GH2 Re: HDMI Output - 4:2:2 or 4:2:0?

E

ectobuilder

Veteran
Re: HDMI Output - 4:2:2 or 4:2:0?

Is the HDMI output on the GH2 (non-hacked) 4:2:2?

Also, does the hack change anything with respect to this?
 
The HDMI output is a broken 4:2:0. It's awful and needs to have a script process run on it to return it to at least functional 4:2:0.
 
There seems to be some debate as what the HDMI output offers exactly. Yes, it is "screwed up", as Barry says, but that appears to be only half the story according to others.

Some folks have theorized that Panasonic purposely borked the HDMI in order to make this little budget option less desirable in a professional environment. Really (according to them), the data coming off the sensor would allegedly be 4:2:2, but they cover it up.

I haven't verified this, but some of the scripts Barry mentioned claim to actually recover a full 4:2:2 color space. However, I've only heard this mentioned in passing, as the process and workflow to get there seems more trouble than it is worth in most circumstances.
 
Barry_Green said:
The HDMI output is a broken 4:2:0. It's awful and needs to have a script process run on it to return it to at least functional 4:2:0.
Click to expand...

This effort is a success:
http://vimeo.com/38680823
Footage looks superbly detailed with good motion, and seems gradable enough. No mention of a script; the implication is that it was all done in a bit of a hurry. Has there been a quiet change with the new firmware, maybe?
 
PJF said:
This effort is a success:
http://vimeo.com/38680823
Footage looks superbly detailed with good motion, and seems gradable enough. No mention of a script; the implication is that it was all done in a bit of a hurry. Has there been a quiet change with the new firmware, maybe?
Click to expand...

Thanks, looked a bit better than usual. But even this would still benefit from using the Magenta filter, because crippling of the colors for the video starts at very early stage. One could easily see the scenes that had been corrected away from normal colors being posterized because of poor color channel resolution. Any grading that leans on the Red or Blue channel will still continue to be posterized regardless of the use of the HDMI output.

What the HDMI output should definitely fix is the poor quality transition from light to shadow by AVCHD codec.
 
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Well, according to experiments by other members, without the scripts you have jaggy artifacts on the red channel (see the stop sign example in this post: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?237584-HDMI-Capture-Problem-SOLVED-AviSynth-RULES! ).
It looks like that vimeo example is using very selective colors, and not much in the reds. Could be the issues just didn't show up?

Meanwhile, Marvel's film blog has a plethora of information here:
http://marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/tag/422/

The bottom line is that the footage captured cleans up pretty nicely, and may, perhaps actually be 4:2:2 (there is a lot of speculation one way or the other).
 
PJF said:
This effort is a success:
http://vimeo.com/38680823
Footage looks superbly detailed with good motion, and seems gradable enough. No mention of a script; the implication is that it was all done in a bit of a hurry. Has there been a quiet change with the new firmware, maybe?
Click to expand...
Now THAT doesn't look mangled to me. As good as the hacks are....I would love to get what I see here out of my cam. Makes it worth buying an external recorder.

I think the weird jaggy reds we see in that clip has something to do with the unconventional 60fps that the cam spits out over HDMI. But it's still 4:2:2.
 
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