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HVGA-resolution (480 by 368) FaceTime iPhone 5S

I

Imory

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 2, 2013
833
360
Wonderland
This is what I found on the tech specs page of the 5S.

FaceTime
iPhone 5s to any FaceTime-enabled device over Wi-Fi or cellular
Initiate video calls over LTE, DC-HSDPA, HSPA+, 3G, and 2G
HVGA-resolution (480 by 368) calls over Wi-Fi

What does the bolded part actually mean? Won't the 5S support HD FaceTime calls over Wifi? That can't be right. Or am I missing something here? :confused:
 
I don't remember apple calling out face time HD calls at all in the keynote, they were only talking about stills. That's a huge blow if face time HD is no more, esp since they were promoting this on the iPads and iPhone 5 a year ago.
 
Imory said:
This is what I found on the tech specs page of the 5S.

FaceTime
iPhone 5s to any FaceTime-enabled device over Wi-Fi or cellular
Initiate video calls over LTE, DC-HSDPA, HSPA+, 3G, and 2G
HVGA-resolution (480 by 368) calls over Wi-Fi

What does the bolded part actually mean? Won't the 5S support HD FaceTime calls over Wifi? That can't be right. Or am I missing something here? :confused:
Click to expand...

ap4lifetn said:
I don't remember apple calling out face time HD calls at all in the keynote, they were only talking about stills. That's a huge blow if face time HD is no more, esp since they were promoting this on the iPads and iPhone 5 a year ago.
Click to expand...

Apple was sued by patent troll and had to change how Facetime calls work/connect. They now have to use relay servers to connect two Facetime calls which is inferior to how they were connecting calls when Facetime was announced. ArsTechnica wrote an article explaining all of this, I'll link to it below.

Article link: Click here.
 
Skika said:
Thats just camera specs, scroll a little lower...
Click to expand...

Wow I feel like an idiot...... But WOW. WHAT THE EFF !?! This might be a deal breaker for me. Granted, I don't use FT that much, but I do use it. Just the fact that they went backwards in quality from the iP5, In spite, I don't think I'll be purchasing

----------

This is crazy. I'm in shock
 
Question is, is this just for the 5C and 5S or does this go for all iOS devices??
 
scapegoat81 said:
Wow I feel like an idiot...... But WOW. WHAT THE EFF !?! This might be a deal breaker for me. Granted, I don't use FT that much, but I do use it. Just the fact that they went backwards in quality from the iP5, In spite, I don't think I'll be purchasing

----------

This is crazy. I'm in shock
Click to expand...

wait a minute, you mean to tell me that the facetime quality is actually worse in the 5s than the 5? 480? the front facing camera is 1.2 mp hd capable of 720 p right? If this is true wow, no wonder there was no mention of it. That's a pretty big deal imo considering how much better video calling quality has improved.
 
Truefan31 said:
wait a minute, you mean to tell me that the facetime quality is actually worse in the 5s than the 5? 480? the front facing camera is 1.2 mp hd capable of 720 p right? If this is true wow, no wonder there was no mention of it. That's a pretty big deal imo considering how much better video calling quality has improved.
Click to expand...

NO. Read my post above, I think it's the third. This applies to ANY device that connects to Facetime (Mac's, iPod Touches, iPhone's, iPad's, etc.). Apple was sued by a patent troll and had to change Facetime as to not violate the patent that was being charged against them. The result is Facetime not transmiting video in HD like it did before. This is NOT something that Apple wanted to do, they were forced to do it.
 
Last edited:
SR71 said:
NO. Read my post above, I think it's the third. This applies to ALL iOS devices. Apple was sued by a patent troll and had to change Facetime as to not violate the patent that was being charged against them. The result is Facetime not transmiting video in HD like it did before. This is NOT something that Apple wanted to do, they were forced to do it.
Click to expand...

What about Mac devices, have they suffered the same drawback?
 
SR71 said:
Apple was sued by patent troll and had to change how Facetime calls work/connect. They now have to use relay servers to connect two Facetime calls which is inferior to how they were connecting calls when Facetime was announced. ArsTechnica wrote an article explaining all of this, I'll link to it below.

Article link: Click here.
Click to expand...

That explains the iPhone 5 being discontinued. Wow

So if the front cam is still capable of taking 1.2 MP/ 720p quality pics, I guess it's an issue of HOW FT transmits everything thru data or software ? Hopefully they'll fix this later. A statement from Apple regarding this would be nice being that its a feature to where people heavily depend on this that are distant from relatives.
 
