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The "Let's thank Vitaliy and Chris" thread
  • I just want to thank Vitaliy and Chris for their work on the new Ptool. I know they must have spent a lot of time on it and I for one appreciate it. The new Quantization settings are exactly what we needed. We now can have higher bit rates and much better compression even for scenes without much motion and noise.

    Again thank you and everyone else doing testing for your time and effort. It is amazing what this community has accomplished. Panasonic would never attempt to do what we are doing and yet Vitaliy and Chris have for the most part re-engineered the Stalin GH2 to be vastly superior to a stock model and it still retain all of its reliability.

    Great job guys. Please keep it going if at all possible. I know you guys can get the other things(Clean HDMI, B frames for 720p, 25 FPS) to work as well with enough time and effort.
  • 29 Replies sorted by
  • +1
    Agreed! VK & Chris rock! Maybe we should set up a thread for some sort of award? (I know VK likes his cut in half images??..) What about we all put in to buy a broken GH2- and get it sliced in two for VK & Chris... (1 half for each!)

    This is kind of a joke- but the more I think about it the more I like it!
  • My hat tips to Vitaliy and Chris. They can't do it without passion. I envy their passion. Also hat tips to the testers. Testing is a lot of work. Added benefit of testing is that one can learn more about camera.
  • >I know VK likes his cut in half images??..

    How about buy or just present Chris GH1 body?
    I know you are interested in film modes adjustment.
    And it could be very useful.
  • @VK

    nice suggestion - but I think I can borrow back the GH1 I sold. It went to a friend of mine, and he said I could use it.

    Now a nice big set of Zeiss compact primes - that would be nice. My Contax Zeiss primes just don't look quite as cool:)

    Chris
  • @cbrandin

    How bout a nice shiny new Leica 25mm F1.4. I am not sure we would be able to get enough from a collection for the Zeiss primes. It would be possible for the Leica though and I wouldn't mind seeing that lens put through its paces. Is it available where you are?
  • Testing with that lens would be great. It would pretty much eliminate the lens as the limiting factor.

    Actually, I'm pretty much set with lenses. I appreciate the kind words and such. I do this because it's fun for me. Like Vitaliy said in an interview once - it beats playing video games.

    Chris
  • On my knees, arms stretching and bowing forever to this awesome exciting effort. It is truly amazing to have this worldwide convention of video/photo geeks enjoying themselves and contributing to the advancement of this fun hobby/business... Al
  • @cbrandin

    It is funny because my son started developing iPhone apps this week at age 7 because he was sick of needing to pay for the games he wanted. He decided that if he just made his own games he wouldn’t have to pay for them anymore and perhaps he could even earn some money in the process.

    I guess that is kind of like you guys. If you see a need you go out and fix it and don’t wait around for someone else to do it for you. I think I am safe in saying that we ALL thank you for that.
  • @mpgxsvcd Wow. That's what I'm hoping for my son, but he's only 3 yo. Better than selling lemonades.
  • @mpgxsvcd Thanks for starting this thread, the work that Vitaliy and Chris have put into PTool for the GH2 is indeed a major advance over the relatively limited range of improvements that were possible on the GH1. As Chris has explained in recent posts, the AVCHD encoder uses intricate prediction strategies to divide its available bitrate between image details and motion tracking. It must have been quite a daunting task to track down the undocumented code that manages these processes, and then devise custom high level patches to provide reliable user-adjustable controls.

    The downside of these enhancements, however, is that optimization of the more subtle qualities of AVCHD encoding demands far more disciplined testing and evaluation than the relatively straightforward reliability tests that high-bitrate GH1 patches required. But this happens to be one of my favorite briar patches, and I encourage anyone else who enjoys this kind of work to wade right in. The GH2 already shows much deeper potential than the GH1 could offer, and it no doubt possesses unanticipated capabilities yet to be discovered.
  • Thank you, Vitaly and Chris, for all your hard work. Much appreciated.
  • +1 on the thread!
    I deeply appreciate all the hard work that is being done by Vitaliy/Chris/Strike Teams and the community. Thank you everyone for your contribution and hard work.
  • Great and needed thread! Thank you guys!!!!!!
  • I'm sort of new here and sometimes feel a little nervous if I post to the wrong thread, Vitaliy :) this is a easy-one
    THANK YOU VK, Chris and all the guys in this community.
    Quiet an amazing group.
  • I've been silently watching from the sidelines (I'm sure many others too) and wanted to also thank V+C+all testers for this amazing hack. I think the biggest payback will be one of us making a nice little short movie/feature that gets recognized for its filmic beauty. :)
  • I have 3 GH2's and actually don't have plans to hack my cams, although I'm wavering, I'm here because V has created the best video forum on the web. It's also a good place for financial info.
    So thanks to V and Chris and the rest of the gang for creating such a great source for information and fun.
  • Thanks, shmanks! Send money. "Thanks" doesn't pay the rent.
  • Big Thanks! I just Donated another $20 ..I felt I got a great deal on 24mm f2 Vivitar today (paid $20),so the least I could do is send some of that savings your way VK, thank you
  • Also one of the silent ones,but in awe at progress being made...preparing for first test/patch any day now...only 5er in donation so far-but will be more soon ;-)
    Fascinating work by VK and Chris
  • thanks guys, I was bragging about your amazing hacking skills with the GH2 to my friends today.
  • thank you!!, thank you for being generous with your knowledge, and act in consecuence with the moral values of justice and human community, i thank you both from all my heart, (:
  • Thanks for all the work and time you guys put into this!
    v-for-vendetta.jpg
    600 x 764 - 183K
  • http://www.ephotozine.com/article/panasonic-announce-two-new-power-zooms-17214
    Read at the interview part concerning they r aware of the GH2 hack.
    They should thank Vitaliy and the team for making their product so popular~~ oso they oso mentioned about next firmware that "may" be released to add 25p support n other improvements.
  • @7hau

    Good news.
    Thanks for catching it.