sorry, probably a noob question here....when changing the bitrate of fh/h mode it says "remember to check higher bitrate patch". where do i find this to check it?
Here is the settings file that produced those images. However, please note that I changed the GOP on the 720p setting to 15 from 30. I haven't thoroughly tested that yet so I don't know if it is best or not. I picked 15 because I thought 30 was too long and I doubled the bit rate so I think halving the GOP is reasonable.
@Vitaliy I understand but I didn't have time to go back and undo it. They wanted the file so I gave them what I had. I won't discuss it anymore though. I just wanted to alert them that I had changed it in that file.
I wish b-frames would work with 720p. However, it doesn't work reliably right now so I am satisfied with what I am getting. Take a look at the screen shots. I think there is noticeable improvement there already.
@mpgxsvcd: "Here are the screen shots. The difference between the hacked 1080i High and the default 1080i Low setting is startling. "
I can't see any noticeable difference. Probably I need new glasses. Can you point out where can I see the difference? The only slight difference I see is in the background, where one of the video has more noise. Was it taken with higher ISO?!?
Maybe my eyes are failing me because it is so late. I see it in the cat's fur though. Make sure you expand the pictures out. The higher bit rate one should show more noise because it was taken in a dark area. The low bit rate one has all of the noise smoothed out.
@mpgxsvcd Now I see a subtle difference. There is some kind of yellowish tone in one part of the fur in lower-bitrate 1080i picture. Comparison would be better if the cameras would be fixed on a tripod (due to interlaced footage). Otherwise any difference in camera movement between two shots might produce different interlaced artefacts (artifacts).
A suggestion, keep the high-bitrate settings unmodified, and only change the low ones. Then you can shoot the same footage with the original and modified settings to compare without having to reflash (also useful if you need to get a shot on location and the modified setting screws up). I'll be trying that shortly.
EDIT: I see the higher-bitrate patch has to be ticked for the lower ones to work - @V., if I set a patch to the original bitrate (using simple end-user), will it set all encoding parameters exactly like the original? eg. 24H @ 22mbps = completely unmodified?
@britco, nice, but see how the text in the Thomas's sign is way more blurry than the rest of the image? That's due to 4:2:0. I've attached the separated luma (monochrome) and chroma (colour) channels of your shot, chroma is only 1/4 resolution.
Actually, I'm also seeing more detail (less mush) in your 1080P high verses 1080P low. Certainly looks like 1080P has improved! Also, this is a static shot. With movement and high detail, 1080P is going to be great
So I finally applied the hack - and ticked off all the 'user' friendly settings. One funny thing I noticed is the write to card speed at the need of each clipped has been significantly reduced on my Transcend C10/16G. That little red SD card thing goes away in 1/3rd the time it did before the patch - but the lag in RAW stills is still the same.
Aha! i discovered that if i start shooting in SH on a really complex scene (speaker grille, window screen) that I get the "card too slow message" within 15 seconds (using SH set to 32mbps - like in mpgxsvcd's settings file, but without the GOP modification). However, if i begin the shot on a less complex scene for the first 3-5 seconds, then pan to shooting the speaker grill or window screen, it works fine and I can shoot that as long as i want it seems.
[Settings] Version increment=1 Video Bitrate FSH/SH=32000000 Video Bitrate 24H=32000000