Read-only archive of the All About Symbian forum (2001–2013) · About this archive
All About Symbian Forum Archive

ETI Camcorder reborn

255 replies · 79,775 views · Started 05 June 2005

dfdzgz 05 Jun 2005, 05:20

Two years ago around this time, I was locked in my Beijing apartment. The city was incredibly serene, thanks to SARS, and I finally had the time to learn how to program Symbian and write that piece of software I had wanted to write all along for my then spanking new Nokia 7650 -- a camcorder that does not quite after 10 seconds. A month later the ETI Camcorder was born.

Long story short, I tried to market it but could not support it -- 70,000 downloads a month is more than I could handle in my spare time. Not wanting to annoy my customers, I shut down the Handango account and handed the product over to a Beijing-based retailer. ETI Camcorder was officially gone.

Much has changed in two years. Almost all mobile phone camcorders are doing this "unlimited recording" thingy, and offering an UI with instant-on view finder and non of those "New Recording", "Save Recording" non-sense. You don't really need ETI Camcorder anymore.

But is there room for a better camcorder program? I thought so. Thus, after two years, I give you Camcorder2 -- a completely re-written, faster, prettier, and above all much more fun ETI Camcorder!

Since I'm no longer the sole creator/owner of this program, I cannot give you an exhaustive list of the features before the official release date (in the next couple of weeks we will start the Beta testing program. You are more than welcome to participate - just drop me a message here). However, I have managed to attach a couple of screenshots here for your viewing pleasure.

Some features I'm allowed to disclose:

- 100% faster MPEG-4 CODEC for much smoothier recording
- Themed recorder UI (user can create own theme too)
- 2x smooth digital zooming
- Output to standard DivX AVI
- 24/7 customer support, handled by full-time support specialists
and, more importantly --

THE SAME, UNBELIEVABLE LOW PRICE! Even better, legitimate owners of the old ETI can enjoy a 50% discount!

Okay, that's enough. I know I'm sounding more like marketing now 😉 Rest assured, I have not lost my programming skills, and those involved in creating this new version are all top-notch programmers. The software is still created by small group of people with love and passion -- the spirit never dies.

Stay tuned, my friends!

Sincere,

Gary

Attachments: record-await.jpg record-await02.jpg
snowpig 05 Jun 2005, 05:48

Yay! I can't wait for its release. Id be happy to beta test for you and give you any feedback you would like. My 6680 is arriving in 5 days so I can test it on that.

willbrady 05 Jun 2005, 18:16

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
The only program to touch yours was Phillips Camcorder Pro, but they have not released an update since the launch of the 6600.

The market NEEDS a decent video recorder, the built in applications are crap - WELCOME BACK!!!!

Will

dfdzgz 06 Jun 2005, 12:49

willbrady wrote:THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
The only program to touch yours was Phillips Camcorder Pro, but they have not released an update since the launch of the 6600.

The market NEEDS a decent video recorder, the built in applications are crap - WELCOME BACK!!!!

Will


Hi Willy,

Long time no see! 😊 I didn't expect to see an old friend here, as it has been such a long time since I last visited this forum. Man THAT feels good!

I always thought the built-in camcorder has made pretty good progresses in terms of usability (other than the fact they didn't use the Hantro CODEC thus the encoding was a bit on the slow side). You seem though to think otherwise. Care to share your insights with me so I can avoid the same pitfalls before it's too late? (Beta starting in 2 weeks).

Cheers,

G

EinZtein 06 Jun 2005, 14:19

ETI is the only camcorder me or any of my friends can get to work on the 6600.:icon14:

WOW, output to avi and mp4, I can beta test the new version on all fw of 6600 and 6620. 😃

Even the built-in camcorder on the 6620 is limited to 10 minutes and produces only a .3gp file. :icon13:

willbrady 06 Jun 2005, 22:16

Well, phones and technology has improved in 2 years, but the quality of video taken on my wifes 3650 using ETI is still better than what my 6680 takes using the builtin app, sure the 6680 records at 25fps but the artifacts and mosaicing on movement is VERY noticeable, ETI is non exsistant.
The extra quality was and still is worth all that extra fuss converting the .eye & .ear files to AVI.

