May
28
2009
Samsung: No plan to enhance camcorder audio in future firmware
Posted by soHD in Firmware, News, Problems, tags: AMR
Despite heavy criticism, Samsung has once again confirmed that it will stick to its choice of the AMR-Narrow Band audio codec when video recording. A spokesman on the Innovator forum said that there is currently no plan to upgrade this audio to the AAC codec in future firmware releases.
He also confirmed that the audio codec used in the latest firmware (XXIE4) will use the same AMR-NB codec when video recording. Interestingly, when using the voice recorder, the AAC codec is available. This news is a big shame, especially as it sounds like Samsung doesn’t even have this issue on its agenda to ‘fix’. It looks like the AMR codec for video recording is here to stay.
Thanks scoopex!
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Very poor move on their part. These are their customers who are complaining about it. It’s just silly to ignore it.
If real world end users complained to Samsung i would bet sure they would fix the issue asap, other than that i think the phone is great.
Nooo not scandle already samsung I emplore you you have a near perfect device here listen to your consumer aac Rox our world just as much as divx dose :0
Decision made… N86 for me.
why samsung ??? you are the king and the best of electronics world !!! how could samsung accept this ???
what is the benefit of the HD recording without audio quality ??? please samsung think again about this issue.
I can’t find the message saying that it Samsung has no plan to enhance the camcorder AUDIO quality.
the statement was not by a spokesman. benm is a samsung employee that does answer questions in the samsung developer forum on a voluntary basis. this means that this is not an official statement by samsung (hence he said “as far as i know there are no plans”). benm is not even part of the developer team (who are the only ones who can surely know what will be fixed/changed and what not). benm just watches the forums and gives some problem reports on to the dev team.
i do not want to make you false hopes, just wanted to correct you, that BenM is not a developer and his postings reflect his opinion and do not necessarily reflect samsungs point of view.
samsung does wrong not takin their costumers serious
im thinkin twice whether to go buy it or not now…im not satisfied with this lame audio codec and a hd cam without the sound going along is just sad and horrid
Waiting for this phone for 4 months, and now it turns out it has a crappy sound while recording videos?! I really don’t know what’s got in their heads? Samsung should know that customers are most important, because if there weren’t for us, they cannot sell it to anyone. Nokia knows that. Nokia listens to the customers and implements the neccessary functions to their phones. And Samsung? It only takes care of their profit. But they won’t have a good profit if they cannot sell it. Most people will buy it if camcorder function is not very important to them, but for me it is, and I will certainly make a second thought about it. One of their main reason for not implementing AAC codec into camcorder is that AMR is better than AAC? LOL! Are they high or something? Personaly, I would say their processor is not good enough so it can only encode audio in AMR and not AAC. Also 720p video drops to 22-23 fps, so that also says the slow processor is the main issue. But on the other hand, why not giving the user the option to choose AMR or AAC codec? The phone supports both formats, so why not? Or at least give the AAC option for VGA and 480p videos. The processor is not so stressed at those resolutions, so more power could be given to audio encoding. It’s my opinion as a developer and electronic assembler, so I know what I’m talking about. I don’t even have to take a look at their camcorder source code to know it’s a simple implementation. If they already made such a good phone, why not making it perfect? I really think it’s possible, but obviously something else is in their way. Maybe some management decision? They don’t want to have further problems with that? I’m just guessing. But certainly the situation isn’t good now either, so it can’t be worse. Why not giving the AAC option even if it has some downsides on video encoding or something else? I would accept this. I will blame myself if picture quality is not good enough, becuase it’s set it to AAC encoding. But all I would like to have is the option to set it to AAC.
@v1rtu4l: The comment was made by cluo rather than BenM. I’m not sure what role he has?
So, that is the news? (Maybe that is why i cant find it)
I think Clou was not even part samsung.
There is still no update about the news, what he is thinking is the old news since samsung was made a decision to keep AMR and that was even before they release the final prototype.
There is still no reply from the Camcorder team of Samsung.
Hopefully someone comes up with a hack then if it’s a simple thing to be able to access it hey Burs
@omniahdmobile: You need to look for post #188. He has been answering a number of questions, so I guess he must be part of the dev team. Here’s his reply in full:
Something has to be clarified here about audio codec on i8910HD (with XXIE4)
1. audio coding format from camcorder
AMR-NB
2. audio coding format from audio recorder ( i.e. Voice recorder )
WAV(Normal quality), AAC-LC(High quality), AMR-NB (MMS quality).
3. audio coding playback. (Some are containers)
Support Mp3 , AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ , AMR (NB and WB) , WAV , Real Audio , WMA , MP4.
I know most of you are complaining about no AAC for camcorder, but currently afaik, there is no plan to add it to new firmware release. Any updates we get will publish on this site.
