GH2 GH2 Hack issues with Cards - reporting in from a wedding shoot. WARNING!

Psynema

Psynema

Well-known member
Did a wedding for a friend over the weekend...

The infamous "Can not record, file number limit exceeded" thing happened to me sadly after a wedding Ceremony - luckily the Ceremony was over and we had time to change cards. But the Sandisk alone is NOT at fault. I had a Lexar class 10 64GB card (which writes at 20MBs or so it claims) in addition to the Sandisk extreme Pro 95MBs 64GB. The hack was NOT that stressful 66MBs on 24H and 44MBs 24L AQ3. 66 was used for the ceremony then me and my 2nd cameraman switch to 24L after I cursed a few times at the SD cards.

THEN THIS HAPPENED...

at 44mbs the toasts and first dance cut off at exactly 12 mins 57 seconds and 12 frames (two clips). I'm assuming it was a spanning issue of some sort. But in my GH2 the files are completely INVISIBLE, like they never happened. I do not get the "cannot play this movie" message, but it's like the two clips are not even there and aren't counted - it says 16 clips on the card when in fact there are 21 MTS clips. Final Cut Pro X did the same thing, not recognizing those clips saying there were only 16. LUCKILY 5DtoRGB RECOGNIZED THEY WERE THERE as I just recently made a habit of copying the card in tact to my HD instead of straight transcoding from a card reader and saw there were 5 extra clilps FCP and my GH2 were not seeing. - so BE WARNED - if you hack ALWAYS COPY the MTS files locally so you don't get fooled into thinking a clip is missing (I thought we misplaced the card with the toasts/first dance on it. AND ALSO NOTE - THIS IS A TOTAL REASON TO GET 5DTORGB. Even when I copied the SD card intact to my HD to where I could see 21 clips in the MTS folder, FCPX did not recognize them when a $50 app did just fine and converted them no problem. Pretty sure this is a spanning issue as the clips skip, like it will say MTS 01, MTS 03, skipping 0 and 2 in the 5DtoRGB batch but all the footage is at least accounted for. Had I not gotten 5dtoRGB I would have just assumed those clips were lost to Hack / Card error or that an SD card was lost on the shoot. This was on a transcend 16GB class 10 card, which I know is not strong enough for the bigger hacks, but at a mere 44mbs I didn't think anything could go wrong. My 32 GB transcend class 10 was just fine however, yet none of the clips on that card reached the 12 min, 57 second, 12 frame length, so who knows.

Ok sorry for the long thread, but just wanted to tell my account so everyone can take further precautions
1. 5dtoRGB can save your ass if you have spanning issues.
2. ALWAYS copy the MTS folders to a hard drive so you can see exactly how many clips there are supposed to be, do NOT TRUST the camera or Final Cut Pro's interpretation of what clips are on your card.
3. Lexar's 64GBs are also prone to the "file number limit exceded bulls*%t".
 
Sorry to hear about your problems. It might be helpful to others if you listed which hack this was. I have 4 Transcend 8GB class 10 cards and 4 Transcend 16GB class 10 cards. On certain hacks I can get sporadic stops with the 8GB but the 16GB are good. I did a disk speed test on all the cards and the 8GB are slower.
 
vealti said:
Sorry to hear about your problems. It might be helpful to others if you listed which hack this was. I have 4 Transcend 8GB class 10 cards and 4 Transcend 16GB class 10 cards. On certain hacks I can get sporadic stops with the 8GB but the 16GB are good. I did a disk speed test on all the cards and the 8GB are slower.
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I did list, not sure if they're supposed to have a name, but set the bit rate for 24h to 66mbs, 24l to 44mbs, AQ3 and left the GOP alone. ISO limit removed.
 
Usually the hacks that others have created for us to use have a name. Sounds like you made your own? I don't know how techie or experienced in compression you are, but from the other users here who have developed their hacks there is a lot of testing and dissecting of the video stream that goes into them. It seems it's a bit more than changing the bit rate and AQ settings to get a reliable hack. If you haven't already I'd check out the hacks commonly used here or at personal-view.com.
 
vealti said:
Usually the hacks that others have created for us to use have a name. Sounds like you made your own? I don't know how techie or experienced in compression you are, but from the other users here who have developed their hacks there is a lot of testing and dissecting of the video stream that goes into them. It seems it's a bit more than changing the bit rate and AQ settings to get a reliable hack. If you haven't already I'd check out the hacks commonly used here or at personal-view.com.
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Ok thanks, hopefully that helps. Wasn't aware, never had issues with prior Ptool versions and the new PTool has been giving me issues so I guess it's more sensitive. I'm assuming it's the AQ setting but when I check it off it doesn't look as good vs. prior Ptools without AQ so Hmmm...
 
I never monkey with the settings myself. The final released 'patches' go through tons of testing. I have a wedding coming up in a week for a friend and I have stress tested Cake 2.3 in every way. I really want to try Flowmotion 2.1 but won't have the time to test it properly on my Sandisk 45MB/s cards so I will just go with Cake 2.3 as I know it well.
 
RatLabProductions said:
I never monkey with the settings myself. The final released 'patches' go through tons of testing. I have a wedding coming up in a week for a friend and I have stress tested Cake 2.3 in every way. I really want to try Flowmotion 2.1 but won't have the time to test it properly on my Sandisk 45MB/s cards so I will just go with Cake 2.3 as I know it well.
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That is really good advice. Know the hack you are using well because there is no one else to blame if it fails.
 
