pods of dolphins, and saw both blues and humpbacks up close. I was in heaven the whole time, and I recorded ~3 minute chunks of videos throughout. About half way through, the camera froze and I had to restart my phone. After that, things seemed to work as normal. I checked and the last video I recorded before the camera froze was corrupted, but everything else seemed to be OK. I could live with that.

I got home, plugged the phone into my computer, and lo and behold, everything is gone. Not one of the videos after the camera froze saved. Somehow, not even the ones I was viewing on the boat. Presumably, it recorded over them somehow because I can't access them through Windows explorer or Astro. Furthermore, the first two videos of dolphins that I shot were corrupted, and the only uncorrupted videos I have are the first two, which featured my friends but no marine life at all.

Screw you, Droid X. I wish you didn't even have a camera, so I would have bought a camcorder to begin with. I never expected a cell phone camera to be perfect, but I expected it to at least be usable. This is ridiculous. My 6 year old dumb phone has a working camera. It's low resolution, but it saves the videos that it takes. I don't see why this is so hard. I'm getting a camcorder now so that I don't have to put up with this BS anymore. I am very, very disappointed. For all the features I love which the android OS offers me, the feature for which I bought the phone turned out to be complete, utter crap.

 

[hookbill]

Feel better now?

Are you asking for some assistance or did you just want to rant? To the best of my knowledge there is no issues with the DX camera.

If you're having freezing issues then that's an indication of a problem. Maybe something that can be fixed easily. You said you rooted and downloaded the leaked Gingerbread for X. Did you do a wiipe before doing this? If not you should. Or just sbf for to stock and get the real official Gingerbread.

 

[Danja]

Feel better now?

Yes, I do now. Thank you for asking!

Are you asking for some assistance or did you just want to rant?

Mostly the latter, although if you have any clues why this happens I'd be glad to hear it.

To the best of my knowledge there is no issues with the DX camera.

I'm afraid that you are not fully informed of the issues then, as evidenced by this.

If you're having freezing issues then that's an indication of a problem. Maybe something that can be fixed easily. You said you rooted and downloaded the leaked Gingerbread for X. Did you do a wiipe before doing this? If not you should. Or just sbf for to stock and get the real official Gingerbread.

I waited for weeks after the release to get the real official GB; the phone kept telling me "no updates available". I did not do a wipe; I followed the instructions on this forum to update stock Froyo with the .596 GB. I'm new to rooting so I didn't want to deviate from the instructions at all. This issue happened all the time with Froyo though. It's actually less frequent with GB, but it struck at just the wrong time today.

Do you seriously never get corrupted video files on your X? What class is your memory card? Mine is class 4, and benchmarks indicate a minimum 4 MB/s write speed as advertised.

Thanks.

 

[rumblee1]

Oh no they didn't. Gingerbread made my video recording nonexistent. Gee I whish I had froyo back.

Sent from my SCH-I800 using DroidForums

 

[cyclonemick]

I have a stock X with The new GB update and stock 16g mem card. I have never had a problem with any of the video's I have taken! Maybe you have a bigger problem going on??? Best of luck fixing your problem!

 

[GeXX]

There is a problem with droid x and saving to the memory card. I had the same issue with froyo though. Using either the stock card or my adata card.. it is like the memory card get locked out. It isn't just the camera app. I have had times when I try to install a program or download a podcast and it says it can't write to the card. Reboot and it is fixed.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[hookbill]

To the best of my knowledge there is no issues with the DX camera.

I'm afraid that you are not fully informed of the issues then, as evidenced by this.

If you're having freezing issues then that's an indication of a problem. Maybe something that can be fixed easily. You said you rooted and downloaded the leaked Gingerbread for X. Did you do a wiipe before doing this? If not you should. Or just sbf for to stock and get the real official Gingerbread.

I waited for weeks after the release to get the real official GB; the phone kept telling me "no updates available". I did not do a wipe; I followed the instructions on this forum to update stock Froyo with the .596 GB. I'm new to rooting so I didn't want to deviate from the instructions at all. This issue happened all the time with Froyo though. It's actually less frequent with GB, but it struck at just the wrong time today.

Do you seriously never get corrupted video files on your X? What class is your memory card? Mine is class 4, and benchmarks indicate a minimum 4 MB/s write speed as advertised.

Thanks.

I don't have the X, I have a D2.

Good job on researching with Google. Now my response to that is yes, there are a large number of threads with complaints. But if you actually read the threads you will see that many people will say "I don't have this issue." Now I admit I didn't go through the trouble of reading the threads but I say that based on my experience with people and their issues here in the Forum.

My SD card is from my original Droid. I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

I say give it a wipe. The freezing is something it shouldn't do, unless it's just that one time. Even then I say wipe it.

 

[Natey2]

There is a problem with droid x and saving to the memory card. I had the same issue with froyo though.

I've had my DroidX freeze on me while shooting a video under Froyo too.
I've learned not to rely on the video functionality of the DroidX for anything critical. It works fine most of the time though... And to get those pics and videos out of the DroidX onto a more reliable medium ASAP before I lose them because of some hardware/ software glitch.

Sent from my unrooted DroidX using DroidForums app.

 

[zeppelinrox]

You don't bring a knife to a gun fight.
You don't bring a phone to do a camcorder's job.

As far as I'm concerned, all the added stuff crammed into cell phones are bonus features than can simply get the job done when required.

If you're taking videos of events for which you want high quality, then get a high quality, dedicated, recording device.

So, who's gonna hire a guy with a stack of phone's and no camera to record your wedding video?

 

[Natey2]

If you're taking videos of events for which you want high quality, then get a high quality, dedicated, recording device.

The issue I believe was the not the quality of the video; it was the total loss of the video(s).

Sent from my unrooted DroidX using DroidForums app.

 

[zeppelinrox]

I understand that... but to not even buy a camcorder and relying on a device with which you have a buggy history...

 

[Danja]

I understand that... but to not even buy a camcorder and relying on a device with which you have a buggy history...

Yup... you're completely correct on that. "Fool me twice..." That's why I'm looking for camcorder deals now It's hard to beat the convenience of a phone camera though. If only it would work.

 

[GTX1]

Just try a class 6, I read a thread where a guy was installing CM7 I believe and he bought the class 6 with his phone, just to stop this issue. It happened to my moms Droid X and it somehow fried the SD card itself. I put in my original Droid's card, works great now.

Then it happened to me, except all I had to do was format and I was good, hasn't happened again. But I suggest getting a class 6 card. Both incidents of this happening close to me happened randomly, never occurred again, and I don't see the need to upgrade.

 

[Danja]

They don't make any 32 GB class 6 cards though. I rely on my phone for music as well, and in that regard it really shines. I love my 32 GB class 4 for that, and I really don't want to pay for another card.

Do most people really not have this issue? Should I try to get my phone exchanged? Last time I did so (LG Dare) I got a refurb that had more problems than my original... not a path I want to go down again.