Custom GH2 Patch question

Brian_Siano

I've found that I generally use my GH2 in two situations: documentary and live-event coverage at 30 fps, and high-quality cinematography at 24 fps.

For the former, I want the camera to be able to shoot for long periods of time (spanning), and it's nice to get good quality, so I usually use the Cake 2.3 patch in these circumstances. Higher bitrates, reliable spanning.

For the high-quality stuff, I'll be using a high-bitrate hack (Intravenus 2 seems to be my best bet), and while spanning is desirable, it's not strictly necessary.

Is it possible to create a patch where these are combined? When I shoot at 30fps, it uses Cake 2.3 settings, and when I shoot at 24fps, it works like Intravenus 2?

Azo

@Brian_Siano

I am with you 100%.... I would love this setting. Cake V2.3 for 30p and Intravenus 2 for 24p. This would be the all in one patch and I would not have to change any settings.

Brian_Siano

@driftwood I guess I ought to drag you into this conversation. As I wrote at the start of this thread, I use my camera for two purposes: event shoots and cinema shoots. The cinema shoots are at 24p, and right now, Intravenous 2 looks terrific in that mode.

But for event shoots, I usually use 30fps HBR mode, and I use the Cake 2.3 patch because it spans in that mode and the bitrate's not so high that it eats up memory: I can capture a two-hour event on a single 64gig card.

So my question is whether a patch can be developed that uses Intravenous 2's configuration for 24p, but when the camera's running in HBR, it uses a lower bitrate that spans reliably. Does such a patch exist? Or can one combine the settings of different patches via the ini files?

driftwood

@Brian_Siano HBR/1080i mode is complicated and falls over very easy the more bitrate you assign to it to knock out artefacting etc... Because the 720p settings are shared with this mode within ptools the more you ramp up 720p the more it will affect HBR mode. So its a fine balancing act and one will lose out to the other. Plus the Quantiser settings have to be uniquely adjusted. You can mix and match but leave it to moon t8 which I am finalising at the moment.

Brian_Siano

I figured that was the case. I'll keep an eye out for Moon 8, and I'll probably make some data cards to switch the patches in and out. (I usually shoot in full HD, and I don't use the 1080i or 720 modes very often.)

I'm testing Moon7 against Intravenus 2 again. From what I can see, in 24fps mode, they're very comparable, with Moon having a slight edge. But Moon is much better in 30fps mode; I can see Intra flickering on details that are very stable in Moon 7. Nice work.

Azo

@Brian_Siano I merged Cake V2.3 and Moon T-4. I tested it on the Death Screen for over an hour in each mode 24p, HBR30p, and 720p with no problems. So just for clarification 24p is from Moon T-4,T-5,or T-7 depending on the setting chosen and HBR30p/720p is from Cake V2.3.

I do not know exactly how this will effect the IQ of any of the modes. The only setting that I tested was the Moon T-4 setting. I wanted a sharper matrix for both 24p and HBR30p so I will be using the Moon T-4/Cake V2.3 setting. I created the other settings for people that prefer Moon T-5 or Moon T-7. I performed some basic tests in terms of IQ, HBR30p mode looks really good when comparing to the 24p mode. I have attached the settings let me know what you think....

Best Regards

Brian_Siano

@Azo Thanks for working these up. Might be a while before I can try them, but the mix of Moon7 in 24p mode and Cake 2.3 in HBR mode is very enticing.

Azo

@Brian_Siano

Your very welcome I am glad that I could help. I am very confident about the Moon T-5,T-7/Cake V2.3 settings for HBR30p mode. The bitrates and other parameters are basically the same, so I do not see why they would not span properly as well. I think I tested Moon T-7 in HBR30p mode, but I have been testing so many patches that I am not 100% sure if I did or not. I also modified another setting with Moon T-4 without the Cake V2.3 HBR30p settings.

I performed some thorough tests of the patches and actually prefer the HBR30p mode of Moon T-4 with the lower bitrate setting. This setting is sharper throughout the whole image in comparison to the Cake V2.3 version whilst providing a moderate bitrate of about 45Mbps. Attached is the Moon T-4 version with the lower bitrate that allows continuous reliable spanning in 24p, 30p and 720p modes.

Try out Moon T-4 the quality is basically the same as Moon T-5 with a slightly sharper image. The other benefit of Moon T-4 is the lower bitrate when filming in 24p in comparison to Moon T-7. For the tests that I performed Moon T-7 was recording at almost the maximum bitrate of 150Mbps while Moon T-4 was in the 100-110 range. This may seem like a small number but it definitely adds up in terms of recording time and storage space.

This is a personal preference of course and for some ultimate image quality is more important then storage space, for me it is a mix of having excellent quality and also having reasonable data rates and Moon T-4 fits perfectly into this equation. To be honest between Moon T-4, T-5 and T-7 I don't see that much of a difference in IQ. They are all excellent and you really need to be pixel peeping to be able to distinguish any differences amongst these settings.

Try out one of the settings that I modified below I am sure that you will be happy with one of them ;-)

Moon T-4 All Intra 24p lower bitrate 30p/720p for reliable spanning in HBR30p/720p modes = sete

Moon T-7 All Intra 24p lower bitrate 30p/720p for reliable spanning in HBR30p/720p modes = setf

Moon T-7 All Intra 24p merged with Cake V2.3 HBR30p/720p for reliable spanning in HBR30p/720p modes = setg

Best Regards

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