If ETI now encodes to AVI divx and (fingers crossed) 25fps on higher end phones then I'll be in heaven.
Hope the video gallery still has thumbnail icons? Nokia built in gallery STILL does not have thumbnails for video!

The functionallity on the original ETI was spot on.

Cheers - can't wait!!!!!

Will

dfdzgz 07 Jun 2005, 04:06

willbrady wrote:Well, phones and technology has improved in 2 years, but the quality of video taken on my wifes 3650 using ETI is still better than what my 6680 takes using the builtin app, sure the 6680 records at 25fps but the artifacts and mosaicing on movement is VERY noticeable, ETI is non exsistant.
The extra quality was and still is worth all that extra fuss converting the .eye & .ear files to AVI.

I have not got my hands on a 6680 so I don't know the performance, but according to the spec it has got a 220Mhz CPU, vs. the 108Mhz used by the 6600. On the 6600, our latest test achieves 12.5 FPS (recording to MMC. Somehow recording to the phone memory is noticeably slower) -- no inserted null frames to fake a higher frame rate. And roughly 5 FPS for 320x240 sized recording. I have not seen the test result on the 6630 which uses the same CPU as the 6680, but at least the CODEC speed more than doubles. Not sure if it will be actually 25FPS as I don't think the camera can actually capture at that fast rate. Chances are the advertised 25FPS is achieved via the null frame approach mentioned earlier.

Higher quality picture take considerablly longer to produce, thus affecting the frame rate. In our office people seem to split into two camps - one advocates smoother motion and willing to sacrifice quality, while the other group simply cannot bear to look at lousy pictures. Sometimes it is hard to please everyone 😊

G

willbrady 07 Jun 2005, 07:29

😮 😮 😮 😮
Did you say 320*240
😮 😮 😮 😮

JESUS!

Obviously I would like to beta test this app ASAP!!!

😃

dfdzgz 07 Jun 2005, 13:38

willbrady wrote:😮 😮 😮 😮
Did you say 320*240
😮 😮 😮 😮

JESUS!

Obviously I would like to beta test this app ASAP!!!

😃


Yeah that's right, no typos here. It is possible the frame rate is even higher than 5FPS but I have to remain conservative for the time being.

Here, another eye candy for the impatient (myself included) 😊 This one showcases the instant setting UI. Enjoy!

Attachments: viewfinder-seting.jpg
dfdzgz 08 Jun 2005, 14:21

AvvaX wrote:Whole thread looks like a fake.

When I first announced my camcorder two years ago many also thought I was fake, some even go as far questioning my screen name. I think I'm enjoying this feeling of deja vu... 😊

AvvaX 09 Jun 2005, 05:00

willbrady wrote:This guy is for real - search this forum for ETI CAMCORDER.
In fact, search google for ETI CAMCORDER.
Go take a look at www.eyemail.com.cn

Rgds

Will

I know that this program exists. So if they developed new version, where is it?

dfdzgz 12 Jun 2005, 03:12

willbrady wrote:Hi.
Any chance of you uploading a sample video clip?
Go one, please, you know you want to.

Will


Be patient, my friend. Upload a video sample alone is only going to help people form partial opinions (be it good or bad), and that does not do justice to the program. Camcorder2 is much more than about performance improvement. You can email me privately on features that I won't talk about in public till the beta launches.

Cheers,

G

dfdzgz 15 Jun 2005, 16:43

willbrady wrote:It's been a few days, Anything else you have there to wet our appitite?
😊

Will


Sure. This is the "My Videos" UI (Note: these pics are taken from the "skin" designs, not the actual screenshots.)

Let me talk about extensibility this time. As we all know by now, Camcorder2 supports rather sophisticated skinning capabilities. Even the viewfinder is skinnable! But it does not stop there. Look at these features:

1. User definable "profiles". These profiles allow you to set many aspects of the recording - capture rate, video size, file format, compression parameters, etc. Camcorder2 comes with three built-in profiles: Phone, PC, and Editing. More can be added by users.

