GH2 INTRA GOP1 176M Hack = superb

[Sage]

Holy skin tones batman.. That's fantastic. Even the gradation on her face. Smooth.

++ Thanks PaPa

Sage, do you make your hack hybrid available somewhere for download? I remember how you were really big on the 720p 60 stuff and having that with the best 24H 1080p hack would be great.

Here it is:
http://sagepictures.com/setc.ini
Just a few friends have it atm. (its pure Driftwood 1080p and LPowell 720p)
Keep in mind; 1080i - specifically PAL (HBR25/50) was compromised to put the two together [interlinked settings]. Also - CS6 has a strange bug with FM2 for me, where the shadows have 'digital rain' - so I do pre render w/ 5d2rgb before bringing into CS6.

Once I tried flowmoion2 I haven't bothered with anything else. Although Driftwoods hacks are really nice, I just don't see any improvement over what i'm currently using, well... as far as my eyes go that is.

All FM2's modes are excellent. This is the balanced, efficient firmware that most GH2 shooters should be using. It does seem to capture intra qualities at a fraction of the bitrate. In the end though, the shadow handling of Driftwoods intra patches was much better for me (in a big way). Boom in particular was also almost a resolution boost with subtle organic qualities that I simply could not turn down. But for many, if not most, imaging supremacy at the high cost of practicality is a radical move. (Sanity 5 is also a solid long GOP option - consider the naming)

 

[Fresno Bob]

Also - CS6 has a strange bug with FM2 for me, where the shadows have 'digital rain' - so I do pre render w/ 5d2rgb before bringing into CS6.

You on a PC or MAC, Sage?

 

[Sage]

You on a PC or MAC, Sage?

Its a PC (cuda)

 

[Fresno Bob]

Tried your hack last night Sage.
Looks pretty good on the Driftwood setting.

 

[Sttratos]

I think the two benchmarks for me were 9b,

Is it still available somewhere? Is it worth it to bother with it or just skip straight to the latest Driftwood?

The latest out there is Driftwood's "Apocalypse Now 'Intravenus' v2 With cbrandin 'Smooth Cinema' Matrix".

Is the matrix intended to make cinema mode highlights rollout as smooth as smooth mode?

Is this still 176Mb/s Intra?

By the way, why is Intra better than Inter?

 

[Sttratos]

The latest and greatest finished release is, in my view, Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' 12/15 GOP (DREWnet) with cbrandin '444 Soft Matrix' found below.

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/...intravenus-cbrandindriftwood-an-softcinema/p1

What is the difference between the above and this:

The latest out there is Driftwood's "Apocalypse Now 'Intravenus' v2 With cbrandin 'Smooth Cinema' Matrix".

 

[Sttratos]

On the balance, for shots typical in narrative film I have found that -

Driftwood's AN Boom is unparalleled for 1080p. This is given the type of non-extreme detail shots that are 99.9% of what you see in a film.

What do you mean by that?


By the way, what's the best hack for really wide shots, like establishing shots, city-escape shots which will be the sharpest and that produces the best fine details?

 

[Ryan Farnes]

Here it is:
http://sagepictures.com/setc.ini
Just a few friends have it atm. (its pure Driftwood 1080p and LPowell 720p)
Keep in mind; 1080i - specifically PAL (HBR25/50) was compromised to put the two together [interlinked settings]. Also - CS6 has a strange bug with FM2 for me, where the shadows have 'digital rain' - so I do pre render w/ 5d2rgb before bringing into CS6.

Thanks. Do I need to be running the newer firmware that Panasonic released? I believe I got my GH2 body before that firmware update and so I remember there being all these people upgrading, but I never bothered.

 

[Sage]

Tried your hack last night Sage.
Looks pretty good on the Driftwood setting.

Nice!

What do you mean by that?


By the way, what's the best hack for really wide shots, like establishing shots, city-escape shots which will be the sharpest and that produces the best fine details?

Boom should be fine for a wide cityscape (especially given sky and flat uniform surfaces). I've used it on deep focus wide shots with extensive foliage, and it has held up. But if you should fill the frame with high detail intricate foliage in focus, or a 'death chart', you will see some artifacts, especially in shadows. Here, a more efficient patch like FM2 will outperform Boom. I'm not too concerned about it; overall love the look. Try out FM2 or S5 first though, highly recommended.

Thanks. Do I need to be running the newer firmware that Panasonic released? I believe I got my GH2 body before that firmware update and so I remember there being all these people upgrading, but I never bothered.

Yes, its for the new firmware/ptool. I think I remember a boot up time boost with that update
http://www.gh1-hack.info/wiki/PToolSoftware

 

[Sttratos]

Boom should be fine for a wide cityscape (especially given sky and flat uniform surfaces). I've used it on deep focus wide shots with extensive foliage, and it has held up.

Better than Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' 12?

By the way, do you know the difference between Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' 12/15 GOP (DREWnet) with cbrandin '444 Soft Matrix' and "Apocalypse Now 'Intravenus' v2 With cbrandin 'Smooth Cinema' Matrix".?

But if you should fill the frame with high detail intricate foliage in focus, or a 'death chart', you will see some artifacts, especially in shadows. Here, a more efficient patch like FM2 will outperform Boom. I'm not too concerned about it; overall love the look. Try out FM2 or S5 first though, highly recommended.

Flowmotion V2.02 is what I use now. But I keep hearing the Diftwood hacks are the best quality while FM2 is a good compromise for all around shooting.

 

[Jim Simon]

The difference are multiple. First, the DREWnet patch uses a 12/15 GOP, whereas Intravenus is, as the name implies, an Intra patch (all I-frames). Second they use different matrices. There may be more. You should check out the personal-view forums to learn more about the details of each patch.

What I can say is that the when doing some pixel peeping at 400% of a child wildly splashing around in water, something that's very difficult to encode, the DREWnet patch showed not one artifact!

 

[Sage]

Jim has it covered there. Sounds like you might want to include DREWnet in your testing. Chris Brandin matrices were meant to 'simulate' higher color resolution at the cost of some luma resolving power.
As to the IV2 Dwood hack, I gave it a shot, but ended up back at Boom.

 

[Sttratos]

Talking about DREWnet, I found this:

In the beginning I thought it had to be fake or a hoax and was filmed with RED RAW or some S-log camera. But it seems it's real. It's just incredible the info in the shadows. Do any of you get these results? Does it work only with the Driftwood patch? I couldn't replicate this with Flowmotion.

By the way, is it just a coincidence that that channel is called Drewnetwork or does it have anything to do with the DREWnet patch?

 

[Jim Simon]

I also get similar results. The detail retained in the shadows is astounding (coming from DV, at least). I recently pushed the midtones up to 1.5 in PP and didn't see any objectionable noise added. (Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' 12/15 GOP (DREWnet) with cbrandin '444 Soft Matrix')

It's called the DREWnet patch because Drew helped a LOT with the testing. It's Nick's way of saying 'thanks'.