GH2 Flow Motion v2 - 100Mbps Fast Action Performance & Reliability for Class 10 SD cards

peternap

@LPowell I can wait for the fix I think. Most of my shots are 10-30 seconds. Otherwise...this is mighty nice so far!

@rawmeyn Splash Lite works well for high bitrate files also. You do have to go to the paid version for a frame grab though.

LPowell

@mpgxsvcd @mozes @peternap Thanks for your reports! After further testing, I found a problem in NTSC 720p60 mode when shooting brightly lit, high-detail subjects. In my case, I've only seen it occur after around 90 seconds of a static tripod shot, which has made it a bit time-consuming to test. The high frame rate of 720p60 mode makes it more challenging to stabilize, and I'll need to put some additional time into verifying a failsafe fix.

@rawmeyn For playback of MTS files on Windows, have you tried Media Player Classic? With high bitrate files,I've found it to be more reliable than VLC:

http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/download-media-player-classic-hc.html

rapsoe

@luxis I Didn't know about mediainfo. thanks!

@LPowell I did some short tests with FM2. My concern was noise, as I loved FM1.1 but had switched back to all-intras as I couldn't stand the noise rendition difference between I frames and B frames in FM1.1. In FM2 I can't tell the difference. That's amazing. And FM2 scales so well too! You really did an amazing job with FM2. It'll probably be my new patch of choice. Thanks so much for all your hard work!

DeShonDixon

About to use the flow motion 2.0 patch today for a shoot!

luxis

The ones with skies are normally a banding nightmare but in this test with FM v2.0 i don't have this issue. the ETC one is not so sharp but i would imagine it is mostly due to a hand held shot at around 200mm(58mm x crop factor x etc) manual lens no OIS ; )

24p standard -2,-2,-1,-2 iso160 (the moon-iso400'ish, maybe?)

side note: the player is movist and i used the command shift 3 to capture the images(mac) so that i can have the file info too.

rawmeyn

@rapsoe & @luxis thanks so much guys! I love this community. It's so much more fun to check the footage now ;) Movist is amazing! So is MediaInfo. As I'm going on a long trip soon (were I'm going to carry just a little netbook with me) I wonder if there is "Movist-Equivalent" for Windows too? Whats the best player to check MTS files on Windows? Thanks so much!

Until now I did always transcode my GH1(3) footage to ProRes. Then for SlowMotion I was using Cinema Tools to convert my 720p 50fps into 25fps. Is there a workflow to check my GH2s 720p clips in real Slowmotion without transcoding? Sorry for being a little bit offtopic with these questions.

I will do some lowlight FMv2.0 tests tonight! Thanks guys!

mozes

@peternap real fast and detailed action sport (motor bikes)....
Example http://speedy.sh/Vg6q4/00018.MTS its just a 28 mb download, its not sharp, filming didn't give probs, it happens when i stop filming, then it freezes, if it does not, it take many many seconds to save the file,

but flowmotion 2 give incredible images, if all go's well ...........

Gerald

@rapsoe i didn't know movist until now. it plays all files in a row :-) Great, i search such a thing for a long time, thans

luxis

@rapsoe good to see we are on the "same page" ; )

p.s.amazingly the toast player I use is "old" - from 2008 (toast video player 3.0 licensed by elgato)!it can do a anamorphic crop(not stretching but really cropping the video) The only thing i miss there is a playlist.

Thanks for the movist suggestion!Finally a playlist player ; )

luxis

@rawmeyn i have tried a lot of the players. This one is just a quicktime plus this:

https://eww.pass.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/dload/avccam_impt/agree_e.htm

it allows you to use the mts files directly with FCP and to preview in finder which is very handy. It also shows an average bit rate which is nice too.With high bit rate patches and long files it is not so fast to open them. Also be aware that it has created some issues in the past for my fcp 7, namely if i have a sd card with the gh2 structure open before FCP 7 would not open(sometimes) If i open FCP first then insert the sd card it works just fine. I just discovered toast titanium video player to be the smoothest player even with the heavy files, apart from mplayerx which unfortunately has the date imprint on any mts file. a free program called MediaInfo can give you more insight into the mts files.

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

hope this helps.

rapsoe

@rawmeyn best player I've found for MTS files on mac is Movist. Toast Video Player (inside the Toast 10 app package) works smoothly too (licensed from Elgato and unfortunately replaced with a crappy in-house player in Toast 11). Also, the Panasonic "AVCCAM Importer" QuickTime plug-in for OSX plays MTS files smoothly when handled by QuickView (as opposed to QuickTime Player X). Just my personal experience. Hope this helps.

rigs

Congratulations @LPowell on achieving what appears to be the ultimate GH2 patch to date. In my tests this patch is a significant improvement to anything I have used or tested. With much improved motion cadences, shadow noise and detail, and macroblocking in underexposed areas. And all this at manageable data rates. Your efforts are truly outstanding. Thank you.

peternap

@mozes I'm a little concerned about the problems you're having. I don't shoot in PAL and generally use primes, so it may never hit me, but what shots are you having the most trouble with?

