After trying everything I could, I still could not get the camera to play back. I sent it in to Panasonic Service Center as it was still under warranty. They repaired it by replacing the PCB free of charge.

So, was this a side effect of hacking? I did accidentally let the battery run out whilst recording, so maybe it could be that?

Please, no fanboy comments as I am not criticizing the GH2, the hack, or patch. I actually like this camera and am trying to get to the bottom of this so it doesn't happen again.

Thanks!

Question: Is there any way for me to know what hack was applied?

I hadn´t any problems with writing speed, and i have top bit rates of 60mbs, Could any explain what is happening?

This is a example video

http://www.mediafire.com/?xtbgg4rf79396z5

How do I get rid of it ?

Any other Mac OSX users have this issue?

Russ

http://osgfilms.com/gh2-quickstart/

So is there any difference ?

Thank you.

What do you say, Vitaly? Up for the challenge? :-)

Thanks for you help guys,

Specify with short keywords -- Good spanning, great low light, VERY stable, etc.

Hereeeee we go!

Whats it all about? Achieving the best looking overall pictures around - throughtout the popular GOPs. The great thing about Cluster X developments is you can mix and match some of the settings to combine into your favourite setting (e.g. GOP1 for 24p and 25p/FSH, GOP 6 For 1080i60/30p and 12/15 for 720p etc...). Slipstream settings do this for you (mixed and matched and with spanning capabilities where we can plus 80% modes on H & iA mode support).

This has been a tough (and still ongoing) challenge, each setting (and ptools patch change) takes an age to check & measure. Its exhausting work - even with 4 cameras on the go. The measuring to check Quantisation, frame sizes and stability adapting one change at a time is pretty debilitating on mental energy. I hope people appreciate waiting for each setting to appear.

All the new Cluster X series settings for each GOP attached below have been tested on the notorious 14-140 Pany sharp lens. Give me feedback.

Its as simple as A, B, C, D, E, F ! Each .ini setting in ptools for Cluster X Series will equate to setA ('DREWnet' 12/15 GOP), setB ('Nebula' 6 GOP), setC ('Spizz' 3 GOP), setD ('Moon' 1 GOP/3 GOP), setE (Slipstream 1) & setF (Slipstream 2). Any updates will stay on these sets.

"Bitrate is King. Who needs hi powered scaling matrices when enough Bitrate (if you have it) can drive the quantisation..." Quote from my conversation with Dark Shikari - X264 dev 2012

If you enjoy these settings please don't forget to donate to personal-view by clicking on the link above. Gratitude and thanks to Vitaliy Kiselev.

.

Cluster X 'Slipstream'

A series of GOP combination settings drawn from the Cluster X series but set at nominal bitrate settings (40 to 72Mbps) to achieve a better spanning percentage for longer recordings plus the ability to be used on slower sd cards. Slipstream attempts to correlate the actual clip duration to the TS (transport stream) duration whilst providing error free population of the cpb buffers. And it seems to work very well at these settings. :-)

Slipstream #1 (Rev B): Release Date: 10/03/2013

A mix of Nebula and DREWnet settings all tightly packed into 72Mbps max 24p and around 40-52Mbps for everything else which in my PAL tests SPAN! You also get 80% mode at 24H and iA modes working. NTSC 720p60 and FSH/HBR30p should now span.

1080p24/1080i50/HBR25p/720p50 at GOP 6 1080i60/HBR30p & 720p60 at 12 GOP

Slipstream #2: Release Date: 10/03/2013

Including;-

1080p24H 88Mbps GOP3

FSH1080i50/HBR25p 60Mbps GOP3

720p50 62Mbps GOP6

FSH1080i60/HBR30p 44Mbps GOP12

720p60 52Mbps GOP12

Slipstream #3: Release Date: 15/03/2013

Including THE GH3 MATRIX ON ALL REC MODES;-

1080p24H 150Mbps GOP1 (moon style)

FSH1080i50/HBR25p 70Mbps GOP1

720p50 62Mbps GOP6

FSH1080i60/HBR30p 64Mbps GOP3

720p60 52Mbps GOP12

NB: Ive had one occasion where the camera just freezes with no apparent error. If this happens simply leave the camera alone for a minute or two until it fully writes out to sdcard (emptying all buffers) THEN turn off/battery pull. Hopefully you will notice that all your spanned files are there on next powerup.

Where can I find the latest and best hack to my camera?

Best regards Jens

I've been quite impressed by the great image detail the all-new 4:4:4 hacks produce, but I still have problems with their RELIABILITY, colors don't look that great for me and I also have to deal with HORIZONTAL WAVES that destroy the image. Unfortunately, I'm also quite new to hacking and don't really know which patch to choose.

Is there anyone who could recommend a patch with a bitrate around 40MBPS and INTENSE COLORS (e. g. similar to Canon 5D Mark III or GoPro Hero Silver Edition) and that could be used BOTH WITH a LUMIX G Vario 14-140MM and a SLR MAGIC HYPERPRIME 12MM?

