Hacks and Patches

GH2 Hack Myths and Realities

cbrandin — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:50:32 +0000

I have seen a lot of really good testing going on here. Some of the interpretations of results, however, seem a little off to me - or at least a little simplistic. Although testing things like high bitrates and low GOP are clearly valuable, interpreting results based on maximizing just one thing doesn’t effectively address the issue of how each of these affect a usable final outcome. No one thing will produce the results we want, and some of the things that need to be considered seem to never even come up. Some of the issues I see:

High bitrate means good results. Not necessarily. Once the bitrate has been set high enough to outperform other factors in the camera (e.g. the sensor), there is no need to go farther.

High AQ settings produce noise. Not true – high AQ simply reproduces noise more faithfully.

Setting noise reduction in the camera is bad. Not necessarily true. If you are shooting at high ISO’s more noise will be produced. The codec has to work hard reproducing this noise, and you’ll end up just crushing the blacks or doing noise reduction in post anyway. Applying some noise reduction in camera under these circumstances can be very helpful because the NR is applied before video is encoded and you are not consuming codec bandwidth reproducing noise.

The camera should always be set with Contrast at -2. Not true, the camera’s contrast should be set so the histogram shows the entire range being used. If you always set Contrast to -2 low contrast scenes will have poor gradations because you have set the dynamic range artificially low thus limiting the number of bits being used for the image.

In camera saturation should always be set to -2. Not true, for the same reason given above.

In camera sharpness should always be set to -2. Absolutely correct! Sharpening produces fake detail which the codec will have to work hard to encode. Sharpening is always done better in post.

Bigger P and B frames are always good. Not true – with static scenes B and P frames serve no purpose insofar as image quality is concerned because they primarily encode changes to the image. If things are correct, static scenes will produce small P and B frames.

Bigger P and B frames are always bad. Also not true – with highly dynamic scenes P and B frames get bigger because lots is changing.

Smaller I frames coupled with big P frames is bad. No, it’s perfectly normal behavior because with highly dynamic scenes because there is usually some motion blurring – which reduces I frame size – combined with big changes from frame to frame – which increases the size of P and B frames.

Individual frame quality can be improved without raising AQ. Mostly not true. The exception to this is when the codec runs out of bandwidth before completing a frame, resulting in image degradation in lower parts of the frame (macroblocking). The quality of motion encoding, on the other hand, benefits greatly from bitrate increases irrespective of increases in AQ.

Bigger I frames means better individual frame image quality. True.

Bigger P and B frames means better individual frame image quality. Only if there is motion, otherwise big P and B frames do little to contribute to individual frame IQ.

Bigger P and B frames means better motion encoding. When they appear in high motion scenes, absolutely true.

Improvements to image quality are readily visible. Absolutely not true. Some of the most important improvements only become visible in post, when color grading, etc…

To put all this together; consider a test where high bitrates coupled with AQ 4 produces an unacceptable amount of noise at ISO 3200. Moreover, the stream is exhibiting artifacts, such as odd looking pulsing in the frame sizes. What is happening is that the codec is being overly stresses trying to encode an inordinate amount of noise. Raising the bitrate won’t help; that just stresses the codec even more. Lowering AQ will seem to help – but it isn’t really doing anything except lowering the quality, which would be better achieved by just lowering the bitrate. The solution here is to apply a little in camera noise reduction. If you just lower AQ, all gradients and image subtleties will be degraded, whereas NR is only applied to the darker parts of the image near the noise floor.

Of course, all this assumes that you will be doing some post processing. I assume most people interested in advantages brought about by the hack do that.

