These are the most extreme 1080 24P 3 GOP settings I have tested that produce an amazing, filmic image while still managing to playback in cam, computer and ingest into an NLE (still has 10 frame glitch in beginning of clip):

Video Bitrate 24H=65000000
1080i50 and 1080p24 GOP Size=3
Video buffer=0x3000000
Video buffer 24p=0x3600000
1080p24 High Top Setting=42418
1080p24 High Bottom Setting=29692
1080p24 Low Top Setting=31178
1080p24 Low Bottom Setting=21824

(PAL users wanting to shoot 1080i/50 may need to add the following as the above settings force pal 1080i GOP to 3:
Video Bitrate FSH/SH=42000000
Video Bitrate FH/H=35000000

@EOSHD

Luck. I just multiplied the defaults x 2 and kept hiking up the 24H video bitrate until it capped. A 3x multiplier didn't work and a 2.2x didn't change the result so I stopped at 2x. The GOP 3 I've been using for months with 1080 24P Native on the GH1 getting about 48mb/s and very filmic footage. But the GH1 at that setting wasn't stable on death charts, grass or trees. The GH2 is AND at a much higher Mb/s.

@svart

Thanks. I'm liking them better too. Just really raised the Video Bitrate 24H to 65 mill and dumped all the testers bitrate settings per Vitaliy's guidance. If you want to use other modes besides 24p without lockups I've attached the full (without MPEG) settings here. I think when you're finished with the death cat, real world, handheld, heavy motion footage will impress.

Also, per your post (I think) I decided to turn off b frames and tested the exact same settings so the GOP ended up being an I frame and 2 P frames rather than an I frame and 2 Bs. The Bs seemed to look better. I'll wait for a codec guru to enlighten me as to why.

EDIT: Some testers have had problems in other modes with this. IF you do add in:

Video Bitrate FSH/SH=42000000
Video Bitrate FH/H=35000000

And set all GOP settings back to default EXCEPT for 1080i/50_24P which should be kept to GOP 3.

Also make sure you use a RELIABLE PROVEN Class 10 card and reformat before trying.

have you shot anything with these settings yet? can you send a link/embed?

@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).

@OSGondar, I'm in a similar boat -- keep us posted on your experiments. I'm going to play around with this this weekend and see what the best quality I can get in the 20 minute range is -- should be able to get it up there though, cuz at GH2s factory settings I once shot a 2 hour, 15 minute interview without a problem (either shooting or getting it into AVID). I still have that file actually -- should check if it was 4 gigs or less to see if that is the limit (good hypothesis though).

Long term I probably plan to just have two 1 gig SD cards with different firmwares on them so I can switch up in the field if need be. I do really enjoy Kae's settings -- was just panning to follow cars coming off the freeway last night, and shooting some static stuff hand held, and the movement was so much better while the handheld static stuff had no jello wiggle at all, which I was getting with the non gop3 settings. @kae Thanks again!

@OSGondar

I think this is a great solution and I never really played with any of the lower quality settings. The ideal for this cam for me would be the 1080 24P hi-rez 65M (especially if we could figure out how to get it to span) a lower rez 1080 24P like you guys are talking about, same for 1080i and 720p modes, lpowell's extreme MPEG mode and then a high performance WVGA mode that would give us high bitrate 16:9 SD 30P capability. Then all modes are covered in one $900 machine except 25P :-(

@Butt Who said it had to be final today? For myself and the other poster its because the camera isnt a toy that's gonna sit there while we figure out the hack. Its a tool we use for work nearly every single day. I'm not in a RUSH for perfect settings but i do have to have "THE" setting i can use or safely default to while i play with something in development. The same is probably true for anyone using the GH2 professionally. You cant just carry around only experimental settings into your next gig... you need something secure / dependable on you. And ideally that setting is the best you can out of the hardware at the moment, The last thing i want to do is stress out during a gig about whether or not its gonna crash or if the footage will be usable or if i'm going to ruin the job, not get paid, not pay this or that bill etc etc.

We want to take advantage of the hardware on the shoot we have tomorrow or the day after not 6 months from now... Ideally all of this chit chat gets us there faster than 6 months down the road.THAT's WHY. If you can wait 6 months to use its potential then fine chill out, never mind us working on it until then. But certainly don't say something like "why the rush" that's ridiculous. Even if you're just a hobbyist.. 6 months? That's an incredible amount of work ill have gotten done and didn't use better settings for if i had your attitude. Comments like yours kind of baffle me.

@Butt i sort of get your opinion but I am finding 65mbs in 24H to be stable already and i really like it, i just want slightly longer run time. My 48mbs setting in 24L is so far so good and everyone already agrees 48mbs is a great run time for the quality setting. Figuring out my particular combination for having both will be perfect for a lot of people and everyone on board with this idea is far from confused. I don't see why it would be confusing to add this to the stable settings especially since this idea has potential to be the new standard for a good portion of us. Its not that far from being done either considering @Kae got it right with the 65mbs so far. I am tweaking already good settings.

Many people will really need / love this combination! its not like we are just pushing things for the sake of testing, this is with clear practical use in mind, ie my next job this week!, and its 80% or more of the way there.

@Butt um... The file untouched at 65mbs records and played back perfect for me before i started tweaking. So i dunno why you think they don't play. THEY DO, perfectly. The only thing that has not played back for me is higher bit rate in audio but 65mbs for me is ok.

Edit: you are probably right about little to no difference however, But for me both play back in camera.

Edit 2: Maybe its your card? what are you using? I am on a SanDisk Extereme 30MB/s read write 32gig class 10

@Butt

@Kae Posted his file below look for where it says this:

"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"

The file is directly below this. Its the Ninth or tenth in this thread and his last post on here.

For me above settings plays back fine in camera even with peaking closer to 70mbs when reviwed in stream paser. I used those settings but right now i have tweaked the 24L to 48000000 instead of 35mbs and testing other stuff.

@Butt for me, his settings play back just fine in camera. Yes. By the way i like your settings for 60mbs as well from before its just that i am also interested in how much we can push the camera.

@Butt
'65MBit: incam-Play is not possible!!!'

Butt, this is simply not true. The true statement may be 'playback not possible for me'. I use these settings daily and with the only exception being the death chart, the 65mb/s playback in cam fine. But I only test with these settings for the 65MB/s:

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 have other settings loaded and checked it may screw up playback or your card may not be a great card. I don't think it's helpful at all to make BLANKET statements on ANYBODY's settings. I think it's only fair to make statements about what is occurring for you with those settings.


also --

"There is no difference in image quality between 60 and 65MBit: Why should we use unstable 65MBit?"

Prove this for me please, I am open. What are you basing this on, your own eyes or some kind of test?