@kazuo Sorry to be coming to the party so late but....I read this entire thread and am still unclear. Does the HDMI out send a higher bitrate signal if the GH2 has hacked hbr firmware? Is the HDMI output signal firmware dependent? Or is it fixed? Do you have any updates?? Thanks

@Gavvo888

Anything that comes out of the GH2 is 8 bit 4:2:0, whether it is written on the card (which then undergoes further compression) or straight via HDMI. Recording HDMI signal out on an external recorder like the Ninja will not give you discernible improvement over footage written on SD cards. It's true the recorder will transcode the footage on the fly to 10bit 4:2:2, but technically, the upsampling will introduce "noise" signals. Imagine the 8 bit as a small pail, and the 10 bit as a big one. Whatever the 8bit pail contains will always be capped at a certain limit, even if you fill the pail to its brim. Now pour that content into a 10bit pail, and you'll probably get a half pail full. How then to fill up the rest of the space in the 10 bit pail? There is no more info to squeeze out of the 8 bit except to fill in the blanks with noise.

The DNx HD is what should make the difference but I've found it doesn't with the GH2 or 3...but it does make a big difference with my AC 160, why I don't know because it puts out 8 bit 4:2:0 also....but there s a big improvement in post.

If you treat PsF as progressive in your editor, there should be no difference. Technically there are fields, but the content is from the same point in time.

I shoot with the GH2 and BMCC, and to be honest, I've found the Ninja or any external recording device to be useful only with machines like the BMCC, which outputs native 10bit 422 signals. For this reason, I wouldn't even use the ninja with expensive cameras like the C100, which Canon has doggedly kept as an 8 bit anomaly in today's rapidly evolving market. I have found no discernible advantage using the ninja with the GH2. In fact, the clips do get quite noisy when you "up res" 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 (see my explanation above)

The GH2 does not output sound over HDMI