Mine passed the pan the candle at night test although the noise was bad and the pan the rough water test which was locking up CM day and soft skin tones.

rawmeyn

@luxis which player is this with that "MTS-Inspector"? Thanks!

mozes

Sad news, testing ad home was great.
But today in the field is a other story.
I did shoot in 720 pal SH mode with vibrant profile all -2.
If i did shoot parts off more then 4 seconds, an then press the record/stop button, the cam freezes.
Only removing the battery did get it out off that.
If it did not freeze, then it took ad least 10 seconds minimum before the gh2 was ready for next shot.

Even in H mode it did freeze sometimes?
All shots longer the 4 second where not good in focus...
Card used: SanDisk Extreme 30MB/s Class10 32gb
Lens: Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm 1:4-5.6

Short not sharp clip (my mistake...) http://speedy.sh/Vg6q4/00018.MTS 28mb

rawmeyn

I also gave some tree and grass shots a try. No problems in HBR (Pal) Mode (+ETC). But my GH2 got frozen in SH (Pal) Mode shooting flowers with the kitlens (14-140) at 14mm (f7.1). I had to take out the batterie. No problem on other 720p shots, even in the ETC Mode. I was using Smooth -2 -2 0 -1.

I was using a SanDisk Extreme 30MB/s Class10 8GB Card. Maybe that's the reason for the freeze? Anyway, a 64GB 95MB/s is arriving next week :)

I have to say I'm new to the GH2 Hack, but coming from a GH1(3). VLC won't play my MTS Files fluidly (was no problem with the GH1(3)), which player are you guys using on a mac? Also I wanted to try out StreamParser to check the Bitrate, but I couldn't open the setup.exe with WineBottler :( Any tipps? Any other ways to check the Bitrate (on a mac)? "Media Information" > Statistics (with the VLC) seems not to be accurate...

Thanks to everyone working on this project!

karl

I just did some of my usual "moving tree leaves in the sun" test shots with FM 2.0.

Since the description mentioned "does span" only with regards to any class 10 cards, I tested for spanning in 24H(+ETC), HBR and VMM 80% using a SanDisk 64GB 95MB/s card. I experienced no interruptions, all modes spanned fine at least two times (didn't have more time per recording).

(Now I will do some pixel peeping on the recordings - to compare the quality with GOLGOP3, the setting I liked best so far.)

peternap

I just videoed a candle after dark. Usually a sure killer but it plugged away for over three minutes when I stopped it. To quote the Grinch...Oh the noise, noise, the noise. But it cleaned up OK which was what I was interested in. These settings have guts.

LPowell

@luxis Thanks for your test report. With Class 4 SD cards, you may be able to obtain reliable results using FM2's 24L, FH, and H modes, which are designed to operate at peak bitrates of 60Mbps.

While I tested Flow Motion v2 in Smooth and Nostalic Film Modes, it should perform just as reliably in any film mode you prefer.

Although the ISO Limit Removal patch is not set in the FM2 INI file, I have tested it up to ISO 6400 in all modes. I don't recommend going beyond that point unless you're interested to see how noisy the GH2 can get at high ISO's.

luxis

@LPowell Just tested FM v2.0 on sloooow class 4, 15mbs and was able to even get over 20 sec in 24H. didn't have another card at the moment. It just peacefully stopped due to the writing speed of the card but the short clips were fine and played right after it in camera. which is not tha case with other patches even lower bit ones.

Used manual f2 lens from wide open to f16 on things with lots of details. Used only 24p and iso 160(the attached screengrabs are at 160) and a few times iso400 mainly. Etc once. The results are amazing! It also seems that will be good for color grading too. With the shallow DOF at f2 the out of focus background has very smooth and nice texture and not the so often seen banding and/or macro-block feast ; ) Thank you!

the film mode was standard -2,-2,-1,-2.

What film mode and settings did you like most in your testing? my question is mostly in regard to low noise and less banding.

more testing next days with proper (95mb xtreme pro san disk;) card and high iso/low light , lots of movement,etc.

p.s. btw iso limit removal is not ticked in the patch

luxis

is there a bug in the script of the site? instead of saving drafts it puts them up? will use this triple post then...

just to add that i have one shot of a blue sky with a lonely moon and another in etc mode of skies too and there is no banding that i can see(which would have been a banding nightmare usually!). really WaUU!

luxis

double post...

bheath

...I've been shooting for a living for so long. SInce I bought the gh2 and sold my arris, I've been shooting for fun every day. So cheers to you all for participating in this phenomenon. BH

bheath

@Sangye - thanks eh! That's the wonderful voightlander 17.5mm .095 I've been shooting a lot with it and hope to put up a really nice video soon. That lens focuses right up to the fron element, so the results are like nothing I've seen before.

bheath

@rawmeyn -sorry I'm an unclear writer. What I mean is that the 29.79 capture of the 80% mode seems to reduce the judder effect, as does any 30p I'm not sure that the lack of in camera ref sound is worth fooling with the variable mode. Hope this clarifies. Thanks.

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