Chris

Ptools 3.66 wont load ini files?

andycl — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:18:17 +0000

Hello All,

I've ran into a slight problem. I downloaded the new ptools and now when I try to load a patch from 'my populars' basket, it wont recognize the patches/ files. I can however make a patch of my own and save it. Am I the culprit here or is this a glitch of some kind? Pardon my ignorance, I'm not new to this but l'm no genus either, this is the first problem with using ptools, it might be me, and if it is I'd like to know what i'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance

best hack for long form documentary

neko30 — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:02:36 +0000

hi all,

i'm starting a feature length documentary, which will require a couple specific types of shooting/hack requirements:

--longer interviews (around 2 hours). so i will need reliable spanning...doesn't necessarily need to shoot entire time. but i can't have something that stops every 10 mins. --verite shooting in shifting environments. so i'll need an all around hack that can deal with varying enviroments.

of course, high resolution/filmic look would be great. but i'm more looking for all-around, reliable, rather than something that shoots at highest bitrate (i.e. sedna or apocalypse)...

i was thinking possibly flowmotion v2.2...or something similar that shoots in the 75 -100 mb/s range.

i'd love to head about any other suggestions/experiences.

thanks very much. goro

GH1 Can it still be improved

rigs — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:11:43 +0000

Its been over a year since the first hacks rolled out for the GH1 and what a great ride its been. With great thanks to Vitaliy and others the GH2 has entered the scene with much promise. I love my GH1 and I'm still prefer it to the look my GH2 offers even with the hack. I was wondering if there will be any future developments based on the findings we now have from both cameras and whether they could be introduced into improving ptools for the GH1.

GH2 settings for smooth motion?

theconformist — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:41:37 +0000

Less interested in insanely high bitrates, etc as I am in stable hacks that perform well and most importantly - provide smooth motion. I'm not sure what it called, but DSLRs seem to suffer from slightly choppy motion. What is responsible for that and what should I look for in a hack to eliminate it? And recommended hacks? What of the new Apocalypse hacks? And does 4:4:4 have anything to do with it?

GH2 Hack Wavy Lines

jvalal — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:37:34 +0000

This is in Manual video mode on the camera (icon with video camera and M) Set to either HBR or Cinema 24P. The lines happen in either.

Any thoughts why this is occurring? It happens at various location in the video.

Cluster V6 Drewnet stops playing after 7-8 min recording

tusoli5 — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 17:04:18 +0000

I love this setting, but it is the second setting, after Orion where my camera stops recordng after 7-8min. The patch is done with every limit removed... Any other person experienced that? I need to film interviews so the longer I can record, the better it is. Otherwise I have no other problem...

Thanks for your help guys! You do all a really great job!

the most updated Stable Patch with span for 25P PAL

kenjikarma — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 04:13:47 +0000

HI guys,

I got a japanese version of GH2 but I'm in hongkong. So I'll be shooting with PAL 25p. I've read the previous threads about the stable patch for 25p dated 16mar. Mostly Gop3zilla + sedna A settings. However, when i loaded the hack, there is still no language menu for me to choose from unlike other hacks. Also, I'm wondering if there is any update on the stable patches that works great for 25p? Thank you so much.

GH1 low light - best settings

m_c — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:14:45 +0000

hi, hope you can suggest best patch for shooting with gh1 in indoors low-light situations with only available light using gh13 with FD 50/1.8 finding no matter what i try, i'm getting some undesirable noise in the images the test shots so far are ok, i'd just like to get as best possible shooting a no-budget short very soon THANKS

Out of the game - update on current situation.

Donnie88 — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:26:42 +0000

Hey people,

I've been away from Personal-View and other GH2 hack related sites - the last time I touched it was when I updated it to the new firmware Panasonic released to be able to shoot 25p.

The HBR 25p mode's footage doesn't seem as nice as some of the hacked stuff I've seen. What would you guys recommend the most to get beautiful footage with 25p? Hack and then apply a patch? Can I still do that with Panny's firmware?

Or is there anything new I've missed out? (Except for the imminent GH3 which this post isn't about).

Cheers guys

GH2 | Best hack/settings for extreme low light (haunted house)

archstanton — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 02:00:31 +0000

I need to shoot in extreme low light (haunted house) tomorrow night and need to know the best hack and settings to accomplish this. I've been playing around with the ISO limit removal (12800), but there's probably more needed than that. Such as bitrate, GOP, quantizer, film mode settings, etc. I would do more research/testing, but I'm pressed for time.

