@driftwood I tested 1080 60i on Quantum v5, but I also noticed the mosquito noise on an earlier version. I believe the problem results from the fact that you turned off B-frames for 60i. When I was developing Sanity, I experimented with turning off B-frames, and I got a similar picture.
"Quantum 1080i and 720p requires further in-depth analysis. I need images, videos, settings. Proof of where it goes wrong. Is it constant, is it happening occasionally, etc... Thankyou." @Driftwood Quantum V5 works absolutely reliable on my camera in 24H and 24L with SanDisk Extr. 30MB/s cards (8GB + 16GB). 50i also works fine (and looks great!) with scenes that do not stress the codec very much (scenes without high frequency detail that is). Scenes containing large areas with highly detailed objects (foliage or so - as well as the Pappasart codec torture chart) will drop the iFrame size to around 360K (in Streamparser) - footage looks highly compressed then and mosquito noise will show up. This happens all the time on my camera at 50i. Settings used: smooth -2|-2|-1|-2. ISO200 or ISO400. All Auto-Settings disabled. Lens used for testing: Nokton f0.95 at f2.8-f5.6. Hope that helps! I would love to use "Quantum" for 24H (+L) & 1080i50 as the footage really looks great, so I keep my fingers crossed that you can find out how to make 50i work. Many thanks for your persistent and great works on these Intra-Patches!
Hi this is the little film i shot using Quantum beta5 before screwing up the settings :) please let me know what you think, I would love to get any advice you all have.
Great composition in all shots. Thanks for sharing. All that's missing is the St-Bernard with the flask of whiskey, though who knows what's happening behind the camera...
@mrsquirrell looks fantastic. Reminds me of that scene in Band of Brothers where they are getting shelled and the trees are exploding. Love the mist! Great job!
Who's working with Driftwood's footage and Avid Media Composer 6? I am having problems linking to it with AMA. I get all kinds of hangs and errors. If I convert using clipwrap to ProRes/DNxHD I have no problems using the footage. Any thoughts? I am using the latest version, Avid 6 in trial mode.
@sohus You need this QT plugin: https://eww.pass.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/desk/e/download.htm#avccamip This plugin enables QT to playback the MTS files... therefore Avid MC can link to your MTS files through AMA (the regular QT AMA plugin, which is installed by default). Editing with MTS files is a nightmare as it is _extremely_ processor intensive. I'd recommend to convert to QT first, then modify the files with "qtChange" (to assign reel names and unique timecode, for instance the timecode of the shooting time... however qtChange is Mac only) and then import the converted + modified files into MC (or link with AMA).
Quick video I shot using Driftwood's SeAQuake patch, can not be grateful enough for how far the hack has gone! Thank you Driftwood and Vitaliy! All of the stills are screenshots from the video
@sohus @towi Panasonic AVCCAM Importer won't help with these MTS files. MC6 simply have issues with AVCHD that range from weird characters in transcoded MXF files to crashes during playback..... + you won't have proper tape ID and timecode that way. There are couple of ways how it can be done. A) The most expensive and the most fluid is Assimilate Scratch. Simply place all AVCHD files in new Construct, type in desired TapeID, set it to re-generate timecode and render out DNxHD MHX files. Place those files in Avid Media Folder and bring them in with AAF files that were generated by Scratch. This method would give you fast transcode directly to Avid MXF, proper TapeID and continuous timecode. Of course with price range from 5 to 17K $, this is not realistic option for "indie" GH2 workflow. B) All other free options include re-wrapping of MTS files. You would use something like FFMPG, FFMBC (http://code.google.com/p/ffmbc/) or similar. Re-wrapping can be done instead of copying files from SD card. That way you won't loose any time (data is going from SD card to HDD in different container), and you'll have same clips in different container (MP4, MOV), that more programs can read. - Resolve Light (free), in new version can export DNxHD MXFs. Bring your files into Resolve, give them TapeID, Timecode and render out MXfs, or - You can AMA re-wrapped clips in MC. From some reason they will perform better compared to MTS, but you will have to transcode anyway (do not forget that AMA>transocde is much faster than Import>Transcode). - You can also use QTchange before importing clips into MC, to give them proper Timecode and TapeID, however I had some issues with that method because files were not interpreted correctly. I'm still exploring best workflow for GH2 material with many different applications. Native editing (Premiere for example) is nice but it is not realistic option for long form projects and for situations when you have to do CC or finishing in another tool. Also responsiveness during creative cutting is often much more important than instant editing. This is probably too long post for this topic and should go in some separate section where we can discuss GH1/2 post workflows.
@rozroz of course you can simply import the MTS files into Avid MC (at least with MC Version 5 xy... not quite sure about Version 6). But all clips will have the same timecode and they have no reel name assigned. For further export/roundtrip via EDL, AAF etc. reel names are mandatory (as Avid always refers to reel names, not to clip names). Unique timecodes for each clip also help a lot. This is why I first convert to QT, batch rename the files and then modify the clips in qtChange: I assign reel names (I simply assign the clip name as reel name... this is why I first rename the clips) and use the shooting time as timecode. These modified QT files will be imported into Avid MC with DNxHD 10bit finally. It's really easy... and safes a lot of work later on.
Unfortunately, Media Composer 6.0 is a broken NLE when it comes to their promised AVCHD AMA support - it simply doesn't work (even on approved systems). There have been countless complaints (most of which I've experienced myself) regarding AMA lock-ups, gamma shifts upon AVCHD import/transcode, and generally slow performance compared to 5.5 and 5.0 (I would even go as far as saying that version 4.0 was faster and more fluid). Until Avid fixes these issues with patches (sooner rather than later would be nice), I would suggest a Premiere workflow, or reverting back to Media Composer 5.0 or 5.5. It's a shame... really would have preferred a polished product and not a rushed application...
Been shooting AQuamotion 100MB for a feature I'm working here are a few test grabs from the screen tests I did yesterday... I shoot all these nostalgic -2 all the "grading was actually done by duplicating layers in FCP and add a 3 way CC to bottom layer I blend the toplayer with soft light on the top layer or for extreme contrast hard light as seen in middle pic... where she needz to look all CRAZY...lol --- See last pic
I've noticed for a while, especially at any ISO higher than 320, that my GH2 seems to have a lot more noise than most others I've seen. Here are two screenshots, taking from an MTS file viewed with ffMPEG natively. The noise I'm referring to is very obviously found on her arm (image left), it looks especially red and blocky. Does anyone else have the same noise? Even at 640 I often get some colored bar banding running horizontally across the image. I'm considering sending it in for a repair, but obviously want to make sure I'm not just seeing things [that aren't there].
These were shot with driftwood's quantum 5 patch (GOP1). 400 ISO, 1/50th shutter. 1080/24p.
I couldn't get my ProRes 422 (HQ) export to work from FCPX, so this is whatever their encoder spits out on its "Vimeo HD" setting: