For this I filmed a resolution chart on my computer screen from a distance, using Quantum 50-100 settings which use quality settings that are already over the line for 2fps be it AVCHD or MJPEG. I loaded the MOV files into AVIDemux and extracted 100% lossless snapshots to compare the various modes. Shot on M Movie Mode, aperture and shutter speed were both fixed.

Note: I'm only showing the relevant 100% screen captures but all the files generated in this test (and I tested both HD and VGA modes) weight in at 38.5MB and can be d/l here: http://www.mediafire.com/?u2h8ycc2c6vmj0a

Unless marked as AVCHD all other files are MJPEG.

Myth 1 - MJPEG 1080p is MJPEG 720p up-scaled.

Result: Plausible.

It's too close to call, really! Even though there is evidence of a very very small resolution advantage to 1080p, it is hardly noticeable and it could be a consequence of the input-output workflow of 720 being done in a smaller resolution.

Evidence: (look at the second image, I can't delete the first which is similar)

On my own experience, I would say not so sure as I am very pleased with the result I am getting out of my GH1, GH2 and now GH3. And my GH3’s video is not making a huge difference compare to what I got with the GH1 or GH2. I am still using the hacked GH1 every summer, as a copy is stored in my home country (France) and I love its color rendition compare to GH2/3. FYI, I am living and working in China since 9 years.

Every year I am shooting a short movie or an experiment with the hacked GH1. Some complained about the AVCHD format, but I never got problem in post with it as I am using Premiere CS6 on a powerful enough PC (Dell M6400). I also tested heavy color grading without problem on my GH1 footage, as you can see here on the following videos. Sorry one of the short film doesn’t get English sub yet, but I am posting a link to those video for their visual quality first, so enjoy that part. La Deuche from Hell HD (US sub Version) (there is a longer French version too)

Revolverte HD (F)

In China, I am also using my GH camera beside a Panasonic AF100, which is well known to NOT be the most exciting camera on the market (4:2:0 8 bits, AVCHD at 28MB/s, what a shame!). I had to buy an AF100 as no serious client in my field would accept to pay my usual fee (I was working with a HVX200 + Letus Ultimate prior to the AF+GH) if I were shooting with a GH2 only. After 2 jobs my AF100 got paid back and I can enjoy the use of it with my GH2 and GH3 on project now. ,

AVCHD, 4:2:0, bits… Nevertheless, I shot this Making Of video on huge project with my newly arrived AF100 and GH2 (not hacked yet). Production house, agency and client were delighted by the result. I did everything: shooting, lighting (for interview), sound recording and editing… I am a one man crew shooter (kind of MacGyver sometime) and I prefer to keep things, cheap, simple and light. CrossPolo TVC Making OF HD (US)

To keep the story short, since 2012, I had completed bunch of projects with my M43 equipment without any complain from clients (VW, Audi, French Consulate, TV Channel…) and I might invest in the GH4 if it solves the 3 main problems of the GH3: Viewfinder definition (GH3 is a nightmare compare to GH2 for manual focusing) + real video assistance (Peaking + zebra + waveform) + full time display of histogram and sound recording level while shooting.

4K or higher bit rate are not important to me as my video will NEVER be projected on a big screen and the file of the GH3 are already big enough in term of storage. Quality wise, I really like some of my GH1, GH2 or GH3 shots, and I don’t see much of a difference in term of emotion, and I think this is a more important feature for an independent filmmaker than pixel count or comparing numbers on data sheets…

You can see more of my work here: http://vimeo.com/channels/659428/videos

I wrote a little Tool called WinRewrap. It will Batch Process MTS Files to MP4/MOV and adjust References to the MTS accordingly in your XML File. It uses ffmbc. ( http://code.google.com/p/ffmbc/ ) I wrote it primarily for exchange between the new Sony Vegas Pro 12 and DaVinci Resolve. But it can be used for any Batch rewrapping task of MTS.

Of course, this is a very early version, so please let me know any problems that may occur. Note: Audio was converted to AAC in v0.1. Later version keeps the audio stream.

I hope you can use it as well as I can. Ideas, suggestions and Bug Reports, please post here.

regards

FatPig

Homepage: http://www.fatpigtures.com/software/

The Homepage is still in development. Anybody who would like to donate a small amount is appreciated :)

WinRewrap v 0.4

Changelog 0.4:

• Added Cancel Option while ReWrapping
• Added PCM and No Audio option

Changelog 0.3:

• Added Option to Convert Audio to AAC
• Added Check for 0-byte Files (returns error now)

========================================

Requirements:

• ffmbc.exe (Release was tested with version 0.7.1 rc7) put it in the same folder as the WinRewrap exe.

• Windows 7 / Vista Users may experience errors related to writing permissions.

