Hacks and Patches

Best hack and settings for chromakey

Jspatz — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:28:24 +0000

I am looking for advice and recommendations for shooting talking head interviews on green chromakey using fancier 500 single color led. Hack, film mode, white balance, etc. thanks

GH2 Possible Improvements

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:32:07 +0000

This topic is dedicated to improvements of GH2 firmware you would like to see.

Here is list of previous collected suggestions -

GH1 1 GOP experiment

rigs — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:12:11 +0000

I have been playing with a 1 GOP - 24p patch that works well for normal detail scenes.
It will crash with static extreme detail and very dark scenes but the cool thing is it will still write a useable file to the card if it does crash.

I am posting this for experimental purposes only, please test it and report back. Perhaps it can be improved upon.

PTool v3.62d (160811) settings

WRAPPER
Native 24p/25p checked

AVCHD COMPRESSION
Video Bitrate FHD/SH = 70000000
Video Bitrate H = 34000000
Video Bitrate L = 34000000
Overall Bitrate = 44000000

AVCHD GOP LENGTH
720p60 GOP size = 1
1080p24 GOP size = 1

PATCHES FOR TESTERS
AVCHD MOVIE MODE

AVCHD COMPRESSION
Preset bitrate = 4400
Preset bitrate 2 = 7000
Overall bitrate 2 = 7000000

AVCHD Research
Constant for 1080p = 7000600
Constant for 720p = 4405600
Frame related comparison = 24
Video buffer = 50.000.000

is there a 1920 GOP1 and 720p 60 fps (spanned) combination ?

gib — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:05:11 +0000

Are there any patch settings which have the max 1920 24fps 176 GOP1 setting with an optimised 720p 60FPS tweak which spans ?

It would be awesome to be able to switch between ultimate driftwood GOP1 settings and 720p if I wanted to span or do some slow motion

25p official topic, aka Don't cry for me Argentina

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:28:38 +0000

In this topic we'll collect all GH2 25p wishes and cries. :-)

Peaking and other Focusing Aids

Ralph_B — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:18:14 +0000

Peaking has often been requested for the hack, but it's very difficult for Vitaliy to add new features to the camera. However, there might be something else that can be done to make manual focusing easier. As we know, when you enter record mode, a mild sharpening is applied to the viewfinder and LCD. Now, it might be possible to increase the amount of sharpening to make focusing easier. Since this is an existing function, hacking it would seem to be in the realm of possibility.

GF1 patch suggestions for progressive 1080

luckyluca — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:49:59 +0000

Hello,
I owned the gf1 for a year and decided yesterday it was time to hack the firmware and get fullHD on it. I spent a lot of time looking through the patches available, tips, how to use the ptool and went through a hacked firmware update successfully.

Here is what I'm after:
I am a visual effects artist and wanted to shoot 1080 progressive 24 fps using the fantastic 20mm pancake lens and planning to do tracking and augment the shots with visual effects of some kind. I don't need fast action shooting and am aiming to keep things as progressive as possible at the highest res possible (I'll breakdown the footage into individual frames which I can run on houdini and maya later).

I'm not fully clear whether 1080p 24fps is indeed achievable on the gf1, any help and suggestion on this or potentially the next best option for progressive frames at the highest resolution would be much appreciated.

Also little help on how to enable fullHD and choice of format once the fimrware is installed would be appreciated too

Thanks!
Luca

Frame Buffers and Limits

driftwood — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:04:49 +0000

A gathering of information pertaining to what can be done with the frame buffers and the frame limits found in ptools settings for testers.

Using low bitrate for accurate framing and very long shots

nomad — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:56:30 +0000

No, this is no joke!

Did anybody test how low we can go with the hack? I'm thinking about forcing the camera into record for a long time (for time-lapse, actually) and recording externally with a Ninja. But since we need to have the camera recording to get the same quality via HDMI, this is a bottleneck. There are already solutions for extended power supply and a Ninja can record for hours uninterrupted, but the GH2 needs to stay in record too (the recording will never be used, of course).

