GH4 HDMI Lag

David W. Jones said:
Enough for producers from an ad agency during a green screen session to say WTF!
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I know when I use canon, the lag was like less than a sec. When I was shooting gh4 via remote connection, the lag was about a second. When using with a 5" monitor or a 7" one. I didn't experience that much of a lag that would make me scream wtft, it was same as the lag when using the 5d3. Which is why I was wondering how much of a lag are we talking about.
 
David W. Jones said:
Yep, and I'm not hearing the audio buzz on mine being fed by a Sound Devices mixer.
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I have access to a Sound Devices MiixPre-D, but haven't yet had the opportunity to use it with the GH4. Do you mind sharing your setup and connections? Thanks.

BTW - I'm running firmware 1.1 on the GH4. Don't remember any lag prior to the upgrade, but may not have used the monitor before that either. Can't say for sure.

And "Ouch" on the lag with the ad agency. I's bad enough to experience it at all, but in front of a client during a shoot had to be pretty aggravating.
 
Just updated the firmware, and no difference in the HDMI delay time.

This really sucks! We sold our Epic to procure funds as we are on the ARRI waiting list and thought the GH4 would get us by till then. But with this delay on 4K to HD down convert, and the 4K capable Shogun not shipping, we may punt.
 
mdifilm said:
I know when I use canon, the lag was like less than a sec. When I was shooting gh4 via remote connection, the lag was about a second. When using with a 5" monitor or a 7" one. I didn't experience that much of a lag that would make me scream wtft, it was same as the lag when using the 5d3. Which is why I was wondering how much of a lag are we talking about.
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Sorry but this type of lag is unacceptable. Imaging a focus puller a second behind the move. Imagine having to setup headphone distribution and cans for 6 people because watching the preview monitor is out of sync with the live audio they were hearing. Hopefully Panasonic will address this and the other issues folks have been posting about concerning the HDMI port such as proper frame rate issues. And before someone says... Well what do you expect from a $1700 camera. I guess I expect it to work properly!
 
I've finally got a Micro HDMI cable and hooked it up very briefly this morning to test this lag issue with my GH4 (1.1 FW). I was connecting directly to my Dell PC monitor and didn't have time to touch any of the HDMI settings on the camera so everything was at default.

From a very quick check in C4K 24Hz mode I found there was indeed a lag but nothing I would describe as extreme, certainly no-where near the amount of lag I get using the wifi connection and image app. I will try some more objective tests tonight to see if I can get some actual numbers of how much lag there is in frames across different modes.
 
My Gh4 hdmi out to smallhd and marshall delay are pretty minimal. Tested on my desktop monitor today with timecode. Its about 2-3 frames delay.
Attached is the capture frame comparing the GH4 and external monitor.

gh4.jpg
 
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David W. Jones said:
This really sucks! We sold our Epic to procure funds as we are on the ARRI waiting list and thought the GH4 would get us by till then. But with this delay on 4K to HD down convert, and the 4K capable Shogun not shipping, we may punt.
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HDMI latency makes a lot of operating difficult-to-impossible. I've mostly been avoiding external monitors with the GH4 & relying on it's EVF, or LCD (with a loupe), but this is only practical with documentary-type work where Directors & Clients don't expect live monitoring.

ARRI waiting list...nice! Amira? Dying to take one for a spin.
 
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So how many frames or seconds of latency from your GH4?
My test is about 2-3 frames, perfectly acceptable to my type of work.
I ask because it can't be different from camera to camera, unless there's a hdmi to sdi converter sitting between camera and monitor.
 
OK, it seems like more than it's showing, especially when there is motion in the frame. But at 23.976 I am seeing 250ms or 6 frames of latency on the only monitor handy at the moment.
 
Yeah I think I'm getting about 5-6 frames lag in C4K as well which isn't great. About 1-2 frames in 1080p.

I've not used the GH4 with an external monitor on a job yet so can't say how difficult I would find it operating with this lag but I know from experience that if lip sync is out by more than about 2-3 frames it gets distracting.

I guess this is just one of the drawbacks of a $1700 camera that can shoot 4K; the processor has to deal with downscaling the image for the LCD, EVF and an HDMI output as well as crunching it down into a 100mbps H.264; there are going to be compromises somewhere!
 
Haven't seen any clarification on the lag issue and discrepancy between users. Just got an Aputure FineHD VS-1 (which is a very nice monitor). The lag changes depending on which System Frequency setting you are at. 24hz (CINEMA) has the worst lag, bad enough that all your live dialogue will appear out of sync with the monitor. 59.94 (NTSC) has virtually no lag when at the 30p or 29.97 settings, even in UHD. The 50 (PAL) is maybe a frame or so less than NTSC which is still usable, unless you switch to 25p, and then it's as bad as 24hz. Why the lag is worse at the slower frame rates and not the faster is counterintuitive and suggests this may be a fixable issue.
 
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David W. Jones said:
You would think so, but here we are almost 2 years after I brought up the latency issue, with no resolution from Panasonic.
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I spoke to some Panasonic people connected with the GH4 a couple of months and mentioned the issue. Their response was they were aware of it but that it wasn't fixable.
 
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