Workaround: Jolla rotation and video format problems

Jolla phone - video formats

With Beta releases, it's sometimes just needed to do something yourself. This time, unless a fix is released, it has to do with the video recordings using Jolla's camera. There's a minor bug in rotation, turning some videos upside down (and some photos too), and there's another problem related to Jolla's less common video format h.263. Oh... and the recorded audio quality isn't great either (I hope the problem is just in the software)

Workaround for the rotation bug

When recording a landscape video, turn your Jolla anticlockwise (to the left).
This way the rotation angle will be 0. If you turn it right, the video will show upside down in your computer.

Workaround for the less supported video format

When sending videos to services like Youtube or Vimeo, the videos are automatically converted, and the file size & quality is reduced. No problem in here, if you're satisfied to the quality and the service.

Jolla records videos in format mp4v/h.263 (MPEG-4 Visual Simple@L6 to be exact). Not all players, and especially not the common web players are able to show this (you'll only hear the sound).

If you don't want to use 3rd party services, here's what you can do for the empty video frames and whining relatives: Convert your video to a better supported format. Here's a HowTo for mp4/avc1 format, which is well supported:

For converting a video, I used VLC Player. HowTo:

1. Save your video to any folder in your computer. You can transfer it via USB cable, Bluetooth or Email (attachment). Moving it via 3rd parties is not recommended, as it's usually converted in their desired way when uploaded, reducing the quality
2. Open VLC Player (link is to the official download site)
   Select from menu: Media -> Convert/Save...
3. Add... the video / videos you want to convert to the File selection list
4. Click Convert / Save
5. Browse Destination File. Select the Folder and write the name for the converted video, ending to text .mp4 (note the dot)
6. Select any profile from the dropdown menu, as it need to be edited anyway. I used Video - MPEG4 + AAC (mp4)
7. Edit your selected profile (click the tools icon)
8. For encapsulation, choose mp4
9. Video codec selections (this is what we convert)
   The selection boxes: Select "Video", unselect "Keep original video track"
   Codec: choose H.264
   Bitrate: 10 000 Kbit for max quality, 300-600 for web viewing purposes. This selection is the most important considering the file size and quality, and the processing time too. You could start with smaller values, and make another setting later if you're not satisfied with the outcome.
   Frame rate: 30fps for max quality, less to get smaller file size. At least 12 fps recommended.
   Scale 1 / Width 0 / Height 0 for original size, or change only one of the values for desired size.
10. For audio codec, select "Audio" and also select "Keep original audio track"
11. Save the settings (next time they will be ready in your selected profile)
12. Leave the checkboxes unselected, and start. Convertion takes a while, you can follow the advance from the bar at bottom. After it's ready, the player shows its stopped (no notifications)

You can find your converted video in the Folder you selected earlier. The original video is left unchanged. The format of the new video is mp4/avc1 (MPEG-4, Advanced Video Codec High@L4.0) which is recognized by most web players and html5. Html5 supported browsers are at least Mozilla Firefox (from v21), Internet Explorer, Google Chrome & Safari. Opera does not support mp4 - to gain visibility there, convert video also to ogg format.

Sharing videos in mp4/avc1 format is currently the best way considering most viewers, as both the web and most players in several devices/computers support viewing this format. As an example, here's a 7 second teddy clip not using iframe or Java/Flash. The format is simply supported by html5 programming language. You shouldn't see this with Opera browser, but with most others, yes:

HowTo: Install and setup Go Launcher EX on Jolla

GO Launcher EX: Changing the Home Screen with a swipe gesture

Included HowTo: Photo tweet with Jolla

1. warning: There are too many images of my sofa. And too many images.

2.: This is not an Android advertisement - the launcher is just an app. And it looks better than an Android UI

(It's actually pretty - but just think about Sailfish after years of development)

Some important basics

• Go Launcher EX is a FULL launcher for Android apps. It actually looks like an Operating System UI (User Interface) in your eyes. But looking at it from the Sailfish point of view, it's just one Android app running on our nice Alien Dalvik surface. 
• Go launcher EX can run on the baackground like any other Android App - in an active cover.
• In use, Go Launcer EX feels like an OS, but it can handle only the Android related content installed to your phone. For example it can't use Sailfish camera app - it needs an Android one.
• App uses alien dalvik pointed folders for saving stuff like images and music. It has access to some Sailfish folders too (the ones shared by Sailfish). Not all alien dalvik folders are accessible via Sailfish or computer (Beta?)
• GO Launcer EX is a big app, so it uses some memory. During my tests it crashed the Aalien Dalvik several times, closing all my running Android apps - but I'm quite a heavy tester. Anyway, recommended to use simple preferences and minimum amount of screens / widgets etc...But in my overall experience, I'm about to hold on to this as long as Sailfish is in Beta stage.

pre-requisites:

1. Android support installed
2. Aptoide store installed
(or any other store with GO stuff available)

Both are instructed in a previous post HowTo: Flash Player for Jolla 

Installing:

Open store, search for "Go Launcher EX". Install

 Go back, search for "GO " <-- note the space, it's a nice filter for this:

Install some widgets you might like.

(Not all widgets work, but those can be removed later.)