Suggestions for stable values, anyone?

TIA

nomad

GH1 720p 50p vs. GH2 720p 50p

Jon2323 — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 06:46:40 +0000

Hi Guys,

Has anyone got experience with GH1 720p 50p Hacked footage vs. GH2 720p 50p Hacked footage? And whether the GH2 is noticeably better resolution/low light/quality, and a reason to upgrade? (I'm PAL uk based)

Thanks
Jon

GH1 Stable 24p Setting

rigs — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 23:39:04 +0000

I have been using several 1080 24p patch for over a year and finally found one that is stable in all conditions. This is a 12 gop, 220 Mbps patch that averages about 36 Mbps on very high detail scenes with no crashes in motion or locked off framing. I have only tested the 24p mode and no other settings as I have no need for any other format.

PTool v3.62d (160811) settings

GH2 burst mode tweaking for silent still shooting ?

lenuisible — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 06:01:01 +0000

Vitaliy, from what you've seen so far, do you think it could be possible to tweak the jpg burst mode (like 1 shoot instead of x, larger resolution) ?

Electronic shutter has some limitations, but I was wondering if having just one shot to process and a lower maximum shutter speed could help improve still quality for a "spy shooting mode".

GH13 Concert and Event settings 24p with file spanning

DrDave — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:22:19 +0000

I'm starting this thread for people who are interested in a high quality, 24p, stable patch for events such as weddings, concerts, theater, poetry readings, lectures and so on. And pub crawls. Maybe impossible, but progress continues to be made.
Although not always high art, I get a lot of requests to video a show, concert, event, wedding, etc., and these events typically are indoors, with poor or varied lighting.
Sometimes these events run several hours. And for these events, I sometimes prefer the IQ of the GH13 over the GH2, at ISO 400-1000.
My requirements are:
24p for easy editing in Premiere and others. Premiere offers real time playback and effects with Mercury engine.
Reasonably good IQ, regardless of the bitrate
Minimal pulsing (some ppl don't see it but it drives me nuts)
Fine grain at ISO 800 and usable 1600
File spanning, in case I need continuous coverage
Smooth transitions in shadows, given the limitations of the camera.
Ability to use F/5.6 on a sharp lens in places that have good lighting
Good IQ and grain with lens wide open in bad lighting.
Plays back in camera so the highlights ("overs") can be checked, and also IQ checked on a monitor.
Static scene bit rate 0f 20-24, typical of events and shows, or stages where there are a lot of fixed objects or open space
Works on a Transcend 32gb Class 10 card or better

First off, I would like to acknowledge all those who have done the real work, including Vitaliy, cbrandin, lpowell, blackout, rigs, and many more.
Basis line: my starting point was the BP patch and lpowell's amazing high reliabilty patch. The HR patch has really served me well. It file spans reasonably well, has great IQ. It does not of course have 24p (hence the reliable part). The BP patch is also great, and is 24p, but did not span reliably. Another issue is that high bitrate patches often give low rates in low light. And theatre lighting with F/5.6 would occasionally lock up at 24p.
Along came the rigs patch, which gives HIGH rates in low light and static scenes. My static scene bit rates doubled. Also, pulsing in shadow areas is minimized.I made three changes to this patch. First, I used the suggestion to raise the buffer to 84. Next, I lowered the overall bitrate in the regular section to 36 and the minimum to 22. I found that I could not see a big difference in static scene rates of 24 as opposed to the 33 I was getting in Rigs. Also, after a certain point it seemed that noise in shadow areas became slightly more visible after the bitrate exceeded 24.
So far, in three days of testing, quality is good, file spanning is good and I get a solid 24 minutes per 4 gig chunk on my card--the reasonably priced Transcend 32gb. Mileage plus.

Like all 24p patches, I suspect it will crash, so those who really need reliability should go for lpowell's high reliability patch. As with all patches, use at your own risk.
I'm sure those better versed in the subtleties of the patch can make a better one, and I welcome suggestions.