Thanks in advance. Simon

• Reliable 100Mbps peak performance in AVCHD 24H, HBR, FSH, SH, and MJPEG HD.

• Exclusive 140Mbps turbo mode boosts peak bitrate to handle 80% Slow-Motion 24H mode.

• Records reliably with Class 10 30MB/s cards, with 60Mbps file-spanning in 24L, FH, and H modes.

• 95MB/sec SD cards support file-spanning in all video modes (except NTSC HBR 30p and FSH 60i).

• Full support for all NTSC and PAL video modes and options, including ETC zoom mode.

• In-camera playback of all AVCHD video files. (MJPEG HD videos not playable in-camera.)

• Failsafe operation with any lens, in any video mode, under any type of shooting conditions.

• Consumer-friendly auto-exposure features fully supported in 60Mbps 24L, FH, and H modes.

• Fast Action 3-Frame GOP performance with B-frames visibly indistinguishable from I-frames.

• Optimal motion picture quality consistently maintained in underexposed low-light conditions.

Flow Motion v2 is the culmination of over three months of investigation into the core encoding parameters of the Panasonic GH2 AVCHD encoder. The goal of this project has been to produce a unified patch that combines failsafe reliability with consistent, high quality performance across the entire range of video modes and options provided by the GH2. These criteria include not only still-frame image quality, but frame-to-frame motion picture continuity as well, evaluated perceptually at 24, 25, 30, 50, and 60 frames per second. Rather than simply maximizing the encoder's peak bitrate, Flow Motion v2 is fine-tuned to produce optimal motion picture quality with minimal degradation from undesirable aliasing and digitizing artifacts. The result is an unmistakable improvement in video quality with no significant drawbacks, using Class 10 30MB/sec SD cards and virtually any lens compatible with the GH2.

Functional Limitations of Stock GH2 Video Firmware

Although it offers a wide variety of video modes and options, the GH2's stock firmware is restricted in both functionality and video bitrate. Thanks to the dedication of Vitaliy Kiselev, many of these limitations can be overcome through the custom firmware settings provided by PTool v3.65d. Flow Motion v2 is an integrated set of patches that enable the following extended features:

• Selection among all supported interface languages.

• Access to both PAL 25/50p and NTSC 30/60p frame rates.

• Extended low-light exposure settings up to ISO 12800.

• Removal of 30-minute recording restrictions in EU locales.

• Enlargement of MJPEG videos to 1080p FHD frame size.

• Pasadena Pulse Audio Patch V2 B2, thanks to Per Lichtman.

Image Quality Shortcomings of Stock GH2 Video Firmware

The GH2's stock firmware limits its AVCHD encoder to a peak bitrate of 24Mbps in 24H and HBR modes, and to 17Mbps in FSH and SH modes. In addition, it uses long-GOP recording sequences of 12-30 frames that produce only about two keyframes (I-frames) per second. Flow Motion v2 boosts the AVCHD encoder's peak bitrate to 100Mbps in all video modes and uses a short 3-frame GOP in all 1080p video modes (and a 6-frame GOP in 720p modes), that produce 8-10 keyframes per second. These improvements enable Flow Motion v2 to capture highly detailed, fast moving images with far more fidelity than the stock firmware's restricted bandwidth can accommodate.

At a deeper level of operation, the GH2's AVCHD encoder uses built-in Quantization Tables designed to compress the video data as efficiently and compactly as possible. When shooting highly detailed subjects, quantization often produces undesirable rectangular artifacts ("macroblocking") which are then filtered by built-in Deblocking Tables. Unfortunately, the tables used by the stock GH2 firmware sacrifice image quality in favor of compression efficiency, producing consumer-grade results. In a further reduction of image quality, highly compressed P and B-frames are encoded with coarser quantization tables than I-frames, degrading frame-to-frame consistency within each GOP.

Flow Motion v2 replaces the GH2's Quantization and Deblocking Tables with custom matrices, hand-tuned for each video mode, that are crafted to minimize macroblocking and digitization artifacts. This enables the encoder to make full use of its available bitrate to encode genuine image details rather than wasting bits attempting to correct macroblock encoding flaws. In addition, Flow Motion v2 applies equal levels of quantization to all types of frames, producing P and B-frames that are visually indistinguishable from I-frames.

Below is an example of the digitization artifacts produced by the GH2's stock firmware, compared to results produced by Flow Motion v2. On the top is a 200% crop of a 24H mode frame grab from the unhacked GH2 AVCHD encoder. You can clearly see jagged macroblock encoding artifacts due to the stock firmware's inadequate bitrate. Below it is the same stream of water shot with Flow Motion v2 in 24H mode:

Support for GH2 Auto-Exposure Features

Flow Motion v2 works reliably with the GH2's consumer-friendly auto-exposure features in both 24p and HBR video modes. However, in 720p SH video mode, auto-exposure operation may cause recordings to fail sporatically and the camera may need to be restarted. To avoid this pitfall, I recommend using Flow Motion's 60Mbps 1080i FH and 720p H video modes when using any combination of the following features:

• P, A, or S exposure modes or when shooting in iA mode.
• Auto-ISO mode.
• iDynamic auto-contrast mode.
• i.Resolution mode.
• Motorized zoom lens operation.

