'Apocalypse Now' Experimental Series 1 Thread - BOOM, Intravenus - cbrandin/driftwood AN Soft/Cinema

driftwood

Introduction

Welcome to Apocalypse Now and two new matrices researched & supplied by Chris Brandin - adjusted by Nick Driftwood & bkmcwd and incorporated into a new selection of top quality settings - each tested by our 'Apocalypse Now' Beta team.

The theory behind the 444 matrix is an attempt to simulate a process that turns the codec into the equivalent of 4:4:4 encoding.

Many people complain about the “video” look. In part, this is caused by excessive sharpness and rather “crunchy” rendering of gradations.

These matrices are designed to soften the image and improve gradation rendering (smoothness). The softening was specifically targeted toward Panasonic lenses (or other, modern 4/3 lenses) – which are very sharp. Many people use soft lenses wide open to get a more “organic” look. The '444 Soft' and soon to be released 'Cinema Smooth' matrices were designed to provide some of that effect with the sharper Panasonic glass.

So, if you are using only soft lenses with the '444 Soft' matrix settings that amounts to double softening - and that may be too much in some cases.

In this scenario we will be providing a series of sharpened 444 matrices to offer a bit more balance between soft and sharp lenses (the first of which can be found in the Cluster v7 444 Sharp settings).

The factory matrices render detail rectilinearly, which results in more detail along diagonals than at right angles. Film renders detail the same at all angles. These matrices were designed to more closely render detail the way film does.

The ‘444 Soft’ versions of the matrices render color and luma detail with the same resolution. The effect is that detail, although softer, is rendered in a way that is similar to a 4:4:4 color space. This is accomplished by lowering the luma detail and raising the color detail. It’s not exactly the same as 4:4:4 – but its close.

The best way to test these is with sharp lenses because the entire design goal was to be able to produce a more filmic, organic look with standard optics instead of having to use soft lenses.

Older lenses designed before the digital era will nearly always be somewhat soft with digital sensors. This is because of the way the image is presented to the sensor. Film era lenses supply the image to the film/sensor at all angles. This worked because film is relatively flat compared to digital sensors so it doesn't matter at what angle light is presented. Newer lenses are designed to present the image to the sensor at a right angle - which is necessary for optimal sharpness with digital sensors.

The ‘444 Sharp’ versions of the matrix render color and luma detail with, of course, sharper detail. This is accomplished by lifting the luma detail from the softer 444 variation whilst retaining the color detail of the 444 matrix.

The best way to test the sharper 444 setting is with manual lenses because it slightly compensates for the somewhat softer matrix without overloading it and looking video-ish. This setting may need further adapting so look out for more adjusted matrices soon – and please give us feedback.

The 444 matrix set could also be good for green screen work – assuming, of course, that it still results in QP values of 16-18. Although this matrix is mainly directed at longer GOP's even the Intra based settings at mid to tight scene shots should produce exceptional results (as far as our tests go). The only problem we foresee with the Intra setting with these '444 matrices' is if there is a lot of detail and not enough light the range of Q values will vary greatly - beyond +-4 (the bitrate required to make Intra fully utilise this matrix would be greater than 250M). With Cluster's Long GOP implementation, prediction sampling affords us to use lower bitrate to achieve the same quality as top-end Intra.

The initial design of the Chris Brandin's matrices were intended for 1080p24 modes only but we've provided similar matrix versions in HBR/FSH and 720p patches anyway to see how people receive / perceive them. You will see that the encoder settings of all the 'Apocalypse Now' releases have been fine-tuned or rewritten from the ground up - including detailed analysis of data rate bandwidth, Rate Control, GOP weighting, etc - to bring even better performance.

The Cluster v7 '444 Sharp' releases have been tested under iA and iDynamic on their top settings - if you are of the consensus that you DO NOT require intelligent modes iA/iDynamic, we have decided to offer you additional 'AN' settings that make use of this bandwidth in the basic encoding patches and provide stronger GOP weighting - at the risk of failure in Intelligent modes.

The second Chris Brandin defined matrix, 'cbrandin Cinema Smooth' will be incorporated inside forthcoming Apocalypse Now settings. Details and info TBA.

We hope that you like these settings, a great deal of time and effort has gone into making what could be the last in the line of GH2 hacks with the announcement of the GH3 in the pipeline. Finally, a HUGE thanks to our team of Apocalypse Now beta testers for putting in the hours and testing dutifully.

