[Q] Any way to keep brightness down in camera?

[biggles1000]

Right, I've got a black One S with android 4.0.3 and sense 4, all like new (as it is). I don't fancy rooting it and don't really want to change from the HTC Rom, but the backlight in the camera annoys me. On the touch pro2 with the HTC stuff, I'm certain there was an option in settings to keep the screen backlight down when in the camera. On the Trophy that followed, I couldn't control it, because, let's face it, you can't control much in WP7. however, switching to the one S and android, I expected being able to keep the backlight down.
Why is this frustrating me? I don't like.being blinded by the viewfinder, and I don't want to kill the battery any more than I have to. So, is there a way to keep the phone's backlight down while in the HTC camera app?

 

[biggles1000]

Okay, now I know everyone has ignored this thread but I think I've discovered a way. So here's the setup:

• HTC One S
• System brightness set to lowest
• A 4 digit screen-lock password

So I have the passcode set on the 15 minute max timeout, so, the phone locked itself, and I dragged the camera icon on the lockscreen into the ring. Naturally, despite being locked, it still allows use of the camera. Now, it may just be my eyes, but I'm certain I noticed a distance difference in brightness. That is, the screen seemed a lot dimmer when the camera app was being accessed from behind the lock rather than unlocked.

 

[k1llacanon]

I think the brightness is ok lol

Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

 

[frdd]

AMOLED displays as the one in One S doesnt have backlights. But there is a mod that lowers the values when using auto brightness since the defaults are a bit high, not especially made for in-camera though. Check for it in Tweak Machine thread in apps and themes forums.

 

[biggles1000]

I think the brightness is ok lol

Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

I guess most people aren't that fussed about the brightness, but the battery did seem to last a lot longer when recording 1080p video with the lower brightness.

AMOLED displays as the one in One S doesnt have backlights. But there is a mod that lowers the values when using auto brightness since the defaults are a bit high, not especially made for in-camera though. Check for it in Tweak Machine thread in apps and themes forums.

Does that require root access? From what I can see it does, and I guess that too would be helpful for the majority, but my phone isn't rooted. Mainly because I like the HTC Sense camera interface so much

 

[frdd]

Yeah you must flash it from custom recovery so at least unlocked boot loader required. Why not try a sense based ROM? They all keep the awesome HTC camera and its snappiness

 

[biggles1000]

Unfortunately with the One S update I finally received last night bringing it up from Android 4.0.3 to 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1, HTC have now removed the incredibly helpful 'bug' of the brightness staying down in the camera if it is launched from the lockscreen with a password set. Thanks a lot HTC, you excell yourselves with stupidity once again.

Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium

 

[curiousGeorge]

Bump. Recording lectures is impossible due to HTC's stupidity. The 100% screen brightness not only kills the battery before lecture ends, but it's extremely distracting for people behind me (especially if room is dark during powerpoint presentations).

This has to be turned down. Ideally, once set up, the phone should be able to record video with the screen OFF. Or at least with brightness on min. Surely there's a mod or a hack for this?

 

[biggles1000]

Bump. Recording lectures is impossible due to HTC's stupidity. The 100% screen brightness not only kills the battery before lecture ends, but it's extremely distracting for people behind me (especially if room is dark during powerpoint presentations).

This has to be turned down. Ideally, once set up, the phone should be able to record video with the screen OFF. Or at least with brightness on min. Surely there's a mod or a hack for this?

hi,

Firstly, I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it is extremely frustrating as not only is the bright screen distracting for others and makes you look foolish, the battery hardly lasts any time at all. I contacted HTC to see if they could add a brightness slider, their customer support rep said the technical team would get in touch with me - they haven't.

However, on the positive side, I have found two apps which don't allow you to record with lower brightness, they up the ante to your other suggestion, having the screen off. I'd always assumed that cameras on phones couldn't work with the screen off because I thought the phone went into proper sleep. Turns out that the camera can stay active. There are many poor apps on Play, but I found two which offer free (very limited functionality, but allows you to check that the app works with your phone) versions and rather expensive pro versions. I tried both the free versions and liked the second one I tried so much that I bought it.

