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Official Low GOP topic, series 3
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  • *** NEW BETA *** Quantum v4
    Changed HD MJPEG to a step down in size for durability reasons: Big improvements further still on quality for both modes HD & VGA and high datarates not seen before. Anamorphic sizes are;-
    720p30 width=2048, 720p30 height=864
    480p30 width=2160, 480p30 height=810
    If you change either size settting to 1920x1080 for non anamorphic users you're good to go with great looking footage. Appears very good actually but let me know :-)
    2. Very slight improvements on 1080p24, 1080i, 720p.

    Test away and report results.

    Nick
    Driftwood 'Quantum' BETA 4 - seta.zip
    813B
  • Eager to test~ but still gotta wait for my 2x ana to come...
  • @driftwood
    Quantum V4 is not stable for fast pan motion on my test. Just test it out with my Sandisk 30mbs and it fail on fast repeated panning. Also does not playback on camera. Didn't even show clips info, just show a thumbnail. In Mjep, Is it common to see the remain time at 2minute when SD card is not full? Waiting for a stable in camera playback patch.
  • @driftwood thanks will test away
  • @driftwood, Quantum Beta 4 observations:
    Isco Cinemascope Ultra Star 65mm (front half end of projector lens)
    Using a San Disk 32GB 30MB/s HD Video SD card. Works fine with SeAQuake, not spanning, of course.

    MJPEG - HD setting = 2048 x 864 recording.
    Applied a reduction to the height value 100 to 70 in NLE, image now appears correct.
    Records well, no drops outs, a few basic shots of my children in the room, house lights on in the evening.
    Colour rendition of MJPEG appears closer to skin tones, as opposed to AVCHD, MJPEG may have less of that green/yellow tinge in skin tones, 2500K WB for all mode tests. As mentioned by @Oedipax, there is an obvious harshness to MJPEG recording. Further, as @johnnym has mentioned, above, perhaps the resolution is not really there? Perhaps the noise in the image is making it appear sharper, yet lacks resolution? I do not have a resolution chart, so I can not conduct any crude comparison tests. That said, it is amazing that yesterday I was capturing some clips at 2560x1080 out of this amazing little hand held camera, the GH2.

    MJPEG - VGA setting = 2160 x 810 recording.
    Image mostly correct aspect, perhaps I could apply height variation from value 100 to 105 in NLE, image appears correct.
    @gh2hacked, you mentioned recording fails, was it this specific VGA mode for you too, or all modes? Only this one failed for me everytime. I tried some rapid pan/tilt for a few seconds, but recording soon failed when settling down and pointing at talent. Again, all indoor lighting, evening time.
    @driftwood, if you increased the data rate on this one with the tweaks in Quantum Beta 4, then perhaps we may need to drop the rate a little?

    AVCHD 1080p24 24H setting - 1920 x 1080 recording.
    Applied a reduction to the height value from 100 to 56 in NLE, image now appears correct.
    I am leaning towards the view that AVCHD is preferred, including anamorphic use. Smoother less noisy image. Using my anamorphic Isco is proving a little soft for my liking. Only a few days experimenting, so I reserve further comments for now.

    @driftwood, is it possible I make my own custom X and Y values in AVCHD, such as 1920 x 720, if so, how?

    Thank you, @driftwood, et al.
  • @WhiteRabbit

    If you know the exact ratio of your anamorphic, you can just multiply that with the number of pixels the filming mode is wide (assuming you want to shoot at 1080 HD MJPEG, you multiply 1920 with 1.33x to arrive at 2560) and enter that number in PTool MJPEG settings

    So for instance you want to shoot in VGA mode (which has a 4:3 aspect ratio) with -say- an 1.73 anamorphic, you enter 810 (assuming you want to shoot at 810) and (810 x 4:3 = 1080) 1080x1.73 = 1401 and the picture will be stretched according to your anamorphic's stretch.
    Or say you want to shoot in HD mode (which is probably too wide for a 1.75 anamorphic, but let's calculate for the sake of demonstration) then you leave the 1080 height and enter (1080 x 16:9 = 1920) 1920 x 1.75 = 3360 (probably too big for the GH2, but you get the point)

    Say you want to shoot VGA mode with your 1.72x anamorphic and you want to shoot at a height of 1080p, then you enter 1440 (= 1080 x 4:3) times 1.72, so 1440x1.72 = 2476
    Your picture will then be 2476x1080p, which has a final aspect ratio of 2.29, little short of the Academy 2.35 aspect ratio
  • @johnnym, thank you very kindly for your reply and explanation. I will read a few times and try and assimilate this information.

    MJPEG VGA appears mostly correct with my Isco (2160/810=2.66). However, I am leaning toward AVCHD, curious to learn if AVCHD 1080p24 24H can be manipulated to be 1920 x 720 (1920/720=2.66)? If so, increase data rate of recording, no height transform in NLE, perhaps other benefit? Just a thought, @driftwood?
  • The AVCHD resolution cannot be changed in the current PTool. Also note that the aspect ratio of every mode (MJPEG HD 16:9, MJPEG VGA 4:3, AVCHD 16:9) cannot be changed in the current PTool. So we have only the resolution of the MJPEG to work with.
    Of course, you can shoot AVCHD with your 1.75x anamorphic and stretch in post. It will look very good (although maybe a little wide :) but still very nice!)
  • Again, thank you for the further information, @johnnym. Yes, I have tested both AVCHD 1080p24 24H and MJPEG HD and VGA with the anamorphic. With AVCHD 1080p24 24H anamorphic recordings, I apply a height transform in the NLE, value of 100 down to 56, it looks correct aspect, and yes, a very wide image. I just prefer the look of AVCHD recordings at this stage.

