Surface Volume Curve - Microsoft Surface

So I've noticed that on my Surface RT, the volume response curve is steep from 0 to about 30 and then quite flat from 30 to 100 (it barely changes at all). I also have the same issue as others with the overall volume being too low (have tried the various fixes with negligible results), but it seems like most of the volume slider is a waste. Anyone else notice this? I've been poking around for a registry hack similar to the luminosity fix, but no luck so far. Will update if I find anything.
Edit: It occurs to me that if I could run ProcMon I could monitor what's being read from the registry. Anyone with a Pro interested in trying that out?

Related

SDA - few questions - camera lag, video size, auto profile?

First post here, hopefully somebody can shed some light. I've searched to no real avail for answers to these questions.
First, and most importantly, has anybody found a way to speed up the camera when taking 1280x1024 pics? The lag seems to be on the order of 1+ seconds, which is intolerable when you have a 2 year old. I found registry entries for the camera key delay, and set them all to like 100 or something (one of them was set to something huge like 100000 or something), but haven't seen any improvement to shutter speed. I may have even tried setting the delays to 0, but I don't remember anymore. NOthing seemed to help though...
Second, I see folks with the MDA have a 320x240 option for taking videos, however us SDA users only get 176x144 or smaller. I understand there are reg entries for video size, so I tried creating a mp4Large entry (which I did NOT have already, like the MDA users), but or course it didn't give me any new options in the video setup menu. So, anybody know if this is even possible? I have to assume it is. WOuld it be safe to import the mp4large entry from somebody's MDA, or would that even help? any insight here appreciated.
Third, has anybody found a way to make the phone automatically go into silent or meeting profiles when you plug it in? I hate it when some goofball calls the wrond number at 3 in the morning and my phone is blaring, and I can never seem to get into the habit of manually putting it on silent when I go to bed.
WHich reminds me, for those who haven't yet discovered this, you can toggle from normal to silent modes by holding down the # key. Most of you probably konw that already, but i jsut stumbled across it this weekend, so I thought I'd sahre with those who don't know.
I suppose I'll also ask folks what theiry typical battery life is too while I'm posting. Mine seems a bit short. With bluetooth on (but usually idle), WiFi off, and normal phone (1 hour max) and browsing (light browsing, wap pages mostly) usage my battery goes from 100% to <50% by the end of the day. THis seems a bit weak to me. Basically, there's no way I'd ever ea able to skip charging my phone overnight, for even one night. Not good when camping, etc. Is this pretty much on par with eveybody else's?
Greatly appreciate any comment, opinions, and help with any of these.
Thanks!
Jeff

backlight adjustment

Hello all. Fantastic forum and many thanks to all those contributing.
I received my O2 Xda Orbit 2 last week and I'm very pleased with the unit.
I only have two small issues with the device.
The first is more with WM6. As a left hander I would really appreciate being able to place the scroll bars in applications such as IE on the left hand side of the screen so that I don't obscure the screen almost every time I'm reading something. I don't suppose there's much hope of this happening though.
Secondly, I've read with interest the issue regarding the backlight on the keylock screen and I will try the registry tweak to get the backlight to come on at full brightness so that you can see the lock-code keys in daylight.
However, is there any way of making a short cut to adjust the backlight brightness from the 'today' screen? I'm finding that I adjust the backlight brightness for my office/indoors and then when I go outside and use the unit I can barely see the screen and it takes several attempts to get in to the unit and vary the backlight brightness.
It would be lovely if you could say press the central button and then turn the jog wheel clockwise/anti-clockwise to brighten/dim the backlight. Does any bright spark know if there's a means to do this or at least make backlight adjustments simpler?
Same goes for backlight on the Co-pilot software. As it's usually plugged into the car's fag-lighter socket the backlight's on full. Then when you drive at night it blinds you. It would be lovely to be able to press the central button and twirl the wheen to adjust screen brightness. All it actually does is to zoom in/out of the Co-pilot map.
Otherwise, a fantastic unit.
Hello,
First: If you find some software to handle the device easier for left handers please tell me. I'm always interested.
Second: If you install the GPRS Monitor Software (was delivered with my device) it places an slider for backlight on your Today Screen. So you can easily vary the intensity of your backlight.
Maybe not the best solution, but better than nothing.
Hope that helps...
P.S. Do you know a trick to disable the screen, so I can only hear the commandos? (Would be helpful when I go for a walk and get lost in the wood. In most cases I don't have some breadcrumb to mark my way home...)
Hi,
Yes, backlight control isn't all it could be on the orbit2/touch cruise (or any other windows mobile device).
For Copilot if you go into settings / map styles and select "automatic" under day night mode then it does behave better at night.
As for easy control over the backlight - after searching for a few days I noticed that the HTC Home screen that I'd already installed, had a backlight control app on the third tab. Each time you press on the app with your finger it changes the backlight intensity (in 4 stages)
Finally - The bluetooth light was really irritating me whilst the phone was in the car cradle at night. The following link discusses a means of disabling the light.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=365892&highlight=bluetooth+light
Backlight adjustment
Thank you for your replies.
I've been experimenting with the HTC home plugin.
I downloaded the version for WM6 that supposedly correctly the backlight adjustment this morning but have discovered that the backlight function does not work on my Orbit 2. Of course, I may be doing something stupid.
May I ask which version you're using and which works with the Orbit 2?
I've also installed the GPRS monitor software but I can't see anywhere where it displays a backlight slider on the today screen.
Many thanks again.
Lom
Backlight and gprs monitor
Sincere apologies,
I just discovered the backlight slider on the notification icon of the gprs monitor. Not the best solution but something.
Many thanks for the suggestion.
Hi, I wonder if there is a possibility to make the TC adjust backlight automatically? I know there's no light sensor, but can't the front-cam be used as one?
What do you think?
Or am I overseeing an already existing tool for this?
Many thx,
Eric
Same idea provided in "development and hacking" but no response!!
I think it would be a great thing
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to interest many people, both of my postings have so far been ignored... It's a pity, because I think it could be done by some pros inhere.

