Any GH2 news on the HDMI output front?

farfromsubtle said:
I won't hold my breath on Panasonic helping us get an unintended feature from the camera. But true, I think the Cineform guys would be able to figure out the pattern quite easily. And considering that they added GH1 specific features to the software already, it's not unlikely that they have their eye on this camera already.
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+1
 
They just deinterlaced the HDMI output and called it a day? OK, I am going to shoot some actually DECENT footage (ie: not my ceiling fan) in order to prove to people that this is worth pursuing. Chroma Key tests coming as soon as I get a spare moment on set.
 
Any luck on the greenscreen.
Also, has anyone noticed the way the red coloring captured on this camera over HDMI looks just a tad jagged? Is that an indication that the HDMI output might be 4:2:0?
Sync issues I can handle. But 4:2:0 is something I didn't even think about until I saw someone write that it might be a possibility.
Any opinions or facts on this?
 
This kind of all really sucks to hear, I was planning on using the gh2 as more of an imaging head for narrative work combined with a Ki Pro handling audio and recoridng and all that

:(
 
ykimuraSampleHDMI.jpgykimuraSampleHDMI.jpg

Hold it - I didn't say it was true or proven!
It's just I saw artifacting in a piece I'd downloaded from here http://azurite.jp/data/blog/GH2_HDMIvsSDdirect.zip (y.kimura's link from his Vimeo video here http://vimeo.com/17727380). And while I was pixel peeping, I noticed the red edging being obviously more aliased. Later, I'm reading an opinion someone made that the GH2 chip and tech were very similar/same to AF100, and that since it records in 4:2:0 space, perhaps the GH2 was streaming that over HDMI. I don't think it was anything more than a passing thought on his part, but it got me thinking about what I'd seen a couple of days ago. I've attached pix of what I'm talking about.

I do want to keep this thread alive a little longer, so I thought I'd toss this out for feedback. Not sure I'd want to spring for an off-camera recorder if I was just capturing 4:2:0, LOL.

To be honest, I don't even know how to tell, for sure, if a stream is 4:2:0 after it's been recorded as 4:2:2. Seems to me someone mentioned that red aliasing shows up more quickly in 4:2:0, but I can't even get confirmation with my google searches. Barry would probably know . . . :)
 
Well, whatever is going on with color space, we won't be able to tell over vimeo as it's flash compression is 4:2:0 only, and unless people have their encoder set very specifically, the h264/mpeg 4 they upload is as well
 
Sandbox said:
View attachment 27083View attachment 27082
I'm reading an opinion someone made that the GH2 chip and tech were very similar/same to AF100, and that since it records in 4:2:0 space, perhaps the GH2 was streaming that over HDMI.
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I have not done a thorough test - just got my GH2 yesterday but the HDMI colour res 'looks' better than the AVCHD. HDMI spec is 4:2:2 so they could pad the signal I suppose. I may be mistaken as I have not done the test efficiently or scientifically. The files were recorded to a nanoflash at 280 mbps and the picture is nice to colour grade - apart from Pana's paranoid crippling. The AVCHD is 4:2:0 - yes. If Panasonic had some nuts - they would just go for Canon's jugular and have uncompromised hdmi. Canon have dominated this DSLR revolution and this feature alone in their next DSLR ( notwithstanding fixing issues like colour moire, aliasing, jello etc ) will again make people flock to Canon. The competition isn't just one's own product line this coming year ( AF100 ) - it will be a whole host of VDSLR options and the first one to have uncompromised HDMI with everything else sorted will make a mint. And we know that until the GH1 hack - more people praised Canon. Having said that if we can get about double the data rate with a hack - I am sure HDMI won't be such a big deal. My two cents.

I will do a test at some point over the next few days and see if there is a way of maximising the 8 second window at 280 Mbps and whether it is worth it.
 
