GH2 Will removing the hack on the GH2 mean no more freezing?

R

rc444

Well-known member
I have had enough of my GH2 freezing on corporate jobs, as much as I enjoy the picture quality of the hack.

So if I unhack my GH2, does that mean that I won't encounter that annoying freezing anymore?

Has anyone on here unhacked your GH2? Were you able to use the camera normally afterwards?

Thanks
rc444
 
Which hack is freezing on you?

I settled on FlowMotion v2.?... but occasionally go back to stock firmware for longer record times and HBR 30p reliability, with which it acts exactly as stock.

If you haven't already done so, prep a couple of cheap SD cards (even old 2-4GB) with the different hacks you use (plus one with stock), write-protect them, and keep them in a small case with the camera. That way you can simply prep firmware depending upon your shoot.
 
What memory cards are you using ?

I never had a single freeze up with my GH2 cameras hacked with the Lee Powell's FlowMotion ver 2.02 hack when using Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB SDXC 95MB/sec memory cards.
 
Yep, the only way to make it truly bullet proof is to unhack it. I unhack mine for every remotely important gig, especially if there are no retakes.

I wouldn't keep it hacked for a wedding under any circumstances.

That said, Flow Motion and Sanity X have both been stable about 99.5% of the time for me with Sandisk Extreme pro cards.

....but that .5% of the time at the wrong time could be disastrous.
 
The Boom 4444 hack was freezing on me.

mcbob said:
Which hack is freezing on you?

I settled on FlowMotion v2.?... but occasionally go back to stock firmware for longer record times and HBR 30p reliability, with which it acts exactly as stock.

If you haven't already done so, prep a couple of cheap SD cards (even old 2-4GB) with the different hacks you use (plus one with stock), write-protect them, and keep them in a small case with the camera. That way you can simply prep firmware depending upon your shoot.
Click to expand...
 
BOOM was a pretty intense hack. Not sure if it was ever proven to be as stable as DREWNET T9 or even MOON T7. These 2 have only ever froze on me well past the 15-minute mark.

Have you tried Flowmotion v2? Pretty darn stable. It's never frozen on me. But I have only ever used 24p FSH and 30p HBR. Other modes may have issues, but I really don't think I've ever heard of any.

Swapping firmware on-site is as easy as having a fully-charged battery and a free 3-minutes.
The cheapest 8g SD cards are all you need for patches.
 
At the end of the day, the GH2 (unlike the GH1) stock AVCHD is pretty good. Not perfect, and at times unacceptable in high detailed situations (such as the dreaded foliage and certain detailed water shots) but for 97% of shots stock does great. Avoid those troublesome areas and your clients will never know the difference. That said, while clients can't specifically point out anything wrong with the image, there is overall impression that may be ever so slightly better with the higher detail of the higher bitrates.

Flowmotion V2 has always been very solid for me (except in HBR mode, where it's USUALLY pretty good) but I run Sanity X, and also have nary a hiccup (though I don't do super long takes at a wedding with it).

Ultimately, you really need to test out any hack before you use it on a paying/important gig. And I mean REALLY test it out. But some hacks are WAY more stable than others.

To answer the OP's question though, you simply load up Ptools, uncheck every box, save your firmware, and it's back to stock.
 
Jim Simon said:
Definitely try out Moon Trial 7.

Having said that, use the 64 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro card with all hacks. (The 128 GB Extreme also works flawlessly with these big hacks.)
Click to expand...

Yeah... Card speed DOES, of course, have a lot to do with whether or not you get freezes.
 
What is the difference in the look between Flowmotion V2 and Sanity X? Which situation would you use Flowmotion and when would you use Sanity X? I haven't used either so don't know. Is Sanity as stable as Flowmotion?

blazer003 said:
At the end of the day, the GH2 (unlike the GH1) stock AVCHD is pretty good. Not perfect, and at times unacceptable in high detailed situations (such as the dreaded foliage and certain detailed water shots) but for 97% of shots stock does great. Avoid those troublesome areas and your clients will never know the difference. That said, while clients can't specifically point out anything wrong with the image, there is overall impression that may be ever so slightly better with the higher detail of the higher bitrates.

Flowmotion V2 has always been very solid for me (except in HBR mode, where it's USUALLY pretty good) but I run Sanity X, and also have nary a hiccup (though I don't do super long takes at a wedding with it).

Ultimately, you really need to test out any hack before you use it on a paying/important gig. And I mean REALLY test it out. But some hacks are WAY more stable than others.

To answer the OP's question though, you simply load up Ptools, uncheck every box, save your firmware, and it's back to stock.
Click to expand...
 
Sanity is also regarded as quite stable, but as far as I remember from when I used it, it is not as high of a bit-rate hack as Flowmotion. Flowmotion allocates more data to the motion aspects of the frame.
Personally, I didn't see a need to use Sanity once I got Flowmotion.
 
rc444 said:
What is the difference in the look between Flowmotion V2 and Sanity X? Which situation would you use Flowmotion and when would you use Sanity X? I haven't used either so don't know. Is Sanity as stable as Flowmotion?
Click to expand...