Fix: Turn up your UAC to "always notify". if you turn it to not notifying, some applications are automatically denied access. like winrewrap.

to fix those, copy WinRewrap and ffmbc.exe to your Project Folder. (Tip: WinRewrap starts with its containing Folder under the Browse Dialog, If its your project Folder you can just click OK.)

========================================

Features:

support for rewrapping .MTS Files to .MP4 and .MOV using ffmbc.exe

this is essentially a frontend for ffmbc, designed for batch processing project folders containing multiple MTS Files and optionally an XML.

This enables project export from The New Sony Vegas Pro 12 to DaVinci Resolve, and can also be used for normal batch processing of entire Folders from GH2, etc.

It will automatically replace the MTS extensions to your new Container inside the XML, so you can automatically use it with the rewrapped files.

Known Issues:

Big Endian PCM Audio is not supported in Stream Copy Mode as of Version 0.4 (AF100) WinRewrap can, however convert to little Endian PCM Audio.

Bug reports please in the dedicated thread on personal-view.com

http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/4775/winrewrap-batch-process-mts-to-mp4mov-with-xml-adjustment

regards

FatPig

Well, it turns out to be pretty simple. It seems that when the GH2 is power cycled, it makes a new playlist in the AVCHD structure (you can tell because there are multiple .MPL files in PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/PLAYLIST/), and FCPX only sees clips from the most recent playlist with no way to switch to another playlist.

After a little hunting with a hex editor, I found that PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/INDEX.BDM tells the importing software (at least in the case of FCPX) which playlist to look at. There is a number at the end that matches the number of the most recent playlist file (eg 00001) for 00001.MPL. So if you import the visible footage, you can then backup INDEX.BDM and use a hex editor to change that last number in it to the number of the previous playlist. You're just changing a single byte! Save, then open the FCPX import window again (maybe you need to relaunch FCPX? - don't remember) and the clips that were missing will probably be there. I assume you could repeat the process if you had 3 or more AVCHD playlist files on the card.

for a free hex editor on mac, I recommend Hex Fiend: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22589/hex-fiend

Don't use a normal text editor – more than that single byte will probably change and you'll be sorry.

So to summarize

If missing clips in FCPX import:

• import what you can see
• check for the presence of multiple .MPL files
• change the 5 digit number (eg 00001) in INDEX.BDM to refer to a different .MPL file
• import again in FCPX - missing clips should show up

attached are some screenshots of changing the contents of INDEX.BDM.

Hope this tidbit of knowledge helps some people out. I wish I had discovered it a year ago – would have saved me some aggravation for sure.

I hacked my GH2 a few months ago and things have been pretty lovely so far. A couple weeks ago, however, as I was importing some AVCHD files from my SD card (64GB SanDisk Extreme) into Final Cut Pro X and some of them gave me this error upon import:

"Import Failed: The following clip encountered an error during import and is still referencing media on the camera: Clip Name: 2012-12-01 19:21:00 Event: X Original Name: Clip #X Volume: NO NAME"

After looking around, I noticed that the files that presented this issue had a strange timecode. Instead of displaying a normal start time of "00:00:00:00" they started with "23:27:41:06". Only some files are like this, and as far as I can tell it only happens to clips that used lenses that have been adapted to the camera (non-4/3 Panasonic lenses).. Other than that I don't know what's going on.

Has anyone else had this issue? Is there anything I can do to fix it?

Cheers

Setup - In order to achieve the higher bitrates I had to use M from the dial atop the GH2. The camera icon with the M would not allow this. The tradeoff was Auto ISO with M, and adjustable ISO with the camera icon with the M. I use mostly Canon FD lenses.

1a) Bitrates - I have tried a few hacks with varying success. The best I have got is about 100MB with Flow Motion v2.02, however, most of the shots I got with this hack seem to be from 70MB-90MB. I tried Flow Motion, Driftwood's Moon T7, and two Driftwood hacks (176MB & 220MB) from a pack made by the user Sohus on this forum.

Is it common to be well below the stated bitrate amounts?

1b) AVCHD vs MJPEG - I never seemed to get very high bitrates when using 1080i, despite the hacks stating to be much higher. They would range from 15MB-40MB. To achieve higher bitrates with Flow Motion, I used MJPEG which boosted them much higher.

Shouldn't I be achieving high bitrates with AVCHD?

2) Auto ISO - Whenever I use M (from PASM) the ISO would always be set to Auto ISO. I could adjust the ISO when using the camera icon mode (with the M), but then the bitrates would suffer. I tried changing the ISO before shooting, but Auto ISO would kick in no matter what.

How do I change the ISO while in M mode?

3) EV - I know that EV depends upon shutter, aperture, and ISO, but I can see the EV when I push the Display button so I was hoping there was still a way to change it.

Am I correct to assume that because I am using Canon FD lenses I cannot use EV? Even if using a Panasonic lens, how do I change the EV (I tried, but failed).

