Nokia Lumia 900 phone camera problems

Summary: Various issues people reported in reviews of Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone camera.

A huge spoiler in my excitement about the new Nokia Lumia 900 came from the phone's camera. When ordering the phone, I assumed that Nokia would build it on the Lumia 800 improvements and offer a camera on par with iPhone 4s. I thought it would be difficult to screw up the excellent Carl Zeiss optics given such great specs. Well, was I up for a surprise.

After shooting a few pictures, I could not believe how bad they looked: lots of noise, bad focus, heavy pixelation, white balance way off (especially in low light), the now infamous pink spot, you name it.

After some digging, I found a Nokia community forum thread where people complained about the same issues. I posted a couple of remarks describing my problems and then I did a bit more research. As reviews of the Lumia 900 kept rolling, I kept discovering more and more complains about the Lumia 900's camera performance.

Some reviewers suspect that the issue is not necessarily cause by bad camera, but most likely is due to software (e.g. overly aggressive JPEG compression). I posted several quotes with references to the sources, but the forum moderator removed them because "[they do] not contain any support question, remark or suggestion relevant to the thread". Fine, I'll include them here. Hopefully, they will help potential users to make a more informed decision. As I find more info, I'll keep updating this post for those who struggle with the camera performance. So, here we go.

From Review of the AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 (WPCentral):

"Where the Lumia 900 camera disappoints is under low-light conditions. Here the front-illuminated sensor shows its weakness versus the preferred back-illuminated sensor (BSI) found on the Apple iPhone 4/4s and HTC Titan, HTC Radar and HTC Titan II. When not using a flash (and even when doing so to lesser extent), image noise is greatly increased resulting in very grainy photos with loss of color and detail. To avoid high noise, you can manually set the Lumia 900’s ISO to 100 or 200 but in doing so, you’ll slow down the exposure speed resulting in a higher chance of image blur from movement of the camera, your subject or both. Because of this, we’re slightly disappointed that Nokia still won’t embrace back-illuminated sensor (BSI) technology. Those sensors can result in more light (photons) hitting the sensor, increasing it from 60% to 90% of the scene. As a result, images in low-light conditions are brighter and have less noise."

From The most disappointing feature of the Lumia 900 is the camera (PhoneDog):

"The camera, which was one of the most glorified features at Nokia's CES press event, is a hot mess. [...] if you aren't outside, the chances of snapping a photo worth keeping are slim. Images begin to suffer from discoloration. If you point the camera at a mostly white surface, you will notice pink spots. In my case, the pink spot is one large, pink splotch that takes up the majority of the viewfinder. That said, once you snap the shot, sometimes the pink spot turns to a dark green tint. Other times, it just disappears completely."

From So my Nokia Lumia 900 is here. I'm not happy (WPCentral):

"Looking at some sample pictures I've seen, it seems like the default camera settings are poorly set. Being a borderline professional photographer and a bit of a camera nerd I would say: For certain it has nothing to do with the lens. Unlikely it has anything to do with the sensor. Problems are with the default camera settings and post processing settings.I would be suprised if Nokia did not improve the settings with a simple patch."

From Nokia Lumia 900 review: Camera (TechRadar):

"It all sounds amazing, but unfortunately the end results don't quite live up to the specs. Contrast and color saturation are above average in most cases, and the Lumia 900 is capable of quite decent outdoor images when the sun is cooperating. We were less enthusiastic about our results shooting indoors, and the dual LED flash didn't seem to do us any favors, either, producing garish results and a lot of red eyes."

From The Great, Bright-Blue Hope (Wired Magazine):

"The 8-megapixel camera (topped by a Carl Zeiss lens) on the rear of the device takes pretty great shots in bright light, on par with similarly specced shooters we’ve reviewed. Performance in low light, however, was less admirable. Shooting pictures in mixed light or in twilight without the dual LED flash caused a large amount of striated noise to show up in the pictures."

From Nokia Lumia 900 vs Apple iPhone 4 (Phone Arena):

"On paper, these two are specifically designed to entice photo enthusiasts thanks to the sensors they’re packing along for the ride, but when it comes down to it, we find the iPhone 4S coming out on top. Essentially, we find it more preferable thanks to its sharper details, natural looking color reproduction, and the fact that it handles exposure significantly better. No doubt that the two can capture some pleasant looking scenery and macro shots, but it’s the iPhone 4S that handles low lighting situations better, since the Nokia Lumia 900’s shots are extremely noisy looking."

From Nokia Lumia 900 or HTC Titan II, is one better than the other? (WPCentral):

"The Lumia 900's camera just under achieves. On paper the Carl Zeiss lens and fast aperture should perform better than it does. To give credit where credit is due, the Lumia 900 does preform nicely outdoors when the lighting is just right. Indoors and when the lighting dims outside is where the Lumia 900's camera begins to fade. I also experienced a little inconsistency with regards to saturation, exposure and focus. Hopefully these issues are software related and can be addressed with an update from Nokia. Otherwise, the Lumia 900's camera won't reach its potential."

From Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T review: Going all in (GSM Arena):

"The amount of resolved fine detail is not among the best we've seen and there's also lots of noise when viewing the photos at 100% zoom."

