Some Requested App Features

I am beginning a YouTube channel and when I heard of the iXpand product I thought this would be perfect to use since it advertised being able to record photos and videos directly to the drive. My iPhone 6s Plus can take up to 4k video so it stands to reason that it would work beautifully as a camera at least until the channel is successful and warrants a Sony FS5 (joking). 

In anycase some possible updates for the App would be :

First, you should have the ability to change the resolution that you are actively taking photo or video in from within the app. So, having the option to change between 720p @ 30fps, 1080p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, and 4k @ 30fps which would be the options with which my iPhone 6s Plus can take video in. The app should automatically detect what options your phone has and then display those options for changing without leaving the app.

Second, I have a bluetooth remote that I had purchased that allows me to set my phone on a tripod and simply press it to start and stop recording or to take a photo, which is great, but it does not work with the app. The app requires you to push the red button on the touch screen instead of being able to also use the volume up button on the device itself. Most generic remotes you buy are configured to activate the volume up button because the native camera app on the iPhones let you use the volume up button to snap a photo or start/stop a recording.

Lastly, and most importantly really, is the fact that when you record through the app it doesn’t actually record directly to the drive. It instead still records to the phone and then once done recording it will then transfer the video to the device and free up the space on the phone to then allow you to record again. 

If this could be improved to truly allow direct to drive recording without using the device as a pseudo-cache like memory module then you can open up your customer base to aspiring photographers and moviemakers because of the ability to do continuous recording even on a small space phone like the iPhone 16GB models.

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@argos wrote:

I am beginning a YouTube channel and when I heard of the iXpand product I thought this would be perfect to use since it advertised being able to record photos and videos directly to the drive. My iPhone 6s Plus can take up to 4k video so it stands to reason that it would work beautifully as a camera at least until the channel is successful and warrants a Sony FS5 (joking). 

 

In anycase some possible updates for the App would be :

 

@First, you should have the ability to change the resolution that you are actively taking photo or video in from within the app. So, having the option to change between 720p @ 30fps, 1080p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, and 4k @ 30fps which would be the options with which my iPhone 6s Plus can take video in. The app should automatically detect what options your phone has and then display those options for changing without leaving the app.

 

In the current implementation only 1080 video capture is supported via the iXpand drive app. I also would like to see 4k supported. You may want to open a support case and make the request officially with support. they can pass your comments along to the engineering team. 

 

Second, I have a bluetooth remote that I had purchased that allows me to set my phone on a tripod and simply press it to start and stop recording or to take a photo, which is great, but it does not work with the app. The app requires you to push the red button on the touch screen instead of being able to also use the volume up button on the device itself. Most generic remotes you buy are configured to activate the volume up button because the native camera app on the iPhones let you use the volume up button to snap a photo or start/stop a recording.

 

This would be a nice feature however it would likely be low priority due to the small number of users that would actually use the feature. Also integrating with third party hardware can be problematic. I doubt you would see this implemented. 

 

Lastly, and most importantly really, is the fact that when you record through the app it doesn’t actually record directly to the drive. It instead still records to the phone and then once done recording it will then transfer the video to the device and free up the space on the phone to then allow you to record again. 

 

This is actually an iOS limitation. iOS allows pictures to be captured directly to storage devices over the lighting port but video must be captured to internal memory then transferred to the external storage. Apple would have to make this change in iOS

 

If this could be improved to truly allow direct to drive recording without using the device as a pseudo-cache like memory module then you can open up your customer base to aspiring photographers and moviemakers because of the ability to do continuous recording even on a small space phone like the iPhone 16GB models.

In the current implementation only 1080 video capture is supported via the iXpand drive app. I also would like to see 4k supported. You may want to open a support case and make the request officially with support. they can pass your comments along to the engineering team. 

I made this suggestion to the online support live chat and the person on the line told me he would forward it all to the correct people. 

This would be a nice feature however it would likely be low priority due to the small number of users that would actually use the feature. Also integrating with third party hardware can be problematic. I doubt you would see this implemented. 

Really? A small number of users would want to use a physical button to take a picture rather than pressing the one on the screen? To me it seems small stuff to actually code in that the vulume up button also snaps a photo and stats and stops a video. It’s following the same feature set of the native camera software. Also, no need to integrate with 3rd party hardware or do anything like that in the app. The makers of the remotes do all the work for you. All you need to do is allow the volume up button to snap a photo or start/stop recording. I already tested the app being open and using the remote and what shows up is the volume going up window. The app just needs to take volume up input as wanting to snap a photo or start/stop a video recording session.  

This is actually an iOS limitation. iOS allows pictures to be captured directly to storage devices over the lighting port but video must be captured to internal memory then transferred to the external storage. Apple would have to make this change in iOS. 

Ah ok. Good to know so then IPhone is out of the question for video capture. Such a shame but of course Apple would do that to force people to buy their 128GB models. 

…be nice to record from Filmic Pro too despite thr ios restriction on direct recording. As it is now on my 16Gb device I must transfer/delete every take…