Digital Noise in Blue Sky - Vanilla Hack

mattodowd — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 02:19:40 +0000

Hey all -

Wanted to throw this out to the community and see if there were any thoughts. Going through footage from this weekend's blue sky shoot, and on top of the expected mild posterization, I'm seeing some subtle but noticeable digital noise.

Any thoughts? Here are the specs:

GH2 running Vanilla Hack Firmware V1.1 ISO 160 Nostalgic -2, -2, 0, -1

It was very bright light, but properly exposed with an ND / Polarizing filter.

Thanks, Matt

HELP - Getting CINESTYLE results from the GH2 ?

Electric_Haggis — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:40:41 +0000

Well, I'm stumped.

As a new & and proud owner of a GH2, I've downloaded the latest (V1.1 25p) firmware and am investigating hacks.

A higher bitrate is obviously desirable - around 50Mbps will hit the spot, so I'm currently trying: "Driftwood Quantum X v5b and v5c 'β Pictoris' (baby Quantum X) VBR" (35 - 75Mbps variable)

The REAL question is about capturing more dynamic range and squeezing maximum latitude out of the GH2 to get results that resemble Cinestyle. I see evidence here...

... yet trying that hack, I see zero latitude difference.

Come to that, I've tried several hacks now, and they all look identical (apart from bitrate).

I'm trying to research this, but struggle to get real answers. What should one do to get Cinestyle results as above???

Thanks in advance...

Best detail 720p settings/hack?

uppfade — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:33:46 +0000

Need to shoot a slo mo video. Need the best detail 720p hack for GH2 (using NTSC 60 frames). Thank you! :)

24p25p-NINE - GOP9 Hack for friendly co-existance of 24p and 25p

towi — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 13:10:34 +0000

Please ignore attachments

Update is here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/45642#Comment_45642

Mountain Lion, Cluster hacked GH2, and FCPX

rsquires — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 15:13:50 +0000

I recently tried a camera import with FCPX and using hacked GH2 Cluster footage I got terrible artefacts and unusable footage. I selected the Transcode option as I usually find .mts in FCPX struggles. It imported fine into Premiere but FCPX and iMovie both produce awful results. The weird thing is Quicktime now sees the AVCHD file and you can play the files in the finder. I tried a transcode with 5DtoRGB and that was fine producing a clean ProRes. It's a massive disappointment. Obviously Cluster could be the issue but it produces such great footage.

How can I get HDMI output with teleconverter?

DNL — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 13:49:43 +0000

I have a GH2 with ver 1.1 firmware. I want to be able to turn the tele-converter on and get HDMI output. Is there a hack for this?

I am using 3 GH2s to feed live into a switcher and I need the HDMI output as a live video source. But I need to also invoke the teleconverter because the lenses I am using (very fast old TV camera lenses) are too wide. Also, there is some vignetting.

Getting to the bottom of the noise

Bania — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 07:54:05 +0000

Hi Guys.

I've just started reviewing footage from a recent shoot and am a little perturbed by the amount of noise showing up in shadow details. The problem has occurred on a range of shots in different lighting conditions and even at very low ISOs.

I was using a GH2 for the shoot, with LPowell's Flowmotion 2.02 hack. This was the first time I had used a Gh2 (let alone a hacked one) so it was certainly a baptism of fire. For the majority of shooting I was using a lumix 7-14 ultra-wide lens.

I've uploaded a short clip with three different shots, each displaying the telltale noise. In the first, the noise is visible above the character's foot, on the side of the piano. This was shot at a ISO800 so it makes sense that there will be noise. Still, it seems like there is more than there should be. the second clip was shot at iso160 yet there is still a fair amount of noise showing up in the man's beanie. In the third clip, also shot at iso160, again there is a lot of noise in the man's sweatshirt.

http://www.mediafire.com/?1m7c10p98tvy883

I didn't fully test the patch and cam before the shoot so at the end of the day it's my problem, but I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the source of the issue so I can avoid this next time around.

Cheers

ONLY SETTINGS COMPARISON, NO SMALL TALK!

Kihlian — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 06:02:50 +0000

Hope this is welcome.

