G1/Android Video Recording… Blah

We were all disappointed that the T-Mobile G1 didn’t come prepackaged with the ability to record video. Android enthusiasts like myself chalked up the missing feature to the platforms Open Source nature – why develop a solution that you’ll want 3rd party developers to trump at some point anyways?

It appears my approach may have been optimistically naive as Sadko Mobile has tried its darndest to create a video recording solution for the G1, even using the cupcake branch to develop.

Ok, folks, sorry for prolonged silence. There was a good reason for it. After the T-Mobile G1 phone was released, we at Sadko Mobile worked hard to create the first video recording software that you could use, based on our earlier release CamLine. During this time, we got hundreds of letters asking about the release date and requesting a beta version of Sadko CamLine that would run on G1. We were absolutely excited to see this support that you, our customers, gave to our upcoming product, and focused our efforts to complete the first Android video recorder that you could use. So, now we can finally give you some definite information.

The good news is: today we successfully used T-Mobile G1 phone to record video. This is the first video ever recorded on Android phone.

You tho thilly, Thadko!

But on a serious note, their epic failure is both concerning and explained…

The problem is with the video codec that takes the captured frames and writes them to disk. Unfortunately, this part of the OS is locked down and only the phone manufacturer can alter the code to allow this capability. So unless a G1 firmware update comes down the river or a new video capable Android device comes out, it looks like video recording with Android will be MIA.

It would be really disappointing if this technology was somehow released on the G2 and they neglected to udpate the G1 firmware capabilities. On a positive note, Sadko will be working on THEIR side of the application, improving evertying they can until integrating the app with Android is realistic.

Let’s also keep in mind that this is just one developer speaking out. Are there other developers out there working on Android video recording/editing? Could other developers somehow find a solution/patch to the problem that doesn’t require a firmware upgrade?

We won’t hold our breath but this sounds like something the Android team definitely need to work on if they expect 2009 to be the year of the Android.