100Mbps GH2 Low Light MJPEG 1080p Patch

The 100Mbps GH2 Low Light MJPEG 1080p Patch produces the highest bitrates and finest image quality I have seen under extremely low-light conditions. As noted above, it is however limited to recording 30p videos up to a maximum file size of 2GB. On the GH1, MJPEG HD mode was capable of encoding in 4:2:2 color depth as well. Unfortunately, it appears unlikely that the GH2 can be successfully patched to support 4:2:2 color.

In other respects, the MJPEG encoder works similarly on the GH2 as on the GH1. The MJPEG patches in the current version of PTool have demonstrated a reliable track record over time, enabling me to promptly publish a fully-tested, stable patch for the MJPEG encoder on the GH2. Patches for the GH2's AVCHD encoder are still under active development, and have demonstrated great potential for enhancing its performance beyond the limits of the GH1. Once reliable results are demonstrated at high bitrates with the GH2 AVCHD encoder, I plan on publishing patches to cover the full range of its capabilities.
 
lpowell said:
The 100Mbps GH2 Low Light MJPEG 1080p Patch produces the highest bitrates and finest image quality I have seen under extremely low-light conditions. As noted above, it is however limited to recording 30p videos up to a maximum file size of 2GB. On the GH1, MJPEG HD mode was capable of encoding in 4:2:2 color depth as well. Unfortunately, it appears unlikely that the GH2 can be successfully patched to support 4:2:2 color.

In other respects, the MJPEG encoder works similarly on the GH2 as on the GH1. The MJPEG patches in the current version of PTool have demonstrated a reliable track record over time, enabling me to promptly publish a fully-tested, stable patch for the MJPEG encoder on the GH2. Patches for the GH2's AVCHD encoder are still under active development, and have demonstrated great potential for enhancing its performance beyond the limits of the GH1. Once reliable results are demonstrated at high bitrates with the GH2 AVCHD encoder, I plan on publishing patches to cover the full range of its capabilities.
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That's great news lpowell. Very excited to see the patches for AVCHD encoder - or to be more specific 1080/24p.

1080/25p patch is out of the question, right?
 
At this point, 1080p25 on the GH2 looks to be very unlikely. However, the last word on this matter will no doubt go to Vitaliy...
 
The 100mbps patch videos look very good. I was wondering if anyone has tried installing the "leaked" Panasonic firmware, (apparently the only version available right now), back onto a GH2? It would seem important for that to be a sure thing, in the event it needs to be reverted back to.
 
Yes, you can revert back to default firmware. If you place the "leaked" firmware onto your memory card, it should "upgrade"... reverting you back to your original firmware. (havent tried this myself, but in theory this should work just fine for you).
 
lpowell said:
... Patches for the GH2's AVCHD encoder are still under active development, and have demonstrated great potential for enhancing its performance beyond the limits of the GH1. Once reliable results are demonstrated at high bitrates with the GH2 AVCHD encoder, I plan on publishing patches to cover the full range of its capabilities.
Click to expand...

Very good news! May I ask how long it will most likely take until publishing - just a rough estimate... 1-2 weeks, 1 month...?
 
daihard said:
Yes, you can revert back to default firmware. If you place the "leaked" firmware onto your memory card, it should "upgrade"... reverting you back to your original firmware. (havent tried this myself, but in theory this should work just fine for you).
Click to expand...

Thanks.
That's what I was wondering, if anyone has actually tried the leaked firmware.
 
Uwe Lansing said:
May I ask how long it will most likely take until publishing - just a rough estimate... 1-2 weeks, 1 month...?
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Hard to say, but Vitaliy is currently working on a significant update to PTool. Until then, I'll be investigating some of the more technical patches.
 
Thx lpowell for the info.

