Any GH2 news on the HDMI output front?

henryolonga said:
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.
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The nanoFlash will pull 24p out of a 60i stream, but the 3:2 cadence changing mid-shot is a deal breaker. If there is any sort of absolute pattern predictability, or some sort of "tell" in the HDMI signal, Convergent would bend over backward to address and apply a special fix for this camera. After all, it's the first DSLR with full frame, full rez HDMI out. They would like it to succeed as much as you guys.

I have been monitoring this situation closely, and passing on the info to the engineers at Convergent. If someone in the Denver/Colorado Springs area has a GH2 and would wish to bring it in for testing, they would certainly look the situation over to see if anything is possible. I can't advise them to buy the camera on the off chance things will work, as it seems doubtful that we have the clean output we've been waiting for. Perhaps it's something fixable in firmware down the road, perhaps not.

Has anyone tried to record 30p via the 60i HDMI out? It would be interesting to see if there is any sort of HDMI field ordering issues in that case as well. For instance, does it start out correctly putting one progressive frame into the appropriate two fields of output, then suddenly jump ship and start combining one field of one progressive frame with a field of another after a period of time?

Also, what happens when the HDMI signal is recorded without the on-board media recording? Is the HDMI stability better or even different than when the media IS recording?
 
OK. Been doing some research on the 5 minute fan footage that farfromsubtle had uploaded earlier.
Was looking to see if I could find a pattern.
So far, not really.
I've attached screen shots that show when the footage changes cadence. Each notch is either a step forward or a step backwards, with the last tick in each sequence being the final step forward for the new segment free of timing glitches. The "wide" shot makes you think it's predictable, but the closer you get, the more you realize that the triggers are not consistent, the recovery process is not consistent, and I've found it actually giving double frames at 799-800, 1782-3, 2786-7, and 3797-8.
:crybaby:
This workflow is definitely going to be for those with more time than money, if they go the "uncompressed" route. And that's without knowing if we're even seeing a genuine 4:2:2 signal coming out of HDMI (So far, I'm leaning heavily to the 4:2:0 side until someone can explain the aberrations in one of my previous posts).
I'm only half way through mapping this 5 minute clip, and it's taken me an hour to find the real trouble spots.
Ideally, there could be a workflow where everything is conformed to 24P after the edit, and then the footage would need to be checked for hiccups. Those would just show up in the many many times that an editor would go through the footage anyway. But, wow, what editor needs even more on his plate when putting a show together.
And if this thing is outputting 4:2:0 over HDMI, I'm done even looking at it.

Well, the footage is slowly creeping out there, so hopefully someone will come up with a solution or a correction to what I'm seeing. Geesh, I really hope I'm wrong on the sub-sampling thing.

Any more footage from you guys that have access to this camera and off-board digitizing?

Thanks.Screen shot 2010-12-18 at 4.33.57 AM.jpgScreen shot 2010-12-18 at 4.35.02 AM.jpgScreen shot 2010-12-18 at 4.34.32 AM.jpg

Sorry these are so small. Apparently I can't maintain their full desktop size once they're uploaded? Too bad.
 
Has anybody had a look at the HDMI output from a PAL camera yet?
My guess is since there is no 60i / 59.94i, it will output a proper 50i stream. What would be interesting to see is how it handles the 24p mode.

Best case scenario is it will double every 24th frame which would make it predictable and easy enough (with the right tool) to extract 24p from it.

My PAL GH2 should arrive in about a week or two and I will be able to thoroughly test the output with an Intensity Pro then.

Martin
 
auzgc said:
Has anybody had a look at the HDMI output from a PAL camera yet?
My guess is since there is no 60i / 59.94i, it will output a proper 50i stream. What would be interesting to see is how it handles the 24p mode.

Best case scenario is it will double every 24th frame which would make it predictable and easy enough (with the right tool) to extract 24p from it.

My PAL GH2 should arrive in about a week or two and I will be able to thoroughly test the output with an Intensity Pro then.

Martin
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One of the posters here has done that already. not good either I am afraid. They closed this hole
 
A local camera shop has agreed to try out my GH2 with their NanoFlash, but it is rented out until the 22nd. I'm glad someone got to it first.

