Update: Samsung has finally offered a reason why it disabled the high-bitrate 8K video recording feature on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. In the Samsung Members forum, the person who is in charge of camera development revealed that the High Bitrate Videos feature consumed a lot of resources (memory and processing). So, the company decided to remove the feature for the time being. Samsung didn't reveal whether it plans to bring that feature back to the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Samsung made an excellent comeback this year with the Galaxy S23 series, offering great design, good cameras, consistent performance, and long battery life. It made several small but meaningful upgrades to various aspects, including 8K video recording quality. However, the company seems to have backtracked on one feature related to 8K videos.
According to several reports, Samsung has disabled the High Bitrate Videos option in the 8K video recording mode. Several Galaxy S23 Ultra users are reporting that the feature was available at launch but disappeared after installing the June 2023 security update. Right now, the High Bitrate Videos option is greyed out in the Camera app's settings section. You can find that feature in the Advanced Video Options section of camera settings.
Some users had complained that sometimes 8K 30fps videos could stutter when using High Bitrate on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, so it is possible that Samsung disabled the feature as it isn't working consistently. Whatever the reason for disabling the feature, the company's communication needs to improve. It needs to mention such changes in the changelog when things are going to change with a software update.
Right now, there's no communication from Samsung about why it disabled the feature and whether it plans to bring it back with a future software update. And that will frustrate users who bought a Galaxy S23 Ultra keeping in mind its ability to record better 8K videos with higher bitrates.
