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

    @mangomonster try ClipWrap to wrap the .MTS first, then convert it with 5DtoRGB or whatever other program you want to use. not sure that will do it, but it's worth a try.

  • saltherringsaltherring

    i've been using FlowMotion 2.02 lately, shooting 24H, 160 ISO in natural light and have been averaging around 35 Mbs on my footage. is this normal? it seems quite low, no?

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  • FilmingArtFilmingArt

    Can the creator of this patch chime in, please do..... I just really wanted to know 100% how is it that I can tell that the patch is applied. There must be some menu setting or something to let me know?

  • saltherringsaltherring

    @FilmingArt did you read the posts above? they clearly stated how you can check for yourself (and it sounds like you have loaded it correctly). there will be nothing displayed on your camera that will say 'flowmotion 2.02', ever.

  • LPowellLPowell

    @saltherring With Flow Motion v2, average bitrate is an indication of how detailed and sharply focused your subject matter is. The primary factor in motion picture quality is not bitrate, it's the fine degree of compression used by the encoder. In the footage you uploaded, the seated woman in the foreground is in sharp focus, and recorded with excellent image quality. The figures in the background are defocused from shallow DOF, and the open window is overexposed. This type of background has very soft details which require a relatively low bitrate to encode in high quality.

  • saltherringsaltherring

    thanks for the explanation, that makes much more sense now. is this how all VBR hacks function?

  • LPowellLPowell

    @FilmingArt The MediaInfo report you posted shows an average video bitrate of 47.3Mbps. As @peternap, pointed out, that is about twice the maximum bitrate of the unhacked firmware, and is a typical average bitrate for moderately detailed subjects shot with Flow Motion v2.

  • mozesmozes

    Check the iso setting in manual film mode, if its higher then 6400, you have updated the gh2.

  • LPowellLPowell

    @saltherring Yes, VBR stands for Variable Bit Rate, indicating that the encoder uses only as much bitrate as is required to encode a scene at the intended level of quality. That's how the AVCHD encoder in the GH2 is designed to work. Flow Motion v2 uses its 100Mbps peak bitrate both to improve image quality and to increase the density of keyframes in the video stream.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Point the cam at a shrub or irregular small foliage and set the aperture above F5 and you should see a nice juicy bitrate.

  • FilmingArtFilmingArt

    @LPowell

    Is this hack mostly for outdoors or for indoor/night time scenes. I usually record a lot of low light stuff. Thanks Also is there a way to have the hack + original firmware on the card I am using so just incase I can flip back and forth?

    Finally this hack is applied to the camera and is not something that resides on the memory cards?

    Thank you for everything

  • LPowellLPowell

    @FilmingArt Flow Motion v2 is a comprehensive, full-featured patch optimized to produce consistently excellent motion picture quality in the widest practical range of shooting conditions. For more details and sample footage, check out the first post in this thread.

    All PTool patches are self-contained firmware upgrades that need only be installed once in the camera. After that, the camera continues to use the patched firmware until you decide to install another patch or revert back to the unhacked firmware. This can easily be done by using a separate SD card for each type of patch, swapping cards to install a different patch at any time you choose. Once you settle on a particular patch for long-term use, you can simply reformat the SD card as there is no need to keep the patched firmware on the card after it's been installed.

  • crackermdcrackermd

    done

  • ethanpilethanpil

    @LPowell Maybe you missed my comment above...

    You posted your recommended daylight settings. Do you have some nice Nighttime settings as well?

  • LPowellLPowell

    @ethanpil Not yet. On the GH2, I've been using a nighttime color temperature of 2700K for incandescent lighting. While you can dial in 2700K on the AF100, it's more convenient to select its 3200K setting, which is balanced for studio tungsten lighting. I've been trying to split the difference to see if I can come up with settings on both cameras that work over the entire 2700-3200K range, but need to do more nighttime testing.

  • mangomonstermangomonster

    @saltherring: Thanks, that worked!

  • saltherringsaltherring

    @mangomonster glad that worked! that is my workflow too: ClipWrap>Convert to ProRes>FCP/PP

  • peternappeternap

    I'm starting the process of getting FM2.2 to match the video from my AC-160 These are frame grabs from the first test. The Gh2 was set Standard -2. The picture profile on the 160 is a little more complicated and it's going to take some time

    (Translation, first day with the 160 and I don't have the hang of the profiles yet)

    Update: On the advice from one of the 160 owners on DVInfo, I tried one of the stock presets (Spark) and it's pretty close. A little more tweaking and I think I'll get a good match.

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  • LPowellLPowell

    @peternap Looks like the GH2 has less blue and more red than the AC-160. I'd also suggest setting the GH2 to ISO 200 and lowering the AC-160's Master Ped to match the luminance levels of the GH2.

  • peternappeternap

    Thanks Lee! I'm going to try to shoot something with more color today. I did a lot wrong using yesterdays test as a starting point. My GH2 was set at ISO 200 but from there on, I should have stopped playing with the 1080-60 in the AC, and dropped down to 720. The bitrate is higher in 1080 which may cause some difference, not to mention resizing. I'll try your suggestions today.

  • alkasberalkasber

    Hi. I starting to use the GH2 for aerial photography and I record only 4-5 minutes at a time using the 100mbps modes. Do I need a Extreme Pro sandisk 95mb/s or can I use Extreme 45mb/s and I will be fine? I don't think I need the file-spanning 4gb because I won't record over 5 min.

  • LPowellLPowell

    @alkasber Your understanding is correct. I've tested Flow Motion v2.02 with both 30MB/sec and 45MB/sec Class 10 SD cards, and they work reliably with all features, except for 4GB file-spanning at 100Mbps bitrates. Those SD cards do support file-spanning in FM2's 60Mbps 24L, FH, and H modes. If you have a 95MB/sec SD card, it will support file-spanning in all video modes except NTSC HBR and FSH modes.

    For more details, see the first post in this thread.

  • LPowellLPowell

    With respect to previous questions on how to confirm that the Flow Motion v2 patch has been installed, the most conclusive test is to examine a 1080p MTS file in Stream Parser, available here:

    http://www.personal-view.com./talks/discussion/370/official-streamparser-topic/p1

    A 1080p Flow Motion v2 recording will have a 3-frame GOP structure comprised of an I-frame followed by two B-frames. In Stream Parser, this will appear in the chart at the bottom of the window as a tall, vertical red line, with two short green lines to its right. In Stream Parser's Information panel, the TS Max Bitrate will be about 100,000,000 (or in Turbo Mode, 140,000,000).

  • zcreamzcream

    Any chance of a version with the new cbrandin martix ?

  • byron_jobyron_jo

    I am probably being a dumb ass but as a mac user when I try and download the Flow Motion v2 patch, i get a sets.ini file that I am not able to extract because it is not a zip file and PTool won't see it. Any mac friendly way around this?

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