The zip file has the most conservative version of the patch. I will try to bump the bit rate up ten percent with the same stability,and also work on possibly a GOP of 8 or 6.

Real HDTV production world "hack" settings

sdbest — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:42:37 +0000

I'd appreciate people's thoughts about what GH2 "hack" settings are reasonable to use for actual productions to be used in HDTV (Discovery, Nat Geo, CBC, etc.) I ask because BBC, for example, suggests "a recording format of 50Mbs long gop or 100Mbs iframe" (see http://tinyurl.com/3os8jvt). Nat Geo seems to want 50Mbs, too. I'm not sure there's any point in shooting at any higher settings, but perhaps there is. I look forward to the discussion.

ExTele with HDMI connected

andycorleone — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:28:28 +0000

Hi, I tried to find the response but had a hard time find it. in my case and I think a lot of people this is the most important feature. I really prey will works with the GH2 hack.
Most of my work are events and ENG, having this enable while using an external Hdmi Monitor or EVF (for focusing and composition) would save me precious time in exchange lens during filming.

if is fully enable with the hack please someone post here the procedure. Thanks

Short record time with Ptool MJPEG HD setting on GH2

marktottymy — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:13:21 +0000

Has anyone else noticed this ?

PTool Questions

stoney — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:37:18 +0000

Although I have this honorable badge , I'm a total noob tester. I know. RTFM. But there's no fuking manual!!! Going through piles of postings? Are you kidding me? So here it goes. Please feed me more info. I will continue to update this 1st post as I learn more. But this won't cover anything in depth. Just enough knowledge to get started for noob testers.

Basic Info

First read GH1 Firmware Hack FAQ. Then Bayer Filter, YCbCr, Chroma Subsampling , Intra Frame Coding, Inter-frame (P-frame) Coding. See @driftwood's post about various topics. @cbrandin's post corrects some misinformation.

Patches For End Users

MJPEG Size Adjustments: I guess this is where anamorphic settings done. See Anamorphic Cinemascope in Native 1920x810 MJPEG Mode. An ingenious idea. Instead of stretching image during post-processing, let the camera stretch image frames horizontally where the frames are vertically stretched by anamorphic lens. 1920x810 MJPEG + 1.33x anamorphic lens combo gives undistorted 2.33:1 image straight out of the camera. 2x anamorphic lens + 1280x960 MJPEG combo gives 2.66:1 undistorted image. See MJPEG 4:3 for 2x anamorphic shooting.

MJPEG 720p Compression

E1 >= E2 >= E3 >= E4: http://timelapser.net/about/ says "MJPEG quality settings are a tradeoff between image quality and recording duration. Setting E1 Table: 4 makes a big difference. My understanding is that the E1 Quality/Table setting is used initially and E2/E3/E4 are a fallback if the camera can’t keep up. As we’re only recording at 2fps this is unlikely to be a problem, but I recommend using settings that descend down from your E1 quality setting. E1 Quality: 400 will give you super-high quality jpegs, but only about twenty minutes of recording time at 1080p."

MJPEG 480p Compression

F1 >= F2 >= F3 >= F4: Prolly similar to the E* family

AVCHD Compression

Video Bitrate FSH/SH: for 1080i60 FSH and 720p60 SH
Video Bitrate FH/H: for 1080i60 SH and 720p60 H
Video Bitrate 24H: for 1080p24 H
Video Bitrate 24L: for 1080p24 L

AVCHD GOP Length: I frames, B frames, P frames. Vitaliy recommended a factor of a targeted mode. e.g. GOP 3/6/12 for 24p. Official Low GOP topic is covering the topic well.

Microphone AGC 0 Setting: ORLY? Almost disabling AGC? Nope. This is a setting for level 1.

Patches For Testers

AVCHD Compression

Video Bitrate 24H ADD: How is it different from the end user's Video Bitrate 24H setting? @Vitaliy Very different. You can try to use it for testing, but normally you don't need to.
Overall Bitrate & Bitrate 2: This applies to all video modes? @Vitaliy Yes. It is some time related constant, in fact. Not bitrate. But it can affect bitrate.