Few Issues - Help!

Hey all.
Got my Touch Cruise recently and so far my experiences are mixed. Here's some of the problems I've had - maybe someone can suggest fixes?
1. Battery life is awful. With Wi-fi enabled I get at most 2 days out of a full charge.
2. Screen sensitivity is poor. Even with the stylus a lot of times I have to press the same key twice or the accuracy isn't 100% - very annoying when sending text messages.
3. When on a call the screen goes into standby meaning you can't easily turn on the speakerphone, mute/hold it etc. I've tried turning off all the power saving options I can find but it still happens.
4. Ring volume levels aren't great. Annoying when I'm out and about or in the car with the stereo turned up.
5. Backlight is very poor outside, or even in the car - basically anywhere where it's exposed to sunlight.
I've changed the UI to the SPB one as I was recommended to do on another forum, and it helps a bit, but to be honest I'm very close to selling it on unless I can get the above issues fixed.
Any ideas? Thanks!
You should check out the many posts on this forum, many of them address your concerns. I'll see if I can take a crack at them:
1) Yes battery life is not great, I wouldn't leave Wifi turned on all day. The less stuff you are using the better, for example if you're not using Bluetooth don't leave it on. Same for the WLAN. Don't have applications constantly making data connections either (prob not applicable if you're on the wifi). An example of such an application would be the weather app. Search the forums for tips on improving battery life.
2) There are registry key entries that improve the touch sensitivity of the screen and TouchFLO. Try this thread as a start. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=355277
3) There's a registry entry for this, don't use Kaiser Tweak. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=355230
4) Are you sure the ring volume is to the max? Is the ringtone itself loud? I'm pretty sure there's reg entries for this too, check out the tips and tweaks thread.
5) Yeah if sunlight is hitting it directly the screen is not very visible. Try turning the brightness up to the max. Supposedly there are screen protectors out there that minimize the effect of glare although I haven't personally tried any except for the stock protector.
Overall your best bet is to read the forums and use the search function. You will almost always find someone who has asked the same question in the past. And welcome to xda. HTH.

Touchnig the screen = performance drop.

I am searching method for reducing performance drop while touching the screen.
Every machine i had was affected by this problem - drop is quite big - 20-30%.(asus, wizard, optipad 300(matsushimi or sth.)).
Can someone suggest reg changes that may be useful?
priority, buffer, anything?
im not sure how much you can do about this because every time you touch the screen, it has to spend recources on getting the location of the touch on the touch screen. Its bound to slow things slightly, but ive never come across that big a problem with it.

