Nexus One steps up to 720p HD video thanks to latest hack (video)
By Vlad Savov 
posted June 9th 2010 3:19AM
posted June 9th 2010 3:19AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted June 9th 2010 3:19AM
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@Dhelle
Yes... And so do several of the latest Android phones. The Nexus One is not exactly up to date in Android terms...
At the rate that the smartphone industry is evolving, it's quite surprising that a 6 month old phone can keep up with the features of a latest generation "industry leading" phone that hasn't even been released yet.
I'd rather get a Nexus than many of the current elite phones, and certainly rather than an iPhone4.
@fubarweb
So why don't you have one yet?
@suicidebob
Lack of funds... Sadly I'm on a cheaper phone until this is evolved.
I wonder where the comment I replied to has gone.
@fubarweb
And let's be honest here, it's not really that surprising that the N1 can 'shoot' HD, is it?
And if you think having some hacked-on version of 720P that runs dismally is keeping up flawless, lagless 720P on the IPhone then you unfortunately have very low standards
Nice attempt at spin though
@suicidebob if you think 720p recording on ANY phone is flawless to begin with, you unfortunately have even lower standards.
@Dhelle
The Nexus One lets you wirelessly tether, and install any app you want by default. What's your point?
@Tes
And the iPhone 4 has iMovie :-)
@suicidebob imo I only think its 720p on ip4 because of the retina display. Has anybody thought of that?
@professio
Unfortunately you don't seem to know what you're talking about and are just a bit upset that the Iphone trumps Android when it comes to video.
Deal with it and move on
@suicidebob
Making shit up much? You have no idea what framerates it gets, just like you have no idea what framerates the iPhone 4 will get (it's 'up to' 30)
@suicidebob
I'd say it's pretty surprising.
It was obvious that the new iPhone wouldn't bring much new to the table when Apple started the lawsuits to try to keep Android off the shelf.
That they don't even have general feature parity with a 6 month old phone, and that one of their headline features has just been equaled with a software hack (that may go mainstream) suggests that they may have something to worry about. This was not a phone that they should have been competing with.
A flawless customer experience is great and all, but as they start adding features to catch up, cracks will start to appear. Guess what? It's not so easy to make a smooth customer experience when your device is actually expected to do something.
@iucidium No, no one has thought of that, if they understand that monitor resolution and camera resolution can be really different and totally unrelated, even on the same device.
@suicidebob You do realize that 720p recording is going to suck regardless of the phone. Even the HD pocket cameras (devices dedicated to video recording) have pretty crappy results.
I sincerely hope you're not one of those people that think MPs in a phone camera matter....
Bottom line is: regardless of the phone, its still a phone with no space for any reasonable camera sensor.
@fubarweb No. The iPhone 4 is easily at parity with the Nexus One. Just stop. Wait until they're both in the wild - reviews will show the 720p video on the iPhone 4 to be more capable than this unlock on the N1 - otherwise Google would have done it themselves and had 720p video at its release. The video is not "equaled" with this hack. Until I see a framerate and acceptable bitrate on the files generated by the N1 with this hack, I have to be a little suspect - have you watched Engadget's EVO "720p" review video? The one showing taxis driving by on Houston street here in NYC? It looks blotchy, compressed, and terrible. If that's what this is offering too, I'd really consider sticking with the SD.
You're talking so much yang with your comment... Really. Like saying the iPhone doesn't deliver, or how lawsuits are supposed to cover up cracks in usability or whatever you're making up on your computer. Just accept that different products offer different things, and various consumers appreciate different focus than you might. Your comment is like a big pile of straw.
@fubarweb
6 months old, but when it came out it was cutting edge. I don't think the iPhone's lack of ability to distance itself from the Nexus One was exactly a 'failure'.
The Nexus One (minus the ability to connect to a 4G network) is still arguably the best phone on the market. So I fail to see your point. You could say that about every phone.
