I wasn’t going to let my technology consulting friend Jim Opfer have all the fun testing MotionDSP’s FixMyMovie’s video enhancement software with his RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120, as I wrote in the previous article. So I uploaded my own 8120 videos to see whether there was any or much of a difference.
I uploaded three brief videos. When a video is uploaded, FixMyMovie enhances the first ten seconds and sends an e-mail informing you. When you click on the link in the e-mail, you may watch those ten seconds and then click to instruct FixMyMovie to finish enhancing the entire video.
Also, the FixMyMovie Web site says it takes a few minutes to process the first ten seconds and, while it’s doing that, you may view still images of the original and enhanced video as a preview of what’s to come.
Three embedded videos
The first video I uploaded is at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. and across from the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pond in front of it (see below). There’s a fair amount of movement as I walk to the sculpture of Lincoln, pan 180 degrees or so around the Memorial and walk to get a shot of the Monument.
The second video was around a man-made pond not far from the Lincoln Memorial and near the Washington Monument (see below).
The third video is at the entrance to Sugarloaf Mountain in Dickerson, Maryland, where there is a small pond. It was in the fall and the leaves were very colorful. But the Pearl’s video recording capability is so poor that you really can’t get an idea of how nice it was (see below).
Yes, I know how to take good videos. I make sure the lighting is sufficient. I stand with both hands on the camera to keep it as steady as possible, and when I pan I generally swivel from the waist without moving my legs. So there!
The Pearl 8120’s two megapixel camera for still photos isn’t bad. If you want to check out photos of the Washington Monument area (see below) and Sugarloaf Mountain (as well as San Francisco) look at my 8120 moblog, one of a couple of dozen for individual camera phones I test.
(The two megapixel image above would look so much better if it were cropped a bit and lightened slightly with more contrast! But I don’t do that on my moblogs because I want people to see the true quality, or lack thereof, of each phone’s camera with software enhancements.)
FixMyMovie makes a difference
As I wrote in the previously entry, to view both the original and enhanced videos playing simultaneously, click the second (“compare”) icon to the right of the audio icon of those embedded videos above. That’s really the best way to determine the differences.
There is a definite difference between the original videos and the videos enhanced by software on FixMyMovie’s server. The enhanced videos typically are lighter and, sometimes, a bit sharper. There isn’t much additional sharpening, but you can see it if you watch closely.
Jim Opfer alerted me to several FixMyMovie features, including the ability to view still photos taken from each video and moving an “enhanced block” in the photo to see the image enhancement within that square block (see below). This feature may be viewed as a moderately sized image or full-screen.
Split screen comparison
Another feature enables you to move a vertical line from left to right across a still photo to see the original image on the left side and the enhanced image on the right (see below). As with the “enhanced block,” this split screen feature may be viewed as a moderately sized image or in full screen mode.
The enhanced image of the Washington Monument and the pond is definitely lighter, although there’s not much improvement in the sharpness.
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