@Mozes : Can't download 00014.mts but 00011.mts has a lot of problems, here's a tip (From StreamParser itself):

Frame--Type QP---Min---Max--Range---DC Skipped QST-High

00000 (IDR) 20 20 20 1 6 0

00001 ( P ) 22 22 28 7 7 1

00002 ( P ) 22 22 32 11 7 1

00003 ( I ) 22 20 35 16 6 0

00004 ( P ) 22 22 32 11 7 2

00005 ( P ) 22 22 32 11 7 2

00006 ( I ) 22 20 35 16 6 0

00007 ( P ) 22 22 28 7 7 0

00008 ( P ) 22 22 28 7 7 0

00009 ( I ) 22 20 35 16 6 0

00010 ( P ) 22 22 28 7 7 1

00011 ( P ) 22 22 28 7 7 0

00012 ( I ) 22 20 35 16 6 0

00013 ( P ) 22 22 28 7 7 1

00014 ( P ) 22 22 28 7 7 0

00015 ( I ) 22 20 34 15 6 0

As usual, experience counts and @Lpowell was right on the money. There is too much QP fluctuation. Here's how it looks visually on StreamEye. On I-Frames the QP is all over the place but it's in the P-Frames that you can see clearly what's happening: the encoder is resorting in and out of heavier QPs as it runs out of bitrate and then recovers. Light ones are Q=22, darker is Q=32!!!

A good picture with even IQ should look close to a flat light grey screen.

Anyway, those trees are a real torture test.

(edit) Just saw @balazer's reply. The irony of all this is he looked at them and though they were fine. And why is it ironic? Because I'm starting to believe that we are all splitting hairs. I also looked at the file and I couldn't spot any IQ issues between QP=22 and QP=32. We are moving so many bits (over stock) that most of the times, a visual inspection results in nothing. But the file has real issues.

@balazer is absolutely right. For the majority of shooting scenarios you can get much lower overall Q (and constant across the whole picture). Set it to over 20?... you've just fucked the majority of recording scenarios.

Have you guys ever got a QP lower than 20 to work? Try as I might, I can't go below 20 no matter what... :(

Set the QP to 18 works on SanDisk HD Video (HBR 25p). Moved the camera very fast around, but the bitrate is only 22800 Kbt/s.

I modded Cake 1.2 to use a standard 12-frame GOP (with B-frames) & Q16 with higher frame limit. I investigated the Qs on my recent tests, and found my goto Chris66(AQ2) is typically a pretty solid Q15-16, so it's a reasonable value for long-GOP.

I ran the same tests with my mod (I call it 'Sweet16' : ), and it produces very similar quality to Chris', except the motion quality is more consistent - I guess partly because of the constant-quality factor, and also due to the higher frame limit which is useful during motion. It has a look that I like. File sizes are very slightly smaller on a wide shot, and a bit higher on a Tele (as the frame limit is higher). I'm about to do a major shoot with it, including some lowlight, so we'll see how that pans out reliability-wise.

I've now compared Cake 1.2, Flow 1.11, Chris66 and my Sweet16. They look very similar (if not identical) for still shots with minor motion - but there are differences in larger motion quality and style. But honestly they're not that big anymore. If you're a perfectionist like me you'll find a favourite, but if you just want really good quality at reasonably file sizes and care more about shooting exciting stuff than obsessing, any of them are a massive step up from stock. And it's great that so much effort is now also going into stability by the patch authors.

@Kihlian : Moving the camera like crazy will not tax the encoder as it will most probably will cause motion blur which is easy to encode. If you want to tax the encoder use a very textured subject a high enough shutter speed and slowly rotate the camera.

@_gl : I'd like to take a look at your Cake mod.

I've just tried Cake 95 in my Sandisk 32Gb / 95mb. The image quality looks good. But during the recording, the remaining time still remain the same 37 min in 24p. even though I recorded more than 37 min. is it a bug or I made some mistake during the patch ? Thanks

@LPowel All where done with the same patch. cake95
Only the settings in the gh2 menu are different, for example idynamic on high and off.
High iso's and shutter speeds, and tele2 on or off.
All with autofocus, and when the gh2 try to get in focus, while for example zooming, i change the shutter or iso, its something the gh2 doesent like.
Normally i get then a speed error, but not this time, perhaps thats the reason.

I wish i could make it more clear, sorry..
The lens i used is a Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm 1:4-5.6
Practical all shots where done on 150mm F5.6 with tele2.
I am indoors pointing the cam true my window, for that i use a very old Cokin polarisation filter.
If i am not wrong, the profile was Nature -2 -2 +2 -2

It is impossible to show the actual time remaining, because the bit rate varies and cannot be predicted.

@duartix, I've attached Sweet16 v0.8. Note it hasn't had any buffer tuning, any suggestions are welcome.

This is the transition from still -> panning -> still:

@duartix, I believe the Initial Quantizer setting only affects the first second or so. It's what the camera starts with before settling into the main Q settings 'Quantizer for 1080 modes' etc.