Panny should make a dedicated prosumer firmware..
That way, consumers won't get into trouble with HDMI outputing.
I hope they're smart enough
 
Fohdeesha, the samples I posted are screen captures from Shake - while working with original files at the link I posted. No Vimeo compression. I merely mentioned the Vimeo link as the only way of identifying the individual who had gone through the effort and care to make these files available to the public. :)

henryolonga - so you're not having any trouble recording to nanoflash? That's great news, considering there's a thread here saying the AJA ki pro won't take the signal. Along with your own tests, would you have a moment to shoot a child's doll against a dark green computer monitor or something (using photoshop, you can adjust the "green screen" lighting to match the lighting on the desk in front of the monitor - heh heh.) Looking for "hair detail" on a chroma set up.
Also, a chip chart would be nice too. When you have the time, of course. :beer:

roei z - that would be a great marketing technique - advertise you get two cameras for one, or something like that. I think they're looking at the price point of entry and saying, "Be glad." :)
BTW, have you had any luck digitizing from your GH2? I remember you were having limited success, but then what happened? And is your camera Japanese NTSC or a PAL?
Thanks.
 
Sandbox said:
roei z - that would be a great marketing technique - advertise you get two cameras for one, or something like that. I think they're looking at the price point of entry and saying, "Be glad." :)
BTW, have you had any luck digitizing from your GH2? I remember you were having limited success, but then what happened? And is your camera Japanese NTSC or a PAL?
Thanks.
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who is Panny GH2 inside man around here? the Canon near future competition in dslr is enough reason to take such strategy.. before GH3 a year ahead.

about digitizing, i cannot bother them again in my workplace, and it's also Blackmagic card, which has its limitations. others with mobile external recorders will have more
efficient results.

i have a Jap NTSC
 
Now on reflection, it was an odd decision by Panasonic including a 24p HDMI out on playback option. I can't see any interest for consumers to playback at 24p on a TV, it's more a plug-in and go. All they've done is kind of made all those that want a true 24P HDMI out while recording a bit frustrated.

To be honest, I'm quite happy only having 50i output, it's great for take monitoring and playback, and non-assisted focus. But I'm struggling to understand 24P playback, but not live view. In my mind, it's mainly a bit pointless.
 
The Nanoflash correctly identifies the signal and records it as 60i. If I have the puldown removal setting checked it doesn't like it too much . If I record the 60i stream ( when in record mode) it identifies it as 24 pfs correctly. Funnily enough the image before pressing record looks nothing short of amazing viewed live.The usual problems occur however when trying to apply pulldown removal on the Nanoflash file though. Panasonic could have had a Canon cleaner here but boy can they be short sighted and too cautious. I can understand that they want to protect the AF100 but the people who buy an AF100 would also buy the GH2 as a B or C cam as well as they use the same lenses. DUH!!!! If they had uncrippled HDMI I propose that they would sell tonnes more to the film making community than they will. All speculation but it makes sense, although I don't run a multi billion dollar company so cudos to them for making such a great camera as it is.
 
Well, it's good to see the NanoFlash can handle it. What do you mean about the image looking great before you hit record? Do you see a quality shift once the camera starts recording? Or is it the 24 fps cadence causing a visual change once the camera starts recording?
Who knows why Panny did what they did. I don't think they were trying to protect anything. I think they just didn't want to do the work to fix it ) At least that's my pollyanna view. I mean for a $600 camera, you can only expect so much, right?:huh:
 
Sandbox said:
Who knows why Panny did what they did. I don't think they were trying to protect anything. I think they just didn't want to do the work to fix it ) At least that's my pollyanna view I mean for a $600 camera, you can only expect so much, right?:huh:
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Every small chip consumer camcorder I have owned has done HDMI right from the get go. Now these DSLRs come along and all of a sudden the SAME companies that did it so well before seem to choke on it as if it is a new unique problem. We have heard all sorts of reasons for two years now, from processing power to, overheating, to frame rate incompatibilities. Bla bla bla. These guys are too smart to screw this up. It's mainly annoying for long form stuff but for seven second takes it may be fine.

The image uncompressed is amazing. The contrast changes ( more dynamic range actually ) after pressing record and there may even be a dip in sharpness but I may be perceiving things incorrectly. Before pressing record there is the focussing square and I haven't figured out how to get rid of it.

I will do something tomorrow to show how good it is. Talking heads may well be fine and it is lovely. I did see some banding so perhaps the chroma subsampling is still TBD.If you pan slowly for a few seconds with the live HDMI, you can actualy see the frames skip every once in a while as the cadence adjusts. Or maybe I am seeing things

Vitaliy...are you there?
 
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