@balazer

"towi, but it didn't crash, right? ;)"

Right. However the footage is unusable.

"In HBR 25p I'm using GOP3 and a max average bit rate of 45 Mbps, which is fine for normal scenes but obviously insufficient for very high quality in highly detailed scenes. Increasing the GOP length is not something I'm willing to do (...) If you can create settings that do better in HBR 25p, then good for you. :)"

bkmcwd's "Natural", "GOP3ZILLA" and "GOLGOP13" are all 3GOP settings ... and they work great in HBR/25p mode ... However they do not span in HBR/25p mode ...

Thanks for all of the feedback. I'm pleased that the settings are working well for a lot of people.

towi, but it didn't crash, right? ;) In HBR 25p I'm using GOP3 and a max average bit rate of 45 Mbps, which is fine for normal scenes but obviously insufficient for very high quality in highly detailed scenes. Increasing the GOP length is not something I'm willing to do, because that would force me to lower the bit rate in 24p and VMM. And you don't need to raise the bit rate by very much in HBR before you risk spanning failures. My settings aren't just "successfully tested" for spanning. They're designed in such a way that virtually guarantees spanning 100% of the time. If you can create settings that do better in HBR 25p, then good for you. :)

albertdros, you can test it.

smontoto, the bit rate in 24L is set about 15 Mbps lower than in 24H - not a very large difference. The bulk of my testing was in 24H, but it seemed stable in 24L. The way I've designed the settings doesn't give me the flexibility to have a 24L mode that's much lower than 24H and still give good quality. If you need lower bit rates, you should look at other settings like Cbrandin 44M or Sanity.

interesting. Could someone else test this with hbr 25p?

Can someone enlighten me about the difference between the Cake 24h and 24L modes? I can't find any information about the 24L. I am looking for the stability/reliable spanning for longer recordings. I have currently used the Cake 24H and it has been working good. Just a little nervous to use it during a paying gig.

@tblackman, amazing results, i also use Cake 2.1 for now on both GH2 and GF2, very stable and good quality ...

@balazer using HBR 30p would be great. 24p is too important to waste. Cakes frame quality is nice and file sizes efficient, but 2 or 2,5fps timelapse mode would be vital at least for me keeping the file sizes as reduced as possible. Then Cake+timelapser would be ideal for long travelling. Is it too much to asked for if you could make it possible?

I gave some thought to the idea of merging TimeBuster with Cake 2.1. The question would be which mode to use for time lapses.

If you want to use HBR 30p for time lapses, it could be done with no impact to other modes (except to 30i, which I don't care about anyway). It wouldn't be possible to do a full TimeBuster-style mode in HBR where everything but the I-frames are squashed to zero. But I could do it so that you'd have the GOP length equal to the effective frame period, with one normal I-frame, one normal P-frame, and a bunch of small P-frames in each GOP.

24p, VMM, and HBR 25p all share the GOP length parameter, so using any one of them for high efficiency time lapses would mean sacrificing the other two. HBR 25p would have the same restrictions as HBR 30p (above). 24p could be done in the full TimeBuster-style where everything but the I-frames is squashed to zero.

I did a few tests with the Cake 2.0 and Sanity hacks, using a GH2 and a Transcend 32 gig Class 10 card. The results probably won't surprise anyone.

I shot a theater's rehearsal with my GH2 running Cake 2.0, as well as my TM700 camcorder: Cake was able to fit a solid hour's recording on the card, without any hiccups, and the image quality was terrific. (The camcorder's was considerably less: whether that's due to the lower bitrate, or the difference in lenses, I'm not sure.)

I ran the Sanity patch for a duration test in my backyard, again with the TM700 running alongside. Sanity's lower bit rate got me more than two hours on the card. The image quality was also good, but both cameras were shooting through a glass door at my garden, so that may be a factor. I should try using Cake 2.1 on the garden for a better test.

The general verdict is this: I can use Sanity and get decent quality, and I'd be able to cover a two-hour event. If I use Cake, then I gotta get a second card for a two-hour show, but the images'll probably be much better.

There's nothing stopping you from using these settings (or anyone else's) for shooting time lapses. I suggest shooting in VMM 300% mode. If you want longer recording times and more efficient encoding at low frame rates, check out Duartix's TimeBuster. It would be some work to see how and whether TimeBuster could be merged with Cake v2.1.

New: Cake v2.1

• Adds spanning in 720p (NTSC and PAL)

• Other modes are unchanged from Cake v2.0

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2123/gh2-cake-v2.1-reliability-and-spanning-in-720p-hbr-24p-and-vmm-at-2-2.5x-stock-bit-rates/p1

With my PNY 32GB professional @ 20mb I got 95 minutes/ 8 files in Cinema 24h. I didn't get any error in HBR and 720/60p. Up to 1600 ISO I'm still having a very nice grain which is acceptable for my work. CAKE 2.0 is my choice for long interviews, I love it. Thank you

@mschaa

90 min recording on a 32gb card is a very very good result if you think about the image quality provided by Cake. I'm 99,999% sure the card was just full afterwards.

About the write error on the 16GB Sandisk Ultra 30MB/sec: how long did it take to stop?

If it recorded more than 10 minutes it simply didn't span.

Well i tried Cake yesterday on an event. It stopped recording after about 90 Minutes with a 32 GB Card. Strangely when i tried it recorded again...so i am wondering if the card was nearly full or why Cake stopped recording. Also i had write error on a 16GB Sandisk Ultra 30MB/sec...card too slow. Anyway the result and quality is great. But for the next event in good light i will stick to the original firmware.