Dear All,
I'm pleased to announce our upcoming camcorder program for the 7650 and 3650. This program features a very user friendly video camcorder that can record full motion videos continuous in realtime. The length of the recording is limited only by the available storage. In one settings that we have experimented with, we were able to record more than 10 minutes on the 7650. We will offer the software in two versions - Lite and Pro. The Lite version will be FREE, and the Pro version will be priced attractively -- actually, it hasn't been determined yet, so there is your chance to let me know what a reasonable price is. If you are interested please feel free to email me or post here (questions, wishlist, etc.) I will then make sure you are amongst the first ones to receive it as soon as it becomes available (should be within the next couple of weeks.) My email: [email protected]
Here is a feature list:
- User friendly operation. Closely mimics consumer Mini DV camcorders.
- No 10-second recording limit. The Lite version will be limited to 500K of total capture/storage (between 1.5 ~ 3 min). The Pro version will have no limit.
- Simultanous audio capture (Pro only). Lite version supports it in MMS mode (described later)
- Integrated video album with large thumbnail navigation - no idiotic "video(1), video(2)..." stuff
- Adjustable quality settings (best-quality setting results in around 8K per second and compression artifacts are almost indistinguishable)
- MMS mode: helps you record video with MMS constraint. With the default 50K setting one can record between 10~15 seconds of audio and video.
- Send via MMS
- Send via email (Pro only)
- Send via BT and IR (Pro only)
- Pause and Resume
- Address book integration
- PC-based conversion tool for converting video to standard MPEG-4 AVI
- Use MMC for storage (3650 only)
- English and Chinese support
More features are being added as of now... so do send me your wishlist so we can try to compile that in.
Cheers and happy "recording"
If all of this is true, I want the Pro version NOW 😃
3 �. No more.
ok i'm interested
i would be happy to try it on my phone
you can find my e-mail at the bottem 8)
as for the price i don't think it should be more than 15$
Sounds good 😊
Does it out perform hipcam?
Post it up, I'm sure we'll all want to beta test it for you and give you some positive feedback 😊
Best
Will
Nice!!!!! This is the best so far,cant wait to try it.
Maybe this is not the right place be but you have the knoledge,and the camera Api for the p800 is available,do you have any plans of developing a similar or porting this one to UIQ?
Yeah. I think it will be more profitable a p800 version. By the way if you want to make the program more advanced you can add more options like making the program also a photographer like proggy not only videos, and with software methods to increase the resolution of the photo eg 800x600 (i believe it is possible cause photographer still uses the 640x480 resolution even on 16x zoom). U can also make it to compress the videos to gif files. Make it work with plugins, and make separately a video player for people who just want to play the files. I believe the price of 15 euros is a reasonable price.
-night vision option
-fade in/out
-some delay fx
-zoom (but a good zooming option) I know it is hard 😊
-try an option web cam (it will be cool)
Hi, All
Thanks for the enthusiasm and the many great suggestions! I will make sure all of you receive the program as early as possible (I should have the pre-final release within 2 weeks.) A version for the P800 is currently under development but it is still too early to tell when it will be ready for beta.
Is this better than HipCam? I don't know because I haven't tested HipCam yet. Compared to Nancy, Hantro, and Philips, our software, given its more consumer-oriented interface, is definitely the easiest to use and more fun. Picture quality, IMHO, is much better compared to Hantro and Nancy. Probably on par with the Philips app but our frame rate is much higher and we support audio recording. IMO our software should offer a more refined user experience, but then again, you are the final judge. Actually, if some of you have had experience with HipCam, I'd appreciate it if you can tell me some more information about it:
- recording length
- quality
- special features, etc.
Oh, BTW, our Pro version will definitely be priced much lower than HipCam... the one thing that I'm certain with.
As features are concerned, there actually used to be a night vision option but we took it out because in that mode the camera slows down dramatically and very small motion causes tons of blurs. I'm going to re-activate that feature for the beta so you can tell us whether it's useful at all. Zooming was also considered but never implemented... I will see if that can be squeezed into the beta.
The other suggestions are great and I have kept note on them. Please keep them coming... and meanwhile, stay tuned. 😃
Cheers
Hi 3ddy,
What do you mean "try an option webcam?" Can you explain it? Thanks.
I think he means send live video from the phone to a webpage - like a webcam.
Now THAT would be cool!
😊
Good luck with the development.
I do not have much to add in terms of "bells 'n whistles'-type functionality, but I'd be interested to know about the performance/space requirements for the camera utility.
How big will an installation be? The problem with having a camcorder application on the 7650 is that the utility takes up so much space itself that it's hardly usable. So far, Hipcam wins here (squeezing in at just under 200k), but it's purely a recording application.
How fast will it start up? I guess nothing will ever be instantaneous, but having to wait 5-10 seconds for a cam (or photo) application to start up sorta takes the impulsiveness out of it.
I love the idea of being able to convert the video files!
Perhaps you could consider adding functions like "Negative", "Zoom", "Night-vision" and so on as plugins, to reduce the basic space requirements.
Again, good luck!