I say this because I have one lying about half a foot from me charging right now. (I'm not an iPhone apologist. I just don't see the need to 'prove' anything to them)
@d3sc3nd3ncy
While I am at it, I might as well mention two things Google could have done better that Apple could have told them about (and quite frankly, Google should have seen coming)
1) The head jack on the N1 is recessed to keep the design the way it is. This was a very stupid move. It basically limits you to a certain set of headphones. My Sony MDR-V6s (which are 60+$ headphones) don't work with my Nexus One and I'm not to keen on the default ones. This lesson should have been learned after the first iPhone was released.
2) The new iPhone's antenna's design is by far superior to the N1's antenna's design, which can be blocked by your hand by simply holding the device (in an intuitive manner) causing signal loss.
There are other things (in terms of software) that could be argued, but both of those should have been obvious from day 1.
@iucidium the ip4 display is not 720P. 720 HD represents a resolution of 1280x720. The ip4 display is only 960x640. I don't know if it's p or i, but that's besides the point. ip4 may record in HD720, but it doesn't display it.
@hey buddy
That is just rubbish. Saying that Google would have released it with 720p if it was capable (therefore it isn't.) is ignoring the concept of improvement and optimisation. The performance of the N1 has improved considerably since it was released, as has the user interface. This is what software updates can do (especially on a rapidly improving patform like android). How will the feature end up looking? It's not clear at the moment, just as it isn't clear with the iPhone 4 until people start actually using them. Maybe it will be unusable and will never go mainstream. Maybe video calling will never become popular (it hasn't been in europe despite being available here on 3G for literally years.) Maybe the iPhone will popularise it or maybe people actually don't want to have to see / talk with each other by phone all the time, as the popularity of SMS might indicate.
d3c3nd3ncy - I don't think that the iPhone's lack of ability to distance itself from the Nexus One is a failure as such, it looks like a respectable effort, and a nice phone. The physical design is particularly nice.
What it does represent is a turning point for those that expect Apple to be able to come out with an industry leading technical solution. Their current design strategies are not likely to be able to continue to keep up with rapid feature releases for multiple competitors, and they must make the choice of either continuing on the mature quality over features path (and risk losing out over headline specs), or get into a more rapid pace (and risk losing out by not keeping up.)
It reminds me of the intel vs AMD issues about whether headline specs (MHz/GHz) are important. They are only "important" in marketing if you are ahead of your competitor. If not, it becomes about other qualities.
@Jive Turkey There is no such thing as an interlaced LCD device (technically, there is no such thing as progressive either). Those are terms referring to the signal which is transferred from the media. Because old televisions, with cathode tubes, had to scan lines to generate a picture, the signal from the TV company was set to send all the odd lines on frame and even ones on the next because the cathode tube couldn't draw them all fast enough without inducing flicker. The phenomena of the eye seeing both sets of lines at the same time was referred to as interlacing. LCD displays turn every pixel on or off simultaneously thus the terms progressive and interlaced really have no bearing as they only have meaning when talking about line scanning.
I hope I didn't screw up too much of that information.
@d3sc3nd3ncy
I'm not here to argue that the Nexus is perfect and better in all ways than everything that could possibly come after it, just that I think it's a nice phone, and it seems to be keeping up well with other later competitors.
The iPhone has a very nice physical design IMO, and the antenna is an example of that. Comparing it in efficiency to existing designs seems premature though, it might turn out to suck. Whenever I have my hand on an analogue radio antenna the signal goes mad with a load of interference. I'm not saying the iPhone's design will be like that exactly (obviously digital is somewhat different), but having the human body in physical contact with a radio antenna may not turn out to be the best idea in terms of signal to noise.
With their AT&T issues they'd be crazy not to have planned well for it though, so maybe it will be great. We won't know until it gets into the wild.
@d3sc3nd3ncy
What? I'm also using Sony headphones with my N1(they were about 50$,but I don't remember the model now) and they fit perfectly....
@iucidium What does the retina display has to do with 720p? It's all about the lens.
@iucidium By that logic, my 7MP point-and-shoot should only take 320x240 photos.