Before I installed the lpowell mjpeg patch I made some quick shots in my garden. And after that a few with the hack + patch. Here are just two. The first one is always the footage without the patch. It´s definitely not scientific but perhaps it can be helpful for someone...
Kit Lens 14-140


http://www.vimeo.com/26958765

Password: mjpeg_patch
 

http://www.vimeo.com/26999303

password: mjpeg_noise

The first shot is the unhacked one. - Now you´ll see a big difference between the stock footage and the lpowell patch - more noise with the unhacked one and more detail with the lpowell patch. Take a closer look especially at the clay pot and the grass at the beginning. And stop it somewhere in the middle and look at the leafs on the right and the cedar branches on the left. Because vimeo does always reduce the noise quite a bit feel free to download the mp4 file.
 
lpowell said:
The 100Mbps GH2 Low Light MJPEG 1080p Patch produces the highest bitrates and finest image quality I have seen under extremely low-light conditions. As noted above, it is however limited to recording 30p videos up to a maximum file size of 2GB.
Click to expand...
lpowell, when you say there is a max file size of 2GB, does that mean it stops recording or starts to make a new 2GB file after it exceeds the limit?
What I'm wondering is if your patch can be used to film an event and then use software to cleanly stitch together the files (as with AVCHD)?
 
Looking at GH2 and hacks for the first time.

Is MJPEG basically getting a greater dynamic range than compared to AVCHD? Is that what the goal is here? Because if so, I see that it is working, This post seems to show it very clearly that the low luma areas dont clip to black nearly as fast. What are the resolutions and frame rates that this MJPEG patch works in? 2GB file size is the only limitation (so at 60fps that'd be like 2.5mins, at 30fps 5mins)?
 
MJPEG works properly only at 30fps. With the 100Mbps GH2 Low Light Patch, you can set MJPEG frame size to any width and height up to 1920x1080. If you set a frame size that does not have a 16:9 aspect ratio, the GH2 will produce an anamorphically-scaled image. For example, using a 1920x810 frame size with a 1.33X anamorphic lens will produce undistorted 1920x810 widescreen videos that require no post-production stretching.
 
lpowell said:
MJPEG works properly only at 30fps. With the 100Mbps GH2 Low Light Patch, you can set MJPEG frame size to any width and height up to 1920x1080. If you set a frame size that does not have a 16:9 aspect ratio, the GH2 will produce an anamorphically-scaled image. For example, using a 1920x810 frame size with a 1.33X anamorphic lens will produce undistorted 1920x810 widescreen videos that require no post-production stretching.
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That's fascinating. Thanks for the info!
 
I enjoyed using this 100plus mbps patch this morning. Amazing. But now I'm hoping to go back to a less agressive setting at 1080, one with in-camera playback (which I couldn't get with the 100mbps patch). Lpowel or others, do you have a good, slightly less intense version I can try? Thanks in advance!!
 

http://www.vimeo.com/27043259

The question is: Can the mjpeg patch hold a candle to the native 1024p24 avchd mode, which is indeed very good? Because the official name of the patch is "100Mbps GH2 LOW LIGHT MJPEG 1080p Patch" I´ve shot mainly lowlight footage last night. Feel free to download the mp4 file and form your own opinion...

The first scene is always 1080p24 avchd, the second one 1080p30 mjpeg. At the side-by-side comparison the left one is avchd.

Nikon 50/1.4 (lowlight)
Kit Lens 14-140 (daylight)
All night shots at f1.4, shutter 1/50 and iso 800

Currrently it seems that there is a fault with the patched audio. It captures the sound always with a gap in-between... like 2 seconds sound, 2 seconds nothing, 2 second sound.... and so on. Hopefully lpowell can fix it. And the other downside for me was that I can´t preview the files in the camera with the lpowell patch. I always get a read error. Maybe my 16gb transcend class 10 card is too slow..

Music: Solar Sailer by Daft Punk

@lpowell

Do you have the same audio bug? If so, is it possible to fix it?
 
Uwe Lansing said:
Currrently it seems that there is a fault with the patched audio. It captures the sound always with a gap in-between... like 2 seconds sound, 2 seconds nothing, 2 second sound.... and so on.
@lpowell

Do you have the same audio bug? If so, is it possible to fix it?
Click to expand...

Sorry, my fault! It happened only with the "Splash Lite" player. In PPCS5 everything is fine. I didn´t notice it because I dragged only the video to the timeline and no audio...
 
nice test. AVCHD seems to have slightly less noise. It is noticeable only in the last two shots. With all the other shots it is difficult to tell the difference between AVCHD and MJPEG.
 
Thanks Uwe, those are really fine comparison shots! Until now, I didn't realize just how good 1080p MJPEG can look. If you hadn't identified which was which, I doubt I'd have been able to confidently identify the MJPEG version from the AVCHD.
 
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