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Beginners: Basic hacks questions, series 2
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  • ok thanks

  • Could some one point me to cluster v5, I wasn't able to find it. Do you have to hunt them down in the individual threads, or can they be found in one place? I'm aware of the this tread http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/953/gh2-patch-vault, but it doesn't have all of them. Anyone have a smart technique for finding the patches?

  • Damn, this monocle ain't working too great.

  • @DeShonDixon on my right eye.

  • @forum177 ohh haha you wanna change your avatar?

  • @DeShonDixon I think so, I couldn't find the icons either, damn monocle!

  • @forum177 just click change my picture on your profile

  • Any good player to playback high bitrate files? VLC doesn't seem to handle Sedna AQ1 well (after transcoding to ProRes with 5DtoRGB the files play well though).

  • @Bressonftw If VLC doesn't work this always works great for me. http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

  • As far as players go, Movist for OSX and Windows Media Player with the freely download K-Lite codec pack for Windows computers is all you need to check/playback files. These two resolve the best - error free playback prior to NLE ingest.

  • @driftwood The paid for Movist app available in the app store isn't as good as the old free version. It stutters on playback. I spoke to the developer and he acknowledged the problem. It's being worked on. For now though I use the old free version of Movist version 0.6.9. It also shows bitrate for the file which new version doesn't. It's a great player for the GH2

  • Yeah I know what you mean - I still use the free one but on my other Mac the paid for one hasnt been too bad. Good that youve been in touch with the developer. That proggie can only get better.

  • Hi @eddietemple

    Regarding your now-closed post here: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/3734/gh2-hacks-almost-working-help-needed

    I'm not familiar with Kae's patches, but I've tried Driftwood's, the Flow Motion, and Cake, and each of them produce excellent results. Have you tried one of them? I think a good compromise settings is Flow Motion 2.2, which seems to have a nice balance between quality and useablity with high bit rates.

    What sort of issues do you see with the footage you shot? What lens, ISO, camera profiles, are you shooting at 24 fps, NTSC or PAL? There is an ISO bug which can cause excessive noise.

    I'm also a beginner, but I'm very happy with the results I'm getting post-hack.

  • @ahbleza

    Thanks for your response. I've looked at the footage from the other hacks you mentioned but they just don't handle the motion (moving the camera, not people/items moving within the frame) the way I want. A GOP3 is the exact thing I'm going for. I was able to get EOSHD's Vanilla 44mbs to work, but it wasn't what I wanted.

    As for the footage I shot, I didn't have problems with it (noise, etc), it just didn't look any better (or give me a higher bitrate) than non-hacked footage. As far as the specs: Lens is a Canon FD 50mm f1.4 set at f2.0, ISO was at 160 and 200, profile was Smooth (all -2), shooting at 1080p 24H NTSC.

    I have a two shorts and feature to shoot that I bought this camera for. I feel like I'm running in circles.

  • @eddietemple Maybe post which city you're in, and some more experienced GH2 shooter might be able to help. From what you've written, it sounds like everything is correct and you know what you're doing.

    What exactly don't you like about your footage? Can you upload a sample that shows the defects, and explain what should be improved?

    I'm pretty sure that a higher bit rate should respond well to motion in the frame.

  • Okay, I think I have the problem narrowed down. Now I just need to figure out how to fix it.

    The hacks aren't giving me the bitrates that they should. I seem to be getting between 1/3 and 1/2 the full bitrate. I had a 65mbs GOP3 hack originally, and I was only getting 19-24mbps. So I put on Driftwood's 132 GOP3 on there and it looked great. Very close to what I wanted. Only problem was I was only getting around 62mbps. Normally, I would only care that the footage looks how I want, but the problem is it throws all the footage counters off on the camera.

    Example: I put the 132 hack on the camera and my "footage remaining" timer goes down to about an hour (that's what would fit on my card if I was recording at 132mbps). But then when recording, the actual footage timer is reading about 3 times more. If I shoot until the "remaining footage" timer says one minute has gone by, the actual recorded clip is 2 min 50 seconds.

    I put the footage into Stream Parser and it confirmed my suspicions.

    So, basically, I'm just not getting anything close to the advertised bitrate for any of the hacks I'm using. Has anyone else experienced/fixed this?

    132 Test 1.JPG
    1281 x 665 - 175K
    132 Test 2.JPG
    1283 x 669 - 173K
  • @eddietemple Go shoot a death chart or something with high detail. The bitrate is measured to accomodate detail, if you're filming stuff that won't require all the target bitrate - it won't! Hence why youre only getting something less. Besides, thats an old setting which I havent looked at under any of the new ptools. Adjust the bitrate down somewhat and see how you go - the time will always adjust according to how much bitrate is being consumed / calculated to how much space is left on the sd card (running at this current bitrate). So things will move up and down.

  • Hi everyone, i am very confused about which shutter speed to use so i always use 1/50. But which shutter speed should i use to get the best slow-mo in post prod? I am mainly shooting in PAL 720 60p or HBR...

  • @bechou PAL HBR25fps/1080i & 720 is 50fps. So use the correct ratio shutter. 25ss, 50ss, 100ss is best. For 24p, equally shoot in 25ss, 50ss, 100ss, etc... multples, give the best results.

    With 60fps/HBR30 (NTSC) shoot in 30/60/125, multiples etc...

  • Okay, many thanks for this complete answer @driftwood ! The lower is the shutter speed, smoother is the motion, am i right ?

  • @driftwood Thanks for the info. I adjusted the bitrate down as you suggested (from 132 to 100) and I got a proportional drop in average bitrate of the footage. I also shot some high detail footage. I shot up through trees, bushes, grass, brick etc.) and the average bitrate was 79. My only concern was/is that I don't seem to ever be getting even close to the target bitrate of the hacks. I only ever get to about 1/2. If this is how it always is with hacks, I apologize for my ignorance and I'll stop bothering everyone about it. Also, Forgive me for being a noob, but what is a "death chart" and which do you recommend? Since I'm using old settings, do you have a newer hack that you recommend for narrative fiction filmmakers that is or is similar to 65mb GOP3 that doesn't use up too much memory? All I want to do is avoid the too sharp video look. This is what I'm going for:

    132.JPG
    1288 x 664 - 168K
  • Try the newly released Cluster v6 over on my thread and let me know what you think - it uses lower bitrate but it is targetted more to always on average achieve it.