Thank you guys,

cbrandin, driftwood & bkmcwd

CREDITS

These settings are dedicated to VK @Vitaliy_Kiselev and to all GH2 hack users. Long Live the GH2!

IF YOU DOWNLOAD THESE SETTINGS PLEASE PAYPAL DONATE (ABOVE) TO VITALIY FOR HIS BRILLIANT & TIRELESS WORK ON GIVING US THE HACK & PATCH TOOLS TO MAKE THESE POSSIBLE.

UPDATE: NEW EXPERIMENTAL SETTINGS CAN BE FOUND ON THE DRIFTWOOD EXPERIMENTAL THREAD 2

driftwood

Apocalypse Now - Intra Settings

1. Apocalypse Now 'Intravenus' v1 Settings

Intra GOP1 24p & HBR/FSH + 6 GOP 720p Modes - Released 29//09/2012

Another experimental setting. Intra on GH2 for those who require 24/25/30 keyframes per second. The GH2 is just about strong enough for decent Intra quality mid to closeup style shots using matrices based on Chris Brandin's matrices - the 24p is the 444 soft matrix as seen in Custer v7s. The HBR/1080i matrix is an adapted variation of my own, the 720p mode is a slighty stronger weighted version of Cluster v7s 6 GOP 720 using cb's matrix 444 soft. Some of the work ideas gone into Intravenus will appear in Cluster v8 flavours coming soon whereby using a mid to longer GOP users will achieve better Q.

With 1080i/HBR REC modes, Intra's consummation of max memory limits Intra prediction of the lower field together with its insistence of using part 16x16 macroblocks for horizontal lines under hi frequencies in the lower field (most of it is P mode encoded) - its very difficult to get under control and once again I confer that matrix design is a black art. The matrix has to be compensated for this to stop mosquito / contour artefacts. The first version of Intravenus looks at this compensation but drives the bitrate upto around 117M in certain scenes. Subsequently, analysis of the hi frequency range has led to better looking Intra 25p/30p than in past Intra settings - but it's still not exceptional - indeed I am yet to see ANY setting that blows me away for HBR modes. The GH3 with its 8x8 macrobocks alongside 4x4s will improve the problem considerably.

2. Apocalypse Now 'Boom!' - Intra GOP1 24p Flat 4 matrix experiment. Works very well for Mid Shots/Close Ups. Out now for trial 24p REC Mode - this setting has NOT been setup for HBR/FSH or 720p despite what patch adjustments you find inside.

FYI This is a completely different matrix than Chris Brandins. Instead, lets see how far we can push the GH2 and its matrix sharpening. Lets reverse the 'Soft machine' and take a look at how a Flat 4 (All 4s in the matrix) records on a GH2. This has been tested at close-up skintones and mid to tight shots and is very very sharp on a typical soft lens like a Nokton 25mm f0.95. I would probably not recommend this for wider shots or for pany lenses. More notes when I get home from vacation.

driftwood

Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now - Nebula' 6 GOP Settings

Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' - 6 GOP Nebula with cbrandin/driftwood '444 Sharp2' matrix- Seti.ini - Released 28/08/2012

A balanced matrix aimed at both manual and sharp Pany lenses (ie a combination of 'cbrandin 444 Soft' Matrix meets Driftwood's Sharper-tuned matrix).

Superb-looking simulated 444 sharper matrix from cbrandin & driftwood
Upto 90M for Top Quality 1080p24 at Q16
Upto 50/60M for Top quality HBR/FSH & 720p modes
Extremely reliable top performance in AVCHD 24H, HBR, FSH, SH, and MJPEG modes
Fully working iA and iDynamic modes if you require them at top settings
Beautiful 6 GOP bringing short GOP style detail & movement-rendition with the benefits of lower bandwidth-consuming Long GOP (ie it sits in the middle!)
smooth de-macroblocking - ie Flowing water looks magnificent., Night stuff looks great.
Bush of Death / Death chart tested.
Wonderful Pasadena Pulse Audio Patch V2 B2, by Per Lichtman
Top quality 2K mjpeg Mode in HD
In-camera playback
Tested by upto 20 'AN' beta testers.

Spanning - As ever, sometimes it will/sometimes it won't.