From How Nokia Lumia 900 Is Better Than iPhone 4s (And How It Isnt) (iPhone 4s Issues):

"If the Nokia Lumia 900 has any downfalls, it would be two things – the camera and lack of apps. Despite boasting an 8-megapixel shooter with Carl Zeiss lens, we often found the camera software had trouble trying to focus and hence take longer to capture shots. The white balance also wasn’t up to our expectations."

From An iPhone 4S User’s Weekend with the Nokia Lumia 900 (MacLife):

"Unfortunately, the camera is a bit of a weak spot for Nokia here, despite the 8MP sensor which on paper would seem to match wits with the iPhone 4S. It’s a bit of a surprise, considering Nokia devices usually feature better cameras, but clearly they had to cut corners somewhere to get this device to $99.99 with two-year agreement."

From Nokia Lumia 900 – Camera Review (WMPowerUser):

"Despite Nokia’s history with great smartphone cameras, the Lumia 900′s camera falls short of its competitors in many ways. If you’re taking an indoor picture at night, the Lumia 900 suffers from a lot of random blue noise. Anything black and dark in pictures ends up covered with this blue noise, which really reduces the quality of the picture. Nokia turns everything blue for no reason. Outdoor shots were slightly better, but the Lumia 900 fell behind the Samsung Focus S in terms of details when shadows were involved. When I took a picture outside my apartments, the room number in the Focus S’s shot is clearly visible while the Lumia 900 is significantly tougher to read and once again full of noise. [...] The Lumia 900 was better at daytime video recording [...], but indoor video recording at night greatly suffered once again due to that odd blue static. Hopefully Nokia can release a software update to fix some of these issues, but we may have to accept the fact that Samsung can make really great cameras."

From Nokia Lumia 900 Review - Windows Phone with LTE (Anandtech):

"Where the Lumia 900 does seem to struggle is white balance, as pretty much all the Lumias have weird color rendering in the lightbox test with lights on, creating a strange washed out cast. I would wager that this is more an outcome of the older ISP onboard MSM8x55/APQ8055 than anything else, and it's entirely possible that things will get better in later updates as Nokia continues to mess around with the sliders on Qualcomm's ISP. In addition, the preview image sometimes contains the colored center dot chromatic aberration we've seen on other phones, though the lens shading ISP does seem to fix it when you look at the actual captured images. As an aside, this is really another area where eventually moving to dual core SoCs will make a difference - the successors to 8x55 have better ISP."

From Lumia 900 review (The Verge):

"Nokia has a long history of packing terrific optics into its devices, so you would expect that the Lumia would excel in this area. I'm sad to report that it does not. On the device I tested, the rear camera was capable of producing fine photos, though generally the 900 shot somewhat grainy and very washed out images. It's not that those images were particularly bad — they just weren't particularly good. Though the company touts Carl Zeiss optics, I didn't see anything in my results that belied fairly standard smartphone picture-taking capabilities. In fact, the camera software seemed to have real trouble in some settings, with white balance and exposure out of whack compared to my expectations. Additionally, the Lumia 900 produces those dreaded, faint pink spots in the center of the display — particularly visible on bright white surfaces — that we've seen on countless phones. It's not the kind of thing you'd notice in most photos, but you can definitely see a discoloration that shouldn't be there. Now keep in mind, my daily driver is a Galaxy Nexus, which has a relatively poor camera — so this is significant. I went into the Lumia 900 expecting an excellent photo experience, but it's really simply mediocre."

From 8 Days Of Nokia Lumia 900, Day 5: Camera Quality (Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows):

"It’s no contest. The iPhone 4S photos are superior, across the board. You really have to look at them, and zoom in the same way with each, but in every single scene I shot, an iPhone version of the photo was superior to the Lumia shots, with crisper details, better color, and less pixelation. Not once did the Lumia come out ahead."

From Nokia Lumia 900 (AT&T Wireless) Review (Laptop Magazine):

"Unfortunately, while you can unlock the camera quickly by long pressing the shutter button, we noticed lag when taking photos. A half-second delay prevented us from capturing the exact group shot we wanted of fidgety kids. The Lumia 900 also had trouble with dim lighting compared with the iPhone 4S; images looked considerably darker and grainier with a blue cast. The dual-LED flash helped but often resulted in subjects with red-eye."

From The Nokia Lumia 900 review (ARS Technica):

"The problem with tying the shutter to the tap-to-focus is that it can be hard to time pictures, especially since the lapse varies depending on the lighting situation. Being able to focus with the camera button is nice, but you don't get to choose what the camera is focusing on. While there are only a few situations that will be hampered by this divide, our problem could be solved by including a setting that lets us untie the shutter from tap-to-focus. [...] The camera has a separate macro focus setting, but we had little luck using it to improve our shots. [...] We noticed the flash seems to trigger in inappropriate situations when the phone could take a perfectly fine picture without it. In the photos of the rainbow mannequin, the flash-less photo appears a bit more washed out, but it was serviceable and more color-accurate. Low-light situations are where the difference between the Lumia 900 and the iPhone 4S cameras emerge. The Lumia 900 was desperate to trigger a flash on the tabletop hockey game in a dim bar, but the situation couldn't really benefit. The setting produces noise in both photos at the top right corner, but the Lumia 900's is more exaggerated, with noise throughout and an unrealistic blue cast to the picture. We tried out the macro setting in the Lumia 900 on a few occasions, but it did little to produce a good macro shot. Even at moderately close ranges, the phone couldn't bring the subject into as good a level of focus as the iPhone."

