Tagged with matrix - Personal View Talks

Driftwood ClusterX series 2:│moon│ЅріzZ│nebula│drewnet│Slipstream │Redshift

driftwood — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:03:08 +0000

Cluster X Settings - Series 2

After receiving over a thousand replies in the last 8 weeks in the previous thread we continue the series here from the following link:-

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/5806/cluster-x-series-1

Whats it all about? Achieving the best looking overall pictures around - throughtout the popular GOPs. The great thing about Cluster X developments is you can mix and match some of the settings to combine into your favourite setting (e.g. GOP1 for 24p and 25p/FSH, GOP 6 For 1080i60/30p and 12/15 for 720p etc...). Slipstream settings do this for you (mixed and matched and with spanning capabilities where we can plus 80% modes on H & iA mode support).

This has been a tough (and still ongoing) challenge, each setting (and ptools patch change) takes an age to check & measure. Its exhausting work - even with 4 cameras on the go. The measuring to check Quantisation, frame sizes and stability adapting one change at a time is pretty debilitating on mental energy. I hope people appreciate waiting for each setting to appear.

All the new Cluster X series settings for each GOP attached below have been tested on the notorious 14-140 Pany sharp lens. Give me feedback.

Its as simple as A, B, C, D, E, F ! Each .ini setting in ptools for Cluster X Series will equate to setA ('DREWnet' 12/15 GOP), setB ('Nebula' 6 GOP), setC ('Spizz' 3 GOP), setD ('Moon' 1 GOP/3 GOP), setE (Slipstream 1) & setF (Slipstream 2) setG (Slipstream 3) and finally setH (Redshift). Any updates will stay on these sets.

"Bitrate is King. Who needs hi powered scaling matrices when enough Bitrate (if you have it) can drive the quantisation..." Quote from my conversation with Dark Shikari - X264 dev 2012

If you enjoy these settings please don't forget to donate to personal-view by clicking on the link above. Gratitude and thanks to Vitaliy Kiselev.

Special software for stitching together bullet time photos?

kraqman — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 23:43:49 +0000

Nikon had a 360 degree "bullet time" camera array at CES to create the resulting videos such as this

Are there any software on the market that can stitch the pictures from the camera array into the resulting "bullet time" video? Or they are all in-house software?

There is a painstaking way of doing this in NLEs. I was wondering if there are more time saving software out there.

Thanks in advance!

Macro-blocking on AVCHD but not on MJPEG ?

TruHype — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 13:21:59 +0000

Hi, I've discovered that there was Macro-blocking on AVCHD 24p video (even when transcoded with 5d2RGB), but not with MJPEG ! I was using the 'Apocalypse now Cluster v7 DREWNET 444 Soft Matrix' (MJPEG 2k and changed 30p to 24p with ptools).

How do I get rid of it ?

The Hills

pvjames — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:48:46 +0000

Footage around Eastern Sierras in California.

Better Quality: http://photos.jamesthorpe.com/Other/Film/22905243_LRBs44#!i=2084189442&k=VPTsv35&lb=1&s=A

'Apocalypse Now' Experimental Series 1 Thread - BOOM, Intravenus - cbrandin/driftwood AN Soft/Cinema

driftwood — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:53:09 +0000

Introduction

Welcome to Apocalypse Now and two new matrices researched & supplied by Chris Brandin - adjusted by Nick Driftwood & bkmcwd and incorporated into a new selection of top quality settings - each tested by our 'Apocalypse Now' Beta team.

The theory behind the 444 matrix is an attempt to simulate a process that turns the codec into the equivalent of 4:4:4 encoding.

Many people complain about the “video” look. In part, this is caused by excessive sharpness and rather “crunchy” rendering of gradations.

These matrices are designed to soften the image and improve gradation rendering (smoothness). The softening was specifically targeted toward Panasonic lenses (or other, modern 4/3 lenses) – which are very sharp. Many people use soft lenses wide open to get a more “organic” look. The '444 Soft' and soon to be released 'Cinema Smooth' matrices were designed to provide some of that effect with the sharper Panasonic glass.

So, if you are using only soft lenses with the '444 Soft' matrix settings that amounts to double softening - and that may be too much in some cases.