AVCHD Research: Video Buffer, Video Buffer 24p, Audio Buffer: Increase them as increasing Video Bitrates?

AVCHD Encoder

Quantizer tables: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/366/pro-avchd-quantization-process No freaking idea. Maybe @driftwood's post helps.
Quantizer scaling tables: See @driftwood's post
Frame buffer size: It covers all modes.
Encoder frame limit: What?
Bitrate settings: High Top, High Bottom, Low Top, Low Bottom? Always keep lower bitrate settings within 95-70% of high bitrate settings. Otherwise, you'll see a dramatic bitrate drop in the low modes. There is currently a known drop in bitrate in the first frame set or GOP - known as the blip. Still to find out a definitive answer as to why.

ExTele check disable: I don't understand the description, "Disables ex tele converter checks, so it won't reset as usual"

Misc

For OSX users, mtscopy.app makes it easier to copy MTS files. Install virtual WinXP or WIn7 and launch StreamParser.

Truthfulness of short GOP superiority claims

dkitsov — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:26:52 +0000

I am sure that this topic will start a few flame wars, but I am after an extensive testing not so sure about the advantages of the short GOP schemes.
I fail to see any difference between short and long GOP recordings. I have made a test recording using three different settings: @kae 3GOP setting (as of July 22), same but with 6GOP, same but with 12GOP. All of them were of the same scene with a repeatable motion, same camera settings etc. I fail to see any difference as far as temporal resolution and accuracy are concerned. I have encoded three of the recordings with an intra-frame codec (cineform i frame only) to remove original h264 GOP, edited them down to a 5 seconds clips, run them through a denoiser (to remove a noise signature that might aid in the ID-ing the GOP), and finally encoded them at 50mbps and uploaded to Vimeo.
Please look at these clips (A, B, C) and comment below about which one out of A,B,C do you think is 3,6, 12 GOP. Originals (not re-encoded by Vimeo) are available for download on Vimeo
Thanks.
A.

B

C

http://vimeo.com/thedima/shortgopa
http://vimeo.com/thedima/shortgopb
http://vimeo.com/thedima/shortgopc

Hack will help in a Helicopter shoot?

andycorleone — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:17:30 +0000

Hi, I have the opportunity to do some helicopter shoots, I can use a 5D, t3i, GH1 or GH2 or a HX9V. I just wondered if the Hack will help me on Helicopter shoot? I don't expect to get a straight footage from the camera I hope to do some stabilization later on. any advice is appreciated thanks.

GH2 first blurred frames

robbie75vr — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:46:13 +0000

I just made my first hack to my GH2, I changed avchd 24H to 42mbps as suggested,
the first half second of every clip is blurred, in the streamparser I see the first frames much smaller than all the others.
Is this a common problem ?

I made few clips in my room to compare with 24mbps, I don't see any difference, what should I look or film to see the improvement ?

Thanks

MJPEG Timelapse Settings?

CColton — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:33:04 +0000

I was wondering if lowering the MJPEG frame rate on a GH13/17 would leave enough headroom to create a 1080p timelapse patch. My theory is that if the frame rate is lower (like 2fps), that leaves more bitrate for resolution, so you could increase the frame zise to 1920x1080 and use 4:2:2 subsampling to achieve a 1080p 4:2:2 timelapse patch. Would this work? I've tried increasing the frame size and decreasing the frame rate, and it works, but I don't understand the MJPEG compression tables, so I don't know how to manipulate the compression.

2.35:1 1920×820 cropped avchd

lolo — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:04:20 +0000

Hello!,
i have a question, i´m quite a newbie here, and i really don´t understand too much of the hacking,
so i have a question :D
i have many, but here is only one:

-can i change the aspect ratio in avchd
from:
1920x1080
to:
1920 X 820
to get the cinematic 2.35:1

by only cropping the frame? (with no anamorphic lens atached), this is only to get the framing right within the camera, is that possible?

and of course, as i dont have any anamorphic lens to try, this is a solution for me, if it is possible, is it?

