Question Why my S21 Ultra shoots videos that sound quite silent and flat? - Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

Hello, new S21 Ultra (Exynos) owner here.
I and my mate are doing a video podcast of sorts and were eager to select the best video setting on my new S21 Ultra - resolution, FPS, wide or main camera etc. We shot some with his Galaxy A71 for control purposes and played our samples back on his Samsung 4K TV. And as the video quality on the S21 Ultra was in most cases better (not much on the wide-angle, it had decent detail but was grainy), the microphone levels were considerably lower than those on the A71.
The quality was there, the details also, but the overall sound was way more silent and the bass/treble was nearly non-existent compared to the ones on the other device.
We started trying to change different settings on my phone with no effect. It's not an S21 Ultra playback issue, as I sent a video to his phone to stream it to the TV from there and the difference persisted.
Compared to a video on my wife's Samsung M31 the difference is also the same.
I did not discover any particular microphone settings other than the zoom-in mic, which made no difference turned off or on. Can it be some other app using the microphone and screwing up its performance? I really hoped that the sound captured on the S21 Ultra would be impressive and not at all sub-par.

Use the pro video mode, there you can change what mics to use....front, back or both or external mic

termdj said:
Use the pro video mode, there you can change what mics to use....front, back or both or external mic
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It works OK by adding 10db to the sound level, but yet I didn't need to use this mode on the other devices. Hopefully the may update will improve this issue. At least it doesn't seem to be hardware related.

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Problems recording in loud places

Does anybody have this issue when recording a video in say a concert, night club or even your car with loud music on.. the video will playback fine.. however the audio will be really distorted and you can literally hear nothing but fuzz and base.
The Huawei p9 plus has been my first android phone from Apple in the last 4 years, and really like everything about it.. would be a shame if this was an issue that could not be resolved, i had read somewhere online it's due to the huawei having 2 microphones ...
Any help is appreciated
I'm sorry to disappoint you. While my Note 4 made pretty decent video recordings (sound wise) my P9+ is horrible and absolutely useless for recording live music. I haven't found a solution yet other than moving away from the music...about half a mile
My P9plus VIE L09 records audio WONDERFULLY ! It's almost on par with Nokia 808 Pureview, which is fantastic. Audio is recorded undistorted even if you put the smartphone against high levels of sound (close to a loudspeaker for example). I tested and it is really great.
Strange, very strange. I stopped using my P9+ in loud places because of the terrible audio quality. I had my device send in to a Huawei service center. They returned it saying nothing was wrong.
I added a file to demonstrate the distortion in a loud place. It's a zipped mp4 file.
P9plus recording @ over 100 dB
I put the phone at 10 cm in front of one loud (over 100 dB) loudspeaker(Studio monitor JBL LSR 4326) with top microphone to the tweeter and bottom to the woofer, centered in the middle on axis. I could easily go higher in level but already hurt my ears next to the speaker, it was very loud. There is absolutely no distortion. Recorded with stock Huawei's recorder (.mp4 16 bit 48KHz). Sound recorded on camera videos are the same (very clear, detailed and no, no distortion).
Phone stock firmware, VIE L09.
raduverdes said:
I put the phone at 10 cm in front of one loud (over 100 dB) loudspeaker(Studio monitor JBL LSR 4326) with top microphone to the tweeter and bottom to the woofer, centered in the middle on axis. I could easily go higher in level but already hurt my ears next to the speaker, it was very loud. There is absolutely no distortion. Recorded with stock Huawei's recorder (.mp4 16 bit 48KHz). Sound recorded on camera videos are the same (very clear, detailed and no, no distortion).
Phone stock firmware, VIE L09.
Click to expand...
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it is like a studio recording )
i will try live record thursday in studio (with my band) and upload here.
Yes, very good mics in P9plus. That song was a compressed mp3 and speakers yelling loud but recording is good and not distorted. You can use your smartphone for interviews for example with very good results. Outdoor it picks up wind but as a trick you can wrap the smartphone in one microfiber cloth and, voila, wind removal (only for audio, not video)
@raduverdes, sound distortion in concerts is very often related to bass levels. Your track contains almost no low-mid and bass, it's mid's an high's and that's probably the reason why it sounds good. In the EW&F track is a lot of bass and combined with the high volume the recordings on my p9+ sound very bad.
@Ce Your (very very short) sample recording is very saturated and distorted. I compared Huawei p9 plus mics with Nokia 808 Pureview (with it's Nokia rich recording technology, supporting sound pressure up to 140 dB according to Nokia) and Huawei keeps up very well against my 808 Pureview, almost as good. Nokia 808 is probably(i'd say, surely) the best audio recorder in the smartphone world so I'm very happy with output quality of Huawei P9 plus. Huawei supports very high levels of pressure without breaking a sweat, similarly to Nokia 808. Recordings are very clean and clear for a mobile phone.
I highly recommend you don't stay in very very very loud places if you want to keep your hearing. Don't listen to music (speakers /headphones) over 80-85 dB for long periods of time. I earn my living with my ears and probably the last thing I want is to go deaf.
You probably don't get better sound recording from a smartphone at the moment, it's way better than iPhone 6s, Samsung S7, LG G5, Xiaomi or whatever flagship smartphone, I listen to lots of audio samples on YouTube before purchasing my P9plus.
Sample recording P9plus @ Grado SR80e & Samsung Tab S 10.5
Here is a sample recording using Grado headphones feed by Samsung tablet (no amp but at max volume) ; stock recorder app, mp4, 128kbps, 48KHz. A little too much mids and highs, I know but you get the image. I think it's very good for a smartphone.
At 1:40 I received a message on my tablet
I made a video test recording at INSANE level (I think over 120 dB) very close to the speaker and yes, it's awful, distorted. I don't want to be in such loud place for sure. At 1-1,5 meters away (~105-110 dB sound level) recording is good, undistorted . So, I'd say Huawei P9plus is wonderful /good in normal to LOUD places and bad/unusable in INSANE, STUPID LOUD places. It's smart enough not recording stupid things.
Hi!
I'm very interested in this thread. I'm just trying to find a successor for my HTC M8, years ago the only android phone that could handle loud sound recordings.
I found this video of Huawei p9 (one of my favorites), and I really impressed about the quality (powerful bass by FunktionOne speakers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hAiQplKXls
BUT, reading your comments I'm not sure if this video is true, especially after watching this video of one of you. It's horrible!!!!!
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=69942999&postcount=4
Maybe some software update??? If someone can confirm that the quality of the first video it's true, tomorrow I'll buy the P9 :laugh:
Thanks!!!