Sanity X was designed to be not too much higher in bitrate than stock, but enough to render all high detail scenes well. It doesn't pack every little detail in like some of the other hacks, but the bitrate also stays pretty low. It's a great compromise and very stable.

Flowmotion is another step up in detail and bitrate, but aims at the same thing in reliability and still reasonable bitrate. I don't know if I've had my camera freeze with either of these two settings as long as I wasn't using a native M43 lens while recording in HBR (30p) mode.

I use Sanity most of the time, Flowmotion if I want a bit more detail, and Moon Trial 7 when I want insane detail (when I use my GH2 as my B cam to my GH4 on short films.)
 
@rc444

Have you tried Cake V2.3? Very reliable and good video quality to boot. I have tried Driftwood's Moon T-4 thru T-7, Flowmotion, Sanity etc etc. In regards to Driftwoods patches the one I settled on is Moon T-4. This is the sharpest and most stable out of Driftwoods settings. However all of the patches that I tested were not stable in the HBR 30p mode. They all failed my testing methedology for longer recordings whilst recording the Death Chart.

So out of all the settings I settled on my own modified version of Flowmotion that allows for long stable recordings in both 24p and HBR30p. I do not use the 720p mode on GH2 so I cannot comment on that mode because I did not stress test that mode. Cake V2.3 is also very good and reliable passing all of the tests that I have performed.

Here is a link for the Death Chart movie. Install the patch that you want to use. Download the file and loop it to play for 1/2 hour. Set up your camera to record the whole screen and over expose the shot by 1 or 2 stops this will stress the camera even further. If the camera passes this test it is a pretty good indication that your camera will not fail on you whilst recording.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3fr94plj7irl7c9/Death Chart.mov?dl=0

Please keep in mind that I dont use Auto AI and all of the other auto features everything is fully manual.

Good luck.
 
Jim Simon said:
I found Cake still has readily visible artifacts in high detail/high motion scenes, myself.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree. However this is still alot better then the stock settings on the camera which is why I mentioned Cake V2.3. There is a always some type of tradeoff between reliablity and quality in regards to the GH2 patches. I have had the unfortunate experience of shooting with an all intra patch (it was Moon T-7 or T-5 24p one of the two) with 64gb Sandisk Extreme Pro 95Mbs cards and having the camera freez up on me. At the time I was shooting a High Key scene with 3= GH2's rolling. Luckily I also carried extra cards with different patches at the time.

I had to stop shooting reflash the firmware (With Cake V2.3) on all 3 cameras then proceed with shooting again. Luckily the talent had no clue what was going on I just told them I had to change some settings on the cameras and that was it. Lessoned learned for me and I never shot with Moon T-5 or T-7 again. This eventually led to me testing every single patch that I was interested in and if it did not pass my method of testing it was a no go.

Cake V2.3 may not be the best quality patch but it is alot better then the stock settings and the recording will not fail on you. Cake V2.3 will not give you any card error messages, freeze your camera or the like nada completly reliable. Me myself I prefer my modified version of LPowell's Flowmotion V2.02 excellent video quality small files sizes and super reliable in 24p and 30p.

The op wanted to completly remove any patches from the GH2. Cake V2.3 allows a boost in quality whilst retaining absolut reliablity without worrying about whether your camera will freez on you, give you card error messages etc etc. No need to worry about special procedures e.g. recording a 5 second clip after a long recording so that you dont get card error messages etc etc. So if the op's goal is complete reliability Cake V2.3 is my suggestion short of reinstalling the original firmware.
 
DBP said:
Yep, the only way to make it truly bullet proof is to unhack it. I unhack mine for every remotely important gig, especially if there are no retakes.

I wouldn't keep it hacked for a wedding under any circumstances.

That said, Flow Motion and Sanity X have both been stable about 99.5% of the time for me with Sandisk Extreme pro cards.

....but that .5% of the time at the wrong time could be disastrous.
Click to expand...

What's the difference between Flowmotion, Sanity X and Moon, the three most popular?
 
rc444 said:
What's the difference between Flowmotion, Sanity X and Moon, the three most popular?
Click to expand...

Flowmotion 24p 3GOP, Sanity X not sure but I think it is also 3 Gop, Moon 24p All Intra. Also if I am not mistaken Flowmotion is supposed have better quality in 720p.

Pro's

1. Moon T-4 Modified Version = Absolute best quality in 24p ALL INTRA very stable with correct SD card.

2. Flowmotion V2.02 = Excellent quality in all modes very stable with correct SD card.

3. Sanity X = I have not used Sanity X I used the previous version but from what I read it sounds like a very good patch.

Con's

1. Moon T series = Sooner or later you may get a memory card error when recording and or have the camera freeze on you depending on the scene of course. Much larger file sizes in comparison to Flowmotion, Sanity X, Cake etc.

2. Flowmotion = Not really a con but if you are recording for a long period of time ( longer then say 15 minutes ) sometimes the HBR30p mode will stop recording.

3 Sanity X = ????
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top