In this scenario we will be providing a series of sharpened 444 matrices to offer a bit more balance between soft and sharp lenses (the first of which can be found in the Cluster v7 444 Sharp settings).

The factory matrices render detail rectilinearly, which results in more detail along diagonals than at right angles. Film renders detail the same at all angles. These matrices were designed to more closely render detail the way film does.

The ‘444 Soft’ versions of the matrices render color and luma detail with the same resolution. The effect is that detail, although softer, is rendered in a way that is similar to a 4:4:4 color space. This is accomplished by lowering the luma detail and raising the color detail. It’s not exactly the same as 4:4:4 – but its close.

The best way to test these is with sharp lenses because the entire design goal was to be able to produce a more filmic, organic look with standard optics instead of having to use soft lenses.

Older lenses designed before the digital era will nearly always be somewhat soft with digital sensors. This is because of the way the image is presented to the sensor. Film era lenses supply the image to the film/sensor at all angles. This worked because film is relatively flat compared to digital sensors so it doesn't matter at what angle light is presented. Newer lenses are designed to present the image to the sensor at a right angle - which is necessary for optimal sharpness with digital sensors.

The ‘444 Sharp’ versions of the matrix render color and luma detail with, of course, sharper detail. This is accomplished by lifting the luma detail from the softer 444 variation whilst retaining the color detail of the 444 matrix.

The best way to test the sharper 444 setting is with manual lenses because it slightly compensates for the somewhat softer matrix without overloading it and looking video-ish. This setting may need further adapting so look out for more adjusted matrices soon – and please give us feedback.

The 444 matrix set could also be good for green screen work – assuming, of course, that it still results in QP values of 16-18. Although this matrix is mainly directed at longer GOP's even the Intra based settings at mid to tight scene shots should produce exceptional results (as far as our tests go). The only problem we foresee with the Intra setting with these '444 matrices' is if there is a lot of detail and not enough light the range of Q values will vary greatly - beyond +-4 (the bitrate required to make Intra fully utilise this matrix would be greater than 250M). With Cluster's Long GOP implementation, prediction sampling affords us to use lower bitrate to achieve the same quality as top-end Intra.

The initial design of the Chris Brandin's matrices were intended for 1080p24 modes only but we've provided similar matrix versions in HBR/FSH and 720p patches anyway to see how people receive / perceive them. You will see that the encoder settings of all the 'Apocalypse Now' releases have been fine-tuned or rewritten from the ground up - including detailed analysis of data rate bandwidth, Rate Control, GOP weighting, etc - to bring even better performance.

The Cluster v7 '444 Sharp' releases have been tested under iA and iDynamic on their top settings - if you are of the consensus that you DO NOT require intelligent modes iA/iDynamic, we have decided to offer you additional 'AN' settings that make use of this bandwidth in the basic encoding patches and provide stronger GOP weighting - at the risk of failure in Intelligent modes.

The second Chris Brandin defined matrix, 'cbrandin Cinema Smooth' will be incorporated inside forthcoming Apocalypse Now settings. Details and info TBA.

We hope that you like these settings, a great deal of time and effort has gone into making what could be the last in the line of GH2 hacks with the announcement of the GH3 in the pipeline. Finally, a HUGE thanks to our team of Apocalypse Now beta testers for putting in the hours and testing dutifully.

Thank you guys,

cbrandin, driftwood & bkmcwd

CREDITS

These settings are dedicated to VK @Vitaliy_Kiselev and to all GH2 hack users. Long Live the GH2!

IF YOU DOWNLOAD THESE SETTINGS PLEASE PAYPAL DONATE (ABOVE) TO VITALIY FOR HIS BRILLIANT & TIRELESS WORK ON GIVING US THE HACK & PATCH TOOLS TO MAKE THESE POSSIBLE.

UPDATE: NEW EXPERIMENTAL SETTINGS CAN BE FOUND ON THE DRIFTWOOD EXPERIMENTAL THREAD 2

Driftwood Quantum X Settings, Series 2: Sedna A, B, C

driftwood — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:45:55 +0000

*** THIS IS A CONTINUATION THREAD FROM SERIES ONE CAN BE FOUND HERE

ALL PRESENT DRIFTWOOD SETTINGS LINKS ARE NOW INCLUDED BELOW ALONGSIDE THE SETTINGS - SEE LINKS. THANK YOU. ***

Driftwood Sedna 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d- Release 15th March 2012 ETA 01:00am

(Panasonic firmware v1.11 & ptools 3.64d '200212' required). Settings for GH2 & GF2 Lumix cameras. Stats: 24p Intra, 1080i/HBR Intra, 720 GOP3/GOP6 all settings as Orion with Sedna Matrices:-

A = High Detail matrix Good for Wide full detail shots.

