Personal View site logo
Make sure to join PV on Telegram or Facebook! Perfect to keep up with community on your smartphone.
Please, support PV!
It allows to keep PV going, with more focus towards AI, but keeping be one of the few truly independent places.
GH2 Broadcast Discussion
  • MarkVMarkV
    This is really interesting! As @Greek_m43 wrote, he used hacked GH2 at 42mbps for a broadcast... We can talk about this more here... as this is interesting for many people!
    ... and it gets more interesting as GH2 hack is rolling out with higher bit-rate patches etc.
  • 40 Replies sorted by
  • goannagoanna

    Australian ABC TV's Technical Specifications for externally produced video can be downloaded at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/independent/doc/ABC_Delivery_Specs_Aug_2011.pdf

  • Greek_m43Greek_m43

    Here's the one I posted on vimeo yesterday, just because I haven't posted in a while. Shot with Orion v4b with 20mm pancake. I have alot more that braodcast over on our station youtube page.

  • Greek_m43Greek_m43
    So I did a few timelapses of downtown Sacramento for the CBS 13 news intro. Looks awesome on air. They also grabbed one of the photos and put it on the backdrop projector for the 10 o'clock news. The GH2 is moving up :D. I'll try to post the intro and a screen grab of the backdrop.

    To add, I continue to use the current @driftwood patches for promos and commercials as they are realeased. These air all throughout the day.
  • chrimsbroomechrimsbroome
    @Greek_m43 well its sill in early stages this patch. You might find that Driftwood drops the bit rate a bit. The quality is top notch. I do notice some strange bit rate problems when shooting @ 50i mode, the bit rate never seems to go to its maximum bit rate even in detail shots. I am also looking for some faster, bigger cards that can span and generally can handle the bit rate and record lots of video. Not easy when the good ones like Sandisk 64GB SDXC 98 megabit is £300 ($600). I am sure the next Ptool will improve stability and over all bit rate performance though.
  • Greek_m43Greek_m43
    @chrimsbroome we just ran into that problem! It's not even the room on the card, it's that I only set the in-point before the good take. Had no outtakes when our anchor left :(
  • chrimsbroomechrimsbroome
    @Greek_m43 no out outtakes then lol
  • Greek_m43Greek_m43
    @chrimsbroome - even if they need 4 takes to get their read right, it only takes about 1:30. Usually like 30 seconds of recording per tease.
  • chrimsbroomechrimsbroome
    @Greek_M43- how do fit all the footage when the patch limits you to 3-4 mins of 176megabits of footage. Or is that all you shoot per clip?
  • cosimo_bullocosimo_bullo
    All: Remember networks like Discovery and Nat Geo are sill shooting most of their shows with the original tape-based varicam, running a very unintelligent codec at 100MB/s (but in fact we do must shows at 30p - knocking the bitrate in half. The GH2 is MILES ahead in many ways compared to that camera we've literally been shooting with for 8 years!
  • Greek_m43Greek_m43
    And yet again, 2 more promos shot on a hacked GH2 (I shoot all my promos on a hacked GH2, I share every so often). This time it's on @Driftwood 176MB ver.3 with the 20mm pancake. I've been using this hack all week.


    All is GH2 except the daytime b-roll.
  • plasmasmpplasmasmp
    It's nice to see hacked GH2 on air here in the Sac area. Might just have to start watching the news again.
  • Greek_m43Greek_m43
    @Roberto Ya every single shot, other then the football b-roll, were shot on my GH2 44M. We have an EX1, 7D, my GH2, and a Go Pro and we use them all for our promos that broadcast. Just using whichever tool fits best, but my default is the GH2.
  • RobertoRoberto
    @Felix
    I am one who notices the difference between broadcast-quality and the stuff that gets rejected. (but then, I used to be the guy who used to reject vision shot on prosumer gear. I am also, I hardly dare admit, one who prefers film to Red!).
    So, not surprisingly, I've yet to be satisfied with anything I've shot on my GH2. (Meaning I keep comparing it with broadcast standards).
    So I also notice the quality drop from the Guardian's presenter-to-camera shots, as soon as they cut to your own living-sculpture & oil vision. My immediate reflex was to defend your own work. Do you think they took enough care with your footage? My experience is that TV editors are less careful with out-of-house vision. I sometimes even suspect them of jealousy. They'll work overtime, right up to deadline to make their own stuff look its best, while they'll slap an "xyz footage" super over anyone else's.
    I do believe there's a GH2 *aesthetic* which can hold its own - given the right content. So I keep striving. I mean, we've come so far with consumer formats; isn't a GH2 good enough to satisfy us?
    @Greek_m43
    I'm impressed! Those shots of presenter in the studio were shot with a GH2? I'm wondering just what workplace dynamic has allowed you such freedom! Excellent work!
  • Greek_m43Greek_m43


    Today's promos done with @cbrandin 44M settings. Shot with 20mm pancake.
  • OedipaxOedipax
    @MarkV, can I really still get a refund? I figured it's been too long, I bought the day it came out.
  • Greek_m43Greek_m43
    @MarkV I have my mini DIY handheld rig and my indiSystem shoulder rig
  • chrimsbroomechrimsbroome
    @MarkV - When I edit AVCHD video from the GH2 it seems to degrade even though Adobe Premiere CS5 says it doesn't transcode it (from the website). I put a lot of my AVCHD formats onto a Blu-Ray Disc but as soon as i edit it, Premiere CS5 has to transcode it too Encore.

    I suppose when I hack the GH2 the quality will improve as people have shown.
  • MarkVMarkV
    @Oedipax It's garbage! FCPX is garbage! You can get the money back form Apple! (so I did) .. when you will get the money back just buy the amazing 20mm F1.7..! Apple have good products.. as I'm using the iPad and iPhone and sometimes Mac... but FCPX is bad... yet..
    One question for @Greek_m43: Do you have any stabilization system or rig with extra accessories for GH2 when doing these shots for news?
  • OedipaxOedipax
    I realized last week I'd forgotten FCPX existed, and I paid for it! Now I wish I'd hopped on the refund bandwagon, I could've bought the 20mm pancake with that cash :(
  • Greek_m43Greek_m43
    I used fcp7 not X. We can't use X. It's gabage
  • MarkVMarkV
    @chrimsbroome Come on! I'm also using Adobe Premiere CS5.5 (sometimes AVID or fcp7 for large projects on 8 core Mac Pro) and the rendering quality from Adobe Media Encoder is good! You say "the quality output was worse than the original" - yes, when you set the output wrong the quality might be worse so it is pointless for you.. You need to be more specific :-)) Give us real world specific example.. ;-)
  • chrimsbroomechrimsbroome
    Dam, Looks like Final Cut Pro X is becoming the standard. I can see why because I tried to use Adobe Premire CS5 and the quality output was worse than the original, which made the whole thing tottally pointless. I have to make myself a Apple machine sometime.
  • Greek_m43Greek_m43
    @chrimsbroome log and transfer to prores in fcp7
  • PtchawPtchaw
    @MarkV Certainly the BBC have a general requirement for 25% of footage to be shot in their HD spec for a programme to be classified as HD, so you can probably stretch things :)

    Even the AF100 doesn't meet the classification, unless used with an external recorder.
  • chrimsbroomechrimsbroome
    @Greek_m43- what software did you use to encode the video and edit the video content? the quality looks great.
Add a Comment