From Nokia Lumia 900 review (BGR):

"Considering Nokia’s pedigree, I was absolutely shocked the first time I used the camera on the Lumia 900. To put it plainly, as good as the hardware design is on the Lumia 900 is as bad as I found the camera to be. [...] I found that the Lumia 900′s camera takes very poor images [...]. Colors were washed out and didn’t pop at all like they do on the iPhone. The edges of objects were extremely blurry rather than sharp and clear like they are on the HTC One S I have been testing. I also had a great deal of trouble focusing on objects at close range. Even when I tapped on an item to focus on it and snap a picture, the phone still focused on something in the background instead. Macro mode did nothing to resolve the issue. I’m hoping some of these issues will be fixed in upcoming software updates. Considering the quality of images taken using other Nokia handsets, I have to imagine these are not problems with the optics or other camera hardware Nokia used in the Lumia 900."

From Nokia Lumia 900 Review (Ubergizmo):

"Unfortunately, the Lumia 900 does not take the best photos and videos. In my tests, I found that the iPhone 4S, or the Samsung Galaxy S2 (or Galaxy Note) can easily beat the Nokia Lumia 900 in this area."

From It’s Big, It’s Blue, It’s Windows, but Can It Beat Rival Phones? (All Things D):

"The camera, despite having the same resolution as the new iPhone, took notably worse pictures of the same scenes in my tests. To my eye, colors were oversaturated, and details were less sharp."

From A clash of the titans this time round as Samsung's Galaxy Note locks horns with the Nokia Lumia 900 (Know Your Mobile):

"We had high hopes for Nokia's Windows Phone cameras considering the company's history of producing some of the best camera phones. However, it has failed to deliver and Samsung has stepped up to the plate with the Galaxy Note's setup."

From HTC beats Nokia in the camera game with the Titan II (review & gallery) (ZDNet):

"I thought the Nokia Lumia 900 with 8 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics would blow away all the other Windows Phone devices, but sadly it just doesn’t impress me that much. I know megapixels really don’t define the camera, but when combined with a decent aperature and optics the HTC Titan II beats the Lumia 900 in the camera game. It is not just the camera on the Titan II that impresses, but the camera software enhancements that HTC provides help push it past the Lumia 900. You will find panorama mode, burst mode, many different scene choices, red eye reduction, image stabilization, and more."

From Review: Nokia Lumia 900 is the Premium Windows Phone We've Been Waiting (Complex):

"Camera focusing issues: Seems like Nokia’s shutterbug suffers from nearsightedness. Up close shots are money, but the auto focus struggles to frame objects when taking distant photos. It’s great having a dedicated button that automatically triggers the focus, but the feature makes it difficult to time snapshots and there’s no way of setting the focus on a particular background figure."

From Nokia Lumia 900 review (Pocket-lint):

"Our test shots were on the whole good, but we still got mixed results. Basically the more light you have the better the shots. Inside and the flash can be overbearing if your subject is too close, and without the flash the pictures can be noisy. Get the right lighting and the results are very good indeed. [...] The Lumia 900 can take great photos, just don't expect to produce perfect results every time."

From HTC One X vs Nokia Lumia 900 head-to-head review (V3.co.uk):

"The Lumia 900 doesn't do the basics nearly as well with the One X, with its photos regularly appearing washed out."

From Nokia Lumia 900 camera shoot-out vs. iPhone 4 (photos) (C|Net):

[Okay, in this shoout-out, Lumia 900 does okay. I'm including this report for comparison. - AD]

From Не как у всех. Обзор смартфона Nokia Lumia 900 (Вести.ru):

Качество снимков весьма неровное — от великолепного в подходящих условиях освещения и при удачном срабатывании фото-автоматики, до весьма посредственного. Четкость при максимальном увеличении нормальная, а вот цвета зачастую весьма далеки от правды. Во флагманских смартфонах других производителей камеры бывают лучше, достаточно упомянуть iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S III или HTC One X. Видео (съемка Full HD не поддерживается, максимум 720p) получается качественное и с большим битрейтом (до 14 Мбит/с), но страдает время от времени от той же недостоверности цветов, а также от мечущегося автофокуса.

Here are some forums discussing the camera (and other) issues with Lumia 900:

• Nokia USA discussions forum: Lumia 900 Camera Issues
• Nokia USA discussions forum: Lumia 900 Various Issues
• XDA developers forum: Widespread camera "focus" issues with the Lumia 900
• Windows Phone Forums at wpcentral.com: Anyone Keeping Lumia 900 past 30 days?