4) Modes - I have only been able to use the hacked bitrates - and only to a certain degree - by using M with MJPEG.

What modes should I be using to use the hacked patches? The camera icon with M? High Bitrate? 24P? 1080i?

Sorry for all the questions. I am not unhappy with the camera, but I really want to know why the bitrates are not working? And moreso, why the Auto ISO can't be changed (as I don't like the amount of noise it can introduce)? Thank you!

I must say that I have been very impressed by the quality of the videos i've shot so far using only the MTS files. But if transcoding the mts files will make my videos even better I would like to know.

Thanks

Thank you Kindly, -Trev

My current workflow is: MTS files into AE > converted to 2.33 aspect ratio (1920x824) DNxHD format > footage imported and edited within Premiere Pro > exported as 175 bit DNxHD 1920x1080 master file. Note that the 2.33 conversion is strictly letterboxing via composition settings in AE and not altering the pixel dimensions (as those 1920x824 files don't show the pixilation).

One thing I noticed was that when I expand the video feed in Premiere it shows the pixilation that's outputted in the final format, but I wrote that off as simply being reduced resolution for real time playback that wouldn't translate to the final video. Also the preview remains pixilated even with no effects applied (only effects on clips are quick color corrector, Neat Video, and shadows/highlights).

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I've included a still of the 175 bit DNxHD final video, and a matching frame of the original MTS file straight from the camera. Ignore the top and bottom margins, but look at the high contrast lines like on the Marshal logo, and the metal frame of the B-52 amp below it.

I found this on the Apple App store check it out.... It is a free program for Mac users to convert AVCHD footage to Mov files. I tried it out on a couple of clips seems to work out fine especially for free :-) Just do a search for it in the App store.

Best Regards

Attention, noob questions ahead !

I would like to know a few things : - Which is the smoothest hack on the GH2 ? (All the detail, no macro-blocking) - What does "Intra" or "AVC-Intraa" mean ? - What is Auto Quantitizer ? I'm not sure if a higher number means a better image (lower compression) or it's the inverse. What is better, AQ0 (all to motion), or AQ4 (all to details) ? - What does GOP stand for, and there is "Low-GOP", but then does that mean there's "high GOP" ? What are 12/15 GOP, 3 GOP and 6 GOP ? - What are P-frames, B-frames... ? - What is "Matrix" and "444 Matrix" ? - On some settings there's written "14-16 QP", or "QP16". What does QP mean ?

I've not seen much smooth looking GH2 videos on Youtube (unlike the canon videos), lots of them have a lot of macroblocking or whatever and causes the video not to be smooth, and sometimes there are some sort artifacts (I think it's because of the compression or something...). I'm a bit of a pixel-peeper :P Could someone explain me the causes of the un-smoothness, and why are some videos really clean compared to others ?

Example of smooth videos I've found :

PS : Can someone give me the link to download the 244mb/s hack ?

And here on EOSHD there's an article about Intra :

http://www.eoshd.com/content/4452/gh2-gets-avchd-intra-at-176mbit

But I still don't understand the difference between the 176mbit so-called "Intra" hack and any other one ! I'm confused...

Please answer !

Thank You.

How do I get rid of it ?

I am having problems viewing Full HD on my Macbook pro 2.4Ghz 4GB ram, 17 inch (1920 x 1200 ) and have installed OSX Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

I use a hacked Gh1, and the story of how the problems occurred is as follows:

6 months ago everything worked fine, I was able to view the AVCHD (.mts files) with VLC player, and the conversion in FINAL CUT PRO 7 to Proress LT worked fine, and I was also able to see the exported Proress in QT player smoothly.

A day my the charger for the laptop stopped working, probably because of an unequal flow of electricity, and simultaneously the battery died.

After that event I have not been able to view Full HD anymore… The .MTS files opened but remained blocked after 2 seconds, and only the sound was heard. The Proress LT files could be seen in QT player but not smoothly. Very annoying.

I bought another charger so that I could use the laptop again, and now a big detective work started:

1. I made a Apple hardware test on the computer to cheek if it could be the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT that caused the problem, but according the test everything was working well.
2. I made a ram test, all in order
3. I tested the harddisk at western digital service center, and it is working fine
4. I reinstalled Snow Leopard with the same settings and programs as before the accident, and no change, still problems. I tried Lion and still the same.
5. I went to a mac repair shop that booted from an external harddisk and still the same problem with the files as on the osx installed on my own computer.
6. I made a trash preferences with preference manager and no change
7. And I will mention that I have tried with many different files, so it is not one corrupt file that is the problem.
8. I also experience problems in viewing the files that I have compressed via MPEG Streamclip or in Cmpressor, they often also docent run smoothly, problems that did not occur before.

Any suggestions?

I've googled this and not had any success.

Don

(My preference is for open source software that can be used on a Mac, but this is not crucial.)