GH2 INTRA GOP1 176M Hack = superb

I read about a GH2 that burned due to excessive bitrate, I don't want to spread FUD, so I'm asking: Isn't it dangerous to go that high?

Educate me please. :)
 
AVCHD 24mbps is amazing for the consumer.... great quality, small size, no issues with the vast majority of SD cards... there is no conspiracy here, just pure and simple common sense.

Yea. It definitely makes sense for a stock codec. Especially in a pro-sumer device like the GH2. Where it doesn't make any sense at all, is in the AF-100. There is no reason to not have implemented an intra-frame 4:2:2 codec on the AF. The guy who hacked the GH2 said that the difference in hardware cost would have been about $2.

And, IIRC, the AF-100 is patchable for a hack like the GH2... but it's not going to be developed for (more or less) political reasons. The developers of the hack don't like the way the pro-video division is being run and would like to see it be moved to to the Lumix division... or something like that. I don't blame them. Product tearing pisses me off. We should not be silent about it.

I read about a GH2 that burned due to excessive bitrate, I don't want to spread FUD, so I'm asking: Isn't it dangerous to go that high?

Educate me please.
smiley.gif

I know of a GH2 that got burned because someone was messing with an external battery and connected the leads wrong... I don't think anyone has bricked a camera from excessive bit-rate though. The bit-rate patches get run through a "death-chart" that is made to stress the encoder... if it's too much for the camera, it just stops recording.

The patching or "hacking" is basically just changing the parameters of what it writes to the SD card. It's not like overclocking a processor or anything like that. The processors are already dealing with a 16mp image image that they are down-sampling and encoding to AVCHD... writing all I-frames and a higher-bit rate to the card is actually LESS work that the processors have to do.
 
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I know how to install the PTools patch, how do we proceed with this hack? I've scoured personal-view up and down.
 
Yea. It definitely makes sense for a stock codec. Especially in a pro-sumer device like the GH2. Where it doesn't make any sense at all, is in the AF-100. There is no reason to not have implemented an intra-frame 4:2:2 codec on the AF. The guy who hacked the GH2 said that the difference in hardware cost would have been about $2.

And, IIRC, the AF-100 is patchable for a hack like the GH2... but it's not going to be developed for (more or less) political reasons. The developers of the hack don't like the way the pro-video division is being run and would like to see it be moved to to the Lumix division... or something like that. I don't blame them. Product tearing pisses me off. We should not be silent about it.



I know of a GH2 that got burned because someone was messing with an external battery and connected the leads wrong... I don't think anyone has bricked a camera from excessive bit-rate though. The bit-rate patches get run through a "death-chart" that is made to stress the encoder... if it's too much for the camera, it just stops recording.

The patching or "hacking" is basically just changing the parameters of what it writes to the SD card. It's not like overclocking a processor or anything like that. The processors are already dealing with a 16mp image image that they are down-sampling and encoding to AVCHD... writing all I-frames and a higher-bit rate to the card is actually LESS work that the processors have to do.

Right on the mark, the problem is not having an intra codec in the consumer gh2 but having a consumer Avchd codec in a pro Af-100 in the first place. What the hack GH2 shows is that the technology for 200 mbit intra codec is here in a $ 900 body. It is just the marketing etc that does not want give it to you, because you would not buy the next version of the camera because this one would be good enough for many many years. I think that is the point of Vitaliy, because now you have a proof of what the hardware can do. If people want to believe the manufactures that giving you 10 bit or 50/100 mbit codec requires $ 10 000 + hardware, then so be it.

What is the most annoying for me is that they (sony and panasonic) could have implemented at least a good 50 mbit codec. As seen by the examples of 44 mbits bitrade for the gh2 there is already some good gain in image quality. They did not need to go as high as 200mbit to at least give a proper codec for $ 5000 camera. I just hope that Canon to a certain extend RED brings on some kicking technology to those two in this price range. Until now I can't understand how we are still in the 8 bit world in 2011.
 
I read about a GH2 that burned due to excessive bitrate, I don't want to spread FUD, so I'm asking: Isn't it dangerous to go that high?

