[Sprint  Galaxy Note 4 Android Development] carlylemiii:
MMS Quality issues (~VGA resolution incoming)

Has anyone else experienced poor MMS quality on their USCC or Sprint Note 4, pre- or post-CM12? I'm more interested in the former, but if you had problems with the latter and were able to resolve them, that could be helpful too, potentially. Since around the middle of February, I've been having MMS quality issues with my USCC Note 4. At first I was convinced it was some change on the network (still sorta am, but it might be ungrounded; my reasoning was I noticed that suddenly cross-carrier (VZW > USCC, specifically) emojis were working. I also found from some Googling that around this time is when Republic Wireless and USCC started getting along with MMS, so it seemed something changed...), but they assured me it wasn't the network and didn't really answer me about network changes. They said it was either the app I was using, or a software update (hadn't updated recently, and was still on stock, rooted), and that I would need to do a factory reset to troubleshoot (USCC tech support is kind of a joke), but the app had been updated recently. I went out found an older version of Textra, 2.22, and I thought that resolved my issue. So I blamed Textra, and the developer said it might be a header issue (he said Chomp uses an iPhone header), but I tried other apps, and I had issues, too. QKSMS didn't work well, stock didn't work well, Chomp didn't, evolveSMS didn't...the list goes on.

Fast forward to my current situation. On the latest CM12 for the USCC Note 4 (there's a specific ROM for USCC now that's official, so I'm using that and not the Sprint one), and MMS still sucks. I know that inherently MMS is not gonna be the same quality as the original photo. But in Textra if I originally sent a 5MB pic, and Textra was set to 1MB limit, the end result would be somewhere around 850KB. Totally okay. This was testing with sending myself pics, btw. But now if I do the same thing I get a pic that is around 30KB and around VGA resolution. It's pitiful.

After *more* online reading, I'm thinking it has something to do with my system's mms_config.xml file (though that wouldn't explain why I started having issues mid-February, pre-CM12 installation). I found that file inside MMS.apk and inside MMSService.apk, and I noticed they're radically different. One mentions a great resolution, the other something much more inferior. They each have different user agents, and other differences. I'm not sure which one is "better" or which matters (for either using Textra or for the stock CM12 SMS app). From my bit of research, it seems that if something is off with the user agent and the network doesn't know what phone it is that's receiving the pic, it'll crush it to the smallest possible size, which is happening, but I also don't even know that that's my issue.

Here's what I've done to troubleshoot:

My CM12 Note 4 to my sister's LG G3 (both USCC): 355KB screen shot, 1440x2560, went through identically.

Sister's G3 to me: photo that was 3.15MB 4160x2340 (not sure what her phone reduces it to though [like how I have Textra set to 1MB which always worked in the past) came through at 44.21KB 640x360.

Pic to myself: 7.93MB, 5312x2988, came through at 270x480 22.61KB (again with Textra's limit set to 1MB

Friend's iPhone 6 (AT&T) to me: 2001x1125 screen shot 242KB, came through at 21.48KB.

Girlfriend's USCC Note 4 (stock, not rooted) to me: similar to sending to myself. But the other way around was the same, too. She got a squashed MMS too.

So it's not necessarily USCC, because my sister is able to get something uncompressed. Pre-February my Textra set-up with the 1MB limit was awesome. Worked fine sending, worked great receiving. My girlfriend and I both have issues, same network and phone, but the same network as my sister. And other people seem to get my photos fine. So I just don't know what to try next. I think I've tried ever app (except maybe 8sms, because I'm not sure of the setup).

If anyone can be of guidance as to what the user agent should be for a USCC Note 4 (or if it's USCC in general, for CDMA networks?), or if they've had similar problems, or have any ideas of what to try next...I'd be forever indebted. This is driving me absolutely insane.

Here are links to the two config xml's, my APN, and my current Textra MMS settings:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zurtmxlf59om91q/(from MMSService.apk) mms_config.xml?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jdrqivjx6n5fk3u/(from MMS.apk) mms_config.xml?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8aps5s9knpcrcd/Screenshot_2015-03-10-20-39-57.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rmzdhrw9lx3j06k/Screenshot_2015-03-10-20-40-09.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/utqmj4lzfou1skk/Screenshot_2015-03-10-20-40-28.png?dl=0

Super looking forward to hearing from someone…and please feel free to PM me if you think you can help outside of the thread instead of bantering inside.

Thank you!