Personal View site logo
Make sure to join PV on Telegram or Facebook! Perfect to keep up with community on your smartphone.
GH2 AVCHD spanning
  • 42 Replies sorted by
  • duartixduartix

    Well, you don't need Linux for that: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/69575 I'll have to give it a try.

  • azza_actazza_act

    Thanks guys, will try.

  • eddietoreddietor

    For the new users such as myself who do not see "spanning" in FAQ. I read the above posts. I have my GH2 on stock settings. Question is, are you saying that the goal with each hack is you want it to span? Is spanning a good thing? The stock settings don't span correct? What I'm asking is, if I upgrade my camera to another hack (still haven't decided which), will that be part of the sacrifice, that now 4gb files will be created as opposed to one continuous stream? Sorry I don't completely understand what is good or bad and which hack to use. I have one lens: 14-140 and one card (so far) - class 10 transcend 32gb, -which hack to get and is it worth doing before I get more cards and more lenses?

  • balazerbalazer

    Spanning is in the GH2 usage and tips FAQ.

  • driftwooddriftwood

    Try Slipstream v1 (Rev B) for reliability and spanning in all modes plus iA.

    Driftwood Cluster X Series 'Slipstream #1 (Rev B)

    72Mbps max IPB frame 1080p24 PLUS 68Mbps max IPB frame FSH/HBR/720p modes

    All settings SPAN (SH/FSH/H) according to my tests (Ive had spanning on 720p60SH at 5 files with a datarate at 50Mbps). This is a great setting which appears to pass spanning, iA modes and death charts in all REC modes. Its a mix of 'Nebula' meets 'DREWnet' and is the first in a series of combi settings that attempts to offer decent IQ together with perfect timing and good bitrates to accomodate spanning.

    Give it a try and let me know how you get on. See page 1 for details about these new settings & to download Slipstream #1 (Rev B).

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/uploads/FileUpload/a8/3faed58f8c8f03711b2e7526ee3a5c.zip

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/5806/cluster-x-moon%D0%85r%D1%96zznebuladrewnetslipstream-/p1

    All rec modes tested on a Sandisk 45MBPS SD card. 14-140mm sharp lens used in test.

  • Brian_SianoBrian_Siano

    Spanning's also highly dependent on the memory card. Apparently, the only memory card that spans reliably is the Sandisk Extreme pro 64gig card: I've been experimenting the 32gig version, and even that fails to span for the higher bitrate patches.

    I have found that the Cake patch spans reliably, even with my slower Transcend 32gig cards. So that's going to be my general-purpose patch.

    Oh, one thing about patches that don't span. It's important to know how much time it can fit into a 4gig file. For example, if I'm using a patch that doesn't span, it'll record about 4 gig as 00000.MTS. and go on to appear to record more as 00001.mts... but when the camera shuts down, 00001.mts is lost. So, helpful hint: if you're using a high bitrate patch, find out how much time a 4 gig file holds. That is the longest take you can record, reliably.

  • DrDaveDrDave

    My Patriot EP 64gb spans very well and makes the file transfer part fast as well. But I don't run the highest bitrates in shows where I need to span. I'm using Drew set to 60 right now and Flowmotion on the Lsetting. The one and only one time I was able to crash FM on the hedge of doom it saved the end of the file as well. In live shows, I always have some Camcorders running. SD cards are not 100 percent reliable, and there is nothing worse than having to tell a client that the event was not recorded.

    I'll try the Slipstream soon but right now I'm patched out.

  • driftwooddriftwood

    @Brian_Siano A lot of its to do with timing and buffers. Cluster Slipstream atempts to match Clip duration to Transport Stream duration with precision measurement of timing & memory to obtain ideal buffer peaks that don't slip into low / poor QP. If the buffer slips to a very low setting on the chart (even though it may not underrun/overrun) then below average quant and even fallback mode may happen. Subsequently, if anyone uses Elecard buffer analysis to take a look at Slipstream they'll notice fewer cpb_delay errors than other settings & stock!

  • tinyrobottinyrobot

    I shot about 20 minutes with CBrandin 44M/32M at 24L spanning setting which made two clips on my Sandisk 16gb 30MBPS class 10 card. Using PPro CS 6 on Windows 7, in the second clip, the audio seems to span fine. On the video side, on the second clip the first three frames are the same so by the forth frame there is a slight "jump cut". Can anyone tell me what I can expect with spanning GH2 hacks and if there is any way to fix this?

