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Driftwood Cluster X Series 4:│Moon T8│Spizz T7
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  • Hi clkvang. Sorry, it's taken me a while to get back to you. By the way, I really enjoyed that video clip! I'm not sure what's causing the random file issue you've captured in your previous post. I haven't experienced this issue myself. I would look at the SD card you're using though as it could be related to the card's write speed, particularly when video recording commences.

    VERY IMPORTANT: Please bare in mind that the SD card speed you visibly see stuck onto the front of the card is usually the READ speed, not the WRITE speed. Check out this site for more information: https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/ You need to have an SD card with an appropriate WRITE speed for recording high bitrate videos.

    I'd be interested to know what card are you using. I'm also recording in PAL mode; 25p as opposed to NTSC mode; 30p. I've tested nearly every Driftwood patch available and this patch seemed to resolve shadow detail a lot better than most. The higher bitrate allows the GH2 to capture more detail. The only downside is larger file sizes as you've pointed out. I think if you can iron out the issue you're having (most likely the SD card), you'll have the best results possible from the GH2.

    I hope this helps you out!

  • @jimbo1169: only thing running into is random files like this happening. Not sure what it is.

    Capture.PNG
    1909 x 863 - 1M
  • @jimbo1169: Hey late response but thanks for working on the SeaQuake Hack...I tried it and first thing I notice was less noise in the shadows in the same shot. Also, filesize was much larger and image quality was a bit sharper vs Moon t5. Bitrate for the same indoor shot was 61mbps (moon t5) vs 144 mbps (seaquake).

    Haven't taken it outside, but I feel like this patch breathed new life into my GH2. Thanks.

  • Just shot a short with GH2 using Moon T8 hack. No issues with video but in-camera audio had a 2 frame drift. Does anyone know if there is fix or hack to correct this? Thanks

  • Check out the 'SeAQuake' sample patch in HBR (25p/PAL) mode;

    Here's the 'SeAQuake' sample patch in CINEMA (24p/NTSC) mode;

  • Hi @kkorr. Sorry about the late reply. I'd like to give you an update regarding the 'Space' patch. After testing this patch out, I realised that it wasn't suitable for the work I do. Since I live in Australia, we predominantly use the PAL format as opposed to NTSC format. Additionally, the average output in HBR mode depending on lighting conditions is approximately 25mbps, similar to the stock firmware release. Quality is downgraded after editing, and even more so when uploaded to Youtube/Vimeo which use further compression. For this reason I needed a suitable HBR patch to work with; high bit-rate, lowest possible noise and least likely to crash. The 'Spizz T7' patch was one of the last patches created by Driftwood for providing excellent HBR quality output. The problem with this patch was that it would crash occasionally on a SanDisk 64gb, 95mb/s SD card, which is considered the standard SD card to use. I couldn't rely on this patch for professional work. After digging deeper I found an older patch which combines the best of ALL worlds. Re-enter the 'SeAQuake' patch. In my opinion the 'SeAQuake' GOP1 patch is the best patch overall created by Driftwood. It can be found half-way down the page right here:

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/953/gh2-settings-vault-most-popular-settings-in-one-place-quite-old/p1.

    The HBR rain noise is very low (compare it with 'Spizz T7' and others). In CINEMA mode this patch produces GOP1 (Intra) 1080p24 video at approx. 166mbps (on average) depending on lighting conditions. In HBR mode you get over 70+mbps, 20mbps more on average than what the 'Spizz T7' patch can achieve with the same settings and similar lighting conditions. What I have done with this patch for the MOTION JPEG setting (under Manual Movie Mode) is alter the output from the default 720p setting to 1080p using enhanced JPEG settings to quality match the 720p. In effect what you're getting with this patch is excellent quality output across the board in nearly all modes on the GH2. If you use a SanDisk 64gb, 95mb/s card, the 'SeAQuake' patch WILL span (spanning = multiple 4GB files due to FAT32 formats employed by SD cards). When this patch was created, spanning wouldn't work. I suspect this had to do with the SD cards used around the time Driftwood created the patch. Also keep in mind that playback won't work after recording until you restart the camera. That's the only shortfall. The files are there, however, and can be transferred to your PC for editing. The results outweigh the negatives as you'll see for yourself....minimal rain noise in low light situations when compared with other patches. It's impossible to remove all rain noise no matter what patch you use and this is purely related to the sensor. Of course, more recent advances in sensor technology will provide lower artefacts in later model cameras. The GH2 just has a quality to it that can't be found in other cameras (except perhaps the GH1/GH13 and GH3 which have their own unique advantages). I have uploaded my edited 'SeaQUake' patch for those wanting to try it out. The only change I have made specifically affects the MOTION JPEG mode....from 720p to 1080p @25fps. I have also uploaded a second patch with MOTION JPEG mode @30fps. Everything else is the same. The first file (seta.ini) includes MOTION JPEG @25fps settings and the second file (setb.ini) includes MOTION JPEG @30fps settings. I'll add links to some video samples using this patch shortly. In the meantime, please test and let me know your results.

    seta.ini
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    setb.ini
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  • @jimbo1169 Hi, I also plan to hack my GH2 with "Space" patch. Can you share your results/video here?