2. Plug-ins. The new video album supports a plugin architecture. Plugins operate on selected video clips. They can have wide range of capabilities. Some of the plugins we are working on include:

- Format conversion
- Prepare for MMS (with real P-frame encoding you should be able to send nearly a minute worth of smooth video through MMS)
- Sharing. Yes, one click will process your video and upload it to the dedicated video sharing forum.
- BlogIt. Similar to the one above, only it sends the video to your own blog!

I think I'm talking too much... but as the release date is drawing near, I guess I can afford to "leak" a bit more information 😉

Attachments: folder-open.jpg folder-option.jpg
EinZtein 15 Jun 2005, 17:36

dfdzgz wrote:Sure. This is the "My Videos" UI (Note: these pics are taken from the "skin" designs, not the actual screenshots.)

Let me talk about extensibility this time. As we all know by now, Camcorder2 supports rather sophisticated skinning capabilities. Even the viewfinder is skinnable! But it does not stop there. Look at these features:

1. User definable "profiles". These profiles allow you to set many aspects of the recording - capture rate, video size, file format, compression parameters, etc. Camcorder2 comes with three built-in profiles: Phone, PC, and Editing. More can be added by users.

2. Plug-ins. The new video album supports a plugin architecture. Plugins operate on selected video clips. They can have wide range of capabilities. Some of the plugins we are working on include:

- Format conversion
- Prepare for MMS (with real P-frame encoding you should be able to send nearly a minute worth of smooth video through MMS)
- Sharing. Yes, one click will process your video and upload it to the dedicated video sharing forum.
- BlogIt. Similar to the one above, only it sends the video to your own blog!

I think I'm talking too much... but as the release date is drawing near, I guess I can afford to "leak" a bit more information 😉

😮 WOW, YOU'RE BLOWING MY MIND! 😉

Any idea when the beta will be coming out?

dfdzgz 16 Jun 2005, 04:43

EinZtein wrote:😮 WOW, YOU'RE BLOWING MY MIND! 😉

Any idea when the beta will be coming out?


It also blew my mind why I didn't do this earlier... We wasted so much time in the past year making custom camcorders for various blood-sucking handset makers! It is so much more fun to create software directly for end users!

Anyway I believe beta will be out on July 1st. Will definitely keep you posted.

willbrady 16 Jun 2005, 20:58

dfdzgz wrote:It also blew my mind why I didn't do this earlier... We wasted so much time in the past year making custom camcorders for various blood-sucking handset makers! It is so much more fun to create software directly for end users!

Anyway I believe beta will be out on July 1st. Will definitely keep you posted.

July 1st!!!
You come on here with the best news we've heard in 2 years, tempting us with your wares, then tell us we have to wait another month to see it, what a tease!
How dare you tempt and tease us like this!!

😃 😃 😃 😃

EinZtein 16 Jun 2005, 21:09

dfdzgz wrote:It also blew my mind why I didn't do this earlier... We wasted so much time in the past year making custom camcorders for various blood-sucking handset makers! It is so much more fun to create software directly for end users!

Anyway I believe beta will be out on July 1st. Will definitely keep you posted.

I can test on 6600 fw4.09.1, 5.27 and on 6620 all fw to date. 😃 😃

EinZtein 16 Jun 2005, 21:11

willbrady wrote:July 1st!!!
You come on here with the best news we've heard in 2 years, tempting us with your wares, then tell us we have to wait another month to see it, what a tease!
How dare you tempt and tease us like this!!

😃 😃 😃 😃

July 1 is only two weeks away. Just in time to shoot my July 4th celebration. :icon14:

themafia.69 17 Jun 2005, 00:55

ok im ganna be a beta tester for SURE! lol, just one tiny selfish question? if we beta test it for u can we get it at a discount or for free when its final?

dfdzgz 17 Jun 2005, 01:37

themafia.69 wrote:ok im ganna be a beta tester for SURE! lol, just one tiny selfish question? if we beta test it for u can we get it at a discount or for free when its final?

I guess it makes sense to reward beta testers who are first to report unique bugs by giving them free or discounted copies of the software 😊 I will tell our marketing person about this.