@Lpowell "You're right about Vimeo's web compression - it does a very poor job of rendering the details that can be seen in the original footage."

Of course the compressed video could never be as the original but expecially with the original MTS files, Vimeo struggle to compress them properly. Actually during the import Vimeo alerts you that the clip has a bitrate too high and that conversion could be poor. Anyway is always better than dropbox to share mts files ;)

@LongJohnSilver I downloaded your test footage from Vimeo and had a look. You're right about Vimeo's web compression - it does a very poor job of rendering the details that can be seen in the original footage.

Could you fill in some more details on your shooting setup? Although the original Flow Motion v2 footage looks virtually flawless, it's not clear to me how the situation differed in the case of the Sedna AQ20 footage.

@Lpowell @driftwood

I write here because I already posted here my video showing the codec suffering shooting a lake bottom through transparent water with small ripples. The previous clip was shot in VMM 80% mode. Yesterday afternoon I came back shooting the same subject. Unfortunately in the afternoon I found a completely different light and I could not replicate the same scene. Anyway I managed to get a couple of clips. I preloaded my GH2 with SEDNA A20 then I flashed the camera with FM 2.02. Both clips are in 24p cinema mode shot withthe lumix 20mm with a marumi polarizer. Unfortunately while I changed setting the light changed rapidly so the two clips are not very useful. @cbrandin streamparser shows that clips were recorder nearly a the top bitrate offred by these settings.

This time it seems that things went better than before also if the light is more forgiving than before.

Lesson learned: I throwed away HBR and I will use 24p cinema mode for this kind of scene. It's a shame but it's nearly impossible to spot flaws on the camera display and you'll discover imperfections once at home on a proper computer screen.

Again, if you are curious on the codec behavior don't look at vimeo clips but you have to download the original files.

FM 2.02 24p cinema mode

SEDNA AQ20

@LPowell No no no you might've misunderstood me, obviously I'm not here to offend anyone at all, especially you, I am greatly appreciative of your work, its probably sometimes how I word things or the way they come out (I'm dyslexic, but I often try not using this as an excuse), and not taking any cheap shots at you in any way.

What I mean by "doesn't look too pretty" was to say that I was able to distinguish the frames from the I-frames from the B-frames, from what I did was zoom in 200% and slowly analyze the frames and noise and saw that get 'washed' away due to the compression, noticably enough that the fine detail (of the noise especially) was not as visible compared to the I-frames.

This is probably how I should've explained it in the first place. Because of this all as well and trying to get the most from my (our) cameras, that is where I asked about the possibilities of making changes or improvements.

I also come with some news now (which myself I took time to do to help you and manjy others), I have by now tried recording at ISO12800, 10000, 8000 and 6400 just now in 100Mbps 24p and none of them was able to get past 4minutes, and whilst I can 'preview' them in playback, it just plays 1 second before giving an error message stating something's wrong with the card. Now I will try ISO5000 to see if it will make any difference.

But overall, I hope you are not upset or frustrated with me, that is not my intention whatsoever. Hope you understand :)

@LPowell Yes that is the card I have been using the whole time, especially when I was reporting my problems here and indeed it is unfortunate that the file system they persist in using is FAT32 but I would consider this minor, the file-splitting thing is not a biggie for me when it comes to capturing :D

Not too long ago I have taken my newly recorded Flow Motion v2 1080i50 footage into After Effects, and actually I am able to distinguish the frames from the I-frames and it doesnt look too pretty (just being honest!) This is probably why I favour Intra-frame recordings and went with Driftwood's patches before but was having imense problems with them. This is also why I mentioned of the P-frames, I think it would noticably help the image quality as it contains motion-compensated difference from the I-frame. The B-frames is what I was referring to them not looking too pretty by the way.

I know this may seem quite abit to ask, but is it possible to make a Intra-Frame Flow Motion where it is able to playback incamera and for it to span successfully in all modes? Or even keeping your GOP3 but the structure at I-P-B?? Right now I'm going to see if the camera will span completely (filling up my SD card) on 24p ISO12800. This should be interesting :D

@LPowell Well I just came back to my camera and it seems to have filled up the card with no problems in 1080i50 on ISO3200 at 100Mbs :D I understand what you mean but the only 'failure' that happens is when recording at ISO12800, but I'm glad you've pointed out that it's a poorly implemented feature (how did you know this?). So recording at 100Mbps seems to be fine afterall.

Also to let you know THIS is the card I own and bought from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Extreme-16GB-SDHC-Card/dp/B005LFT3MA/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1340579623&sr=1-1

Regarding the AVCHD encoder, I was pretty sure it did do P-frames, wouldnt a I-P-B frame structure weild better results? And either way, isnt it possible to implement this as well?

@LPowell Hello again, I have just discovered something, I am currently doing another (static) shot recording at 100M in 1080i50 at ISO3200 and it seems to be going along fine, at the moment it's got 6mins remaining and it has not failed on me yet...sooo...it probably means that having it at ISO12800 seems to be the trouble, can this be your next fix? :D

Also I forgot to mention, when analyzing the video files (I left the GOP at 3), I saw that the frame type structure was I-B-B. Shouldnt it have been I-P-B may i ask?

@RockHunter Flow Motion v2.02 is an integrated PTool patch file that is designed and tested as a complete, self-contained update to the GH2 firmware. It is intended to be used exactly as delivered, with no changes made to any of its settings, both checked and unchecked. High bitrate GH2 patches are complex and difficult to optimize and test thoroughly, and are not really designed for end-user customization.

There are, however, two settings that may be freely adjusted without running the risk of destabilizing Flow Motion's 100Mbps 24H, HBR, FSH, and SH video modes. The 24L, FH, and H video modes have been set to about 60Mbps peak bitrate to support 4GB file-spanning when using Class 10 SD cards rated lower than 95MB/sec. If desired, you can adjust the 24L Video Bitrate setting or FH/H Video Bitrate to any reasonable value up to 95,000,000.

@LPowell But I am using a 16GB Sandisk 95Mb/s SD Card that I bought specifically (from Amazon) for applying these patches, I have mentioned this in my previous posts here. The fact that when recording at 100M at ISO12800 in 1080i50 and for it to stop at slightly random times, just got me wondering...

@LPowell Well what I'm actually after is probably what all of you are after as well, to be more definitive what I'm saying, I obviously want to capture footage at the bestest quality the camera is capable of but without any fault i.e. random cut-offs at any decent bitrate setting and high ISOs which was my problem when trying out Driftwood's patches. Also, wanted to try and keep it (as close to) Intra-frame recording to help things in editing and keeping frames of high quality.

My SD card seems to span well when recrding on 50M (lower bitrate) in 1080i50 but not so on 100M (higher bitrate), this seems to be my only problem. Could it be because I raised it to 100M from 95M as you set it?

@vesubio

Amazing cinematography!

@GH2_fan I'm not sure what you're looking for. A recording more than 9 minutes long will most likely need to span across more than one 4GB file. Before experimenting with untested patch alterations, I'd recommend testing your SD cards to determine their spanning capabilities. While 95MB/sec Class 10 SD cards should be able to span in all Flow Motion v2 video modes, slower Class 10 cards have only been verified to span reliably in 24L, FH, and H video modes.

Amazing direction and acting!