Rumours are currently circulating that the i8910 HD is now being sold with a 1GHz processor. This follows the phone’s launch in India, with a placeholder clearly highlighting the apparently upgraded processor. Whilst you could attribute this to just human error, the same 1GHZ CPU has been listed on the official Samsung India website.

The i8910 Omnia HD currently has a Texas Instruments OMAP3430 ARM chip with 600MHz clock speed. I would be surprised if this was upped to an TI OMAP3640 ARM chip that has a 1GHz clock speed. Apart from the cost considerations, the move would alienate its existing customers i.e. why not include this from the start?

Whilst some may question whether this multimedia workhorse even needs more power, I’d argue that it does. Not for most of the tasks you’ll use it for, but it would certainly come in handy for one of the phones key selling points, HD video recording. The whole debacle surrounding the AMR/AAC audio issue when recording video, stems from the high CPU stress of the current chip.

Indeed, for one of the phone’s most marketable features, you can tell that the 720p HD video recording just isn’t quite there yet. Apart from the audio issue, HD videos often drop frames, especially when panning fast objects. By sticking in a faster processor, this would hopefully eradicate these issues and enable much better audio quality with a higher sampling rate.

I’m still dubious if this will really come true, but if it does, what do current owners think of this news? The Omnia HD will be available in India for 33,990 INR ($705). We’ve included a few screenshots of the evidence after the jump.

Update: GSMArena has confirmed that the 1GHz Samsung i8910 HD was indeed a misprint on both the website & placeholder. Samsung India added the 420 MHz DSP (the sound processing chip) speed to the 600 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU to get to 1GHz. Read the rest of this entry »

As an Omnia HD Ambassador, we have been tasked with a couple of missions to showcase various aspects of the handset. The first mission was entitled “A kaleidoscope of colours”. As you can probably guess, this particular task involved creating a video that contrasts the “colours in ordinary life and looks at the significance of colour”.

The criteria was quite open, which left me a bit stumped as to what idea to choose. I ruled out parks/beaches early on as I felt that most people would be thinking along the same lines. As a father of two young kids, my inspiration hit me pretty quickly.

I decided to use some of my kids toys. Most of them have quite bright and bold colours, which I thought would be perfect for a short video. I also submitted another video that simply follows a bright, colourful parrot wondering around its cage. You can see both of these attempts after the break. It’s by no means perfect, but hopefully gets the message across.

We should highlight that the videos were recorded in high-definition (1280 x 720) using I8910XXIF7 firmware. This is the firmware that shipped with the handset and uses AMR audio. As you can probably tell it doesn’t sound great at all. We will be upgrading to the newer ‘IG2’ shortly, but wanted to find out the limitations of the older firmware first! You’ll also probably notice dropped frames in the video, most noticeable when panning. Hopefully, this is something Samsung will be able to iron out in future firmware releases. Read the rest of this entry »

It appears a fix for the much-maligned video recording issue on the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD may be on its way. If you remember, Samsung is currently using the AMR audio codec, which means that when recording video the sound quality is quite poor. It has been the biggest criticism that the phone has received since its launch.

Samsung Italia has now given an update on its Facebook page that is likely to please both current and prospective i8910 owners. It is saying that two updates are planned in the coming weeks. The first update will be released next week and will improve the general performance of the phone. The second update will replace the AMR codec with AAC when recording video at HD 720p resolutions. This particular update is planned for release in a fortnight’s time.

We would still be cautious until we hear it from a more official source, especially as Samsung always insisted that due to the sheer data being processed at 720p, a more enhanced audio codec wasn’t feasible. Also, it’s unknown at this stage whether AAC is coming to lower-resolution video recording such as VGA as well. So far, there is no confirmation on the Samsung Innovator boards, but fingers crossed this much needed update is on the way.

Thanks KILLERluki!

There has been much furore over the audio codec used whilst video recording. The AMR-NB codec at an 8,000Hz sampling rate means that HD video recording is combined with sub-standard sound quality. Samsung has said that it is using the AMR codec as it provides the best balance when recording HD video, without stressing the OMAP3 CPU too heavily. Whilst this is understandable, it is hard to understand why the phone uses this same AMR codec when recording at lower resolutions.

Up until now, Samsung has not communicated clearly whether a fix for this is on the agenda. Some of the comments made in the Samsung Innovator forum (which is meant to be for developers) have been open to interpretation. However, it seems that this audio problem is now being “escalated” to a number of divisions within Samsung, following complaints.

Ben, who is a Samsung developer on the Innovator forum, has confirmed that the AAC issue has been escalated “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.”

Now, this doesn’t mean a fix is definitely on the way. After all, the Samsung INNOV8 i8510 uses the same AMR codec and this has never been upgraded in firmware updates up until now. However, it certainly is encouraging that Samsung is starting to listen to its consumers. Fingers crossed, that an update is planned and hopefully not too far away.

The AMR audio issue when video recording is one of the biggest criticisms the smartphone faces. Whilst it appears that AAC audio will not be an option (for HD video at least) in future updates, the question then becomes, just how bad is the audio?

The video (attached after the jump) shows a user trying to give us an idea. He uses the TV as a source and moves to and fro while keeping the TV volume constant. Judging by the video, whilst it sounds worse than my Nokia N82, it certainly doesn’t seem terrible.

I can understand the reasons why Samsung has used the AMR-NB codec for HD video recording, especially considering the amount of data the OMAP3 chip has to process. However, I really can’t understand why AAC audio for VGA video isn’t a possibility. Let’s hope Samsung listens to its customers on this one. Read the rest of this entry »

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!

There has been much debate as to what audio codec the Omnia HD will use when shooting video footage. In a move that is likely to disappoint some users, Samsung has officially confirmed that the Omnia HD will use the low-quality AMR Narrow Band codec at 8000Hz 16 bit 2 channel 12.8 Kbps bit rate.

It seems that the main reason behind the move is to not stress the ARM CPU too heavily when recording HD video. Given the amount of data to process, it was felt that AMR offers the best quality solution when taking both points into consideration. The AMR codec is also optimised for speech coding, which Samsung claims is a better choice for the human voice.

I wonder whether Samsung may include higher sound quality support in a later firmware update, although judging by the official response, it seems that they have already considered the options, with AMR offering the best trade-off for video performance. Additionally, this is the same codec used in the Samsung i8510 INNOV8 and there’s been no firmware update offering a codec better than AMR so far.

This is disappointing news. What we will now have is HD video married with sub-standard sound quality. I’m reserving judgement until I get my hands on one, but given that audio recording was one of the few negative points seen with the Samsung i8510, I’m surprised that Samsung has taken this route again with the i8910 Omnia HD.

Thanks bec!