Personal View site logo
Importance of Proper Tests for Reliable In-Cam Playback: Lessons from the Field
  • 41 Replies sorted by
  • @proaudio4 @troyjason less than ideal solution...

    @LPowell ...intriguing(!)... I'm holding on for the moment anyway due to lack of $... For now, I think I'm going back to the 44Mb patch.

  • Gotta shoot with 2-3 bodies (no excuse - they are cheap) and multiple firmwares loaded on 95mb/s cards.

    Problem solved.

  • @qwerty123 Hold on, your pleas have not gone unheeded. Before you invest in a new set of high-priced cards, you may want to wait until my last round of tests are completed...

  • Buy two camera bodies, problem solved ;)

  • I think I'm starting to realize ****different modes for different work****

    --many have said this all along (including Chirs) but I was stubborn in refusing to accept it.

    It seems that above a certain bitrate level, in-camera playback is not going to be reliable irrespective of the card quality. It seems that it's a function of the camera's playback abilities.

    So...if I really want to ensure in camera playback, then the low gop stuff is likely not my go to, then (something like) Chris's 44mb patch would be my go to for narratives in which I know I won't be running over say 10 minute clips. For spanning, I'd (reluctantly) drop to the L setting.

    If I want absolute best quality with absolute best motion and noise rendering and don't need in camera playback, then low gop is the way to go with (most likely) an investment in higher quality cards.

    Decisions, decisions.... I just want to shoot! Arg.

    (EDIT: I was wrong. Playback works fine on Quantum 100 with my Sandisk Extreme 30 mb/s--Quantum 9vb requires the higher end cards; curiously SpanMyBitchUp gave me problems. Huh.)

  • fucking brilliant, thank you driftwood!

  • @qwerty123 You could try to connect a tablet or android phone (with usb host) via the usb cable that came with cam. Dunno if the cam can hold up with this datarate when acting as cardreader, but its worth a try.

  • @driftwood when you say you get playback on Quantum v9... I'm assuming this is on the very high end Sandisk 64gb 95/s cards?

    I'm wondering if there are some easy and creative second best alternatives for getting playback on set. For example, having a laptop and loading up the card is one option. But this is less than ideal as it eats up too much time. Maybe some tablet option would be better...?

    I'd be happy to use any driftwood patch as my go to for narrative filmmaking if I could somehow easily get playback--and I'm (begrudgingly) willing to get the highest end card. (grumble grumble)... I'd even get the higher end cards if I could get consistent playback in cam.

    @piotremanuel Yeah... I recroded a 6 minute clip with chris's 66mb, and even then I was having problems: it plays back for one second, and then stops. Restarting doesn't help. So far 44mb seems ok. But I'd love to have the higher quality....

  • Couldnt be arsed to do vlc, mpegstreamclip or whatever... these are simple 'Print Screen' grabs and pasted into Paint whilst playing the mts files!

  • Yes @Driftwood, you look very sexy :o))) 720 seems to look great indeed. I'd love to meet up for some "jarry" conversations soon. BTW, VLC does a nice job with snapshots.

  • @Jspatz Ill do a span test now you bastard! Another 20 mins.... ;-)

  • @piotremanuel, long time no see, must meet up sometime for a jar down the Lord Nelson.

    In the meantime, here's a very quick comparison (self portrait knackered Driftwood after a long day patching!) of the quality on a voit 0.95 lens. These are the the three modes (1080p, 1080i, 720p) with Quantum v9 straight from Windows Media Player - no editing! blown up to full screen on Paint ! All recs looking good. ;-)

    Driftwood 1080p Quantum v9.png
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
    Driftwood 1080i Quantum v9.png
    1920 x 1080 - 3M
    Driftwood 720p Quantum v9.png
    1920 x 1080 - 3M
  • Quantum v9. Unchecked 30. Shot a short clip after a 10 minuted spanned 24l would not play back. Then removed battery. The short clip plays fine but nothing gets the spanned clip to play. Driftwood, are you saying spanned clips playback fine for you. What could be the difference

  • @Driftwood I am very intrigued by Quantum v9b. Believe me, I follow your brilliant developments very closely. I am certainly going to play with your latest one very soon.

  • Quantum v9 playsback fine in camera on my 4 cams. The quality is way better now plus some great 720p/1080i. Give it a try.

  • @qwerty123 I am using Chris's 66M most of the time when I need spanning and longer than 30 mins times. I just ticked the relevant options in ptool before saving the patch. Just yesterday, for example, I was filming some long interviews with it, some going near 1 hour at a time. It all passed with flying colours and the quality is certainly satisfactory (Thanks @cbrandin so much!). Now, regarding the in-camera playback, all works until the recording starts spanning- from that point the clip becomes unplayable. Otherwise if there's is a problem switching the camera off and on cures the playback issue. Also, after long spanning I must record a short clip, otherwise the next time the power is turned on the camera refuses to record anything further. These are the only niggles I can think of with this patch. I like the quality of this patch and it became my all-rounder. You must remember about the ISO bug each time you power on. The noise macro blocking is there, sure, but you have to really put it under the loupe to notice it. In this respect of course it's not as good as the consistent grain you get from excellent @Driftwood patches which I admire, however when it comes to the quality versus reliability (spanning, cheaper cards, longer recording times) the choice is clear. I only wish not almost everyone here was so obsessed with short GOP (please don't flame me now, I fully understand and cherish the need for GOP1 and love the results); there is a clear need for some people for long GOP patches to be taken further. I attached a few snaps from the recent clips with Chris's 66M patch. Good luck!

    vlcsnap-2012-01-01-14h34m29s0.png
    1920 x 1080 - 3M
    vlcsnap-2012-01-05-20h49m19s245.png
    1920 x 1080 - 3M
    vlcsnap-2012-01-15-23h00m57s225.png
    1920 x 1080 - 3M
    vlcsnap-2012-01-15-23h03m56s184.png
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
    vlcsnap-2012-01-15-23h02m51s16.png
    1920 x 1080 - 3M