Driftwood Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' - 6 GOP Nebula '444 Soft' matrix - Setd.ini - Released 28/08/2012

Setting details are as above except this is the original soft 'cbrandin 444 Soft' Matrix version targetted at Pany lenses.

driftwood

Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now - DREWnet' 12/15 GOP Settings

Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' 12/15 GOP (DREWnet) with cbrandin '444 Soft Matrix' setf.ini - Released 28/08/2012

Includes;-

Superb looking simulated 444 soft matrix from cbrandin for sharp lenses
Upto 80+M for Top Quality 1080p24 at Q15
Upto 40/56M for quality HBR/FSH & 720p modes at Q15
Extremely reliable top performance in AVCHD 24H, HBR, FSH, SH, and MJPEG modes
iA and iDynamic modes should work at top settings
Conservative yet powerful 12/15 classic Long GOP structure for most good SD cards
smooth de-macroblocking - ie Flowing water looks superb and Night stuff looks great
Bush of Death / Death chart tested
Wonderful Pasadena Pulse Audio Patch V2 B2, by Per Lichtman
Top quality 2K mjpeg Mode in HD
In-camera playback
Spanniing should work
Tested by upto 20 'AN' beta testers

Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now' 12/15 GOP (DREWnet) with cbrandin/driftwood '444 Sharp2 Matrix' setc.ini - Released 28/08/2012

As above setting except employing a sharpened 444 matrix as adjusted by Driftwood targetted for soft/manual lenses.

driftwood

The Matrix

Q. What makes a matrix? Coming...

Q. How we constructed the Apocalypse Now Matrices for the GH2

Answers up soon!

driftwood

reserved for up and coming footage and stuff...

Driftwood Tips of the Week

If by chance you can't seem to playback your Cluster files in-camera, switch off, switch back on, press the play button and everything should be back.
'My Apocalypse Now recordings won't playback in-camera?' For some hi-bitrate recordings what do you expect?! The decoder inside the GH2 is rather limited; inadequate memory, buffers, etc... and playing back these settings where recordings are hitting the settings' peaks will cause playback issues if it runs out of steam. Sometimes its a case of doing what is mentioned in the top tip. But better to bring along a decent specced laptop on set and copy over the sdcard's private folder over to the hard disk and watch the mts files playback thru a decent piece of software like 'Movist' on the Mac or WMP with 'k-lite codec' pack installed on the PC. The most important thing to remember is that there should be nothing wrong with your recordings.
Don't forget to record a small recording after a long recording on a 64Gb 95mb/s extreme pro card as sometimes its file name handling gets confused. Doing so will enable you to continue using the card for further recordings.

bkmcwd

Valkyrie 'Apocalypse Now' 3 GOP Settings

NEW!!!

"TYPE-ZERO1" released previously was not good in other than 24p. And, previous TYPE-ZERO2 "Candidates1-5" are sometimes not good in IQ or stability. Therefore, I further improved C1 and made Candidate1.3. setting. Probably in this C1.3, the finest noise in candidates of TYPE-ZERO2 will be reproduced.

bkmcwd Valkyrie 444 TYPE-ZERO2 Candidate1.3 'Apocalypse Now' with cbrandin 'Pure Original 444 Matrix' and 'Modified 444 Matrix' - Seta.ini - Released 25/09/2012

Latest Valkyrie is this. Please try this TYPE-ZERO2 Candidate1.3 first! :-)

http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/88237#Comment_88237

While improving, I am going to develop this in my thread so that it may not become the obstacle of Nick. :-)

bkmcwd Valkyrie 444 TYPE-ZERO1 'Apocalypse Now' with cbrandin 'Pure Original 444 Matrix' - Setc.ini - Released 06/09/2012

*I am sorry to make it get confused, because I was mistaken in the matrix. :-(

Since "TYPE-ZERO" released previously was not with an original matrix of Chris strictly, I remade another setting as "TYPE-ZERO1" with the pure original matrix of Chris anew.

Warning! : in this "TYPE-ZERO1" setting, all the modes of AVCHD other than 24p are experimental.

Please keep in mind that artifacts often appears in HBR, 1080i and 720p in spite of being very stable.

!!! The improved version is "TYPE-ZERO2" at upper link place. !!!