Since there is much interest about "the best settings" and a lot of good settings are coming out for different purposes, but the useful settings confrontation are rare and scattered over the topics. I propose to start this topic to collect this confrontation. Rules:

1) Only video or screen shot confrontation with different settings, but SAME: ISO, Picture profile, light condition, Focus, subject, registration mode.

2) No post of Video or screenshot of only 1 settings!

3) No comments, otherwise the discussion deviates on discussions about the weather.. (If VK welcome this topic hope it delete all non sense comments)

Possible exception:

1) The creator of the settings can also add comments to comparisons

Recommend HBR patch for night/low light shoot

radikalfilm — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 06:26:03 +0000

So far I've shot with Flowmotion2.02, Valkyrie ZERO1 and Canis Majoris Night. The best for low light is Canis Majoris, except it only works in 24p. In HBR it becomes a slideshow on the LCD, to the point where you can't shoot.

Reliability and Recording Times (GH2)

devinpickering — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 17:05:19 +0000

Hello friends, I need your help - This weekend I have been mounting my gh2 and various lenses to a few different locations on a biplane for a documentary I have been working on. Everything that has to do with the rigging and mounting has been no issue at all so far - but I am having major issues with the camera stopping recording in the middle of a clip. I'm running the new "Apocalypse Now" firmware from driftwood - should I go back to the stock firmware to make sure that the camera will record for what I need? I Only need 15 minutes here but there's obv lots of motion. Is there a better patch out there that will work no matter what?
I'm relatively new to the GH2 community - PLEASE HELP! I would really appreciate it - will be filming tomorrow and would really like to not waste another day.

I'm also using a Sandisk Extreme Pro 32gb 95mbs SD card

Flow motion/apocypse now hybrid?

GravitateMediaGroup — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:02:58 +0000

This may be like asking McDonald's and Wendy's to share recipes, but is this at all a possibility? I only ask because I've seen other patches mixed together but that may have been because they had the right compatibility. There is nothing wrong with either patch as is, I was just curious on what a merger would look like.

GF hack - simple questions

lampadaferens — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 22:54:19 +0000

I am late to this party and spent 6 hours trying to hack my GF1 to make use of Timelapser's 2 fps mode. I started by updating the GF1 firmware to the latest official version (which seemed reasonable at the time but might just be the problem). So I know how to get firmware on the camera at least. I downloaded the PTOOL and modified the GH1__132 to do what I needed and it wouldn't flash. I then modified a version of the GF1__122 version in PTOOL and changed only the version checking and it loaded. My GF1 is now version 0.0. Progress I thought.

So now, my simple question. The hack I need is to the MJPEG frame rate 720p30 -> 720pXfps. In the firmware for GF1 there's no option in PTOOL. Is that the problem. I can't do what I want in a GF1?

references: http://forum.timescapes.org/phpBB3/index.php

If the answer is "no" it was at least an education. cheers Bob

Which GH2 patch would emulate colors similar to Canon t2i so I can color match it better?

senzazn12 — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:57:10 +0000

Any suggestions for in camera or patches with GH2 or Canon t2i to help match the colors better for both cameras so that last work needed in post to match would help?

Fine Tweaks in GH2 Operations

kholi — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:30:02 +0000

Not sure where to put this, sorry VK if it's in the wrong place.

I'm back using the GH2 and now with the hack. Been great. Still love whipping out the Epic and rolling but right now the hacked GH2 is allowing us to move super fast and deliver a format that people can wrangle all on their own. Quite impressed with the quality coming out of the camera in low lit (working with 3-4K lighting packages sort of low lit) situations.

Curious, though, about at least two things:

1. Any way to open up the picture profile (film mode_) manipulation? I'm sure this one has been talked about plenty, seems like it would be top lister. If so, what was the progress on it? I've done a search but not come up with an answer.

2. What's the possibility of opening up the shutter speeds to go from 1/40 to say 1/42, or especially 1/48? Being locked into 1/40 or 1/50, I automatically gravitate toward 1/40. On Canons, I shoot at 1/45. Obviously, neither 1/40(45) or 1/50 equal 180 degrees @ 24 frames, opting for a slower angle over the hair faster one looks better to my eye.