-or perhaps being able to see guidelines with the 1920x820 crop would be better

can i do any of this two things within the available hack?

Greetings to all, from Chile!

Focus Assist Zoom While Recording with GH1?

Davide_NYC — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:33:18 +0000

I find myself wanting to do focus assist zooming while recording without having to stop my recording.

I'm using manual lenses so I just want to check focus while shooting.
I've read the manual and have tried to accomplish this with settings.

Is there a way to do this?

GH1 - Real 1920x1080 MJPEG possible?

enim — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:04:45 +0000

Can the MJPEG frame size @ 30 FPS be increased? Is 1920x1080 achievable? I'm looking at "MJPEG Size Adjustments" in PTool v.3.61d, and that's what it says. But does it just do upscaling, which should probably be left to editing, or are the individual frames shot by the camera actually that size?
I'd appreciate any input you guys might have. Have been reading lots of discussions here with great interest.
Thanks!

GH1 720p Video and Audio settings

Davide_NYC — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:35:12 +0000

Hello all, this is my first post here.

I just purchased a GH1 which I intend to use with a bunch of old Nikon lenses.

Having older computers I've always had trouble with full HD anything so for the time being I'm not interested in 1080anything.

I would like to create the best possible 720p60 files recorded onto Class 10 cards with absolute reliability.

My intended use case is recording for longer periods of time in a variety of documentary / journalism type environments. Therefor reliability is far more important than quality. That being said I'd still like to increase the quality of the 720p60 video if possible.

Would anyone be willing to share their 720p60 settings with me?

ETC mode hack possibilities

sphipps — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:35:49 +0000

whats the possibility of changing the aspect ratio of the ETC mode with the hack? could that allow higher resolutions?

ive asked this question a few times a few diff places without a response. feel free to delete the topic if the answers already out there.

Can the hack affect the jello... or the perseption of it.

danyyyel — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:46:37 +0000

Look at the video below shot by @bwhitz to test the low gop avchd hack . If you have not seen it before it sure is very very good and the best advert for the GH23, GhVK etc... I find it to be very jello/wobble free, more so from how it was shot. If you read the comment section, you will see that he could not get any stabilizer and had to shoot handheld and many shot are... in a moving train. I can't think of a lot of situation that can be worst than that. Now if you look at the shoots you can see that it has a lot of motion and in the train ones vibration. But strangely it is quite jello/wobble proof.

I know that as some said it before that the speed of the sensor does not change with the hack. In this case (low gop), I am asking myself if on longer gop the jello is more amplified because the codec is calculating much more from a single I frame every 12 frame. Like a cascading effect, where the next frame has to calculate from the last one that was compromised by the jello, and adds it next little motion which will affect the next one which will calculate from it, which result in a jello fest. I might be completely wrong in this but I am a bit intrigued by the above video, where with my experience you should see much more wobble. I did not see any post about it, if it has been discussed thoroughly, I don't mind if it is put back in the thread or deleted.

AVCHD: Encoder inner workings

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:33:21 +0000

This discussion was created from comments split from: GH2 Stalin samples topic.

Max bitrate less than 14.8mbps for GH1 hack

Ecoleica — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:04:58 +0000

hey all, I just got myself a GH1 from B&Hphoto and have been attempting to hack it. I have been trying to use the 75mbps 50p reliability patch and it all seems to load up fine. The Pal hack works a treat and the camera is registering the different formats and framerates at FHD and SH. However after shooting in a range of lighting conditions today I have found that my datarate for my clips never goes above 14.8mbps. I realize that to get the full 75mbps you need good lighting and exposure but it seems like my camera wont push above the 15mbps mark...any help would be great.

Thank you

Cascading multiple ini files

stoney — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:53:30 +0000

There are so many combinations of different settings.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to load ini setting files in cascading manner? e.g. Load 1st file containing general & overall setting, 2nd file containing 1080p settings, 3rd file containing 720p acvhd, 4th file containing mjpeg settings. Latter file overrides any duplicating properties.