@driftwood

Is the Moon setting the best bet to use as an upgrade from someone that likes the look of Orion v4b, or is Orion vb4 more stable?

I see a lot of people are using Moon T5, how will T6, T7 or any of the other variations differ? Also, is it planned to have one "final' release of Moon that combines everything from all of the trials?

Is Moon suitable as an all-around hack because I really only like keeping one hack loaded. If not, then which do you recommend taking what I mentioned into consideration?

I'm running a 64/96 sandisk card.

Thanks

@anthonyw moon T5 is heavily tested as the current leader - however moon T7 supersedes this and until we see more reports back from people regarding T7 you may want to try out T5 first. As far as my own measured opinion, T7 wins hands down. All the Cluster X settings are finitely tuned and updated as we go along. As an all round hack, T5 and T7 work on all modes. T6 was very experimental and has been superseded by the improved and much more stable T7. If you decide to go along the T7 route - probably use setE from the zipped pack just to be safe for all round use.

@danielortegajan Its not too bad that. The second batch of shots probably in too tight to get adequate focus.

@Driftwood I am having a ball with Moon 7 sete... 24p works brilliantly however the camera keeps freezing when filming HBR25p... I am not using a Sandisk card but I don't think it is the card anyway. The same card handles a higher bit rate with 24p with no problem at all... Am I missing something here? Any ideas? Thanks

@Driftwood Camera completely freezes and I need to get the battery out to reset. Looks like there is no pattern to the freeze. Sometimes records 50sec, sometimes 2min+ before freezing... No playable clips on the card - neither in camera nor on computer. And the file size shows "0". Using and integral ultima pro 95mbs card. As I said it handles 24p without any problems. Is the corrupt file any good for you? Do you still want to see it? Thanks for your help

EDIT: Formatted the card and tried again... Looks like it is working now... Do you think the culprit might be the files recorded with Moon 7 setd that I left on the card?

@WarLightUK Was that last test video shot with a 1/50th shutter?

I'll do more tests tomorrow and report back... Thanks Nick.

@WarLightUK Just for shits and giggles, can you shoot a few scenes at 1/40th? I was going to go out to the pier tonight and shoot some tests but I've been allocated to ripping down a wall in my kitchen by the wife. The boss takes priority! :)

I shot some stuff on the first version and the motion looked ok to me and I shoot on 1/40.

Try it. You decide. A lot of people like the grain in Sedna, Apocalypse Now settings, Boom and Intravenus I & II. See what you think to moon.

Good report. Thankyou @Azo. Nebula done then. :-)

I tested the moon T7 sete, using a Sandisk 64gb/95mbps. - Cinema 24p, 1920x1080, Auto Quantizer changed to "4 - All to details". Shutter 1/40 and 1/50, ISO800. Recorded long clips of 20 and 10 minutes, all fine. - 720/60p, Shutter 1/125 for slow motion. Recorded 20 and 30 minutes, all fine.

I don't have anything interesting to shoot right now, so I will try it in a real job on this Friday, as it's a reliable patch.

@puru Liang was that 720p ? Nice to see a Brighton test :-)

@FernandoAndre Did you uncheck Initial Quantizer / Quantizer for 1080 modes / Quantizer for 720 modes before switching on Auto Quantizer?

@Azo Thanks for proving DREWnet is rock solid too. Yeah there were some 720 B frame amends during the ptool changes that sorted out a few issues in the firmware / switching on / first recording etc. Always good to use the latest version of ptools.

@driftwood No, I didn't see these options on "patches for testers". So, I need uncheck these 3 options if I want the Auto Quantizer active?

Edit: Got a question: Ptool says on Auto Quantizer: "lower values mean lower compression, High values lead to high compression". It means that 4 - All to details has a higher compression than 0 - All to motion? If I want better quality (and bigger bitrate by consequence), my choice should be 0 - All to motion?

@FernandoAndre I don't use AQ at all personally. Everything is measured from the matrix to the manual quantisers.

FYI on Auto Quantizer. =4 is lowest QP as it moves towards =0 it adjusts bitrate to motion estimation. = 2 is a balance.

Chris Brandin who created the routine explains:- "The Auto Quantizer allocates the additional bandwidth to different things. If you go towards "detail" more of the extra bandwidth is allocated to using less quantization of macroblocks - which means better shadow detail and smoother detail all around. If you go towards "motion" extra bandwidth is not allocated to accommodate lower quantization of macroblocks, rather it is allocated to encoding changes in the image more robustly - which means reduced stuttering, etc... They both improve quality, just in different ways. "