GH2 The Color Profile and Hack vs. Not Hacked Shootout

M

mpgxsvcd

Veteran
So I finally finished the Color Profile and Hack vs. Not Hacked Shootout video. The link to my thoughts on the test cases are in the YouTube video below. However, that video alone should not be used to make a final conclusion since the examples in it have been re-compressed twice. It should be used as a guideline for what to look out for when you watch the original files as they came out of the camera.


You can download those files at the Vimeo link below. Please note that not all of the clips have been uploaded yet. I am still in the process of uploading them(Some of them are huge). If you don't see a sample that you need just let me know in the comments of the youtube video and I will try to get it uploaded.

http://vimeo.com/user442745/videos

Everything was shot under completely controlled conditions. I shot this in pure manual mode with Manual focus, a fixed shutter speed, and a fixed aperture.

The only in camera correction I made was that I increased the shutter speed 1/3 of a stop for Smooth since the camera meters that mode 1/3 of a stop more than any of the other modes.

The video shows the differences between the most popular color modes for video(Cinema, Smooth, and Nostalgic). In addition it shows the differences between unhacked 1.0 and 1.1 firmware and medium and extreme hacked 1.0 firmware.
 
Awesome! Thanks for this!
It takes a lot of time to go through all this and maintain consistency! Great post!
 
Thanks so much. I finally had some time to go over these in detail, interesting and informative as usual. Great work.
 
great effort! thank you.

the one thing that shines out the most (watching the raw files of course) is the fine grain at the blurred background.
it's worlds apart.
no doubt that any filmic work will hugely benefit with this 'minor' difference.
if you watch the files side by side (firmware 1.1 VS 187 iso 160) it's insane.
 
roei z said:
great effort! thank you.

the one thing that shines out the most (watching the raw files of course) is the fine grain at the blurred background.
it's worlds apart.
no doubt that any filmic work will hugely benefit with this 'minor' difference.
if you watch the files side by side (firmware 1.1 VS 187 iso 160) it's insane.
Click to expand...

I agree. The difference between the accuracy of the noise production between the extreme hacked footage and everything else is astonishing. It is real and it is obvious. However, all of that benefit can be for nothing if you re-encode it at all. I compared the two clips in the edited file that I created. It was a high bit rate maxed out H.264 settings file and it still eliminated almost all of the noise characteristics.

I don't know about you but I really don't have an efficient way to redistribute 187 mb/sec video files. How are you guys sharing these files without re-encoding them?
 
mpgxsvcd said:
I agree. The difference between the accuracy of the noise production between the extreme hacked footage and everything else is astonishing. It is real and it is obvious. However, all of that benefit can be for nothing if you re-encode it at all. I compared the two clips in the edited file that I created. It was a high bit rate maxed out H.264 settings file and it still eliminated almost all of the noise characteristics.

I don't know about you but I really don't have an efficient way to redistribute 187 mb/sec video files. How are you guys sharing these files without re-encoding them?
Click to expand...

what do you mean, re-encode? any web video won't benefit from the 187mb patch.
i don't really understand what you mean by encoding..

you mean, once i "ditch" the avchd to some other codec?
if i import to AVID in it's DNxHD codec, it 're-encode's the mts to whatever i choose (let's say 10-bit),
and it would keep the differences between the un-hacked and the 187mb.

is that what you mean?
 
Really, about the only benefit of the hacks is for a workflow to a movie theater projector. Some would argue the little extra detail will translate to other mediums, but I just haven't seen it. As has been stated, unless you are outputting some uncompressed format to be viewed on your large HD TV, where all that detail will be retained, or a movie screen, any re-compression is going to effectively destroy that which you sought to save by using the hack. That said, it's still a lot of fun to go out and shoot the best quality you can, and I still use the hack when I want to show off the camera output to friends in the business.
 
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