I had the same issue last week while shooting a concert on the USS Intrepid.
The solution is this: When you record a long clip that spans, before powering down the camera, immediately record a 5 sec clip, then you can shut down your camera.

As for you hacks, if you want to get the best out of your camera, I strongly recommend getting one of these hacks made by Driftwood http://bit.ly/NMbZvX
I personally use CLUSTER v6 'DREWnet' hack. Read the description and see what fits you the best. Some hacks are super high def, but unstable (not spanning) some others are mores stable with slightly les details.
 
I also keep several cards with a couple different hacks and the original firmware. If I start having problems on a shoot I'll revert back to something else. Better to shoot with no hack then to not shoot at all.
 
I use flowmotion 2.0 exclusivley. I shot last night in Boston, it was just getting dark, had some lights in the backround that were blurred. It looks amazing, clean, And the latitude seems like im getting at least an extra stop, I dont know why. But everytime I shoot with this patch I like it more and more. All I can say he did a fantastic job creating it. I think it's the best by leaps and bounds.
 
maranfilms said:
I use flowmotion 2.0 exclusivley. I shot last night in Boston, it was just getting dark, had some lights in the backround that were blurred. It looks amazing, clean, And the latitude seems like im getting at least an extra stop, I dont know why. But everytime I shoot with this patch I like it more and more. All I can say he did a fantastic job creating it. I think it's the best by leaps and bounds.
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I can't wait to check it out. Have some downtime for the camera in late August as I'll be busy with post work and am looking forward to stress testing FM2.1 with my cards.
 
RatLabProductions said:
I can't wait to check it out. Have some downtime for the camera in late August as I'll be busy with post work and am looking forward to stress testing FM2.1 with my cards.
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Just did some tests...oddly enough, and it's still early for me w/ flowmotion, but it seems like it's UPPING the bit rate in low light and high iso situations. Well lit scenes are ranging in the 30-40 range at low isos, and I shot in my bathroom with the lights off at 3200/6400 and it was pushed to the max. Not complaining at all but interesting as usually its the opposite. Then again this is still early and only a few minutes worth of shooting with flowmotion. May be scary to do weddings since 100mbs will make for some huge files and hopefully I won't drain a 64gb card in 20 mins during a reception LOL.
 
Psynema said:
Just did some tests...oddly enough, and it's still early for me w/ flowmotion, but it seems like it's UPPING the bit rate in low light and high iso situations... May be scary to do weddings since 100mbs will make for some huge files and hopefully I won't drain a 64gb card in 20 mins during a reception.
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Flow Motion v2 is tuned to maintain consistent image quality across a wide range of exposure and ISO settings. In low light and/or high ISO conditions, FM2 will record with minimal compression and that tends to keep the average bitrate over 30Mbps.

In situations where you need extended recording time, I'd recommend using Flow Motion's 60Mbps 24L, FH, or H video modes instead of the 100Mbps 24H, HBR, FSH, or SH modes. Aside from their peak bitrates being limited to 60Mbps, these modes work exactly the same as FM2's 100Mbps video modes, and will produce excellent image quality with just a notch more compression. 24L, FH, and H video modes also support 4GB file-spanning on standard Class 10 SD cards rated at 30MB/sec and higher, for extended recording times as long as the available space on the card.
 
Psynema said:
Did a wedding for a friend over the weekend...

The infamous "Can not record, file number limit exceeded" thing happened to me sadly after a wedding Ceremony - luckily the Ceremony was over and we had time to change cards. But the Sandisk alone is NOT at fault. I had a Lexar class 10 64GB card.
Click to expand...

This used to happen to me when I spanned on my 64gb sandisk. Then I realized that the camera was reading the original file structure on the card despite me deleting or taking off files. After formayting the card, I didn't get that error. I would maybe try to format the card before you record anything and then see if it spans properly for a long period of time.
 
L1N3ARX said:
This used to happen to me when I spanned on my 64gb sandisk. Then I realized that the camera was reading the original file structure on the card despite me deleting or taking off files. After formayting the card, I didn't get that error. I would maybe try to format the card before you record anything and then see if it spans properly for a long period of time.
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Amen! Additionally everyone needs to test out hacks before taking them on a job! Always format your cards after transferring them to your storage medium (raid5 server for me). Other NLEs may not have that problem. Vegas can accept the files directly on the timeline without log and transfer.

Sorry to hear about your issue with the hack!
 
Psynema said:
May be scary to do weddings since 100mbs will make for some huge files and hopefully I won't drain a 64gb card in 20 mins during a reception LOL.
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A properly formatted Sandisk SDXC 64 GB card will provide you with room for 84 minutes of footage when shooting with a 100 Mbps ALL I-FRAME patch ( like Driftwood's Quantum 100 ), and I would expect LPowell's Flow Motion Patch would provide you with room for even more footage, as it's a variable bit-rate patch that does not go above 100 Mbps when shooting with normal speed settings. ( the GH2 Variable Movie Mode may push the frame rate up to 130 Mbps )
 
TheDingo said:
I would expect LPowell's Flow Motion Patch would provide you with room for even more footage, as it's a variable bit-rate patch that does not go above 100 Mbps when shooting with normal speed settings.
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Yes, that's correct, and average bitrates in Flow Motion's 100Mbps modes typically range around 50-75Mbps. A recent 2-hour performance I videotaped in FM2 required about 50GB of SD card space. So I think a safe estimate would be a minimum of 60 minutes recording time per 32GB.
 
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