Last edited:
Out of interest, do Android phones have an equivelent and if so are they restricted in the same way?

I have had an iphone forever so know nothing about any other phones.
 
PrinceDraven said:
Out of interest, do Android phones have an equivelent and if so are they restricted in the same way?

I have had an iphone forever so know nothing about any other phones.
Click to expand...

The only equivalent that you could say Android has is Google Hangouts, but it's not built-in like Facetime is so it's not really in the same league. Ignoring that difference, I've used Hangouts before and the quality is not that great, but I haven't used it for over a year so things could've changed.

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Skika said:
So basically FaceTime HD is non existent? This seems like big news.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. And this is why patent trolls and the way the US handles patents sucks.
 
SR71 said:
The only equivalent that you could say Android has is Google Hangouts, but it's not built-in like Facetime is so it's not really in the same league. Ignoring that difference, I've used Hangouts before and the quality is not that great, but I haven't used it for over a year so things could've changed.

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Pretty much. And this is why patent trolls and the way the US handles patents sucks.
Click to expand...

Apple website still states FaceTime HD 720p for iPod/ipad/mac models. Surely users could demand a refund or sue for misleading info? Seems stupid of Apple.
 
PrinceDraven said:
Out of interest, do Android phones have an equivelent and if so are they restricted in the same way?

I have had an iphone forever so know nothing about any other phones.
Click to expand...

Google is currently implementing VP8 encoding for Hangouts to upgrade their video chat to HD. It will allow Hangouts to handle up to 10 way video calls in HD.
 
scapegoat81 said:
That explains the iPhone 5 being discontinued. Wow

So if the front cam is still capable of taking 1.2 MP/ 720p quality pics, I guess it's an issue of HOW FT transmits everything thru data or software ? Hopefully they'll fix this later. A statement from Apple regarding this would be nice being that its a feature to where people heavily depend on this that are distant from relatives.
Click to expand...

Based on your post it doesn't sound like you read the article. You should definitely read it as it explains it all. In the past Facetime worked by connecting two iOS devices through a secure peer-to-peer connection (or something along those lines, I read the article a few weeks ago and haven't reread it since). Apple was sued for violating a patent that was held by a patent troll claiming that they were using the technologies that the patent covers without permission. Since they lost in court, they had to change the way Facetime works by routing Facetime calls through a relay server. Instead of creating a direct connection like it did before, Facetime calls now go through multiple relay servers before connecting to the other person who you're trying to Facetime. Since calls now must pass through these servers calls take longer to connect, video quality is degraded significantly since it has to pass through multiple servers instead of just one direct connection like it did before, and the failure rate of calls is increased.

Apple was given two options: either shutdown Facetime or find a workaround so that they don't violate the patent. It's a lose-lose situation for Apple. All they can do now is wait for the patent to expire so that they go back to their original way of connecting Facetime calls.

All of this is detailed in the article I linked to in my previous post.

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Dangerous Theory said:
Apple website still states FaceTime HD 720p for iPod/ipad/mac models. Surely users could demand a refund or sue for misleading info? Seems stupid of Apple.
Click to expand...

It'd be stupid to sue Apple over this. As I already said, this is not something that they wanted to do. Either they did this or shut down Facetime.

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lazard said:
Google is currently implementing VP8 encoding for Hangouts to upgrade their video chat to HD. It will allow Hangouts to handle up to 10 way video calls in HD.
Click to expand...

Ah, I see. I thought I remembered seeing an article about this. Thanks for the confirmation.
 
SR71 said:
Based on your post it doesn't sound like you read the article. You should definitely read it as it explains it all.
Click to expand...

Yea I def posted that b4 finishing the article lol. So to confirm(hardware wise), the camera itself IS CAPABLE of 720p HD FT calls. Just not now being there's patent issues, correct ?
 
scapegoat81 said:
SR71 said:
Based on your post it doesn't sound like you read the article. You should definitely read it as it explains it all.

Yea I def posted that b4 finishing the article. So to confirm(hardware wise), the camera itself IS CAPABLE of 720p HD FT calls. Just not now being there's patent issues, correct ?
Click to expand...


Your post still doesnt makes sense as how you relate discontinuing of the i5 to this. Which was all your post was before you edited it.
Click to expand...
 
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