shrigg..
I like your thinking bro!
I also like your DSLR cage which I bought a couple weeks ago.

@schrigg

I would recommend buying a few cheap 64mb SD card from somewhere (drawer, ebay) and put the stock firmware (with PAL/NTSC switch and 29 minute removal if you are in PAL countries) on one of them and your experimental, high-end settings on the other. Just keep a full original battery at hand and I think the risk you take is well covered with a good back-up plan.

Over the top Long GOP 36 test. Passes the Pappas death chart with ease at 50mbps and LOng GOP at 36 with a few adjustments to buffers. AQ = 2.

after much testing today and trying many different setting, ive settled on 24H at 66mb, gop3 and AQ3. the only problem im having is occasionally the clip wont play back and ill have to turn the camera off and then back on and it will play fine. with a 16gb card im getting right around 31min worth of footage per card which is good for me. whats even better is that these settings so far have been stable for me on both a silicon power class 10 and a transcend class 6.

@namlot could you post an ini of your 24H 66mbs Aq3 setting, I am searching for such a setting as the low gop topic is now only 100+ mbit, I think it is a bit high for me. Have you tested with stream passer that you are not getting cadence problem.

@mrmukke @namtot I'm in your camp, too. As a working "film" maker, I welcome reliable settings that bridge the 4GB gap and produce better pictures. So far that goal seems yet to be achieved. Meanwhile, I can, at least, trust Panasonic's default settings to give me excellent usable images. But these are early days, and I expect there will be a Ptools version coming that will provide better images, stability, and no 4GB file limit. Patience is today's watchword, I think.

If you set a buffer limit, you are trying to keep it occupied at its most safest /fullness /maximum stable picture to bitrate settings. The two set video buffers have to be able to cope with a variety of settings. Anything over creates write failure because youve gone over the limits of the buffers - hence buffer overrun - the opposite is buffer underrun where we are not utilising its full capabilities - if it reaches empty there will also be write problems. The frame buffer sizes should be kept as close as possible to the expected size of frames under extremely busy conditions again without maxing out its buffers. This is why a lot of people are testing multipliers to push the limits of the GH2. Very high bitrate settings as proven by Chris are not neccesary but its good to work out the maximiums and then work backwards until every setting is working. The spanning issue may well have something to do with buffers too. Obviously a good fast SD card is required to keep up with the data write size and speed. We just keep testing... ;-)
A good AVC read on buffers albeit a tad old is found here;-

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=19&ved=0CGsQFjAIOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownload%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.130.5026%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&rct=j&q=frame%20buffers%20and%20video%20buffers%20avc&ei=DS9cTsj7Ooig8QOO4v3wDQ&usg=AFQjCNGWVl9YskP5NjZ_ItkPRylvf2JquA&sig2=udyEeqMHOqQkY_IDv9mq4Q

Edit: I'm now thinking 88M is the top workable setting for the GH2 looking at the buffers and available memory with two differing multipliers employed for Video Buffer and Video Buffer 24p.

cbrandin: great work with your last 66 mbits stable settings (29 august) . Do you think that to avoid span issue can I use a xdhc card? Thanks a lot and sorry for my bad english.

@shield

I have only been playing with 24p. I have had spanning and Photofun recognition at 34mb and 35 mb with GOP 6 outside on pretty static yard and tree scenes with some camera panning. I need to test in other environments just haven't had the time lately.

I will report back on more test when I get a chance.

>Time Value 1 and Time Value 2 mean

They had been called overall bitrate in previous versions :-)
But they are time constants really.

Right now I am trying to push the limits of my GH2 to get the best video quality possible while maintaining stability. I am not really interested in miniscule quality gains, but at the same time I do not want to sacrifice a lot of "potential" quality due to settings that may be too conservative.

That being said, I have observed the AQ adjustment to play a role in the stability of the recording. With AQ left unchecked, I am able to record the test pattern without crashing using my Sandisk Extreme Class 10 SDHC card (about 25 MB/s sustained write). I also have a Sandisk Ultra Class 4 SDXC which has 5 MB/s sustained writes, and that will work reliable with settings below 40 Mbps (makes sense because 5 MB/s is exactly 40 Mbps, but there is overhead).

I see that a lot of the people here focus on 24P mode but I don't think that is wise. We should be testing ALL video modes for AVCHD including the 1080i and 720p, which are just as relevant for personal and professional shooting. Film-like footage is not ideal or appropriate for every situation.

What I have noticed when attempting to record with 1080i/720p at higher bitrates is that the initial start seems to cause a large spike of data if the camera's lens is pointed at a high detail subject, such as a test pattern. Relatively modest 24 Mbps settings (stock GOP, AQ3) would consistently fail if I started recording while the camera was zoomed in on the test pattern...BUT if I started recording on something like my TV screen, and panned over to the test pattern, I would be able to record indefinitely without failure. This would happen with both my Class 4 and Class 10 SD cards.

With AQ unchecked I did not observe this problem to persist, and I was even able to get the bitrates for 1080i/720p up higher using settings posted by Kae (42 Mbps for FSH/SH, GOP12, AQ unchecked). These settings also involve doubling the video buffer sizes for all modes and doubling the "high" and "low" bitrate values.

I would like to end up with settings that provide stability with AQ set to 3 or 4 for all of the AVC recording modes and these seem to be on the right track.

@WeBcYtE
I'm not sure what's going on with your setup, but I've not seen the issues you are describing.
There may be an issue with your class 10 card. I have the same card with no issues.

Also, of course most of the attention is for 1080 24P. LOL
I'm sure 80% of us or more would not of bought this camera if it did not offer 1080 24P.
We want the best possible with this setting.
Once we dial in 1080 24P, there will be more focus for 720P. Of course we want high quality on all the modes.
But, if I had only one option for best quality, 1080 24P wins for me.

so is GOP12 recommended for 720p?