Opening:

Close the store, go down to your Sailfish launcher screen. Tap the App "Go Launcher EX"

Setting up

First, get rid of stuff that doesn't work. Icons like Go Store and Market leads you to Google Play, so if you haven't hacked one to your phone, these are all trash. Remove them from both the home screen and the footer menu by HOLD & DRAG (garbage is at top, and top turns out red when it's time to drop). Here, another working App (TuneIn radio) is beeing dragged:

Setting up your own home screen

In GO Launcer EX the amount of home screens is not much restricted, but I recommend to use only 1-3 for memory reasons. HOLD on your empty home screen to open the edit view showing the grid (grid is customizable, more about that later):

Desired home screen can be selected with swipe gesture. Icons and widgets are selected from the footer menu. They fly to the selected home screen when tapped. Here, an 4x2 sized clock widget (downloaded from Aptoide earlier) is flying to the first free grid space:

Clock is placed and another widget, Go Power Master selected:

Second widget placed, time to move on:

I didn't want any icons here, so I just pressed the virtual back button to return to my home screen. Next, I selected my wanted footer menu icons (HOLD on icon to move/throw away, HOLD on empty space between icons to add a new one).

The footer menu is scrollable with swipes to left and right like the home screens, and the footer can hold a nice amount of icons (customizable)

 Above, I'm scrolling to another home screen on right. In there I have set a couple of weather widgets and one great GO App (included to the Launceh) called Custom Gesture (returning to that later):

 Ok, two home screens are ready. Time to get rid of the rest, the next view opens via "Menu" (3 dots down right) --> "Edit":

Home screens are moved to garbage just like any widget or icon. HOLD+DRAG&DROP

Ok, back home - time to study some gestures (right, this is Jolla). I've tapped "+" and saved this gesture earlier, so now I just draw it again. It should...

Open my Twitter App. Yes! Clicking the camera icon won't open your Sailfish Camera, but I happen to have another: HDR Camera for Android (Zoom camera is another great camera app). Taking a boring photo of my sofa surface:

Some cropping, maybe adding a nice filter from below?

 Nope. Original is nice. After Save I'm back in Twitter, and there seems to be some more editing options.

Wow, another set of filters in Twitter:

Cropping more, just to test it:

Time to send. Adding text:

And there it flies in bits, from my Jolla, via WLAN to my router, via Cables and satellites all the way to the Twitter servers in US. That didn't take long:

Tweeting from Jolla, with camera pic.twitter.com/JGeY8Dv0xe
— Simo Ruoho (@SimoRuoho) December 29, 2013

Oh sorry folks... I got a way out of line. Wasn't I suppose to present GO Launcher EX, not sending my sofa bits to US... Above, pressing the Android App menu opens a list of active Android Apps and leaves Twitter to run on the backgound. Back to the GO Launcher, and next, entering Settings:

 Oops, NONE of these works. Unfortunately, Go Launcher EX has not direct access to Jolla Hardware. So let's move to the Preferences. There are plenty, so I'm selecting a view most Unlike:

Multi finger gestrures... No change to get those, at least not yet (requires paid version). Well, check the rest of the preferences yourself, these images were just about as boring as my sofa. Let's hit the Go Launcher Gallery (included App):

Interesting... There are my Sailfish photos too. And in the camera folder, the 187 seems like amount of all my photos taken with both Sailfish Camera App and HDR Camera App. Let's see what we can do with these images...

Additional to a nice dia show possibilty (Sorry folks, not showing all those girls to you), there seems to be a share option like in Sailfish. And yes, I've tested it to work with all the apps above - if you have other social media apps, I suppose they work as well. Returning home now and tapping my weather widget:

This one has a nice backround image. The clouds are moving (what? You don't see?) City can be changed with swipe (if you have selected more then one, see menu on top corner). This looks like something I'd like to see on Sailfish. The unlike OverSideSwipe does the trick again: The last active Android screen is snapshotted as an active cover:

But wait... Those cloud are still moving (What? You still can't see?) Could this app be up to date in a cover? Can't tell, as I don't have time to wait for the forecast to change. (EDIT: No, it isn't). Now visiting back at that app, changing the city and adding some more sailfish covers to not to look like an Android fan:

Screen Shot is a must have - from Jolla Store! CSD Tool is an app ment for Developer testing (included, but hidden). My terminal is showing some action too. Now this screen is more unlike :)

Additional Notes:

• Free GO widgets include annoying adds. I don't advertise on this blog so far, so you didn't see any :)
• I recommend installing some Android Camera for full benefit of the GO Launcher EX Gallery. However, you don't need the whole launcher for sending photos to Twitter - for that, just the camera app is enough.
• All Android Apps using a clock seems to show UTC time. I've tweaked my alien to the correct time zone, and both my navi + these widgets showed correct time when opened - but the time in widgets isn't updated until opened again. Beta - hopefully not worse.
• Facebook is not fully functional with the camera. Photos shared must be moved via gallery.
• Skype can use your camera, and it doesn't need either camera app. Even the image rotation is right with the front camera there - unlike in many other apps. Beta again.
• Sorry for the sofa images... Maybe I'll ask my wife to pose next time. Beta photographer...
• Important: Aptoide is not officially supported... own responsibilty... etc... you know.

Unlike New Year!

Glad to be back :)