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Beginners: Basic hacks questions
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  • bowblesbowbles
    Cross posting from dvxusers.

    I am a bit new to hacking the GH1 and have tried some of the premade configs I have found on various forums and websites. They are great, but most of them have issues with filming a long nonstop clip.

    I have a Gh1 with a 16GB Class 10 transcend card. I am looking to set up the camera to film for at least 2-3 hours at a time non stop (8-10 hours would be best). Shot duration is my #1 priority (File spanning?), software stability is #2 (since it will be a continuous shot which I can't restart in the middle), and then quality is #3.

    Is it possible to completely disable audio recording to save on space and allow for more video bitrate?

    Could anyone please give me some advice on how to achieve this? Specific bitrates etc would be best, I don't really have time to test this out in the "real environment".

    Edit: Looks like the GH1 & GF1 : Reliable In-Camera Playback Patch - Version 2 in AVCHD mode may be the solution?
  • zzanttiagozzanttiago
    Sorry I dont know speak english so well but I need help and you are the masters, Im trying to use the Driftwood patch but no works, I have the ptool 3.62d with the base file GH2__V10.bin, when I put the .ini in the same folder with the ptool doesn´t recognize the .ini I dont know why, Im on a PC, then I change the parameters manualy and save the new setting whit the new name GH2__V11.bin I put the file into the SD card fromated, I have the Sandisk 32GB extreme pro and when I press play nothing happens only say, no valid picture to play and does not recognize the new frimware. I dont know if Im doing all bad, I dont know what to do, please help me Im very excited with this patch . thanks
  • m_cm_c
    phew. left it off for 5 mins, turned back on, pressed play, voila...finally loading panasonic firmware.
    fingers crossed i can finally do ptool after this.
    the ONLY thing different here was that i left it for 5 mins with the card inserted before trying again.
    don't know how that even effects it, but it worked
  • m_cm_c
    went through step by step on the phone with panasonic,
    they said i was doing everything right, and it didn't work, so they didn't know what the problem is.
    went a bought another brand new 2gb SD card, formatted in camera, turned off, inserted sd card into usb adapter, dropped panasonic firmware on root directory, ejected, put back into camera, turned camera on, pressed play, still nothing
    panasonic referred me to a service centre that said they would charge me $66 to upgrade the firmware!!!
    anyone got any ideas?
    thank you
  • m_cm_c
    thanks
    but thats what im here to find out - what im doing wrong
    anyone know of any possible problems?
    im on hold now to panasonic to see if they tell me what im doing wrong to update firmware
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    @m_c

    I really have no idea.
    Most probably you are doing something wrong.
    If nothing helps, just go to service center and tell that you can't update firmware.
  • m_cm_c
    just tried it with a microSD card plugged into a microSD adapter, card read fine through USB to the computer, uploaded panasonic firmware, still no luck with both the no photo method, and with taking one photo.

    does it matter that its a microSD card? it seemed to work fine including taking the photo

    AND im assuming i don't delete the folders on the SD card the GH1 automatically creates? as long as firmware is in the root directory it should work right?
  • m_cm_c
    ok, tried it with one photo, no luck

    i guess i have to go try another SD card

    thank you
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    First, try to make at least one photo.
    Second, press play after powering camera on.
    Third, use another SD card.
  • m_cm_c
    Hey guys, how do i flash the original 1.32 firmware from panasonic to my gh1. i cannot get the camera to read the firmware following the instructions on the panasonic site.

    The version on my camera is ver 1.2

    When i load the 1.32 firmware to the SD card on the gh1 and press play nothing happens
    The battery is fully charged and the firmware is in the root directory

    Thank
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    @lenuisible

    Try to change quantizer.
  • lenuisiblelenuisible
    @Vitaliy_Kiselev I'd like to try to drastically lower the bitrate of one mode (24L would be nice), just to see how it looks (may be interesting in an "artistic" point of view),

    - do you see any risk to do that ?
    - if I change 24H to 32 and 24L to 1 for example, do I have to expect any edge effect (buffer size issue, or anything else) ?

    Thanks !

    Edit : I see that Ptool can't take smaller number than 4Mbps, could you advise of how I could degrade more the quality (using tester settings maybe) ?
  • JDNJDN
    @ matticusmaximus -- you have to be logged in to download .zip files, otherwises they will show up as png.

    @chenopup, I'm running Wine & ptools 3.62 on Lion no problem. Sometime notice I have to click the patch I want a few times to get it to load, but that's about it....

    Also for those who posted they want to revert to original firmware because their SD cards are too slow for driftwoods patch, check out other patches in the Patch Vault threat in Hacks and Patches -- you should find some that work with slower SD cards.
  • BraamokievBraamokiev


    ptool30 / 3 6 0 0

    ptool31 / 3 6 1 0

    ptool32 / 3 6 2 0


    There are 3 right?
  • nomadnomad
    No, I'm running Wine under Lion without a problem.
  • chenopupchenopup
    nomad - I assume you're running Snow Leopard then? - Lion's update won't let me open anything in PTool now...
  • nomadnomad
    Just put the ini files into one folder with PTool and they'll be one click away via the green letters at the bottom. Works fine for me with Wine on a Mac.
  • rickman5rickman5
    I have become familiar with changing the GH2 firmware's individual settings on ptool 3.62, but I still don't know how to apply one of the pre-made patches (from the patch vault) onto the ptool software.

    I would like to load the Driftwood 132mb GOP 3 patch (prov. by sohus, setf.ini) on to ptool 3.62, but I just don't know how to go about loading the .ini file into the ptool 3.62 interface and apply its settings.

    It might help to let you know that I'm on a mac running the software through winebottler.

    Furthermore, if this can't be done, can someone just give me those settings that I can dial in myself and just program the patch that way?

    Thanks to everyone involved who is turning the GH2 into a beast of a camera!
  • izashizash
    Another beginner's question:
    Is bitrate the only difference between the L and H settings, or is there anything else affecting the quality?
    Thanks
    Izhar
  • elleyyhelleyyh
    never mind I found it! THANK YOU DRIFTWOOD. So I can have GH2_V11 over and over again with different bit rate setting as long as I don't use the GH2_V10.
  • elleyyhelleyyh
    thankyou the BIG V for the hack! My dumb question is, everytime I do the ptool, do I need to save the firmware file with a new sequential # or can I just say keep it like "GH2_V11" no matter what bit rate setting firmware I loaded out from ptool? thank you in advance.
  • chefchef
    dohh I found it!!
  • chefchef
    Hi how do I load back to the cam the original firmware? cuz I got a not that fast sd card(only 10mb\s) that can run Driftwood Smackmygopup!
  • rbnarbna
    Ah, I just found this entry by @JDN : Spanning simply means that when you reach approx 4 gigabytes in one clip and new clip (.mts file) is created which seamlessly continues where the last clip left off (i.e. you could run the camera for an hour and get a bunch of 4 gig .mts files that are continuous). With ptools 3.62 high bit rate settings, when you reach 4 gigs the camera does not span anymore, it just stops recording.
  • rbnarbna
    Thank you, nomad! Could you shortly explain "span"?
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