What are complications with doing so? Is it a hardware lock and not a software lock?

The second one would be a major deal to me, as it would further help correct how the camera renders motion.

Thanks for all the hardwork. I get paid next week, so my small contribution is finally going in.

gh1 No Valid Picture to Display Update problem

disease8 — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:24:28 +0000

Hi I have been searching around for an answer to this issue and although i found a lot of people that have the same problems no one seems to have an answer. I have no idea why it has started doing this and I really need to change the hack that is presently on the camera. Any ideas of how to get it back to recognizing the firmware updates? I tried: -Updating Panasonic official firmware. -Version Increment ticked and unticked -Prevent Version Compare ticked and unticked. -Renaming Firmware to a variety of names going all the way up up 150 (camera says its on 1.3).

Original Firmware vs Hack (GH2)

davidhjlindberg — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 11:46:32 +0000

Maybe there is a thread like this, and if so I apologize and admin can just delete this.

I've started to think about how much difference is there between the original firmware and the hacks we get here. There sure are improvements but it often leads to higher bitrate > larger files > larger disks > less money. So I want to see if the hacks are worth the extra spaces it takes. I'm not skeptic about the hacks I just want to hear others opinions and comparisons.

In this thread it would be nice to see comparisons between the original firmware and different hacks. And yes, some hacks does not only improve the quality right from the camera though some can help you when it comes to grading for example. Maybe we can see grading comparisons of that as well?

So if you got pics or videos with comparisons of the original and some hacks, please use this thread to show that and keep this thread only for discussing these questions.

Apocalipse Now hack, question about 2k Mjpeg

robbie75vr — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:41:48 +0000

I just hacked the GH2 with Driftwood Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' - 6 GOP Nebula '444 Soft' - setd, my footage is aerial made with Panny 7-14 at 1/250 to 1/500 shutter speed and my subjects are usually full of small details, I normally have to stabilize it and that crops out some pixels from the unstabilized shot. So mjpeg 2k for me it's good because the extra pixels are what I need to render a good 1080p at the end of the process.

What should I know about mjpeg compared to avchd ? pros - cons.. Is the camera more stable in mjpeg or avchd ? or there is no difference.. ? Do I still need to record a short clip after long shots ? Is it better for grading workflow ? I shoot 80% daylight aerial and 20% low light interiors, how is it with interiors compared with avchd ?

Thanks

Quality vs. large file size vs. hard to decipher differences...

mppohl — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:37:43 +0000

Hi, I've just joined this forum...have hacked my first GF-1 a year ago or so, to my liking, now acquired a Sedna C hacked GH-2 and wondered who actually uses this large files to their capacity. I'm looking at some of the posted, and see sunny beach stuff...daylight plant life et. al...rarely anything challenging, like water (Flowchart), or low light skintones, or busy patterned landscape, cities etc. I'm also surprised as how few people use a lamp or reflector just to 'brighten' their subjects a bit. Then I have been in the film business for 20 years. Anyway, without comment, can someone recommend a high grade, maybe fairly high bit rate patch/codec/hack (I'm familiar with all the terms), where I don't have huge files, but a good color rendition, quality image? I'm using the fastest cards now..bit the bullet. But don;t want to spend my days loading patches and hacks with incremental differences...!...Thank you all for feedback and comments..! (btw, I paid some dues...and now got to get back shooting pics to make a living...)

Cheerios from NYC, Marty

GH-1 gh1 Good settings for no rolling shutter in 720p

disease8 — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 17:44:27 +0000

I am afraid I have been overwhelmed by the amount of different info on here. I really am just trying to find a collection of the best GH-1 hacks to download in the .bin format. I have been looking for hours but its hard it seems there are so many topics and its all a bit of a mess, which is normal for a forum.

I like the look of pappa arts settings or anything that will at least give me no rolling shutter in at least 720p, I have worked out its pretty much impossible to avoid in 1080p...

Any help would be much appreciated.

Here are the settings I am using at the moment...