  • Just when you thought this post had ended, here we are in February 2018 and I must say, the Lumix GH2 still rocks! I previously sold my GH2 a few years ago but after tampering around with other camera makes and models I've re-purchased a GH2 again. I tested out Driftwood's 'Space' patch as it appears no one else had provided much feedback around this patch previously. Compared with Driftwood's other final six patches; Moon T8, ClassiX IV3, Drewnet T9, Nebula T8 and Spizz T7....to my eyes there's less noise (rain/specs) in the shadows using the 'Space' patch. I tested this theory out with each of these patches using the most popular picture profiles: 'Smooth' and 'Standard' with all settings at -2. I also noticed contrasting for the 'Space' patch to be much lighter in comparison with the others and therefore easier to retrieve detail in post. I'll try and get some demo footage using this patch over the next week or so! I also use a Samsung NX1 with 4K, so my GH2 will compliment the NX1 when I'm shooting 1080p. You can check out Driftwood's 'Space' patch from here: https://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/10978/driftwood-cluster-x-series-4moon-t8spizz-t7/p7

  • @Akeem Could you post a sample vid? I'd be interested to see what you're talking about.

  • @driftwood Man I just tried out the v3 matrix on the old intravenus v2. Unbelievable intra quality. I wonder if the v4 matrix will work too?

    Is it worth trying the never intravenus matrixes on the moon series?

  • I think on this one I used Flowmotion 2 @agoltz Or Moon T7/8. Don't really remember.

  • @dlzn

    So what hack?

  • New GH2 work. Forgot to post this. (:

    Shot in one day, mostly guerrilla.

    What do you think?

  • Hi guys, how do you upscale 720p to 1080p in FCP? May i directly place the footage to 1080p timeline and let it to the automatic resizing or do something else? Thanks for answer from now and sorry for my English.

  • T7 on a cheapo SD, transcend read 95MB/s, write 60MB/s. Original firmware + spizz T7. nothing else.

    recorded in 24H for an hour or so. split files have some missing frames in the "joins" but nothing happened "besides" that couple missing frames. No crash. no lost file.

    only problems: my active mic connected to the camera generate a TON of noise. audio is completely unusable... might have screwed up something (didn't remember flashing firmware reset my custom settings. so it is all a mess right now)

    the very first time recording on 24H (right after taking a still H+RAW) it gave me the card to slow alert. but i just dismissed it and tried again right after and it recorded fine.

    image quality is superb. but the encoding confuses all decoders i have here. none could make sense of time or anything. they just show time as 0:00 while playing. even vlc. But i usually encode everything i work with to PNG anyway. and as usual, if a split file happen, camera says it can't play video. if it doesn't happen, i can preview movies fine.

  • If it hasn't come out yet it probably never will. BTW what more do you possibly want to squeeze out of GH2 with bitrate hacks?

  • @driftwood sir where are u?? its been so long we could'nt see u here any more.. where is moon t9?? the announcement happened almost a year ago sir.. are u still in?? is it dropped???

  • They say the Moon T7 is a card eater with 131-147Mbps on intra 24, and Moon T8 is a card saver. But looks like its the other way around Moon -T8 is 140-148Mbps on intra. How does it actually work? I know that Moon T8, can work on other cards than Sandisk Extreme PRO 64 such as Extreme PRO 32, but still. Thanks

  • Unfortunately Driftwood was aboard flight MH370. Since bodies have never been found, there is still a chance that driftwood would be found safe along with moon t9. Light a candle and pray tonight for moon t9's safe recovery.

  • Any news of Moon T9? It seemed like it was about to come out, then poof, it fell off the face of the earth.

  • @Fieel 24p cinema mode has H and L profiles... those have different bitrates. H is the high bitrate, L is low. Check your preferred hack's H and L settings in Ptool, where it will show the bitrate for each profile.

    HBR mode is 1080p at 30fps

    Manual movie mode FSH and FH are 1080i at 29.97 fps, with FH having a lower bitrate. SH and H are 720p at 60 fps, with H having a lower bitrate.

  • Hahah me too! @Tjabo This is the linke to my Youtube channel Off Concepts http://bit.ly/offythome (:

  • @dlzn, I can't wait to see what you do with it! What YouTube channel do I need to make sure I'm subscribed to so I don't miss your work?

  • You can adjust the noise reduction down to -2. The most general problem of GH2 and all the patches for it is that no any patch could be created to reduce the contrast and saturation lower than -2, or at least to make it set a bigger difference between 0, -1 and -2 values.

    I found an .apk for my smartphone camera which gives you a contrast, saturation, brightness and few other parameters pre-adjustment, i.e. before taking a photo/video (I don't mean ISO, WB, Exposure, etc.). With little routine I can get an almost Canon picture style by this application. Anyway, if something similar could be done for GH2 contrast and saturation pre-adjustment, it'd be great. But......

  • @Manicd yes, thank you for the links, i'll look through them again, anyways i was talking about the moon T8 settings not the default firmware ones. I've been using the stock GH2 for years now. There isn't much of an explanation about the patch in the first post of the discussion (or i simply can't comprehend), so i thought asking would be a great idea!

    EDIT: also, what's the best thing to do with the camera setting Noise Reduction while using this hack? Because i've been suggested to turn it to "-5"(off) but i didn't understand why.