Choppy video.

For some reason I get some kind of severe lag when recording video, especially noticable during camera movements but it's there all the time. You also hear the chops in the sound. The problem is worst in 1080p, it's a bit better in 4k. 1080 gets the choppy lags in all 3rd party apps I've tried as well as in the stock app, very frustrating. Changing the bitrate doesn't seem to affect this issue much, it's doesn't get less choppy at lower or higher bitrates (in Open Camera).
Video stabilization and noise reduction and stuff like that is turned off across the board as far as it's possible since I use a gimbal and do all processing in post. And yes the video is choppy with or without the gimbal, it makes no difference for that.
At first I thought it had to to with bad support for the 3rd party apps I use but then I realized the problem is just as bad or worse in the Huawei photo app, which of course produces bad video quality in the first place but that's another issue.
Recording in slow motion on the other hand works fine, cranking up the bitrate to the max and recording in 120fps in open camera with manual focus produces the best slo-mo quality 1080 footage I've seen a phone do so far. So I know for a fact that the phone can produce good quality 1080p footage, I just can't make it work with normal frame rates for some reason.
Anyone else had this problem? Is my phone simply malfunctioning or did I do something wrong? I'm on the 131 firmware version, firmware finder also lists the 131a as compatible, could that solve the issue?
Any help appreciated.
Sjorpha said:
For some reason I get some kind of severe lag when recording video, especially noticable during camera movements but it's there all the time. You also hear the chops in the sound. The problem is worst in 1080p, it's a bit better in 4k. 1080 gets the choppy lags in all 3rd party apps I've tried as well as in the stock app, very frustrating. Changing the bitrate doesn't seem to affect this issue much, it's doesn't get less choppy at lower or higher bitrates (in Open Camera).
Video stabilization and noise reduction and stuff like that is turned off across the board as far as it's possible since I use a gimbal and do all processing in post. And yes the video is choppy with or without the gimbal, it makes no difference for that.
At first I thought it had to to with bad support for the 3rd party apps I use but then I realized the problem is just as bad or worse in the Huawei photo app, which of course produces bad video quality in the first place but that's another issue.
Recording in slow motion on the other hand works fine, cranking up the bitrate to the max and recording in 120fps in open camera with manual focus produces the best slo-mo quality 1080 footage I've seen a phone do so far. So I know for a fact that the phone can produce good quality 1080p footage, I just can't make it work with normal frame rates for some reason.
Anyone else had this problem? Is my phone simply malfunctioning or did I do something wrong? I'm on the 131 firmware version, firmware finder also lists the 131a as compatible, could that solve the issue?
Any help appreciated.
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Click to collapse
I have this issue in 60fps
When I revert back to full stock it's fluid and works as expected.
Once I've rooted and installed twrp etc plus a few apps it starts to get laggy, I don't use 4K so don't care..30fps 1080p is what I use most and it's perfect..just annoying that 60fps doesn't work as it should..really annoying.
At total stock it should be fine.
I also use a magisk module called swap torpedo which eliminates the use of a swap file, not sure if that matters or not.
Also I've seen this issue present on all firmwares
In which app do u have this issue?
Babu mani said:
In which app do u have this issue?
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All apps including Huaweis own.
I've contacted support and they say they'll try to find out what the problem is with my choppy 1080 video.
Obviously that doesn't adress the absurdly low bitrate limits and lack of support for advanced functions in 3rd party apps, which are simply limitations of the p20 pro for now, they said they are aware of those issues as well and looking to fix them.
Sjorpha said:
All apps including Huaweis own.
I've contacted support and they say they'll try to find out what the problem is with my choppy 1080 video.
Obviously that doesn't adress the absurdly low bitrate limits and lack of support for advanced functions in 3rd party apps, which are simply limitations of the p20 pro for now, they said they are aware of those issues as well and looking to fix them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok so may have a fix for this.
I'd previously changed device resolution to HD from FHD changing this back fixes 60fps video, it makes sense that it would offer the same for the other issues you've been having.
Check it out its under Display.
About the laggy video, I just looked into this issue and found something really interesting. When choosing full HD resolution and shooting a video, I find it laggy. But when choosing FHD+ 2160 x 1080 p, the video is amazingly smooth. I suspect that when you choose FHD, the phone is doing some downsampling which causes a huge load on the CPU and makes it laggy while FHD+ does not cause such a big downsampling, because of the 2160 width, which is the native 4k height. Maybe someone who knows more can confirm if what I'm saying is actually true. The kirin 970 does not seem capable of proper processing power like it is advertised.
I have te same issue. FHD 30fps is horribly stuttering, while FHD 60fps or 4K are ok. Do someone found a solution to this? It's incredible that the most powerful and advanced camera phone at the moment have this flaw!
Inviato dal mio CLT-L09 utilizzando Tapatalk
Hey, did anyone find another fix for this? I changed my screen resolution and it makes no difference, still getting laggy and choppy video.
Hi guys,
I have just recorded wedding speeches and the video is choppy as hell at 60fps. The audio is fine but video isn't. Any way I can salvage the clips?
Thanks in advance