    Interested to learn if @Vitaliy can explore AVCHD aspect ratio adjustments in PTool in subsequent releases, although it may not be as beneficial coming from 16:9 mode.
  • Here's a test of MPEG VGA Mode in 2160x810 and ISO 12800!
    This frame size is perfect for 2x anamorphic attachments, but image quality is rather unusable compared to AVCHD imo. This is just a test in b&w so can't say something about skin colors.. but sharpness and artifacts are much worse than in AVCHD. Here's the video:
  • oh, this has so much magic, but the downsides are big.
    i just wish we would be able to change avchd to anamorphic benefits somehow.
    i have my 2x kowa ready at my closet ;)
  • I've also noticed better skin tones with mjpg mode like @WhiteRabbit says the clips have less green.
  • @WhiteRabbit
    Both the VGA and HD mode in mjpeg crashes. That is if you do continuos fast panning. It will looks very motion blur on camera LCD then stop recording.
  • @driftwood
    I personally think the data size is large enought. Perhap you can add a patch that balance between stability, quality and data rate? That would be great.
  • @All thanks for these mjpeg results - I have deliberately pushed it close to the limits on the bitrate, now I need to analyse the table quality settings and mess with them accordingly.
  • @gh2hacked, @driftwood
    I ran a few more tests of Quantum Beta 4, MJPEG HD & VGA.
    I have no problems with running MJPEG HD, normal shooting style and rapid pan/tilt action for outdoor shot, settings below. No crashing.
    As for MJPEG VGA, when I press record, usually crashes in within 3 to 5 seconds. If indoors, ISO3200, 3800K WB, 1/60 or 1/400, rapid pan/tilt, will crash in 5-10 seconds. If outdoors, ISO160, ND6, 5200K WB, 1/60 or 1/400, rapid pan/tilt, mostly will not crash, yet will crash when I stop rapid camera movement. If no rapid camera movement, crashes in a few seconds. Confused? Perhaps data rate has become too high for MJPEG VGA, or higher ISO noise adds to the crashing? Not sure what changed between Quantum Beta 3 and 4 to cause this.
  • @soru
    Thank you for your beautiful samples. :-)
    I improved 3GOP patch a little again.
    Please try.

    NOTE:
    In this patch, it is ignored except 24p(24H).

    UPDATE(2011.Dec.25th):
    Second patch is renewal version.

    bkmcwd 3GOP 1M Max Frame Size Test Patch.zip
    656B
    bkmcwd 3GOP 1M Max Patch ISO12800.JPG
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
    bkmcwd 3GOP 1M_Max_Patch_Trees.JPG
    1295 x 635 - 199K
    bkmcwd 3GOP Economical Over 1M Max Frame Size Patch.zip
    737B
    bkmcwd Economical Over 1M Max Frame Size Patch ISO12800.JPG
    1296 x 633 - 199K
  • @bkmcwd can you make the mts file available for dwnld, so I can take a crack at it with ColorGHear?
  • @bkmcwd my bad, I didn't even check that cuz I assumed it was mp4. Downloading now. Thanks
  • *** NEW **** Quantum BETA 5 ****
    Thee 720p60p / 1080i60 test!!!!
    Both settings are now on much higher bitrate together with GOP3 (inc analysis of encoder settings to achieve better stability) higher frame limit and better temporal quality. They are at their peaks and are looking very good on cadence.
    1080p24H The highest average frames over all other patches around! Totally spatial!*
    *Sandisk 64Gb 95mbps users before saving firmware can take the 1080p frame limit upto to 6208888 without problems if you would. This will bring you over the 800k mark for i frames (constant) :-)
    INTRA 1080p24L has been taken upto 100M for longer recordings with better quality - please test for spanning.
    MJPEG Stabilised (as before with slightly lower bitrate and table analysis) and is stil better than has been seen before in other patches.
    Test away!

    Dr Driftwood ;-)
    Driftwood 'Quantum' BETA 5 - setd.zip
    796B
  • fuck ya!
    Thank you driftwood!
  • @FGCU Patches for testers in ptools, uncollapse >Frame Buffers/Limits see 1080p Frame Limit - change it from 6108888 to 6208888.
  • @FGCU Nice Looks great... @driftwood another one... but thanks for coming up with new improved version of the Quantum patch, now it's time for me to buy my 95mb/s 64gb card..
  • I've been manually entering ALL numbers, due to none of the web browsers within bootcamp recognizing .ini files as downloadable. IMO, EVERYONE should do it this way (manual entry) a couple of times, even if it is just mirroring someone else's (driftwood e.g.) settings (as I have been doing). Open the .ini file in a text reader, it is all there, and corresponds to check boxes and their parameters within PTools. It gives one an extra level of understanding of PTools and how complex this crap is. (And would shut up many pointless questions concerning "what the hack does" or "how ptools works")
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