@gambiting I too use a couple of different sets of Sony headphones with my N1 without problems. Very odd indeed.
@gambiting
If I jiggle my connector even slightly, I do one of the following: skip to the next track, skip back to the start of the current track, or pause.
This is due to an imperfect connection being made. The headphones work everywhere else, so it has to be with the N1. Coincidentally, this happens with devices with poorly designed jacks.
@d3sc3nd3ncy It's not a poor design. It's sounds like you have a faulty jack. This does not happen on my N1.
this is what you call value added!
@annoynimous
lol, but how is this possible?
I guess the Evo will be shooting 1080p in no time! lol
fo-real tho how is this possible?
@edub186 The Nexus One has the same processor as the Evo 4G. The only difference in the model number refers to the network chip it utilizes. I doubt either will be able to shoot 1080p.
It also means the HTC Desire also has that capability since both of them are basically clones.
Open source at its finest.
@Teerim
Really? They had to hack / root the device to get to work. I didn't think that was how open source was supposed to work.
@suicidebob
It's not hacking since it's explicitly allowed by google, you just have to unlock the phone first using one simple console command in the tools provided by google, it's nothing like jailbreaking or hacking (though technically this modification of the open source kernel to allow 720p is 'hacking' it's completely legal and encouraged by google)
@suicidebob I think you need to look up the definition of open source once more. It means, they have the source code and can work with it to achieve feats like this - getting root access to the phone is just one aspect (and a necessity) to do it. With closed source, you may be able to do the same but it will be much more difficult and time consuming.
In short, open source doesnt mean all doors have to be widely open. This is also a matter of security, you know. Root privileges are the key, however.
@suicidebob
Open source makes it much easier though, since the source code for the core OS is all out there.
@suicidebob
Also as the others mention, there is no legal issue with these kind of modifications in an open source OS. From Google's last clash with Cyanogen, it has been made clear only the Google branded apps fall into legal issues. This is unlike jailbreaking where you immediately have a legal issue for any of the modifications.
@Teerim
at its finest, or its clunkiest?
@Paul Elmy
HTC Hero
The Hero port here is unofficial and not supported by the forums, bugtracker, or wiki on this site.
HTC Desire
No it's not a Nexus One, it barely has a stable root. There are supposedly CM5 ports available on modaco, but the same rules as the Hero above applies.
http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Unsupported_phones
@nottekangaru All those cussing google, it was google who improved N1 encoders, i just added some stuff and cleaned up some
@Paul Elmy :D I have hopes for this too!
@kanged Its just a proof of concept, what nexus one can do. though i will improve it in coming future
Is there anything the N1 can't do?
Just put it into a redesigned case and you can sell it for brandnew Google. Very cool. :-)
@Bratyr
It is hacking unless you have some kind of developer plan that you are building on top of. Hacking is just taking what you have and forcing it to work together. Hacking is just b/s engineering (which goes on quite a bit in software development sadly...)
Cracking is an illegal and unsanctioned use of hacking to exploit a software/hardware problem that results in a breach of information.
@Bratyr
I suspect the reason for this is simple: most 'normal' people cannot be trusted with root to not screw something up, So easy solution is to make it so that they need to unlock it themselves.
@annoynimous
Love my Nexus One
I have Froyo 2.2 installed manually on my Nexus One, but I dont want to root it, I think I will wait for the official update for 720p, maybe on Gingerbread?
@edub186
Its called having your devices open source.
You should watch the google IO on Froyo 2.2.
@Paul Elmy I think you meant the Incredible and not the Desire. Get your names right.
@slickpaki
Nope, I was specifically referring to the Desire.
Incredible and Desire differences are milestones away.
@kanged You read Engadget, Cyanogen?!
@Bratyr
I think you went a step too far there. Google has made this possible through open-source, and they have not spent much effort preventing you from doing this, but that doesn't mean that they endorse or encourage it in any way.
Remember that doing this is unofficial and unsupported.