[quote="dfdzgz"]Hi 3ddy,
What do you mean "try an option webcam?" Can you explain it? Thanks.[/quote]
I mean an option that turns 7650 to a web cam as willbrady explained 😉
Hi Snorbaard
As of now the camcorder app is 86KB installed on the phone. Its SIS file is 39KB. The video album/player is 175KB on the phone, and the SIS is also 39KB. Right now we are evaluating an option that may help reduce the play app to around 80K (mainly due to bloated data table for decoding) but we will only do that if this is indeed an important feature. This, of course, is at the expense of slightly lower playback performance.
The compression ratio of our codec is fully adjustable and can range from 2.5KB ~ 125KB per second. We won't, however, enable fine grained configuration of these settings. The camera app will allow selection of Low, Average, and High quality recordings plus an MMS mode (10~15 seconds of video/audio of less than 50KB). Our experience indicates that the high quality setting (around 8KB per sec) should results in pictures that are nearly free of compression artifacts... your results may vary... depend on the lighting mainly.
A main drawback right now is that we record audio with the ADPCM codec. The compression isn't all that great... about 4KB per second. Only in MMS mode we use the AMR codec which gives much higher compression - 0.5KB per second. Our next version will probably solve this problem, but for now that looks like the only option for us. Fortunately ADPCM does yield much better quality for general purpose sound compared to AMR which is mainly good for speeches.
Tomorrow I might be able to post some screen shots of the app...
[quote="3ddy"][quote="dfdzgz"]Hi 3ddy,
What do you mean "try an option webcam?" Can you explain it? Thanks.[/quote]
I mean an option that turns 7650 to a web cam as willbrady explained 😉[/quote]
Can be done but the frame rate will be limited... current GPRS uplink is very slow. 😞
This sounds great! Would be interested in buying the Pro (after trying lite) no question! 😊
In terms of using it as a webcam...one step at a time guys! 😊
Lee
[quote="Anonymous"][quote="3ddy"][quote="dfdzgz"]Hi 3ddy,
What do you mean "try an option webcam?" Can you explain it? Thanks.[/quote]
I mean an option that turns 7650 to a web cam as willbrady explained 😉[/quote]
Can be done but the frame rate will be limited... current GPRS uplink is very slow. 😞[/quote]
yep but I actually meant when you connect with bt or ir(it is useless when we consider the sight range) you can use your 7650 as web cam for your pc but being a standalone webcam is very great idea guest 😉
having a worse quality but faster frame rate will be the solution maybe 😊
Sounds good to me :P . I would like to try the app. if possible. 😉
thanx
im sure i read on another forum (one about RE for nokia, i wont post the link cos its a bit dodgy with its content) that someone had gotten webcam software working with their fone.... maybe it wasn't a 7650 but im 99% sure it was...
[quote="dfdzgz"]
- PC-based conversion tool for converting video to standard MPEG-4 AVI
[/quote]
In which format does it encode the video originally? If it is some proprietary format then it is very, very bad idea, because not everybody will have the PC based conversion tool.
The idea of sending photos and videos from phone is to send them directly to another phone. Now when 7650/3650/P800 can play 3gp videos, your program should encode in 3gp format, too.
Not necessarily. If it was only for phones then the filesize of 100kb that many claim as a drawback wouldn't be a problem.
By the way speaking of the sound encoding have you considered adding the ability to encode it in gsm? It is quite comparable with mp3 and maybe better if we consider it's bitrates. Of course not as good as adpcm but much better than amr in my opinion...
why do you post the information on this program with such an odd user name? "dfdzgz" sounds very random.
me too i want to have that program. hope the pro won't be so expensive. 😃
[quote="simeonbubblegum"][quote="dfdzgz"]
- PC-based conversion tool for converting video to standard MPEG-4 AVI
[/quote]
In which format does it encode the video originally? If it is some proprietary format then it is very, very bad idea, because not everybody will have the PC based conversion tool.
The idea of sending photos and videos from phone is to send them directly to another phone. Now when 7650/3650/P800 can play 3gp videos, your program should encode in 3gp format, too.[/quote]
The format we use right now is our own propreitary EYE format. It is a container file format that wraps around our MPEG-4 compliant bitstream. We have support for .mp4 format but right now it's not in a releasable shape 😞 Will be added as a free interium upgrade.
[quote="MEMPHISX"]By the way speaking of the sound encoding have you considered adding the ability to encode it in gsm? It is quite comparable with mp3 and maybe better if we consider it's bitrates. Of course not as good as adpcm but much better than amr in my opinion...[/quote]
Hi MEMPHISX
AMR is, as far as I understand, a souped up version of GSM. You are right that GSM in many cases sound better though. The problem was that the 7650 GSM codec is TOO slow compared to both AMR and ADPCM... it greatly affects the video capture speed.
[quote="nk8"]why do you post the information on this program with such an odd user name? "dfdzgz" sounds very random.[/quote]
Hi nk8,
Maybe lack of imagination? These days it's hard to find an unique user name 😉
Actually it's not too hard to "decode" the name - gz is my initials and dfdz has a special meaning.
[quote="girosky"]me too i want to have that program. hope the pro won't be so expensive. 😃[/quote]
Girosky,
I hope something like $7.99 is within your budget? 😉
<Fine Print>: price has not been finalized yet so please... but that should be the ball park
dfdzgz: yup $7.99 is within my budget thanks! 😃