GH1 vs SD5 on PS3

Andrzeikra, actually mud isn't much of as issue from the footage I've shot at 1080. But there must be some reason why the motion looks smoother on my computer monitor than my 60" plasma. By the way, I'm in NTSC land. But yes, even with smooth slow pans, there is definite stutter at 1080. With no camera movement, things are generally smooth.

I've played it directly from the camera via HDMI as well as the PS3 from the camera chip. I've also tried removing pulldown via Neoscene and frankly I see little difference. The other thing that bothers me is that the autofocus & exposure seems more finnicky at 1080 than at 720p where it seems faster and more stable. WHen zooming at 1080, it seems the exposure is prone to 'stepping' when in manual mode than in 720 (even in good light).
 
Andrzeikra, I'm actually talking about videos I've shot as opposed to those being downloaded.
 
Ken7 said:
Andrzeikra, actually mud isn't much of as issue from the footage I've shot at 1080. But there must be some reason why the motion looks smoother on my computer monitor than my 60" plasma. By the way, I'm in NTSC land. But yes, even with smooth slow pans, there is definite stutter at 1080. With no camera movement, things are generally smooth.

I've played it directly from the camera via HDMI as well as the PS3 from the camera chip. I've also tried removing pulldown via Neoscene and frankly I see little difference. The other thing that bothers me is that the autofocus & exposure seems more finnicky at 1080 than at 720p where it seems faster and more stable. WHen zooming at 1080, it seems the exposure is prone to 'stepping' when in manual mode than in 720 (even in good light).
Click to expand...

This is may be completely off the mark, but when I plugged my camera into the TV the video off the camera looked horrible. It took me a little while to realize the camera was set to output a 480p signal, once I changed the signal to 720p or higher the video looked great. I made the change in SETUP -> HDMI MODE.
 
Ken7 said:
Andrzeikra, I'm actually talking about videos I've shot as opposed to those being downloaded.
Click to expand...

Maybe you can share some with us then and we can assess it to help figure out why you get the stuttering motion. Barring that, what was the shutter speed you used? If it was too high you will definitely get stuttering motion at 24 p, it needs motion blur in the frames to look natural. A high shutter speed at 60p would look smooth for obvious reasons.
 
Holdingpattern, I tried both 'Auto' and '1080i' outputs since I have a 1080p plasma, but I saw no difference between the two as you would expect. I never had it set to 480.

Andrzeikra, I tried shutter speeds of 1/30 & 1/60th as well as others, but I saw little to no difference. The issue I had with forcing a shutter speed, was the increase in the brightness 'ramping' effect. This issue seems much better controlled with leaving the cam on full Auto. I have no idea why this is other than what Ozpeter suggested with the changing ISO speeds, but who knows?

I'm frankly surprised that people aren't commenting about this brightness change when zooming @ 1080.

What's the best place to upload a clip that I can show you?
 
Megaupload would be good or yousendit to andrzejkra@gmail.com.

The brightness only changes in 1080? I agree that sounds wierd. Most zoom lenses have a smaller aperture at telephoto so that would be my first intuition about it, but that would happen in both modes presumably. I know the kit lens sends metadata back to the camera, so I would assume this issue only happens with the kit lens.
 
andrzejkra said:
Megaupload would be good or yousendit to andrzejkra@gmail.com.

The brightness only changes in 1080? I agree that sounds wierd. Most zoom lenses have a smaller aperture at telephoto so that would be my first intuition about it, but that would happen in both modes presumably. I know the kit lens sends metadata back to the camera, so I would assume this issue only happens with the kit lens.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've only used the kit lens andrzejkra. I will try to get a clip up in the next couple of days that shows both the stutter and brightness ramping @1080. Thanks much!
 
Andrzeikra, here's a good example of the brightness ramping of the GH1 @ 1080. I don't see this same degree of ramping at 720p. You'll see 2 distinct brightness changes during the zoom and 2 distinct changes during the pullback. Again, this is where I've held the shutter speed fixed. In cases where I go full Auto, this problem is not nearly as bad.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V3B4DJOS
 
Last edited:
Marti, at least it's nice to know that it's not just my cam doing it. But I find the behavior odd, having used many different dedicated camcorders over the years. When they change their parameters as light levels increase or fall, it's done in a manner that hardly calls attention to itself. It's a much much smoother transition and I'm not sure why this is not the case with the GH1.

It's also odd that the problem is worse when you hold a parameter like aperture constant as opposed to letting the cam run in full auto.
 
Adding to my first post.... I've just run a mix of both types of GH1 AVCHD (and SD5 AVCHD) through Pinnacle Studio 12.1 and contrary to some reports I've seen, that modest program handles the GH1 footage (PAL) perfectly happily.

I output to AVCHD DVD and standard def DVD, and even in the latter, the better resolution of 1080 vs 720 is clear. No jerky motion within the picture even with passing cars, but pans and zooms in 1080 cause some stutters and jumps. 'Mud' as such I don't see as a huge problem, just the unsmoothness of anthing involving the whole image changing, unless one avoids having detail in the background.

Nothing really new in all that I guess, just yet further confirmation.
 
Ozpeter, have you noticed a big difference as have I in how 1080 images appear on a computer monitor vs a large screen HDTV display such as a plasma (if you've done such a test)? There is just no question that the large screen HDTV is less 'friendly' toward 1080 24p than a computer monitor. Some video can look very acceptable in terms of motion smoothness on my 22" computer monitor, but when I throw it on my 60" Pioneer Kuro, not so much.

My wife and I are taking a trip to Alaska and I think we've decided on using the 720p mode. I'll be using a Sony Z5 for most video anyway, so I think I'd rather have the GH1 shoot in 720p for the better motion smoothness.
 
Unless you have your computer connected to the TV I'm not sure how valid a comparison is - or is that the situation?

As it's not too hard to change resolutions, perhaps simply picking the right resolution for the shot being planned is the way to go. If it's a moving picture with lots of detail, 1080, or if it's a moving frame (i.e. zooms or pans) or there's not much detail, 720. And as others have said, perhaps some change of style can help (i.e. don't zoom!) and use shallow focus if possible to make pans less demanding.

I suspect that good filmmaking is all about planning and this is one more planning element to add to the shot setups.
 
Ozpeter, I was actually just highlighting the fact that on my 22" computer monitor the 1080p generally looks good regardless of motion. But play those same clips via the chip connected to a PS3 or direct from the camera to the HDTV or burned to a Blu Ray and played on an Oppo BD player to an HDTV, you get stutter.

I just can't figure out if it's the 60" size vs the 22" that shows the stutter more or something more complex than that such as the way an HDTV processes this kind of file vs a computer.
 
The PS3 doesn't seem to give good playback straight from the memory card, but after running the footage unedited through Premiere Elements, TSMuxeR and ImgBurn to create an AVCHD DVD, that gives better results - dunno why.

I now forget where we were discussing exposure stepping - anyway, my most recent test footage shows it very clearly, complete with clicking aperture, in Creative Motion Picture Mode, shutter priority, auto ISO. The clicking is much more obvious in 720 then 1080 for some reason.
 
Ozpeter, run it in full auto and I'll bet most of that stepping goes away. IMO this is definitely an issue that Panasonic needs to address since I feel it really hobbles the manual mode. The adjustments the camera is making should be much smoother and more subtle. Even a cheap camcorder will provide an almost seamless transition from light to dark and back.

When you say you get better results when running it through Premiere & TSMuxeR, are you talking about motion smoothness or something else? Also, are you referring to your viewing on an HDTV or a computer monitor?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top