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PTool v3.62d topic
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  • Thanks for the hack Vitaliy
  • @derek What was that shot at? (lens, ISO, aperture and shutter speed)
  • Hi,i dont remember the iso,i think was 640iso and 1600 iso,lent was lumix 20mm f1.7
    aperture 1.7 and shutter speed 50,88mb GOP3 AQ 4
    thanks
  • Hmm.. I think you have a lot less noise than me at 1600 ISO - I will have to test my camera again later.

    I've just ordered a C-Mount 25mm f/1.2 lens - a whole stop faster than the 1.7, so your scene above could be filmed at 800 ISO! Of course, these C-Mount lenses vignette heavily in anything other than the Ex-Tele mode.
  • @derek Can you post your P.Tool settings? Shot looks really good
  • @cbrandin yes, I am from Vienna! Nice to hear you grew up here! If you're interested about further films I did around vienna, have a look at my vimeo account. I agree about your conclusion of better rendered noise, but not necessarily more detail. The interesting part about this was also, that in completely static scenes the bitrate kept high (and the cam was stable, even with a cheap cBuffalo lass 6 card).

    I am curious to see how things move on. For now I will use this settings for my trip to Italy.
  • @ GMC

    "Clearly, the 720p mode benfits the most, and this is a huge improvement"

    Really? Sorry, but I don´t see any "huge improvement" of the hacked 720p mode in your test. Please, give me a hint in which part of the image you see this "huge improvement"?
  • @Vitaliy why some of suggested values are different from default values on the textfields? e.g. 24H's suggested bitrate is 42M where its textfield has 44M.
  • @nic2011 have a look at the 400% magnification. It's really obvious I guess.
  • I don't really think that stating that there is "no huge improvement" is very helpful. Especially since there are people on this forum likening the image to Red... If there are people here that are not super excited- then maybe wait for the HDMI testing to begin, (arguably the best quality possible out of this cam). Other than that Buy a Red- or wait for Scarlet, oh- Scarlet is only 2/3 sensor! :(

    At the end of the day most people are not going to be seeing that much of a difference anyway, but you will see it in the editing room. (And dare I say it when watching it in Cinema / Blu-ray etc)
  • @GMC

    "have a look at the 400% magnification. It's really obvious I guess."

    I did have a look at this part. But I still don´t see a difference. If you see a "huge improvement" (as you said) please tell me in which part exactly you can notice it.
  • It did improve. Some had said 4:2:0 subsampling caused the ugly color banding in the sky and insisted 4:2:2 subsampling via HDMI recording would fix the issue. PTools 3.62d fixed the issue with AVCHD 4:2:0.

    Editing wise... I'm guessing newer PTools is producing lower compression ratio as I had easier time in editing. I used to transcode into DNxHD. Not anymore.

    At this point I don't see any compelling reason to go after HDMI recording.
  • @stonebat
    As far as enabling high quality green screen work - then yes: 4.2.2 is needed. Other than that- HDMI output was always ( and still is) a request for the GH1- it would be pointless to disregard this feature now that VK and the GH2 is so close (ie: Gh2 actually has Live HDMI output!). However what I would state is that if HDMI is just impossible it is no longer a deal breaker!

    And besides- doesn't anyone want to see the GH2 (along with VK's name) make its way on the BBC camera list! :D

    Good stuff!
  • @nic2011 If you don't see it maybe there's something wrong with your monitor? At work I have an old one where the contrast of the screen just hides all dark areas as black. But that's where we are looking at. And it's so plain obvious that it's hard to explain ;-)

    If your monitor is fine and you still don't see it, thats fine as well. Then the hack is probably not going to provide value in your chain of displaying, etc....
  • @GMC

    "If your monitor is fine and you still don't see it, thats fine as well."

    We have several really good monitors in our company and with 5 people we did try to find out your statement of a "huge improvement". But nobody could really find a difference. Both shots are nearly the same regarding to IQ and shadow detail besides the fact that there was a different light situation. But Ok - to each his own...
  • @nic2011 well, I am talking about the smeared macroblocks in the dark areas in 720p unhacked which also exhibit a pulsing typically for long gop codecs. In the hacked one the macroblock pulsing is gone and fine details are exhibited. Hope thats the explanation you were looking for :-)
  • @ Chris is your basic recommended setting also for 1080i? So 44mbs / AQ 3 / GOP 6??
  • @Zorba

    No, I do not recommend changing the GOP - it has a well documented bug that Vitaliy is fixing. 44M is a good safe bitrate that does offer significant improvement over the factory settings.

    The AQ parameter is important - it can have a big effect on image quality - especially in post. AQ 3 is good, AQ 4 may even be better, unless you are filming a lot of fast moving stuff.

    What high AQ values do is allow the codec to encode macroblocks with more steps between dark and light. With AQ 0 you might get 20 steps between black and white, with AQ 4 you might get over 100. It's actually a little more complicated than that, but basically that's what is happening. AVC codecs actually establish a range for a macroblock (i.e. the darkest thing in the block to the lightest), and then divides that range into steps - sort of (it's pretty complicated). A high AQ value allows the codec to use more steps. Testing with high detail contrasty scenes may not show a big advantage, but low contrast scenes with gradations will, especially if they are dark. Any work you do in post will rely on the increased quality and amplify the quality, or lack thereof.

    Chris
  • >it has a well documented bug that Vitaliy is fixing

    It is bug in Panasonic encoder, not in Ptool. Just to clarify.
    It looks like encoder expect GOP to be always near 0.5 sec.
    This can be real source of the problem.
  • @Chris, ok! Thank you for information. I will remove the changing from GOP!
    Also thank you & vitaliy for your great work to make GH2 better :)
  • If it is in the Panasonic encoder, will it be fixable from the hack?
  • @VK

    Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that it is your bug - it clearly isn't. As you pointed out - it's a limitation in the GH2 codec.

    Chris
  • @danyyel

    "If it is in the Panasonic encoder, will it be fixable from the hack?"

    Hopefully, but it will take some work if it is possible. Give Vitaliy some time...

    Chris
  • @Zorba

    I haven't played with 1080i much, so I'm not sure how to apply the 44M patch to it. 44M does seem like it should work with it, though.

    Chris
  • @Chris, aha.. Ok!

    I will try your setting and shot some different movies! Hope this setting is also good for 1080i!
    Many Greets and thanks for your help!
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