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Driftwood - Experimental Series 2: Low Rider, Cluster v8, V9, Intravenus II, GH3onaGH2, AN, Boom
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  • MeierhansMeierhans

    @matt_gh2 Have you tried Cluster moon 1 GOP trial 5? I would like to hear your opinion about it and how it compares to IV1 and IV2.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    I'm not sure of the technical differences between IV1 and IV2 (there is some discussion on it by @driftwood on the paragraph that accomopanies the intro/release of IV2).

    I prefer IV2 (set at Smooth -2,-2, 0,-2) as it has a look of film to it. IV1 can look great, particulalry when lighting is dynamic, and some guys are getting great results, but to me those are more "modern looks". You might say IV1 emulates the best in professional HD for narrative film, particularly horror, scifi, and thriller...while IV2 is a classical film look.

    But this is really just the way it hits my eye and what I prefer for what I'm shooting now. A lot of people love IV1 and only use that.

  • thougts2ukthougts2uk

    What is the difference between Intravenus 1 and 2 and why do you prefer 2?

    Thanks

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @vicharris Yeah, always interesting to put a fresh set of eyes on the footage for feedback - very cool that a professional editor just took nicely to grain produced in your IV2 footage. I'm shooting on Smooth with it - do you have a preference you like best with IV2? I'm really quite stunned just how professionally filmic in nature the image is right out of camera with IV2. Always amazed to see the differences from one setting to the next - that's what I consider one of the great things about the GH2 now that Vitaliy has hacked and Driftwood and others have created settings...you can do a variety of projects with different looks, and you have the power to alter the baseline look(image type) created by the camera.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Yes, the IV2 hack is still a damn good one and the grain in awesome. I shot some stuff with it and brought it over it over to an editor and he was wondering where all the grain came from in my footage. It was pretty funny when I told him that's what I was aiming for and he didn't think it was digital noise at all. I'm actually thinking of going back to IV2 and Sedna as my main hacks.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @driftwood Just tested Intravenus II with both day and night at 24P, and no problems, spanned fine, in-camera playback fine. Image quality was very impressive used on Smooth -2,-2, 0,-2. The only way to describe it would be "professional film image". With no grading, the image was what the eye saw...basically very accurate, and looking like a proper professional film image. Thank you. My question: I looked back on this thread but didn't see any consensus after testing if Intravenus II was considered stable, or basically what you consider the strengths and weaknesses of this setting are? Didn't know if it was merely an experimental setting, or one you would consider stable enough to work with over the course of filming a feature? Thanks for the continued great work - you've got skills.

    @cbrandin This Intravenus II setting that I have discovered a bit later than most, is really quite good. A very professional film image. Very accurate, smooth, and good with skin tones. Produces what the eye sees. Thank you.

  • getmezzygetmezzy

    Thanks! Anyone know the average bitrate for 24p? I feel like my nitrates are too low!

  • rajamalikrajamalik

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @jhonnyskulls I just again came across the clip you posted on Jan 24 of the Intravenus II test. Really liked the look of it. Curious to know if you remember what settings (Standard, Smooth, etc) and (-2,-2,-2,-2, etc) you used? Thanks

  • driftwooddriftwood

    @getmezzy Get the 95Mbps ones - preferably the 64Gb version.

  • getmezzygetmezzy

    @driftwood !

  • getmezzygetmezzy

    Do I need a 95mb/s SD card to run Apoc-Now cluster v7? Or are the 45mb/s cards fine? I just want to know before I purchase. also.. what is the average bitrate range for 24p cinema mode? I want to make sure the hack is working properly!

    Thanks!

  • proaudio4proaudio4

    Real nice nick

  • driftwooddriftwood

    Early ungraded teaser 'Swim to Land'. Created with 'Boom' :-)

  • MirrorkisserMirrorkisser

    @Azo, thanks for your test! I have 3 of those cards and am also very happy with them, as they are cheaper. There are also some tricks how you can further optimise those cards with formating them first in the pc with a full format and then in the camera. (there is a thread on that here)

  • driftwooddriftwood

    @Azo Thanks for running the tests.

  • AzoAzo

    @Brian_Siano I have 2-64GB Sandisk Extreme 45MB/s cards that I purchased based on the recommendation of osgfilms.com prior to finding this website. I know that these are not the recommended cards for Driftwood patches based on the information from this website but wanted to share my experience with the Driftwood patches as well as the cards.

    I have tested most of the Cluster X series patches on the probably flawed methodology of placing the camera in front of my HDTV and hitting the record button. My goal was to record at the highest quality setting and at the same time be able to record for a minimum of 1/2 hr in all modes. The Cluster X series patches ( Drewnet, Nebula, Moon ) that I tried were able to record @24H for 1/2hr so no problem there, but the other modes were sporadic in terms of recording for at least 1/2 hr the camera would sometimes freeze etc. So I stopped testing and came to the conclusion that I would have to use Cake for spanning or recording for at least 1/2hr and Driftwood for the best quality but limit recording to about 10 minutes.