(MOD) make touch more responsive

Dear guys and gals,
Found a key for touch prediction that when edited showed a marked improvement in keyboard responsiveness and small item manipulation ie classic desktop, file explorer, etc.
The key is: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TouchPrediction
Edit key for latency from 8 to 2.
Edit sample time from 8 to 2
Restart
See attached for a edited registry key to inject. Tested on two surfaces with no ill effects.
edit: to answer a few questions: this increases performance on all touch aspects of the device
The most likely ill effect would be a decrease in battery life as the system must poll the touchscreen more often... just be aware. Otherwise, cool find.
Keyboard does seem faster... Does this also affect swiping? it seems like I can swipe in any way and get the full length of the page / app in one swipe?
Haven't noted in marked increase in battery consumption but I will monitor.
Could this improve the home key button, when my surface is on standby it takes about 6 taps to get the surface to wake up.
possibly, I have not tested the mod for that per say,
Dane Reynolds said:
Could this improve the home key button, when my surface is on standby it takes about 6 taps to get the surface to wake up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have not noticed an increase in battery usage on my asus vivo tab. Not a surface, but rt.
What would decreasing the values to 1 due? I am assuming the lower the value, the better. Or did it not test well on Surface?
Originally I choose 2 to test the battery draw. However, now that I haven't seen any significant increase in battery usage the drop to 1 can be done.
Dadstar said:
What would decreasing the values to 1 due? I am assuming the lower the value, the better. Or did it not test well on Surface?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it that easy for all the values? In other words, can all of the registry values be set to 1 to improve performance? Or are all the values a certain number for a reason? Cuz if latency of 1 works better than the original 8, idk why Microsoft would put it at 8 in the first place. Sorry for all the questions. This stuff is interesting to me!
First off all any values are "safe values". Some screens might be of worse quality then others (different manufacturers of parts). Having that value setup to happy medium means all screens act the same. You lower the value you demand that screen reads the inputs faster and more often. Might not be a good idea on some devices.
Not only talking about surface. Remember win8 (especially pro) will go on many different devices.
Also if you set sampling and refresh to low it might start having ghost touches from minimum input that would normally not be visible (oversensitive).
Best to practice and find perfect for you and your device.
ruscik said:
First off all any values are "safe values". Some screens might be of worse quality then others (different manufacturers of parts). Having that value setup to happy medium means all screens act the same. You lower the value you demand that screen reads the inputs faster and more often. Might not be a good idea on some devices.
Not only talking about surface. Remember win8 (especially pro) will go on many different devices.
Also if you set sampling and refresh to low it might start having ghost touches from minimum input that would normally not be visible (oversensitive).
Best to practice and find perfect for you and your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about the other regs that don't really have a highest/lowest rate? For example, Disable Hotmail is defaulted at 2. What would changing that to 1 do?
Dadstar said:
How about the other regs that don't really have a highest/lowest rate? For example, Disable Hotmail is defaulted at 2. What would changing that to 1 do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No there is no general rule where lower value is better. Some of the values displayed are "face values" where 2 is 2 like refresh 2 times a second. Some times 2 and 1 have a meaning off or on (like your hotmail). Remember PC reads numbers. Even more sometimes numbers, text or mix you see like 8 or 4 are actually representations of some kind of code for example hex or binary.
If you do not know what the number represents then changing it is a guess and nothing more. Just have a backup copy as fiddling in registry with drivers can have funny side effects. I did make my hd7 think i am touching it everywhere all the time so it hang seconds after boot
Are we sure this does anything at all? In order to test if the differences were psychological, I set the number to a ridiculously high value and it didn't seem to behave any differently.
Yup I found noticeable differences in fine touch control including in the registry,window control, etc.
Wupideedoo said:
Are we sure this does anything at all? In order to test if the differences were psychological, I set the number to a ridiculously high value and it didn't seem to behave any differently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot!
Is 2 a good value in the case of the surface PRO 1 ?
"touch prediction" did prediction, not pooling!
"Latency" = how much milisecond to look ahead
"SampleTime" = the period in milisecond to average your finger's motion
The effect is thus:
Larger "latency" make the pointer overshoot, smaller "latency" make the pointer lag behind (1 - 100 milisecond depending on your system performance).
There's no penalty on your tablet's battery or digitizer's life for turning TouchPrediction off, and you don't need to restart to see the effect. (try finger drawing in MS Paint to see effect)
If your Surface missed touch, then try to cool the back of your tablet. It might be thermal throttling.

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