.3gp audio format - Android / Kindle Fire recording quality awful

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Hi guys,

Can anyone tell me if there will be support for recording to a better quality audio file type than the current 3gp allowed for Android?

Or - does anyone know a way round this so my app can record to a better quality?

I’m still unable to release my app for Kindle Fire HD because the quality is appalling on any recordings made by the user because Corona records to 3gp format.

Please please please - guys - can you allow recording to WAV or another high quality format? I know you guys have a million and one things to do but this has been on the to do list for over 6 months and I keep telling my customers its in the pipeline too and they’re started to get annoyed with me now.

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/29230-kindle-fire-hd-audio-recordings-muffled/

http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/28978-can-i-record-audio-using-new-kindle-fire-hd/

If it’s never going to happen then let me know. If it is, a time frame would be great.

Thanks as usual for your excellent work.

Ian

#2

The issue isn’t so much the recording format (3GP can record arbitrary bitrates) but rather the fact that Android makes it hard to determine the bitrates supported on different devices and as a result we end up recording at a lowest common denominator rate.

We plan to improve this in the future but it’s more work than it might seem and I don’t have a schedule for it yet.

#3

Thanks for the reply Perry - much appreciated.

It would be a massive life-saver for me and several others I’ve spoken to on here if this could be looked at as soon as possible. I appreciate it’s not as important to many developers as recording audio is a fairly uncommon necessity for most but for me it’s essential and means Kindle simply can’t be supported at present. Even Amazon wrote to me asking why I hadn’t submitted my app for Kindle when it was available for every other platform.

I’ve now spent over 6 months putting off repeated queries from customers with an “It’s coming soon” line because I was told that it was in the pipeline every time I asked on here so I’m starting to feel a bit daft with no idea of when that “soon” is. If you have any idea whether it’s likely to be several weeks / months / years that would be brilliant and would at least help me be realistic with my own customers.

Thanks,

Ian

#4

The issue isn’t so much the recording format (3GP can record arbitrary bitrates) but rather the fact that Android makes it hard to determine the bitrates supported on different devices and as a result we end up recording at a lowest common denominator rate.

We plan to improve this in the future but it’s more work than it might seem and I don’t have a schedule for it yet.

#5

Thanks for the reply Perry - much appreciated.

It would be a massive life-saver for me and several others I’ve spoken to on here if this could be looked at as soon as possible. I appreciate it’s not as important to many developers as recording audio is a fairly uncommon necessity for most but for me it’s essential and means Kindle simply can’t be supported at present. Even Amazon wrote to me asking why I hadn’t submitted my app for Kindle when it was available for every other platform.

I’ve now spent over 6 months putting off repeated queries from customers with an “It’s coming soon” line because I was told that it was in the pipeline every time I asked on here so I’m starting to feel a bit daft with no idea of when that “soon” is. If you have any idea whether it’s likely to be several weeks / months / years that would be brilliant and would at least help me be realistic with my own customers.

Thanks,

Ian

#6

Hi all,

Just wondering if this issue is going to be addressed at any point? I still can’t release one of my apps for Kindle Fire because the recording quality is so poor.

Thanks,

Ian

#7

3gp mostly uses AAC audio compression which is currently the best audio codec available, so the quality should be great; it’s the codec settings that need to be fixed, probably bitrate is too low. Shouldn’t bitrate setting be exposed to the user?

#8

If someone from Corona could comment on this it would be great. Thanks.

I first raised this issue over a year ago and voted for it as a problem I’d like to see addressed. The suggestion at the time was that although it wasn’t a priority it would be looked into and a solution of possibly allowing recording to WAV format on Android devices would be looked at. If I’d known it was going to take this long we could have looked into alternatives but instead we’ve invested more and more time and effort into Corona (which for the most part is excellent).

For us, being able to offer good quality audio recording on Android devices (including Kindle, which we currently can’t even release this app for because the quality is so poor) is essential and yet I’m still getting e-mails from customers saying the quality on some Android devices is abysmal. I have to keep taking the app off sale for those devices. It is “okay” on some of our test devices but I really do mean only just okay - certainly nothing like the excellent quality on iOS.

Please, please, please Corona can this be looked at? I’m really struggling with customers who quite rightly point out that the built in sound recorder on their device records crystal clear audio so why can’t our app. I know this is a fair bit of work but if you don’t intend to ever look into it then I’d appreciate just knowing so I can look into alternatives to Corona.

Thanks,

Ian

#9

This has now been sorted - thanks Corona. We can now record to WAV format on Android devices.

Works beautifully on Kindle Fire HD / HDX which is where I was having the worst problems before.

However, on Google Nexus I get a nasty high pitched tone behind the recordings. This is only with Corona apps (other apps record fine) so I presume it’s not an issue with my device. If anyone else has a Google Nexus and can test this let me know how you get on.

Also works on the Nabi 2 which is great.

Thanks,

Ian

#10

Hi @keystagefun,

I’ll ask the engineers to investigate. Thanks for reporting it.

Brent

#11

Hi all,

Just wondering if this issue is going to be addressed at any point? I still can’t release one of my apps for Kindle Fire because the recording quality is so poor.

Thanks,

Ian

#12

3gp mostly uses AAC audio compression which is currently the best audio codec available, so the quality should be great; it’s the codec settings that need to be fixed, probably bitrate is too low. Shouldn’t bitrate setting be exposed to the user?

#13

If someone from Corona could comment on this it would be great. Thanks.

I first raised this issue over a year ago and voted for it as a problem I’d like to see addressed. The suggestion at the time was that although it wasn’t a priority it would be looked into and a solution of possibly allowing recording to WAV format on Android devices would be looked at. If I’d known it was going to take this long we could have looked into alternatives but instead we’ve invested more and more time and effort into Corona (which for the most part is excellent).

For us, being able to offer good quality audio recording on Android devices (including Kindle, which we currently can’t even release this app for because the quality is so poor) is essential and yet I’m still getting e-mails from customers saying the quality on some Android devices is abysmal. I have to keep taking the app off sale for those devices. It is “okay” on some of our test devices but I really do mean only just okay - certainly nothing like the excellent quality on iOS.

Please, please, please Corona can this be looked at? I’m really struggling with customers who quite rightly point out that the built in sound recorder on their device records crystal clear audio so why can’t our app. I know this is a fair bit of work but if you don’t intend to ever look into it then I’d appreciate just knowing so I can look into alternatives to Corona.

Thanks,

Ian

#14

This has now been sorted - thanks Corona. We can now record to WAV format on Android devices.

Works beautifully on Kindle Fire HD / HDX which is where I was having the worst problems before.

However, on Google Nexus I get a nasty high pitched tone behind the recordings. This is only with Corona apps (other apps record fine) so I presume it’s not an issue with my device. If anyone else has a Google Nexus and can test this let me know how you get on.

Also works on the Nabi 2 which is great.

Thanks,

Ian

#15

Hi @keystagefun,

I’ll ask the engineers to investigate. Thanks for reporting it.

Brent