It says and I quote “…. there is no plan to add it to new firmware release.” If you actually read it carefully, cluo is saying that in the XXIE4 firmware, that is currently being released, the audio codec will remain at AMR. It does not necessarily mean that in the future firmwares after XXIE4, audio codec will not be fixed by samsung at all.
Hi soHD,
Cluo has the same function on this forum afaik.
there is just NO ONE that actually works for the dev team and also answers in the forum.
Actually, the only thing both do is, help people that want to write applications for their phones, to find the right SDKs and so on (and i think that it what this forum is for). So the forum is not really for end-users like you and me
i think it will be very interessting how samsung handles this phone, because the i8510 was not handled that good in
regard to support and firmware.
@som: I suppose it depends the way you read it. When he says “new firmware release” I take that too mean post-XXIE4 firmware as the XXIE4 is already out.
Here is a new youtube video showing the audio quality 720p.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jb74QvAZFw
Yes, it depends the way you read it. Although English is not my primary language, I understood it as there’ll be no changes for the last XXIE4 firmware, and specificaly for that version (it stated “new”, not newer firmwares). I just hope Samsung will realize that AMR “bug” is a big issue for most (if not all) users who already purchased the phone, and also for those who might buy it in the near future. It’s really a pitty they have left this heavily outdated codec as the primary codec for the camcorder. If I were one of the Samsung developers, I would give support for AMR only to have backward compatibility. But to have a main role in HD recording, it’s nonsense. I say again, I just hope Samsung will reconsider it for the next update (if there will be one). If not, maybe the sales for this phone will be good after all, but Samsung can be sure they won’t get away with such a policy next time when they release a new phone (for example Omnia Pro). We (end users) are not stupid, this HD-trick can’t be made twice in a row.
oh sorry about that, but what i mean he is not part of the samsung dev.
and about that, yes i think he is just talking about the new firmware.
For me Samsung have 2 months until N86 release to sort out this issue with updates. I believe quality video recording includes quality audio and having seen/heard a lot of video uploads from the I8910 it’s “clearly” falling short.
This reminds me of the DAB radio quality issue in the UK sticking with Mpeg Layer 2 at substandard bitrates. It’s the reason I haven’t bought one. Last I knew the rest of Europe are gearing towards DAB+ but UK are still flogging the deceased mule.
Maybe the 16GB version will have the better HD video audio recording (and maybe with metal case, lens cover) on release.
The I8910 is an interesting phone and has got my attention, but is in danger of losing it.
As I said… 2 months Samsung!
Damnit.
If it’s true, this pretty much makes my decision for me. IF it’s true. The internet has a way of making stuff up.
Still, for what will undoubtedly be a very high price, I demand all aspects to work as they should. This audio problem in what is supposed to be the freaking centerpiece of the device is just unacceptable.
I was getting Omnia HD but not anymore, N97 here i come cheaper and 32GB memory and doesn’t have crap sound quality where you cant hear what people are saying in the videos unless you want to video buildings and not people who talk and things with sounds, and no i don’t want 20 frame video (it never each 24 to be honest) with bad audio
i’ll take the cheaper and already available unlocked N97, See you again samsung when i update my phone next year or so, and samsung rep already in the floor, no one will wat for omnia HD 2 to find out months later that they didnt deliver , i feel sorry for people who needed to upgrade there phone and waited that long to decide to get something else
This is not TRUE, Samsung has a PLAN.
Audio problem is acknowledged and hopefully will be solved on FUTURE firmware but not the existing XXIE4 firmware. So all the fuss was about the audio is still not fixed at the existing XXIE4. Now all I’m waiting for is it to be available in my country!
From BenM of the Samsung Inov.:
“Escalated the AAC issue through the development team to understand the problem, through the engineering organisation to try to understand whether this is a defect or is by design, escalated through the management side to alert them to the need to plan for firmware updates, escalated through the management side to alert them to the damage this issue is causing”
See link for full post.
I see nothing about fixing it in that link all what that guy saying is that he will pass people complaining note to the developers but known samsung they will not fix it so don’t get your hopes up
look at inov 8 i8510 it still capture videos with amr audio and was not fixed to this day meh
Yes Tom, you’re partially right, but I don’t remember inov8 had 40 pages of customer complaints. It sure means something. The more we complaint, the sooner they will realize their mistake. At least I hope so.
Now 73 pages! And now they implemented AMR into S8000 model as well. Isn’t that great? I think we’ll have to complain until Christmas, MAYBE something positive will be made regarding this topic.
As someone who had originally set there mind on buying a HTC Touch Pro 2 but then came across this incredible phone tonight and was JUST about to buy one of these INSTEAD, now I’ve read all of this about the garbage sound and decision by Samsung to ignore there users and leave as is, I am glad I DIDNT buy one!
I guess its back to the HTC Touch Pro 2 or the Hero for me, shame, if it wasen’t for this sound issue I would have most certainly bought this phone right now.
Bad move Samsung.