Has anyone took videos w/ Droid X, yet?

[droidx2010]

I took several videos on various resolution modes. When I tried 720p & played it on my hdtv, it was all grainy. Total disappointment.

Can someone help me with this?

 

[ariadri]

Yea I know that feeling, I owned the iphone 4 prior to the droid x and I was soooo impressed with the iphone quality. I realized the droid needs more lighting if not you will get a grainy image. I'm beginning to believe its motorolas bad choice in camera hardware. So avoid dark areas or use more lighting unfortunately.

 

[Nadious]

I have done two:

1. Outside of a grocery store for a 'grand-opening' here in the local town. Video turned out pretty good. Plenty of lighting outside.

2. Video of a 'Demon Hunter' song live at the Masquerade in ATL. Dark inside, with only stage lighting and it turned out pretty grainy. Still, most people I have shown the video too seem to be impressed, even with the grainy quality.

 

[Dysan]

Here's 2 videos I shot with mine in the car mount in my car. First one is in daylight and 2nd one is at night. Sorry about the dirty windshield on the night one.

[video=youtube;bgkwAgNZuLo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgkwAgNZuLo]YouTube - First qualifying run atco 8-14-10[/video]

[video=youtube;hsLEVwbVab0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsLEVwbVab0]YouTube - 11.589 @ 120.67 atco 8/13/2010[/video]

 

[dkst0426]

I've done a low-light indoor and a daytime outdoor video. Quite obviously, the low-light one was grainy and other than the size of the image, wasn't too much different from using an SD camcorder in such conditions. The outdoor one was a pleasant surprise. As long as movement was steady and not herky-jerky, the quality was excellent.

If you want to take better-quality HD videos, you just need to invest in an actual camcorder. It's nice to have this 720p feature, but the sheer fact of the matter is that the device can only do so much in that physical form. I was under no illusions at all that it would match my camcorder's performance and quality.

 

[TheJester34]

^^^That's not bad at all. Perfectly acceptable quality by me

 

[VidProQuo]

The graininess of the video isn't necessarily noise in the camera as much as it is encoding the high definition video at a relatively low bitrate. Of course, shooting video in the dark will raise the noise level as the gain of the camera must be turned up. Video encoding is a complex task and it is also made harder by video with lots of motion or detail, this will generate block or "mosquito" noise. Unless there is some way to get the DroidX to encode at a higher bitrate it will not look so great on video with a lot of motion.

 

[droidx2010]

I've done a low-light indoor and a daytime outdoor video. Quite obviously, the low-light one was grainy and other than the size of the image, wasn't too much different from using an SD camcorder in such conditions. The outdoor one was a pleasant surprise. As long as movement was steady and not herky-jerky, the quality was excellent.

If you want to take better-quality HD videos, you just need to invest in an actual camcorder. It's nice to have this 720p feature, but the sheer fact of the matter is that the device can only do so much in that physical form. I was under no illusions at all that it would match my camcorder's performance and quality.

So - what was your speed, I didn't catch that

 

[droidx2010]

The graininess of the video isn't necessarily noise in the camera as much as it is encoding the high definition video at a relatively low bitrate. Of course, shooting video in the dark will raise the noise level as the gain of the camera must be turned up. Video encoding is a complex task and it is also made harder by video with lots of motion or detail, this will generate block or "mosquito" noise. Unless there is some way to get the DroidX to encode at a higher bitrate it will not look so great on video with a lot of motion.

Maybe Dx can be rooted for a higher bitrate?

 

[deranger]

The graininess of the video isn't necessarily noise in the camera as much as it is encoding the high definition video at a relatively low bitrate. Of course, shooting video in the dark will raise the noise level as the gain of the camera must be turned up. Video encoding is a complex task and it is also made harder by video with lots of motion or detail, this will generate block or "mosquito" noise. Unless there is some way to get the DroidX to encode at a higher bitrate it will not look so great on video with a lot of motion.

The noise problem in the Droid X is without a doubt a function of the size of the sensor. The 720p video recorded off the Droid X has a bitrate slightly above 7 Mbps. I have yet to see a 720p MP4 video from the Droid X that even comes close to a 2 Mbps DVD rip.

Conversely, I can take a video with my DSLR, compress it much more, and still not suffer from the noise that the Droid X camera has. Larger sensors have more per-pixel area. Larger pixels capture more light, thus lower noise. Unfortunately, numbers sell, and people erroneously equate more megapixels with better image quality. Packing 8MP onto a tiny sensor means terrible sensitivity and thus lots of noise to deal with. Personally, I'd rather have a camera with low noise and good low light performance over megapixels, but its tough to market that.

 

[dkst0426]

So - what was your speed, I didn't catch that

Speed of what?

 

[Slothead]

So - what was your speed, I didn't catch that

Speed of what?

The drag race. The speed and time wouldn't appear until after he passed the marquis though.

Quiet car! I'm curious what kind it was - and beaten by a stang???

 

[dkst0426]

So - what was your speed, I didn't catch that

Speed of what?

The drag race. The speed and time wouldn't appear until after he passed the marquis though.

Quiet car! I'm curious what kind it was - and beaten by a stang???

Oh you were referring to dysan's videos. I thought you were referring to what I had said, since you quoted me. My bad.

 

[luv2increase]

Simply put, cameras and video recording on smartphones should only be used when high-quality is not a necessity. An example would be hurrying to video record someone doing a hit-and-run. Maybe you want to shoot someone breaking into a house? Maybe you want to hurry and catch a magic moment of your child talking for the first time, and you don't have a "real" camcorder anywhere around?

Physically, a phone camera will "never" be at the quality of high-quality point-and-shoot, DSLR or HD Camcorder. The sensor is too small, and smartphones don't have quality lenses. There is no room for quality "GLASS".


I will stick with my Canon T2i for photos and videos with my 24-104 Canon L-series lens.

 

[hacku]

I love how people expect a phone to perform like a high quality video camera.

The Droid X takes great pictures and amazing videos FOR A PHONE. Get over it people...lol

So - what was your speed, I didn't catch that

Second video shows 11.589 @ 120.67, and the car sounds supercharged to me.