I've tested and confirmed these features to work reliably at 60Mbps in 1080i FH and 720p H video modes. The 60Mbps FH and H video modes also support 4GB file-spanning on 30MB/sec Class 10 SD cards, and produce excellent motion picture quality that is just a notch more compressed than Flow Motion's 100Mbps FSH and SH video modes.

Flow Motion v2.02 Patch Settings File

This zipped INI file can be used to apply complete patch settings to firmware loaded into PTool 3.65d. To use, unzip the INI file into the same folder as the PTool application. Launch PTool and load the firmware v1.1 binary file for GH2. The settings contained in the Flow Motion v2.0 INI file will automatically be installed in the "F" button at the bottom of the PTool main window.

Note that with the following PTool Settings File, you may at any time re-install the original Panasonic GH2 v1.1 firmware into the camera. You may also copy each patched or original firmware file to separate SD cards, and use them to quickly switch between patches as often as you like.

First time user, simple question.

Based on the various hack settings, I'm instructed to input a variety of values for Scaling I P B. However, I'm becoming frustrated because under the quantizer scaling tables section in Ptools the only options I see are Scaling high, med, low T1, T2, T3.

What am I supposed to do about these scaling settings? No problems other than this.

Thanks.

I know this has been discussed over and over but I don't find a simple answer to that. What is the best cinematic hack, with best quality image (I have 95mb/s 64gb card) I just need to know.

I'm shooting a short tomorrow with quite a lot of VFX and I tried some hacks and from what I've read Canis Majoris is the best? I also tried Sedna Q20 which I liked but I'm not sure...

Can someone assist?

Thanks! Best Dave

I haked my GH2 last night and I shot the first test and I saw some noise on the image. The noise changes from light pink to white while the video is playing.

I was shooting at f22 ISA 160. Is the noise normal?

thanks in advance emy

thx Morten

Thanks in advance Emy

Each was tested with the 14-42 mm kit lens at 42mm, f/7.1, ISO 320, focused on a CRT screen with a rapidly changing color pattern. All were stable on a SanDisk 45MB/s card. I've uploaded a five second clip, Stream Parser Snapshot Report, I, P, and B screen grabs (if applicable) and a StreamEye quantizer frame.

I'll start with the highest bit rate first. As you'll see, bit rate is hugely important.

ALLI 1.0 (150,113,176 bps)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/02_ALLI.MTS
I frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/02-DC%20I.png
I frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/02-DC%20I%20Q.png

Canis Majoris Night (148,454,022 bps)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/03_CMNight.MTS
I frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/03-DC%20I.png
I frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/03-DC%20I%20Q.png

Simple GOP4 (132,283,819 bps)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/01_SimpleGOP4.MTS
I frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/01-DC%20I.png
I frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/01-DC%20I%20Q.png
P frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/01-DC%20P.png
P frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/01-DC%20P%20Q.png

Flow Motion 2.02 (120,587,686 bps)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/05_FM2.02.MTS
I frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/05-DC%20I.png
I frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/05-DC%20I%20Q.png
B frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/05-DC%20B.png
B frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/05-DC%20B%20Q.png

Cake 2.3 (60,094,762 bps)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/07_Cake2.3.MTS
I frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/07-DC%20I.png
I frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/07-DC%20I%20Q.png
P frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/07-DC%20P.png
P frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/07-DC%20P%20Q.png

Sanity 5 (36,991,314 bps)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/04_Sanity5.MTS
I frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/04-DC%20I.png
I frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/04-DC%20I%20Q.png
P frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/04-DC%20P.png
P frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/04-DC%20P%20Q.png
B frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/04-DC%20B.png
B frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/04-DC%20B%20Q.png

Stock GH2 (23,096,427 bps)

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/06_GH2.MTS
I frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/06-DC%20I.png
I frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/06-DC%20I%20Q.png
P frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/06-DC%20P.png
P frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/06-DC%20P%20Q.png
B frame: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/06-DC%20B.png
B frame Q: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23922406/GH2Tests/06-DC%20B%20Q.png

OK. Information overload? Keep in mind that you will never (or should never!) film anything like this. Some cursory analysis:

Canis Majoris Night is awesome, better than my ALLI. Flow Motion 2.02 is also really good, better than my Simple GOP4 while using less bandwidth. The rest have considerably lower bit rates, so expect a drop in quality. Cake's 60Mbps seems to be about as low as one can go without the image turning to crap. Sanity has nice I frames, but it's starved for bandwidth, so the P and B frames are bad. And the stock GH2 firmware completely falls apart.

Of course there are things other than 24H that you'll need to consider before choosing a patch, but in general, use the highest bit rate you can get away with given your shooting constraints. I've used Sanity to shoot at 45 minute speech, and it looked fantastic. If you're shooting a psychedelic nighttime rave, maybe use something else.

Take a look at the .MTS files. They're all under 100MB.