UPDATES:
If you struggle with Lumia's camera performance, try these recommendations:
Camera Tip: Taking better photos with your new Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone
How to take better photos with your Lumia 900 (read comments)

Some users report much better results when using third-party camera apps:
Widespread camera "focus" issues with the Lumia 900

Nokia Lumia 900 phone review

Summary: Impressions from the first few days with Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone.

I have been using my new Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone for a few days, so want to share my first impressions. First, some background.

Nokia Lumia 900 is my first smart phone. I spent a few weeks (okay, a couple of months) researching phones and this is what I figured out (I hope this info helps those looking for the first smart phone).

iPhone 4s offers the best overall quality (and camera in particular). Unfortunately, it is expensive (even with a 2-year plan): it would cost me close to $500 for two phones (for me and my wife, including the CA tax on the full price), and I'm not the kind of guy, who shells $500 on cell phones.

Samsung Galaxy S II seems to be the best overall Android phone (again, among other things, I am particularly interested in camera performance), but it also is not cheap. Besides, among the three platforms (iOS, Android and Windows Phone), I like Android the least.

I like the Windows Phone Metro interface, so when Amazon Wireless offered a $19.99 promotion on Nokia Lumia 900 (for AT&T plan upgrades), I took it. With Nokia's $100 credit, I will make about $160 on two phones, so for a cheapskate like me, this was a no-brainer.

My phone came with a free Micro USB Universal Car Charger (thanks, Amazon): I also ordered Skinomi TechSkin Screen Protector: The screen protector was easy to install. I noticed several small bubbles, but they disappeared after a couple of days. In addition to protecting the screen, the screen protector makes fingerprints less visible.

And I got a skin case (available in multiple colors): The case is easy to put on and take off. It makes the phone slightly bulkier, but I hope it will be useful if the phone gets dropped.

Now, back to the phone. Here are my first impressions (before I forget).

Nokia Lumia 900 is a bit bigger than I expected (size-wise, my ideal phone is Samsung Focus Flash 4G), but the size is not overwhelming. It's a pleasure to hold the device in the hand.

I was not sure which phone color to pick. Read a few praises for the cyan version, but decided to stay with the classic black. I'm glad I did. When I saw the cyan at an AT&T store, I was not impressed (it's not bad, mind you, but not my kind of cyan). Now, if a white version were available (it is not, yet, but should be soon), I would get one of the two phones in white.

Despite lower screen resolution (800x480 vs. 960x640 in iPhone 4s), the display looks awesome, even when zoomed. Excellent colors.

The device is quite fast. I have read a few posts lamenting lack of support for dual-core processors in Windows Phone-based devices, but so far, single-core processor performance have been just fine. In fact, it seems to me that Lumia 900 is more responsive (when loading Web pages and using apps) than my top-of-the-line desktop. I'm using the phone over 4G and WiFi (there is no LTE coverage in my area, yet).

I LOVE WINDOWS PHONE OS!!! It took me a couple of hours and a few introductory articles to figure out the basics, but since I have no experience with smart phones, I suspect it would take a similar effort to switch to iOS or Android. The Metro interface looks clean and modern. Very user friendly. I'm not convinced that tiles are appropriate for a desktop OS, but they work great on a mobile phone. Home screen with customized tiles looks very pleasing.

I linked the phone with my Google and Microsoft Live accounts. There was a glitch with Google, so I had to use a workaround to get to my Gmail inbox (the problem went away in a day or so). Email and calendar interfaces are very nice. I use Google Calendar Sync to push updates between my Google account and Outlook, and it works very well.

I took the phone to the AT&T store to complete activation and got the contacts moved from my old phone. Lumia merged my contacts with contacts at Google and Facebook. Finding contacts now is very easy. I really like the feature that allows me to link multiple contacts.

Support for international keyboards came as a pleasant surprise. It took a couple of clicks taps to enable the Russian keyboard. Much easier than I had expected. Great job, Microsoft!

The free Nokia Drive (GPS navigation) app that comes with the phone is quite good, as long as you do not need lane assistance or text to speech. It does not spell out names of the streets, but it gives accurate and timely instructions. I did not have any problem using turn by turn navigation.


I had a bit of a trouble trying to find some apps when using Marketplace on the phone. In particular, I could not find Skype via the phone, even though it was available on the Marketplace website (could be because it was still in beta). Being able to push and install apps from Marketplace on the web (as opposed to the phone) helped.

I have been looking for the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard (so that I could move the cursor in the text fields), until I found an article explaining how to move the cursor. If you need to know: tap on the text field approximately where you want the cursor to move, and if you miss the exact spot (since fingers on small screens are not precise), hold it until you see a cursor marker above the finger, then just drag it to the left or right until it moves to the desired position. Smart, but not very intuitive.

I wish that the Back, Home, and Search buttons were illuminated in sync with the screen. Now, if you use the phone in the dark, you do not see them unless you press one of the buttons. They are not that difficult to find, but it may take a few attempts in the dark, so making the buttons visible would be helpful.

I installed a few apps (Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Flickr, and more), but several apps were not available for Windows Phone. In particular, my credit union only offers apps for iPhone and Android. So does Mint. I will cover apps and shortcuts in a separate post.