    Then I tried the latest trial patch of Nebula6b :) this patch was able to record in all modes for at least 1/2hr. Thank you so much Driftwood for your tireless effort in perfecting these patches. I look forward to the final release of the Cluster X series. Please do not buy 45mb/s card based on my post or experience. I am only using these cards because I already have them, if I didn't already have these cards I would purchase the 64GB-95mb/s and not even consider the 64GB-45mb/s cards.

  • towitowi

    Spanning depends very much on the scene you are shooting. Yesterday I've sucessfully tested spanning with Nebula Trial 6b in 1080i50 (FSH) and 1080p25 (HBR) mode as well as Spizz Trial 4 in 1080p25 and 1080p24 modes shooting my HDTV (they showed a ski race with lots of fast motion, sharp on screen graphics etc.). The very same settings will not span when you shoot a codec torture chart (or a highly detailed landscape scene in bright, contrasty daylight). If you need failsafe spanning under all shooting conditions I fear you have to use the stock firmwar ... or only moderately tuned settings... preferably with long GOP.

    ... IMHO

  • driftwooddriftwood

    @Brian_Siano I havent tested any of the latest Cake settings but what I remember Balazer got it wrong on the buffer charts. He assumed that if the buffer went incredibly low despite not showing any Overruns or under runs files are ok. But if analysed, and the buffer goes incredibly low the quantisation jumps to an incredibly poor set of QP values. Thats why all of my settings MUST remain high and stable on the buffers - as seen in all the Cluster X series.

    Great Quantisation (Quality) / bitrates plus spanning? You cant have both in my opinion (though you can get good spanning results on my settings with the fastest known card - the 64Gb 95Mbps Sandisk). The combination of the cpu internal memory, and write speed of the buffers in the GH2 are not measured for the high quality settings - theyre built around low values for a reason.

    I will be taking a look at a special Cluster X setting for maybe one or two of the different GOPs which offers the best quant/bitrate without span failing shortly.

  • virgilrvirgilr

    Just my two cents worth, but I think I have a feeling that cluster size is what limits the Extreme 32 gig (45mb/s) and even the 32gb extreme pro (at 95mb/s)- the 64 gig cards use a larger cluster size. I've formatted the 32 gig extreme with larger clusters successfully on my windows machine, but when I insert the card into the GH2 it flat-out refuses to accept the card. I think this has to do with internal criteria on the card itself that it's default cluster size is 8k and if it's formatted to another size, the camera reads the value from the card and just assumes it can't trust it. Wish there was a patch in the firmware to override this- would be interesting to test!

  • Brian_SianoBrian_Siano

    @mirrorkisser I'll have to try Moon, then.

    For what it's worth, here's what I've found. I only have a Sandisk Extreme Pro 32 gig and two Transcend 32 gig cards (class 10), so my results are a little limited.

    Best overall patch is Cake 2.3, which spans in all modes, and offers substantially higher bit rates.

    For live events, where I need a lot of continuous shooting, I could use the basic firmware, or Sanity 5.1 in 24L mode. This is solely because it gives me 2 hours and 21 minutes on a card. (Flow Motion handles spanning in 24L as well.) But neither of these patches span at the higher rates and speeds for me.

    If I need VERY high bit rates, I can't span at all, so I'm limited to takes of no longer than 3 minutes. Right now, Intravenus 2 seems to be the best in this regard.

  • MirrorkisserMirrorkisser

    @brian_siano @vicharris: tell me about it, i had arguments with very narrow minded people about it, people that wont learn and think they know it all, rather exhausting. Vitaliy put a nice chart up, which says it all.

    For best performance get the 64gb 95mbps card. the sandisk 32gb 45mbs spans like a baby with most settings for me though. Just recorded 19 minutes easy with moon trial5 today in 24h 24p.

    knowledge no knowledge.jpg
    769 x 666 - 54K
  • driftwooddriftwood

    *** NEWS ***

    A very tasty looking Cluster X Series 'Nebula' Trial 6 is about to be released with hi bitrate top quality QP12 on 1080p24 H modes with 80% mode support plus QP12 on 720p & 1080i/HBR. Its pushing 6 GOP to extremes and delivering tremendous quality - with the surprising ommission of ptools Low/Hi Top/Bottom settings :-) Checkitout shortly...

    I'm really excited by this setting but I got no daylight to try it out here! :-)

    Go to the Cluster X Thread to find the new setting.

  • Brian_SianoBrian_Siano

    @vicharris I'm beginning to think that's the case, but I can't see why the size of the card'd prevent spanning, and investing $130 in a new card isn't an easy thing to do. So i'm going to persevere until I find a patch that can span.

    Right now, I'm trying Flow Motion, and the 24L mode is spanning just fine. 37 minutes on a single take. But I'd love to find a guaranteed high-quality spanner in 24H mode.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Oh yeah, you'll never get spanning from that card. In the Wiki Facts somewhere here it even states the only card that's guaranteed to span is the 64gb 95mb/s one. But I'm sure 64 other people will say otherwise :)

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