B = Good allround detail matrix Great all round wide / mid shots.

C = Softer detail matrix Softer skin tonal detail.

*You can rename the set.ini files to suit your A to J button placements - just change the letter using right-click rename in Windows/Mac PC)

There's not too massive a difference between them - just fine adjustments. Look great on STD Picture Profile.

Two packs;- one pack set on AQ1, the other Q20.

NOTE: These are balanced high Quantised matrix settings disabling the need for pushing AQ to 2, 3 or 4 or lower manual Q

TECH INFO: Who needs 150M to pull off good looking pictures? You don't. Good to Hi quality Type 10 sdcards only.

NOTES: It seems a lifetime in a week trying to achieve the best possible bitrate, Q, matrix etc... settings to date. Sedna is the work of around 50+ odd hours of continuous testing with 4 GH2s working around the clock with different lenses, ISO's, shutter speeds and stopping up and down... but even that's not enough testing.

Some of these settings have also been put through their paces by @onionbrain (incredible and extensive chart work, thank you Andrew) and @thepalalias and I am deeply grateful for their reports. Per @thepalalias has also been of great help in assisting in visual testing and also for his tireless work testing audio. Therefore, I have included his latest 'Pasadena Pulse Audio V2 Beta 2' audio settings within Sedna - which I know he (and his team) have spent an age developing and getting right. I can vouch that they sound superb - bringing the best audio and recording mic setups available to date to the GH2. Well done fellas. They are to be applauded.

But a week's testing by so few of us is never enough to cover every single conceivable problem. And for that we rely on you filmmakers, documentary makers, videographers, and all to report back your findings.

Personally, I have been rather selfish - trying to achieve the best settings for my up-and-coming film project with the gh2 - fundraiser will be up soon ;-) Predominant testing has therefore taken place at 24p level. Although extensive work has also gone to achieving closeish HBR & 720p settings for users of those settings. I believe more time on these will be spent in the future.

The main objective of Sedna has been to look at ways of calming down the noise, knock down the overblown Reds whilst wrestling with the blues and without the colour space values of 4:2:2, 10bit et al, its near on impossible - we can only mess with the luminance and chrominance. Most of the testing has taken place in real world conditions - the others from my chart basics and the chart profile tests by Andrew @onionbrain. I think all of us testing so far have seen better performance than the stock matrix by Panasonic. Whether you prefer them to Orion or Dark Matter settings is up to you. After all, the human visual system means what's good for one is not the best for another. But now there's more choice.

But enough banter, soon it will be your chance to try out the new settings.

Nick

Driftwood 'Cluster' v1 With Orion (AVC Intra adapted) Matrix VBR 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d- Released 9th March 2012 1am

(Panasonic firmware v1.11 & ptools 3.64d '200212' required). Settings for GH2 & GF2 Lumix cameras. Stats: Upto 72M 24p, Upto 36M HBR, Upto 36M 720p modes. (*All REC MODES include B frames)

INFO: Very simple Long GOP cluster of i/p/b frames principle, Low Bitrate, conservative settings for all round use with a nice matrix for Type 6 card users. After so many requests from non GOP1'ers to provide the Orion Matrix in a Long GOP configuration I settled on this one to hopefully satisfy the need. I like 12 GOP / 15 GOP for Long GOP - as far as editing goes and converters out there, the Ibbpbbpbbpbb (12 GOP PAL) and ibbpbbpbbpbbpbb (15 GOP NTSC) is the most universally supported GOP structure outside of Intra. A nice cluster of i/p and b frames and appropriately titled methinks. Hopefully, this will keep long duration seekers, type 6 card users, and HBR peeps happy (though I doubt I can please all of 'em).

Driftwood Quantum X (v4d Orion) 'Dark Matter' Matrix Pack + HBR FIX - CBR 'Settings' for ptools 3.64d- Released 18:30pm 06/03/2012