As a long-term Zune user (and heavy podcast listener), I wondered how Windows Phone would deal with my existing music collection and podcast subscriptions. After initial hiccup, it seemed to have worked fine. Nokia synced my collections and subscriptions with my computer. I have not tried to use it concurrently with my classic Zune, yet.

I wish there were an option to select all email messages in the inbox via one tap (instead of manually checking each group).

I also wish I did not have to go through the hoops to view battery indicator.

Call quality is decent. Signal strength is similar to what I had before Lumia. Battery life is as expected. Upon initial and (probably incomplete) charge, it lasted all day of heavy use (I was configuring the phone, installing apps, learning features, etc).

Now, the bad part: despite very promising specs, Lumia 900's camera is disappointing (to put it nicely): lots of noise, bad colors in low light, white balance is off, etc. It may be a software issue, but since Nokia keeps quiet on this topic, it's not clear whether this problem is acknowledged and/or will be addressed. This issue deserves special attention -- at least for those of us who care about camera performance -- so I'll cover it in a separate post.

See also:
Windows Phone site at Microsoft
Get Started with Windows Phone
Microsoft Answers for Windows Phone
Windows Phone: Feature Suggestions
Nokia Lumia 900: your questions answered
Nokia Lumia 900 Facebook page
"I can't even think about switching phones without these apps." Windows Phone 7, a Nokia Lumia 800 and the Essential Apps
72 Windows Phone 7 tips and tricks

UPDATE (Apr 22, 2012): I was using Nokia Drive as a primary GPS navigation system on a recent trip to Bay Area, and about a mile before I needed to make a turn on a freeway, my phone froze: the GPS screen got locked in the same position, the phone did not respond to any actions, I had to press and hold the power button for about 10 seconds to perform hard reboot. Once I realized that my position on the GPS display was not moving, I have passed my exit, and it took me about 20 minutes to return to the route. Can't say if this was an issue with the phone (hardware), Nokia Drive app, Windows Phone OS, or any combination of the three.

A few other observations. Accidentally dropped the phone from about 3 feet on a concrete floor; it's good that it was in a case; no damage detected. It's easy to accidentally tap the Search button when using the camera. Calendar reminder does not have an option to snooze to be reminded again in whatever minutes before start (as Outlook does). Still no option to change the playback speed when listening to podcasts. Answering a call is a two-step process; I wish it required one tap. I had to look for and watch a short video to learn that to close an app, you need to tap the Back key. There is no increasing ring volume option (i.e. when the ringer starts at low volume and gradually increases to the specified level); seriously? I have been using this feature in every cheap non-smart phone I ever had; come on Nokia/Microsoft. I cannot find a way to switch into a meeting mode (i.e. change ring to vibration) in a single step (a shortcut would be nice).

Total 3D Home, Landscape & Deck software review

Summary: My trials and tribulations with the Total 3D Home, Landscape & Deck software package.

A few months ago, I moved to a new home. Expecting to make some changes -- pouring concrete around the house, installing a patio cover, painting the fence, landscaping, converting a bonus room into a bedroom, etc -- I wanted to try modeling design changes in software. I've never used home/landscape design software, nor did I have any experience with 3D modeling, so I looked for reviews of the popular consumer home/landscape design packages with the $100 or less price tag. Unfortunately, I did not find many in-depth reviews, and the few ones I read were often conflicting. So I went by the TopTenReviews recommendations and decided to try their choice #6: Total 3D Home, Landscape & Deck Premium Suite 11.0 by Individual Software.

I chose Total 3D software for two reasons. First, at least based on the feature summary, it seemed to cover more areas of my interest than other alternatives (I was more interested in landscape part, but interior design support was a plus). Second, the software was on sale at a local Fry's, which (after rebate) ended up costing me just the CA sales tax.

In short, Total 3D Home, Landscape & Deck Premium Suite 11.0 did not work that well for me. Here is a brief summary of my experience with the package.

Total 3D Home, Landscape & Deck Premium Suite 11.0 comes with two disks. The first one contains the program. I'm not sure what the purpose of the second disk is. I installed both disks on a laptop running Windows XP SP3, but once I upgraded it to Windows 7, the second disk failed to install. After working extensively in both the XP and Windows 7 environments, and I did not notice any advantage of having the second disk installed.

The online registration failed on both systems (XP and Win7), so I had to register the software manually (via a fax!).

The application desktop shortcut tried to check updates (on every program launch), but always failed. I contacted support and received instructions explaining how to change the shortcut to point to the main program instead of the update checker. It worked, but now the program does not check for updates.

Although I found the help articles and tutorials accompanying the software helpful, I still had a pretty vague idea of how the workflow should go, so it took me a few false starts and a couple of days to figured out the right approach.

I started my project by importing a blueprint of my home's floor plan (I had a hard copy of the blueprint, which I scanned to generate a PDF file, which I converted to a JPEG image). I then placed the home areas (garage, halls, rooms, kitchen, bathrooms) over the corresponding blueprint areas, which was rather easy. The software created the wall and roof, producing a reasonable 3-D mock-up (even the roof was done right). I then placed the home on a lot and defined the landscape/hardscape features: lawn, walkways, fence. I found the 3-D (aerial) and walk-through views impressive. They allow you to rotate the home and look at it (both from inside and outside) at different angles.