  • arvidtparvidtp

    I don't use any of the same software as you do, but I've seen similar things when using or converting raw .MTS files that have spanned. What I used to do in that case was concatenate the two (or more) .MTS files into one file before converting or using it and that would get rid of glitches at 4GB file boundaries. In the unix command line that is "cat 00001.MTS 00002.MTS > output.MTS". Dunno how you would do that on windows but obviously there is a way.

    PS - if you're interested in spanning patches, I use Sanity 5.1 exclusively now for recording concerts that absolutely need to span and need to record for a long time.

  • tinyrobottinyrobot

    @arvidtp So using Sanity 5.1, you don't get the glitche between two spanning files anymore so you no need to convert them to one file?

    Since CBrandin 44M/32M is a spanning hack, I thought there wouldn't be any problems with the lower bit rate. If you successfully merge the two files, would that mean the frames are there "hidden" and by merging it's brought out? When I played the second file frame by frame, the reproduction is there and I wonder if merging would reveal the invisible frames.

  • balazerbalazer

    Different hacks don't change the way the GH2 writes spanned files. (among the hacks that support spanning. Not all do) The camera is splitting the transport stream on packet boundaries without regard to audio or video frame boundaries. It is one continuous stream, and needs to be treated as such when read if you want continuity across the files. Your editing software apparently doesn't know how to do that, so you will need to manually join the files before you open the stream in your editing software. Read the GH2 usage FAQ. http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/gh2-usage/gh2-usage

  • arvidtparvidtp

    @tinyrobot no - I should have been more clear. I don't get the glitches anymore only because I no longer use that method of importing. I just use final cut pro X now. @balazer is right - hacks don't change how spanned files are written, except that some make it just plain fail.

  • tinyrobottinyrobot

    I found what was going on. I batch renamed the files and I guess the metadata embedded within the files don't correspond with the new name. Without changing the name it spans fine. Too bad I'll have to stop renaming spanning files.

    So then I'm wondering if anyone who works with spanning files ever successfully batch renamed their files while retaining the span.

  • JuMoJuMo

    I recently shot a TEDx event on Cake 2.3 (chosen for it's spanning reliability). It was a multi cam shoot (4 cams), with the cameras on all day for over 9 hours (using AC power). Not a SINGLE failure. Granted, I did use the SanDisk SD card formatter and formatted all the cards 3 times each with that software beforehand, then 2 times each in camera, which certainly helped keep the cards at their healthiest. Editing in Premiere Pro CS 5.5 has been a breeze, only have to drag the first file of the span onto the timeline.

    For non-event stuff, I've been really enjoying Moon Trial 5, but for spanning reliability I can confidently recommend Cake 2.3

  • wrr53wrr53

    I just installed the Quantum Rocket hack on my GH2 and shot some lovely footage. I can play it in the camera, however, when I go to import the videos into iPhoto or even in Premiere Pro CS6, the files aren't recognized. My hunch is this has to do with spanning. I'm a neophyte and could use some counsel re: successfully importing hacked GH2 into a Macbook late 2008. Do I need to upgrade my computer? Please advise. Thank you.

  • arvidtparvidtp

    I've not used Quantum Rocket, but sometimes with Sanity or Sanity X my spanned clips don't show up in FCPX's import. Not sure why this happens sometimes and not other times. You can get the clips out manually. If you're using OSX 10.8 or greater by right-clicking the AVCHD "file" (its actually a folder but the OS is annoyingly showing it as a package, trying to keep novice users from screwing things up) and choosing "Show Contents" like you would on a app package. Then so the same for BDMV and STREAM folders. If using an earlier OS X, they should just be folders.

    Then take the .MTS files out and open them with quicktime X and save them as quicktime movies. You could try to use terminal to cat (concatenate) the .MTS files together first to get one continuous movie, but i find usually the resulting concatenated file fails to play properly in this situation (which is maybe why the software was failing to import the clip in the first place).

    PS - Nothing about the hardware of your computer would influence this, just the software you have installed (unless of course the hardware is too old to run the new software you want). However, you will find a huge jump in performance for HD video editing between a 2008 macbook and a 2014, or even 2011 one (I have/use an early 2008, a late 2011 and a mid 2014 macbook and the later two are way way faster for video)

Add a Comment