To those interested in knowing how long can a Lumia 930 record in 4K mode

PauloP

New member
Jun 14, 2015
80
0
0
Visit site
I've managed a very respectable 16 minutes and 36 seconds of 4K at 30fps with my Lumia 930 before getting the overheating message and having the recording stopped by the system..

I was planning to buy either a S6 or a G4, but after I saw that both models are limited to 5 minutes of rec time, I gave it up.

The most amazing thing about the Lumia is that even after the overheat message the phone was merely warm. I've definitely seen it a lot warmer than that.

Interesting facts:

The video file is not split after a certain amount of data (file system bounded), like in most camcorders out there.

The file size was 6.84 GiB. If you have an empty phone before starting, that means you can record almost an hour of footage in 4K. If you choose 24fps, that figure will increase, as the bitrate is set to a lower value (58 Mbps versus 45 Mbps). When it comes to video bitrate, stock vs. stock, a Lumia 930 beat every single phone out there, I guess.

The battery charge level dropped from 97 to 79% during the process, with maximum screen brightness (daylight), so we're looking at an approximate figure of 1.1% of battery juice per minute (considering a linear decrease rate).

That way, one can expect to run out of memory before running out of battery.

I haven't recorded another file in sequence, so I can't tell if it could keep on recording the same amount right after the first file.

I am planning to upload the video to my youtube page, but my connection is just crap, so it could take a time.

Conclusions:

I guess that makes Lumia phones better options when it comes to video recording than all current Android devices out there.

I just wish Microsoft could implement some additional controls for videos, like:

Contrast
Saturation
Noise suppression
Sharpness
Bitrate levels for both video and audio (something like 100Mbps for video and LPCM recording for audio).

These would help producing truly amazing videos with these phones.

Any developer out there knows whether these controls can be implemented in a dedicated third party app?
 

tgp

New member
Dec 1, 2012
4,519
0
0
Visit site
Droid's usually have time limited 4K recording. No wonder why.

You got me curious with this thread. I never played with the video limits on my Nexus 6.

I had my Nexus 6 on my Nokia DT-910 wireless charger. I started the 4K video recording. After about 5 minutes I got to thinking that part of the point is to see how warm it gets, and wireless charging itself gets it warm. I removed the phone from the charger (while recording continued to run) and felt the back. It was warm, but not hot. I then propped the phone up somewhere else where the back was mostly exposed. It actually cooled down a bit. After 12:55, recording stopped with a message that the file size limit was reached. I checked the file size, and it was 3.80GB.

I was using the stock camera app, and it does not have the option of adjusting the fps setting. The Nexus 6 is rather limited in options with the stock camera app, and the 30fps rate cannot be changed. Slow motion is not available either. These options are available with other camera apps. I believe some of these options are stock with the new Nexus devices.

I discovered a couple things: some Android phones do indeed have a 5 minute 4K video length limit, but it is up to the manufacturer. It is not in Android. However, the (4GB) file size limit is Android's limitation AFAIK. I researched it a bit, and it seems to stem back to FAT32 limitations, probably from when phone storage sizes were small and video recording of any length would have mostly gone to an SD card. There are mods to eliminate this limitation, but with a stock device it is there.

As far as temperature, my phone had no issues at all. As mentioned, it actually cooled down a bit after taking it off of the wireless charger. But even while charging, it did not get hot even after 5 minutes of simultaneous recording and charging.

These are my findings. I'm glad to find how this part of the Lumia camera compares to Android, and along with that I found out how some Android devices compare to others.
 

PauloP

New member
Jun 14, 2015
80
0
0
Visit site
Yeah, you're right. It's not Android's limitation.

What I know is that some droids get really hot when shooting 4K. The Xperia line is a good example. They actually stop the recording after 5 minutes or so due to the overheating prevention system.

I find nice to have long 4K recordings because I use to record some gigs and, you know, some songs are quite long, like Dire Straits' Telegraph Road. LOL.

But this shortcoming of FAT32 file size limit is not quite a shortcoming, actually. Many dedicated cameras have that limitation as well, but they deal with it in a clever way by automatically creating another file to accommodate the additional data. I shoot with a Panasonic FZ1000 that does just that when shooting in 4K mode, allowing me to shoot 30 minutes in a row.

I was surprised to see how well the Lumia 930 performed here. This phones sure have a great potential when it comes to video. I just wished we could have more manual controls.

Looking forward to see what difference will the liquid cooling system of the new 950 make on 4K recording time.

I just got a great deal on a S6 Edge. I know there's an app called Cinema4K that has no time limit. Once I receive it, I will try that out and then compare it to my 930.
 

tgp

New member
Dec 1, 2012
4,519
0
0
Visit site
What I know is that some droids get really hot when shooting 4K. The Xperia line is a good example. They actually stop the recording after 5 minutes or so due to the overheating prevention system.

The 5 minute limit is to prevent issues such as overheating and storage. It is a proactive measure. It's not the overheating prevention system that's stopping it, technically speaking.

I'm curious as to why Android still enforces the 4GB file size limit. With lots of devices coming with 64GB on board storage, and even 128GB, it seems to me that this could be deprecated. Recent devices have dropped SD card support, and Nexus devices never did have it, at least not the last several devices (I'm not sure about the early ones). Maybe the limit is something they just haven't gotten around to changing yet, or there might be other technical reasons.

I just got a great deal on a S6 Edge. I know there's an app called Cinema4K that has no time limit. Once I receive it, I will try that out and then compare it to my 930.

Have fun with it! I'm not a big Samsung fan, but I recently got an S6 Edge for my wife. I'm still playing with it before I turn it over to her. She loves tap and pay, and Samsung Pay makes it possible to use it almost everywhere. I've been having fun using it at Walmart! This phone also has one of the highest rated cameras of any current smartphone, another thing she's looking forward to.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
322,910
Messages
2,242,884
Members
428,005
Latest member
COME ON WIN ANDROID (ADI)