I added windows, doors, and openings, but with mixed success. For example, for some reason, adding a porch made the exterior door totally invisible. So did the patio. I assume that this is a bug in the software; the door looked fine (when I added it in the Design Plan tab). I then added a porch in the Space Plan tab, and it looked fine, too. I then switched to the Aerial tab, and once I clicked the Design Plan tab again, the door seemed to be covered by the wall. It also disappeared from the Aerial view. I raised this issue, but got no response from support (not even an acknowledgement of my message).

In addition to the disappearing doors, quite a few things did not work as promised or at all. Here is a brief list problems that I encountered.

The software promises to produce photo-like 3-D images assuming that you can apply photos to the design (which was one of the selling points for me; I wanted the software to produce real-life images). You are supposed to cut out an area from a digital photo and apply it to the corresponding area of your design. I tried many times, but could not make it work. The cut-out area from a photo did not stick to the right place.

I also had many issues with cabinets and other interior elements. While they worked okay in some areas, in other ares the cabinets kept moving from the positions I placed them causing overlapping. Sometimes they would appear normal, but once I switch the tabs and come back or make an unrelated change, I would find them stuck to the ceiling or on the top of each other. I raised this issue to support, too, but got no response either (at this point, I gave up on support; and I gave up on designing internal elements: cabinets, appliances, bath tubs, etc).

Total 3D allows you to import custom textures. I tried to import the texture of the external wall from a digital photo, but it ended up producing tile-like texture which looked worse than the built-in textures and colors. Textures and colors is a major pain area. First of all, it's next to impossible to find the right color or texture. Instead of using a standard and logical color palette, you have to navigate through several levels of screens. Many colors appear the same and some colors are missing. For example, I could not find the basic white color to paint the doors and window frames. The Favorites feature is a joke: instead of keeping your favorite colors and textures in a dedicated area for easy selection, it simply marks your favorites with labels, but you still have to remember how to find them in the maze of screens.

The software comes with extensive set of built-in objects, but it lacks the most basic options, such as popular patio covers (lattice or solid), sliding built-in closet doors, realistic gazebos, granite counter tops, and much more. With some creativity, you can mimic some objects (I used marble texture instead of granite, and a stair step to imitate the outside A/C unit), but for others, you're totally out of luck (there is no way you can produce a realistic lattice patio cover).

One of the major hassles is that the program seems arbitrary in allowing you to remove objects from the design. For example, you may not be able to remove a wall once you add it to the floor plan. I ended up creating a backup project after making a few changes to make sure, I do not have to start from scratch after making a change (I cannot count the number of times I had to revert to these backups).

Screen navigation is yet another hassle. It's often needed to zoom the plan in and out or move it around the screen. There is a dedicated tab for this, but using the specialized tab means that you need to switch between this tab and the working tab constantly. It would be much easier to allow zooming and repositioning the plan right in the Space and Design plans.

I also noticed that sometimes, when I keep the program open for some time, it stops working. I click the tabs (work areas) at the bottom, but the screen still displays the same view. I could only fix it by restarting the program.

The program crashes quite often resulting in lost work.

The TopTen review praises Total 3D's collection of plants, but I found them unrealistic looking and limiting (many plants looked the same to me).

I still found Total 3D Home, Landscape & Deck somewhat helpful in planning the hardscape/landscape elements (walkways, lawns, etc), but using it was too much hassle that produced very modest results. If I did not get it for less than $3 (after rebate), I probably would have returned the software, which is too bad, because the software has potential.

Here are some recommendations which would make Total 3D Home, Landscape & Deck Premium Suite a much better software package:

• Fix the obvious bugs: object placement, disappearing elements (doors).
• Make the photo import feature work as promised.
• Redesign the favorites feature.
• Redesign the color/texture selection tool.
• Make it crash less often (and make the auto-save feature work).
• Integrate zooming and panning functionality into existing tabs.
• Add common design features: granite counter tops, more realistic tile roofs, stucco exteriors.
• Add common structures: small garden tool sheds, A/C units, patio covers, realistic gazebos.
• Create a moderated user forum for customers using the software.

Until then, I would not recommend Total 3D Home, Landscape & Deck Premium Suite to the general public.

Acer Aspire Revo 3610 review

Summary: First look at the Acer Revo 3610 HTPC.