The first one I found was (I don't know why they assume people are using their cameras solely for nefarious purposes - some of us do have legitimate reasons and battery life concerns) 'Hidden Camera Spy Camera', Play link (Lite version link is in their description). This one worked ok, but took a while to configure and doesn't have the nicest interface. So I continued hunting and came across an even better app:

Secret Video Recorder Pro (Lite version listed at the side in the More by this Developer panel): This app is even more elegant. I tried the lite version and found that it worked well, so I then decided to buy the full version (apparently it's currently 50% off, but still pretty expensive - well worth it though). After going through the settings, I set it to use the rear camera and force HD recording. I then tapped the icon on the homescreen, it notified me and then just ran in the notification area. I then turned the screen off, whirled the phone around my room, turned the phone back on and tapped on the notification to stop it. I then checked the video and to my amazement, it had worked! (on an unrooted, still carrier locked, black One S running the latest official updated OS (Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1))

When I dragged the app into the fixed Sense homescreen dock, originally it displayed nothing, even after rebooting the phone. However, after Sense crashed and showed me a message saying Sense had crashed, it even worked from the lockscreen. If you have the 'Show icon' enabled in the SVR Preferences, you can then tell from the lockscreen that it is actually recording as you can see the icon in the notification bar.

I'm sorry for rambling on and on, but I think SVR just got into my top 5 apps of all time list as it is unbelievably flawless (apart from the price )

 

[el_smurfo]

hi,

Firstly, I'm glad that I'm not alone in this. As you said, it is extremely frustrating as not only is the bright screen distracting for others and makes you look foolish, the battery hardly lasts any time at all. I contacted HTC to see if they could add a brightness slider, their customer support rep said the technical team would get in touch with me - they haven't.

However, on the positive side, I have found two apps which don't allow you to record with lower brightness, they up the ante to your other suggestion, having the screen off. I'd always assumed that cameras on phones couldn't work with the screen off because I thought the phone went into proper sleep. Turns out that the camera can stay active. There are many poor apps on Play, but I found two which offer free (very limited functionality, but allows you to check that the app works with your phone) versions and rather expensive pro versions. I tried both the free versions and liked the second one I tried so much that I bought it.

The first one I found was (I don't know why they assume people are using their cameras solely for nefarious purposes - some of us do have legitimate reasons and battery life concerns) 'Hidden Camera Spy Camera', Play link (Lite version link is in their description). This one worked ok, but took a while to configure and doesn't have the nicest interface. So I continued hunting and came across an even better app:

Secret Video Recorder Pro (Lite version listed at the side in the More by this Developer panel): This app is even more elegant. I tried the lite version and found that it worked well, so I then decided to buy the full version (apparently it's currently 50% off, but still pretty expensive - well worth it though). After going through the settings, I set it to use the rear camera and force HD recording. I then tapped the icon on the homescreen, it notified me and then just ran in the notification area. I then turned the screen off, whirled the phone around my room, turned the phone back on and tapped on the notification to stop it. I then checked the video and to my amazement, it had worked! (on an unrooted, still carrier locked, black One S running the latest official updated OS (Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1))

When I dragged the app into the fixed Sense homescreen dock, originally it displayed nothing, even after rebooting the phone. However, after Sense crashed and showed me a message saying Sense had crashed, it even worked from the lockscreen. If you have the 'Show icon' enabled in the SVR Preferences, you can then tell from the lockscreen that it is actually recording as you can see the icon in the notification bar.

I'm sorry for rambling on and on, but I think SVR just got into my top 5 apps of all time list as it is unbelievably flawless (apart from the price )

Doesn't using SVR defeat your original purpose? It's not using the Sense camera, it's using it's own implementation? At that rate, any aftermarket camera should work and allow you to use default screen brightness.

 

[biggles1000]

Doesn't using SVR defeat your original purpose? It's not using the Sense camera, it's using it's own implementation? At that rate, any aftermarket camera should work and allow you to use default screen brightness.

Unfortunately, yes, it does. SVR is sort of a compromise for me at the moment as I can save battery life but I do miss out on all the Sense camera features. It would be great if HTC do actually listen to my request and implement it, given how simple a request it is, but they appear to be constantly so far ahead with all their development process that I doubt they'd include it in the the Android 4.1 release scheduled for this month

SVR is on one end of the scale of what I'd like to do with the camera (save the battery) and the Sense camera is on the other end (use the camera). Where I'd like HTC to place us is in the middle of those two, with the ability to use the Sense camera but in a power-efficient manner (such as being able to record a video but take stills at the same time, with the battery outlasting the meager storage space).