Camera module click sound when changing camera mode

Hello, I just had my S10+ and I love it. The only thing I notice is a click sound made by the camera module lens when changing from mode to another one in the camera apps. Like the lens adapte, and make kind of a 'click' sound. Is it a normal thing for everyone ? Or may it be broken or anything ?
Thanks so much, and hoping I was clear.
So you're not the first one to bring this up. I'm guessing this is your first Samsung phone with a variable aperture lens? I have this on my Note 9 and I guess I've been around louder environments because I never noticed the sound. I just testing this out on my N9 and I can barely hear the sound but it's there when I switched from video mode to picture mode. All the video and photos I've been shooting on my Note 9 for past 5 months have never been negatively affected by this mechanism. So far, everything seems to be in working order. I suspect it will be the same with the new S10 line.
I hope that gives you some better perspective on this feature.

Jarring ultrawide 4k video

Strange enough, I've found only one person (below) other than me complaining about jarring ultrawide 4k videos recorded on S20 FE. I wonder if this is a hardware issue or a glitchy image stabilization that can be fixed via software update. Is anyone else having the same problem? Because of this, ultrawide 4k recording on my phone is pretty much useless.
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G FULL In-Depth Review - YouTube
(13:15~)
I played with a demo unit at Best Buy. Although I was not able to move it freely, it didn't seem to have the issue. Mine may be just defective.
tkshk said:
Strange enough, I've found only one person (below) other than me complaining about jarring ultrawide 4k videos recorded on S20 FE. I wonder if this is a hardware issue or a glitchy image stabilization that can be fixed via software update. Is anyone else having the same problem? Because of this, ultrawide 4k recording on my phone is pretty much useless.
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G FULL In-Depth Review - YouTube
(13:15~)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you recording to device or SD card?
To device. I noticed later that "video stabilization" was on in the settings when I recorded ultrawide 4k videos . I don't have the issue after turning it off, so I suppose the hardware is fine. EIS may not be optimized yet. Hopefully the upcoming One UI 3.0 update includes better EIS.

Odd sound phenomenon

I have the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G. And I have noticed a strange phenomenon that occurs with the sound whenever I try to screen record using the built-in screen recorder. When playing a game the sound sounds like a normal phone... However, when I start to screen record the sound all of the sudden gets more depth and the bass is louder and the clarity is a lot better. How could a screen recorder make the speakers sound better? Are the speakers not already going at their full potential? If not, how would I go about enabling it to sound the same as when the screen recording is enabled?
As a little background, I am not new to electronics and I am a power user. I've already been up and down the sound settings and through the developers options, but to no avail. There doesn't seem to be any discussion anywhere about this particular phenomenon...
Interesting. May be the codec that's being used.
See what it is in Developer options when in those states.
Could be a firmware glitch... like those never happen in Samsungs

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