After a long search for a home theater PC (HTPC) and entertaining various options from building my own system (what was I thinking!) to buying something similar to Sony VAIO - VGX-TP1, I finally settled on Acer Aspire Revo AR3610-U9022 Desktop PC:
I chose Revo 3610 for a number of reasons, including:

• Technology
  Revo 3610 is powered by the dual-core, hyper-threaded Intel® Atom™ 330 processor and NVIDIA® ION™ graphics, the combination that is probably insufficient for CPU-intensive tasks (such as editing videos), but well suited for the intended purposes (watching videos, including HD, online browsing, etc).
• Configuration
  The system configuration is optimized for media viewing in a family room. It offers built-in 802.11b/g/n WLAN, HDMI™ port, six USB 2.0 ports, 1080p HD video/HD audio support, muliti-card reader, and other cool features. It also comes with a VESA mount, wireless mouse, and wireless keyboard (the keyboard is not as slick as Logitech diNovo Mini, or IOGear Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel, or Lenovo Multimedia Remote with keyboard, but it's better than nothing).
  [UPDATE: I eventually bought Lenovo Multimedia Remote with Keyboard and found it handy, although the rest of my family does not seem to care for it. I also bought IOGear Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel just because the price was right (haven't used it, yet).]
• Energy efficiency
  Revo 3610 is Energy Star® 5.0-compliant. It's also very quiet (an important factor for HTPC).
• Price
  Among the systems I considered (e.g. Dell Inspiron Zino HD) Revo offered the most attractive price. I was planning to spend around $700, but got it directly from Amazon for $329.99 (no tax and free shipping). I don't think I would've built a system for that much money.
• Size
  The unit is really small.

Now, Revo 3610 has a few limitations, but none of them are critical to me:

• Lack of optical drive
  While it is a major limitation, this is one reason why the system is so cheap, but here is my take on it. I will mostly use Revo 3610 for watching streamed media or media stored on a hard drive. I do not care about Blue-ray at this point, but when I do, I'll buy a Blue-ray player anyway (these things are getting cheaper each month). And for watching regular DVDs/CDs, I already have a DVD player. I will need an external DVD writer, though (to burn system backup disks, etc).
• Small hard drive
  By current standards, the 160GB hard drive is small, but I have a bunch of external hard drives, which I can plug in, so no biggie here.
• Small RAM
  The 2 GB RAM is hardly enough to run a 64-bit OS, so I'm planning to upgrade memory to 4 GB when I find DDR2 800 SDRAM on sale (here is a video explaining how to take Revo apart), or more likely, I'll just plug in a ReadyBoost flash drive (find ReadyBoost flash drives on Amazon).
• Form factor
  I'm not a big fan of the design. Wish the system looked more like a DVD player and were entirely black and/or silver (the "dark blue" color is not offensive, though; it's very close to black). In the vertical position (on the stand), it looks weird.

Once I decided to buy Revo 3610, I could not find it on sale anywhere in the USA. I wasn't sure if it was discontinued, but after a couple of weeks of searching and waiting, I finally managed to snap one from Amazon (when it became available for a few days). I got the system delivered in about 10 days after placing the order. Here are my first impressions.

Where is the optical cable? Duh!
The system supports optical connection via the HDMI or the VGA port, but comes without cables. So how do you connect it to a TV? It would be nice if it came with an HDMI cable (seriously, a stock 6" HDMI cable costs what: $5?). If you decide to get Revo 3610, make sure that you have either a VGA or an HDMI cable ready (the cheap HDMI cable I bought at Meritline works very well; see HDMI cable deals).

Documentation? What documentation?
Once I connected Revo 3610 to my 32" Toshiba HGTV, I could not figure out how to make the supplied wireless keyboard and mouse work. I was expecting to find instructions in the documentation, but there were none. The provided pamphlet includes IKEA-like diagrams and some information explaining how to proceed with OS setup, but there is not a single sentence to explain how to enable the keyboard and mouse. The Revo 3610 documentation is a joke. I'm not kidding. Here is a quote from the User Guide I found on the hard drive after I completed the setup:

"Insert the startup disk you created during Windows setup into the floppy drive and press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart your computer."

Floppy drive? Anyway, to complete the setup I just plugged in my old USB keyboard and mouse, but I needed to figure out how to actually make the wireless mouse and keyboard work, so I decided to try customer support.

Customer support! What customer support? Ah, that customer support!
I first submitted a question via the web form. It has been over a month, and I haven't received a response, yet. I then tried the online chat, but was told that it only covers Aspire One (whatever it is). I got the support number though (1-800-571-2237). The official version was that the phone support is available Mon-Fri 7 am-9 pm CST and Sat-Sun 8 am-5 pm CST (excluding holidays), but the person I talked to first said that it's available 24 hours. The support technician explained to me that the USB receiver is hidden inside of the battery compartment of the wireless mouse (the receiver is really small, so I did not notice it when I inserted the battery). Once I plugged the receiver into one of the Revo's USB ports and turned the power switch (it's nice that it has one), the mouse started to work, but I still struggled with the keyboard. The support technician told me to push the Connect switch on the bottom of the keyboard (apparently, the keyboard uses the same receiver as the mouse), but I tried and tried and it did not seem to work. After struggling for a few minutes, I finally managed to connect the keyboard, but I'm still not sure what I did differently. So finally I got the devices working.

VESA mount... no mount...
I was planning to mount Revo on the back side of my TV, but the holes in the supplied VESA mount did not match the holes in the TV. I suspect that the VESA mount is intended for smaller monitors. Even if the holes matched I would still be confused by the "instruction" explaining how to use the VESA mount.