Superb-looking simulated 444 matrix from cbrandin
Upto 140M for Top Quality 1080p24 at Q18
Upto 140M for Top Quality 1080p30 at Q18 in 24L mode with 80% Slow-Motion Mode (No Sound)
Upto 75M for HBR/FSH & 720/50p modes (Experimental)
Upto 55M for 720/60p modes (Experimental)
Extremely reliable top performance in AVCHD 24H and 24L
80% Slow-Motion is available in 24L only
Fully working iA and iDynamic modes if you require them
Beautiful 3 GOP bringing short GOP style detail & movement-rendition in 24p
Bush of Death / Death chart tested.
Wonderful Pasadena Pulse Audio Patch V2 B2, by Per Lichtman
Top quality 2K mjpeg Mode in HD by Nick Driftwood
In camera playback is sometimes not available in 24p. In other mode, available after reboot the camera.

bkmcwd Valkyrie 444 TYPE-ZERO 'Apocalypse Now' with cbrandin/driftwood 'Original 444 Matrix' - Setc.ini - Released 30/08/2012

bkmcwd Valkyrie 'Apocalypse Now' with cbrandin '444 Soft Matrix' - Setd.ini - Released 01/09/2012

Superb-looking simulated 444 matrix from cbrandin & driftwood
Upto 110M for Top Quality 1080p24 at Q16
Upto 75M for Top quality HBR/FSH & 720/50p modes
Upto 55M for Top quality 720/60p modes
Extremely reliable top performance in AVCHD 24H, HBR, FSH, FH, SH, H and MJPEG modes
Fully working iA and iDynamic modes if you require them at top settings
Beautiful 3 GOP bringing short GOP style detail & movement-rendition
6 GOP in 720/50p and 9GOP in 720/60p also bringing short GOP style detail & movement-rendition
Bush of Death / Death chart tested.
Wonderful Pasadena Pulse Audio Patch V2 B2, by Per Lichtman
Top quality 2K mjpeg Mode in HD
In camera playback is sometimes not available in 24p. In other mode, available after reboot the camera.

I am sorry! The 2nd is not the right setting although I have uploaded two "Valkyrie 'Apocalypse Now' with cbrandin '444 Soft Matrix'" accidentally. Please download the right zip files.

1st : Valkyrie 444 TYPE-ZERO

2nd : Wrong zip

3rd : Valkyrie 444 Soft Matrix

4th : Valkyrie 444 TYPE-ZERO1

Latest Valkyrie is this. Please try this TYPE-ZERO2 Candidate1.3 first! :-)

http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/88237#Comment_88237

kazuo

can't wait. Anything that can simulate 444 on h264 will be most welcomed

oscillian

Q. What is the Matrix?

Those must be red pills and blue pills battling it out in the thumbnail!

Sangye

Apocalypse Now 444 IV: Game-changer? I expect so.

rajamalik

What is Intra Venus??? Apocalypse???

Lambo

I'm very excited

matthewcarr

A triforce of sensor sorcerers converge!

mozes

Damn, i thought, finally there is it! .................

heradicattor

fucking shit this is amazing!

maddx1930

almost 50min record time with sharp! with 32gb sd :) haven't loaded any footage in the puter yet. but looks great in camera! thanks @driftwood @cbrandin, @bkmcwd and @Vitaliy_Kiselev for all the hard work! out to test! :)

plasmasmp

Excited to test it!

plasmasmp

Blue channel noise is much improved testing side by side with Canis Majoris. Quick test image below - before and after swapping firmware (blue channel only.)

chazzmoe

Never tried one of the "soft" type settings before. Gave it a shot with "444 soft" , looks nice even with an old nikon 50 1.4 lens. Still very sharp and detailed but does have that organic/natural look on edges just from what I can see jacking around.

shian

RE: IntraVenus - I noticed that while the data rate is reduced, it still eats more card space than some of the higher bit rate hacks like Qv9B, is that the tweaking to the matrix? Also it's softer BUT that softness lends it to a more film like quality.

driftwood

Hi @shian, Yes, but please keep all IntraVenus info to the beta convo for now as its stiill being tuned :-)

artiswar

@driftwood - Incredibly excited. Shooting a festival script on this shortly, hopefully.

shian

my bad - but i noticed same things with Apocalypse Now.

rajamalik

@Shian Good to hear,. but beta testers are not supposed to share these with others until release.

Xenocide38

This sounds fantastic. Will do some testing shortly...

shian

like I said, I mistakenly thought IV was the new codename for Apocalypse Now, and that this was common knowledge, thus making this the appropriate thread.

So again, my bad, I'll name my first child Driftwood and then sacrifice him on high, to satisfy the gods.... Why don't you give me a nice papercut, and pour lemon juice on it.... :P

Introduction

Apocalypse Now - Intra Settings

Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now - Nebula' 6 GOP Settings

Cluster v7 'Apocalypse Now - DREWnet' 12/15 GOP Settings

The Matrix

Valkyrie 'Apocalypse Now' 3 GOP Settings

Howdy, Stranger!

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