@kae
Tried your settings and it looks okay!
I use a Transcend class 6 card (freshly formatted) with no problems, only first frames "blip"

Can someone tell me, step-by-step, how to apply Kae's patch.

I mean from the very beginning from downloading PTools, just so I don't do anything wrong.

I'd appreciate it guys.

I grabbed this from July 20 in the pTool 3.61 topic. It's about the lower rate being at least 76% of the upper rate. Is this guideline being followed and how does it or not pertain to the GOP work that is being done in this thread?

Vitaliy_Kiselev July 20
I'll repeat this here as this is important.
Always keep lower bitrate settings within 95-70% of high bitrate settings.
Otherwise you'llsee dramatic bitrate drop in this low modes.


0 _gl_gl July 20
@Vitaliy_Kiselev. 70% is not enough:

24H: 42mpbs
24L:
30mpbs (71%) = 48,505 / 4,365,201 / 9,345,347 bps
31mbps (74%) = 48,505 / 4,317,097 / 9,539,368 bps
32mbps (76%) = 48,533 / 15,749,584 / 33,407,325 bps

So maybe 75% minimum.

0 Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev July 20
@gl
Try to play with bottom bitrate patch for testers (lower or rising it gradually) keeping 30mbps in L mode.

Please help -- how do I download the .ini files? I assumed it would be a matter of clicking on the images posted on this board, but they appear as only images (.png files). Is it because I'm mac based? Feel like an idiot asking because there must be something I'm missing.

Already have the basic 42mbps hack installed and loving it, but want to do some serious tests on this in advance of a shoot in August (which hopefully will include some of the first serious underwater footage from a hacked gh2).

Thanks for anyone who can help.

@jdn
Not sure about macs but you must be logged in to download files, otherwise they just look like .png files. Otherwise, I have no clue.

@Kai
All my cards have the write issues. Have done any long testing, but playing around with keeping within 76% of the upper number has fixed my issues on the write. I'm still playing with some combo's of settings trying to understand what's going on. I'm going from 48mbs to 58mbs right now as your's worked fine last weekend when it was only set for 24p. Suppose to be doing something else right now so may be a while before I get any real testing done. But am happy to say, it's not my cards. Have 4-5 class 10 card and they have all performed fine through the months.

@Kai
@Butt
Looking forward to trying your set-ups. Is it possible for you to check the still side to see for any errors. Would be great to do time lapse with out loading another patch but I would work that in to the work flow to get your low GOP look. I don't have my camera yet, coming in the next two days. I can test then but just curious.
Thanks to VK and to you guys and everyone who is doing the great work.

Can videos with these settings be rendered in a NLE to burn to DVDs or Blue Rays?

@ALL

TESTERS ONLY - KAE - 65M Extreme 1080 24P 3 GOP Settings with all other MODES STOCK

Since many have been having problems with some of my settings in modes OTHER than 24P I've decided to post just the unchanged 65M 1080 24P 3 GOP settings with all other modes set to stock (except 1080i/50 as the GOP is locked to the 24P GOP).

This will allow all of you to test just the 1080 24p mode knowing that all other modes will be stock and unaffected. You can then modify the other mode settings at will. The 65M extreme settings are targeted at the digital filmmaker who is looking for the best performance and highest quality out of the GH2 in 24P. It IS NOT targeted at the event shooter who needs to do hour long takes, etc.

For some reason in 1080 24P I can only write a 4 gig file, it will not span. This will give you roughly 7min 13 secs on the death chart and probably 10 minute takes on normal shots (similar to film). More than enough for a filmmaker but lousy for an event shooter. So be forewarned.

The 7 minute death chart clips will probably not play back in your cameras but most NORMAL footage in this mode will. The death chart clips will play back on the desktop and ingest into an NLE.

I'm going to stop testing anything other than the 24P mode as that's all I use, so I look forward to others testing those modes and coming up with high bitrate stable settings.

I would like to be able to post these 65M 1080 24P settings in the stable thread after you guys can prove that they are stable.


The 1080p will do a max of 65Mb/s average bit rate at 3 GOP with bursts up to 93 Mb/s and I don't know if the GH2 will ever do better, but Vitaliy surprises all the time.

Please start with a freshly formatted Class 10 card. I have shot the death chart 4 times for 7 minutes straight without issues so I think most of you will not have any probs with these 1080 24p settings.

To get JUST the 65M 1080 24P 3 GOP in your INIs all you need to change are these settings:

Video Bitrate 24H=65000000
Video Bitrate 24L=35000000
1080i50 and 1080p24 GOP Size=3
Video buffer 24p=0x3600000
1080p24 High Top Setting=42418
1080p24 High Bottom Setting=29692
1080p24 Low Top Setting=31178
1080p24 Low Bottom Setting=21824

If you want GOP 6 or 12 just change '1080i50 and 1080p24 GOP Size=' (GOP of 2, 4 and 5 will not work in 24P).

@svart

I think as long as they're stable they're not overkill as the higher detail will certainly help digital filmmakers looking to do blowups etc. But I agree, going any higher than the 65Mb/s will probably gain us nothing and that's why I've stopped there. It would be interesting to see an I frame only 1 GOP test at the highest bitrate to see if those flaws you find go away. So far, haven't been able to do that.

What I would like to know is: Does the higher bitrate decrease quality of image in any area or is the higher bitrate enabling higher detail in some areas so the flawed areas just look shittier by comparison? My guess is that it's the latter.

@ka00

"What about: Video Bitrate 24H ADD Overall Bitrate Overall Bitrate 2"

In tests with Vitaliy they don't affect 24P if they are ALL unchecked. But they DO affect other modes. So if you want to increase data rate of 720p 50/60 or 1080i/60 you need to play with these, but it can lead to instability if you get it wrong. If you do decide to play with these make sure 24H ADD equals 65m to pair it with the 65M bitrate. But in other modes seek the help of gurus in those modes. I am not one.

@kae

What I meant was that even though the bitrate is much higher, the quality difference is not in equal ratio. A huge difference in bitrate(3x) has only equaled maybe 10%(my guess by looking) difference in detail.

Cbrandin mentioned this in another thread:

"If the best quality limit has been met for each macroblock in a frame the codec reduces bitrate instead of improving quality further."

Which makes me believe that the extremely high bitrate is not needed at this time. KNOWING that it's stable at such high rates is very useful though for when the time comes that Cbranding and VK are able to exercise the codec a little more and take full use of the increased bitrate.

I guess what I'm saying is that I believe that the bitrate is being eaten up by the increased I frames, not simply by individual frame quality itself, as each group of I frames is much larger in size than a group of I/B/P frames that equal the same quality once uncompressed.

@JDN

All those TV channels have the 50megabit requirement at 4:2:2 color space the GH2 even with the hack only produces 4:2:0. Which they wont accept knowing the source.

However Ive seen DSLR footage from Canon on these channels and that slipped thru the cracks. It is more based on the final look of the footage after processing than an arbitrary color space. You can always convert to a 4:2:2 codec they will increase file-size but will get you nothing new except possible acceptance.