Thanks so much Vitaliy and Chris for big work done about encoder. Do I already dream about that I consider to be more important for numbers of us using the GH2 for professional stuff: clear HDMI output to get uncompressed videos ...
I do a brief comparison between hight contrast images, one grab from 42mb hack, the other from RAW picture cropped and resized.
Is there any chance to see something near RAW quality via HDMI link in the future ?
For many people wanting the HDMI looked at- anything would be better than nothing. Raw is probably going to stay a dream... as RAW is a very strange word- made popular by RED- (red isn't raw anyway- its compressed).
For true RAW- every video file would be made up of raw images (24-25-30-50-60 FPS). This isn't going to happen with this hack.
Most probably however- as I am writing this VK has just discovered an Easter Egg in the GH2 - turning it into a RED one killer! Go figure!
- But Seriously Vitaliy is scary smart- don't fear- it WILL happen!
Thank you so much for all the great work!!!! But please dont forget about HDMI! Please please please! Only you can do it...
Уважаемый Виталий, спасибо за всю ту большую работу, но пожалуйста не забывайте о HDMI! Пожалуйста, пожалуйста, пожалуйста! Только вы можете сделать это ...
I wrote this post in reply to someone who was asking to contribute to the hdmi hack. As I thought it was promptly removed and some good reason that I list below. What I think I wrote below is still valid for the hdmi hack brigade.
I think it is the third time I saw a post like this and I don't think it will live very long. I know that it would be very nice to get clean hdmi and perhaps the only solution to the next level, I mean 422 and 10 bit output. But as had been said so many times it will come. I think if you took just a little time to understand the man (interview in 43rumors) for example you would see somebody less than motivated by money. It is not the typical blogger/forum administrator which are more like a sales persons getting a commission on each sales. Because what you are saying in between the lines, is let us pay him so that the time he would use to tweak the avchd codec would be use for the hdmi. A lot of people have already contributed to the hack and it would be fare for them. In the end with this theory we could set up an auction part where everybody would bid for a certain fuction, hey $ 50 for hdmi, no I give $ 100 for lcd marking/masking etc. I think with the continuous harassment (it is feeling more and more this way) you might get the complete opposite effect. As I said above I am really keen to see the hdmi output but I will wait, I think it is a form of respect to VK for what he has already done.
+1 for HDMI, i looking foward for the Sound Devices PIX 220, with proper XLR audio recording and quicktime, teorically can interlace footage from GH2, with booth i can have a nice AF100 kicker arse.
@xenogears I have been using sound devices gear for the last 12 years. I love the Pix220 but it sucks that its compression is Apple ProRes and AvidHDx. I am a windows adobe user and would have to convert my footage every time.
I hope I don't hurt forum rules if I repeat something here (posted under GH2 film modes too):
I found something interesting today when playing with HDMI-recoding with and without recording to SD at the same time. We all know that plain HDMI-Recording is more contrasty and clips white and black massively. But when looking at my shots I found that it is actually full range (0-255) instead of video-range (16-235). While there was still some clipping with a very contrasty scene, there was useable detail in those super-white and super-black areas on my waveform. It seems that a grading system which is able to handle a full-range signal could use such footage very well and make better use of the 8 bits Panasonic is allowing us.
This is old news. The proper way to record HDMI is to simultaneously record to the SD card. Recording to HDMI while the camera is in standby will produce an inaccurate picture.