Henry, does the Nanoflash record at 59.94i or exactly 60i? Must be the first, right?

How is the NanoFlash record triggered? I thought it recorded when it detected an HDMI signal but how can that work when the GH2 HDMI must continually be on for monitoring purposes?

Does the NanoFlash generate timecode as it records? I'm pretty sure the GH2 HDMI can not.

Does the GH2 generate any kind of time code in AVCHD? I'm guessing not.

RBG
 
I'm sure this won't make any difference, but might be worth a try:

Turn off the "VIERA Link" option on p.3 of the GH2's SETUP menu.

This feature is enabled by default. When on, maybe the GH2 pings via the HDMI line every so often looking for a Panasonic VIERA HDTV?

If so, maybe this somehow interrupts what would otherwise be a smooth frame cadence?

Again, probably won't make any difference, but relatively easy to test. (I have my GH2 now, but no external recording device, regrets.)

Apologies if this has already been tested. Cheers.
 
Would love to assist in testing; I have a GH2 and a NanoFlash sitting right here. However, it turns out that *both* the Nano and the GH2 use the accursed mini-HDMI connector, so ... until I get some mini-mini cables or a mini-fullsize converter, I'm on the sidelines. I've ordered the requisite parts from monoprice.
 
very interesting thread! I walked into Saturn in Berlin today and they had 2 GH2 with the 14-42 sitting there, glad I read this before....the 14-42 feels really plastic and cheap too! Lets hope Vitaly can play with a FW file soon ;-)
 
Just got my GH2 and started using the HDMI out while monitoring/recording. Am I correct in observing that this disables the 720p60 mode as well as the tele conversion feature? Any other significant feature loss while using HDMI out?
 
Yes with the HDMI pluged in you do lose ETC. I wasn't aware that you also loose 720p60 mode as well.
 
rigs said:
Yes with the HDMI pluged in you do lose ETC.
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Aww, tell me you're kidding. I read earlier that the video coming off of ETC is actually a bit sharper as it is 1:1 pixel, which makes sense. Add to that less skew with ETC and how great would that be to record to a high bit rate external recorder? But alas, not to be huh?

So I wonder which would have overall "better" video PQ: a high bit rate recorder (ie: 220Mb/s ProRes HQ) recording the entire sensor... or slightly (noticeably?) better ETC video being recorded to 24Mb/s internally? I'd still guess the former.

RBG
 
Sorry to say that. I also noticed there is no audio output from via HDMI as well. ETC also seems to have a bit more noise on my GH2.
 
Sharper, with a bit more noise. Lovely. Perhaps expected due to necessary processing?

No audio a pain but not so horrible for those wanting to record to an external machine that will have its own high quality audio input.

RBG
 
Oh Barry - some nice gentle pressure on Panasonic to see the true potential of unleashing this feature would be timely......perhaps a whisper into the ear of one of the engineers....he he he. Anyway - tried a few things yesterday to no avail.I have hardware scaler that can take a signal and convert to just about anything from 50i to 60p and when I attempt to do pulldown removal the Nano wasn't having it - recorded a grey screen. The engineers have been very smart here but also a little paranoid. It seems to skip a couple of frames every few seconds and the cadence just isn't behaving.

The Nano can capture the signal in 60i mode. It looks good guys - really good but it wouldn't be so annoying if it looked rubbish. Like I said - a little bit of banding may suggest that the colour res is not what we hope but perhaps that's because of the downsampling prcess from a high bit depth sensor - not terrible though. I must record something tomorrow. Was going to do some Green screen today but got caught up mixing my album.

I suppose I shouldn't really complain - I am resigning myself to the fact that to get what I desire I am getting pushed towards waiting for a Scarlet or another offering because I know that the image from that won't have me jumping through hoops. Till then the Gh2 will suffice with AVCHD.
 
henryolonga said:
. Till then the Gh2 will suffice with AVCHD.
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Same here. Give me something around 12k that's S35 and uncompressed whether it be a Epic-L or an F3 thats upgradeable to 4:4:4. I never figured the GH2 HDMI would work properly, so I'm not shocked by this thread. It would have been nice to have that small of a package with the nanoflash though.
 
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