GH13 Unable to rehack GH13....... HELP !!!!

C

ChipThome

Well-known member
I've been tearing my hair out all day trying to rehack a GH13 I just purchased.

I had a card here with the hack already loaded, one I have used on several cameras before. It was set to version 135 firmware to get past any previous firmware numbering.

I get the "no images to display" error, or whatever it actually says when I hit "display" to do the update. So I increased the numbering to 136, 137, 139, 150, 155 and still get the same error message. During all of this I try reformatting the card in the camera and reloading it as well as using a completely different card. I went and redownloaded ptool and the firmware from Panny and tried to see if that was my problem, still nothing.

I go into the service menu and after some trying I see it shows firmware 1.34 which is what the last owner told me may have been used when he hacked it.

I shot a test clip with it and imported it into a Premiere project I already had, and it shows it as a 23.9Xfps clip, in other words hacked. The reason I know this is the project has clips from my unhackable GH1 and those are showing as 29.97fps.

So I am dumbfounded as to what it might be. Any help in figuring out this problem would be greatly appreciated.
 
What is the serial number of the camera..
Are you using Ptools with version compare patch checked.

Truestory
 
Serial # is a '09 vintage and checked prevent version compare is checked as it version increment. I checked with the last owner when I found the version 1.34 in the service menu about if it ever went to Panny for repairs which he said no. But it was after that, that I shot the test clips which are 23fps and 31000kbps, both of which say "hacked" to me.
 
i don't want to be disappointing you but it seems you upgraded your gh13 to firmware 1.34

sorry.

on the bright side at least it's functional.
 
The firmware from the Panasonic site was GH1_132.bin. I pulled the firmware from the page that is linked here, unless Panny did something goofy to it.

The thought of "did I throw something into?" this did cross my mind. But each time I hit the button to update the firmware I got the same No pictures to display, or whatever it says. Those I have hacked before always gave me instructions to leave the cam alone and the update may take several minutes. That never came on this time.
 
ChipThome said:
I go into the service menu and after some trying I see it shows firmware 1.34 which is what the last owner told me may have been used when he hacked it.
Click to expand...
I don't see how the previous owner could have hacked the camera using firmware v1.34, since Panasonic has not publicly released that version as of yet. As far as I know, the only way it could have v1.34 is if it was either built that way or sent back for factory service.
 
lpowell I completely agree. But when I go to the clip I shot and find the properties it lists the 23fps and data rate of 31050kbps. In comparision my unhackable GH1 has a data rate of 14800 and 29fps in the properties details.

I checked with the last owner and he states it has never been anywhere for any service. So that was when I shot the test clip, and the rates show a hacked camera.

I just tried again, reformatting the card first in my computer and immediately in the camera and then reloaded the ptool checking the prevent version compare, but didn't check the increment checkbox. No difference.
 
I just checked the properties of the firmware I used, this what the properties is calling the "modified" date:

Friday, ‎April ‎23, ‎2010, ‏‎4:33:42 PM'
 
If it's a hacked camera you should be to change the recording from NTSC to PAL and record both. This would be a more reliable indicator.
 
I asked the last owner about the languages and he told me he checked off just the version and then the settings he wanted, he didn't bother with the other aspects of the hack.
 
I just did another test clip, this time shot the same section of the room with both this GH13 and my new unhackable GH1. The properites from both cams:

GH13 - 20160kbps & 23fps

GH1 - 14908 kbps & 29fps
 
Well then it's obviously hacked then. Are you sure the version said 1.34 and not just 1.3

The only other explanation for 1.34 would be if the previous owner changed the naming of GH1_132.bin to GH1_134.bin and used that with Ptools.

I'm not sure how this will read in camera as i haven't tried it.
 
Last edited:
He thought he used 134, but I wasn't aware that the version selected in ptool would show in the service menu.

134 version.jpg
 
I would think the displayed version would be from the actual FW metadata?? not the version you type in but, this is about all i know now, maybe PM Vitaliy.
 
Just checked the Panasonic site and downloaded the available FW for GH1 and it's still version 1.3 and extracts to GH1__132.bin, so nothing changed there.
 
I had this problem once. I never fully understood the version compare, version increment thing. I played around with the numbers for the latter parameter, and got the hack working again
 
The other thing to consider is the possibility that panasonic have quietly changed the downloadable firmware to the unhacked 1.34. If that's the case, this is very good news, as the firmware can be hacked once Vitaliy gets hold of it.
 
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