Educate me please. :)

Pretty sure that is FUD. There was a guy who smoked his GH2 hooking a RC battery pack to it but I've read nothing at all about the high bitrate stuff physically harming a camera. Heck, I've not heard of the high bitrate stuff causing any overheating shutdowns either.
 
Pretty sure that is FUD. There was a guy who smoked his GH2 hooking a RC battery pack to it but I've read nothing at all about the high bitrate stuff physically harming a camera. Heck, I've not heard of the high bitrate stuff causing any overheating shutdowns either.

I agree, there is no technical reasons why hacking would burn it. The only risk of hacking is having the camera to stop recording before you press stop or completely refuse to record certain scenes. Make sure you read the comments about a hack before installing them. Most of them don't support the spanning of clips.
 
I know of a GH2 that got burned because someone was messing with an external battery and connected the leads wrong... I don't think anyone has bricked a camera from excessive bit-rate though. The bit-rate patches get run through a "death-chart" that is made to stress the encoder... if it's too much for the camera, it just stops recording.

The patching or "hacking" is basically just changing the parameters of what it writes to the SD card. It's not like overclocking a processor or anything like that. The processors are already dealing with a 16mp image image that they are down-sampling and encoding to AVCHD... writing all I-frames and a higher-bit rate to the card is actually LESS work that the processors have to do.

Pretty sure that is FUD. There was a guy who smoked his GH2 hooking a RC battery pack to it but I've read nothing at all about the high bitrate stuff physically harming a camera. Heck, I've not heard of the high bitrate stuff causing any overheating shutdowns either.

Thanks guys!

So what's the highest one can go and still get in-camera playback? I'm on 50mbps for the moment which is pretty nice already.

But I also like the pristine image quality one gets when reaching 100mbps. Is a Class 10 card enough for that?
 
He means he is done posting the same thing over and over because the thread dies and goes in limbo.
I mean you still have the option of keeping the thread alive ;)

yes but has he ever posted it in this thread or or even at this site, i just cannot keep up with personal view,they are just too fast for me....
 
Don't select better audio quality, this will let you playback in cam (at default audio bitrate).
 
I'm thinking of hooking up a RC battery too cause being able to shoot for at least 7 hours is just the bees knees - will still weigh in the costs of the two solutions. But hearing that you can fry your GH2 if you hook it up wrong way around does scare me cause for me (with the exchange rate) $800 is a lot of money :shocked: But I was thinking of checking, double checking, and triple checking that I build a protection circuit into such a hack even before I hook up the RC battery via the DC-coupler - $90 for a Panasonic battery is quite steep really since everything including the camera is still made in China.
 
Thats exactly what I've been doing. Now w/ the latest 720 3gop (best I managed without going too deep was a solid 6gop 720) and 176 hack, I think I will buy faster cards and get into that. In cam playback is a must for me.

GH2 hack vs. EX1

1.jpg2.jpg

The tools of yesterday are unacceptable

(*dvxuser degrades the quality of the screengrabs a lot; no color grading on either)
 
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Sage, are you refering to the difference between framed subject and depth of field?
The EX1 offers excellent detail, but is fixed with it lens and ability. Of couse, i'm, not including
adapter attachments.
 
Sage, are you refering to the difference between framed subject and depth of field?
The EX1 offers excellent detail, but is fixed with it lens and ability. Of couse, i'm, not including
adapter attachments.

That is one element; I always considered the ex1 to be the best of the last lot - but seeing these two compared was a shock. The detail structure, lens qualities and color are harsh and very video like next to the hacked gh2. (the full screengrabs show this in a big way)
 
Just gave Driftwood's latest a run; I still prefer my 3gop 1080p 24 and 6gop 720p. I did my own inquiry towards the end of the summer, and after extensive testing, I came to what I felt was an optimal compromise. It works on all class 10 cards, and relies on cadence drop down when things get tough, so that 90% of the shots will be at max quality. Even at cadence drop down, it appears visually lossless in both 24p and 60p (important for noisy forest shots). For tough 1080p 80% speed shots on class 6 cards, there is a lower 66mbps option that works.

http://sagepictures.com/seta.ini
 
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