Well, I found out what was causing the problem \o/
(I've been doing other things since, this hasn't been on my mind the whole time )

I was reading up on some things last night and went tracking the differences.
First, a big thanks to everyone who made suggestions, but the problem appeared from day 1 - infact carried over from the code I used on the n810!

and it was much simpler.

take this example:

it works nicely and exactly as the live camera view should work

then, look at what I was specifying in liqbase:


As you will see, there is a dramatic, noticable difference when I pre-specify a framerate!
which is the amazingly craptastic effect I was experiencing.

Now by simply removing the framerate setting I can show the video flawlessly at around 30fps just as before in original liqbase.
problem with camera is officially dealt with \o/
It did not involve anything generic, just cleaning the simple framerate



you may need to install gstreamer-tools for these examples to work.
( apt-get install gstreamer-tools )