Software, badware, goodware.
Revo 3610 comes with 64-bit edition of Windows 7, which is not the optimal choice. Not only the 64-bit OS requires more resources (such as RAM), but since HTPC is intended primarily for media viewing and most of the popular media software (Flash, media players, browsers) only come as 32-bit applications, this seems like a waste of resources. They do work, though, but what's the point! Anyway, as any other system, Revo comes with some bloatware, which took me about two hours to uninstall. I then tried to get the latest updates (OS, NVIDIA drivers, etc), and I screwed up by not following instructions (I did not uninstall Flash before installing Flash 10.1 Beta, forgot to install the latest NVIDIA chipset driver, and made a couple of other goofs, causing a few apps -- mostly web browsers showing videos -- to crash). I finally followed Paul J Roberts' instructions to the letter, and voila: it now works, and seems pretty stable.

One thing that disappointed me was that Revo did not recognize DVD+R in my external DVD writer. It worked fine for burning backup CDs, though. I suspect this is an issue with the DVD writer (I had problems with it before), so I'm currently shopping for another drive (I kinda like Samsung SE-S084C/RSBN, but keep my options open [got the Samsung SE-S084C/RSBN from Amazon for $49.99]).I do not like the Revo's power switch. Every time I press it, I'm afraid it'll break. I'd rather have a conventional power button.

I connected a 1.5 TB Western Digital Elements USB drive for additional storage, but I did not figure out how to access this drive from my other laptops (running Windows XP and Vista).
Although my display is set to show larger fonts (150%), I wish I could make the fonts even bigger. I'm quite satisfied with HD video quality. Streaming video works fine, but at this point, I'm constrained with the speed limitations of my wireless 802.11b/g router (have been waiting for the price of Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 to drop), so the quality of streaming video varies. Programs like The Daily Show and Frontline show fine, but HD content is choppy (most likely, the router issue). Local HD videos look great. [Update: I have since bought ASUS RT-N13U Wireless-N Router, Access Point, and Repeater; see my review here.]

I have been using Revo 3610 for just a couple of weeks, so I'm still learning the software (Windows 7 quirks, Windows Media Center, Boxee, etc), but so far, I like it. I'm planning to post an update once I get a better grip on it and get more devices (in addition to wireless-N router, I'm also considering a TV tuner, and maybe a remote).

UPDATE (Feb 22, 2009): Just discovered an issue with x.264-encoded MKV files: it plays them, but the video is really slow and gets out-of-sync with the audio. I suspect that this is an issue with the codec, so looking for a solution. Will post an update once I get it fixed. Also noticed a couple of crashes when watching Flash in full-screen mode (this started to happen after a recent Windows update). Will keep an eye on this one as well. [See update below.]

UPDATE (Feb 23, 2009): The x.264 encoding/MKV issue seems to be solved, thanks to recommendations I found at RevoUser board. Now, I'm too cheap to buy the CoreAV Professional Codec, so I somewhat altered the recommendations. First, I installed the latest release of the ffdshow codec pack. Because ffdshow is available in 32-bit version, I also installed the 32-bit version of Media Player Classic Home Cinema. Other than checking a couple of audio settings in the ffdshow options, I did not make any other changes. I opened a couple of x.264-encoded MKV files (1080p) in Media Player Classic, and they ran flawlessly. And the quality was just breathtaking even on my cheap 32" 720p Toshiba LCD. I'm very pleased with the results.

UPDATE (Nov 22, 2010): I have been using Revo 3610 for over 9 months now, and I'm quite happy with it. The only complaint I have is the performance of the wireless-N adapter for streaming HD video, but I'm not sure if this is and issue with my wireless setup (distance to the router, walls), or with the adapter. I don't stream HD video that often, so not a big deal for now. On another note, I have recently been helping some friends buy HTPCs and noticed a few models that appear to be newer and better alternatives to Revo 3610. These were not available at the time I bought it, but if I were shopping for an HTPC now, I would seriously consider the following models (Amazon prices seem reasonable at the time of this post):
Find more HTPCs on sale.

UPDATE (Jan 15, 2011): A few weeks ago, the mouse started to act (the left button kept getting stuck), so I called Acer and received a free replacement withing a few days. No hassle, whatsoever.

UPDATE (Jan 25, 2011): This week I decided to jump on the Windows Media Center wagon (so to speak), and had all kinds of issues. The major problem was that Windows 7 WMC could not play DVDs (from virtual drives mapped ISO images, as well as VIDEO_TS folders; kept getting error: "Files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly."). After 3 nights of investigation and a futile effort to reinstall the OS, I finally found the solution at Windows Client TechCenter (see post by CGTracy). It involves 4 step:

1. In Windows Media Center, navigate to Settings > DVD > Audio.
2. Check the Auto volume box.
3. Click Save.
4. Reboot computer.

I'll write a post on WMC migration, in which I'll explain how to make it work and play all kinds of media formats.

See also:
Acer Aspire Revo Review
Acer Aspire Revo 3610 Atom ION 330 Review
Why It's Finally Time To Get a Home Theater PC
My Media Center Setup
Guide to Building a HD HTPC
Diary Of My Switch To Internet TV - Part 2
Diary Of My Switch To Internet TV - Part 4
RevoUser.com (Revo user forum)
Beginner's Guide What is an HTPC?
How I Built the Media Center of My Dreams for Under $500