Good news iPhone 3GS owners! You may be able to record some HD video on your iDevice. The hardware specs reveal the little-known fact that the iPhone 3GS ships with an ARM Cortex processor capable of HD recording. While the hardware is capable of HD recording, the software on the 3GS disables this functionality. With some clever hackery thanks to Mike, you can mod a few system files and bump up the video recording from 640×480 to 1080×800. All you need to get started is an iPhone 3GS and the ability to follow directions.
Those that want a quick fix can download the HDVideo3GS.zip file which has four files with the proper settings for HD recording. If you have not already jailbroken your device, you will need to do so using limera1n or greenpois0n. Once jailbroken, you will can get started with the following six steps:
- Go to Cydia and install OpenSSH on your iPhone 3GS
- SSH into your handset using Cyberduck for Mac and WinSCP for Windows. The settings for this connection include:
- IP address: available from the Settings —>WiFi —> Network Name (the name of your WiFi network which, hopefully for security sake, is not the default “linksys”)
- Username: root
- Password: alpine
- Protocol: SFTP for Cyberduck and SCP for WinSCP
- Extract the HDVideo3GS.zip
- Copy the N88AP.list file to /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/
- Copy the 3 other plist files (AVCapture.plist, CameraRollValidator.plist, MediaValidator.plist) to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Celestial.framework/N88/
- Reboot your iPhone 3GS and Voila! HD recording should be enabled
If you want to know what settings were changed in those four files, you can point your browser to Mike’s blog where he steps you through the modifications that he made to each of these files. If anyone is up for the challenge, let us know if you are successful and if you notice a difference in the quality of your video camera after the mod. If you would rather live vicariously though others, you can check out the HD video sample from a modded iPhone 3GS below. Enjoy!
[Via Redmond Pie and Mike’s Digital Anthology]
