I know the GH2 hack topic has been discussed extensively on this forum and thanks to @driftwood for the great work, but as a noob I was hoping someone can help break down some of the benefits of the following Hacks that seem to be very popular. I want to get the best quality video and stills possible without compromising stability.

From my research these seem to be some of the most popular hacks out there: TerraQuake, Mysteron, Sedna, Quantum...

My main reason for purchasing the camera is to shoot a music video in the park. Lots of greens and earthy colors during the daytime. Yet I want to create my own versatile Cam for great video and stills while being stable.

Not sure if any of the patches I mention can produce stunning images and video in this setting. Would that same patch be good for shooting low light indoor settings? Also, maybe a silly question but do these hacks work with video and stills?

Quantum 9b looks like it does great with lowlight:

Please keep in mind I will be using a 64 GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Flash Memory Card 95MB/s.

I found this link very useful, for noobs attempting to hack their GH2: http://www.sam-mallery.com/2011/11/an-ez-guide-to-hacking-the-panasonic-gh2/

I'm looking for experienced filmographers who can direct me accordingly - pros and cons.

Any help would be extremely appreciated and help relief a lot of anxiety accompanying this process ; )

Thank you all!!

Attention, noob questions ahead !

I would like to know a few things : - Which is the smoothest hack on the GH2 ? (All the detail, no macro-blocking) - What does "Intra" or "AVC-Intraa" mean ? - What is Auto Quantitizer ? I'm not sure if a higher number means a better image (lower compression) or it's the inverse. What is better, AQ0 (all to motion), or AQ4 (all to details) ? - What does GOP stand for, and there is "Low-GOP", but then does that mean there's "high GOP" ? What are 12/15 GOP, 3 GOP and 6 GOP ? - What are P-frames, B-frames... ? - What is "Matrix" and "444 Matrix" ? - On some settings there's written "14-16 QP", or "QP16". What does QP mean ?

I've not seen much smooth looking GH2 videos on Youtube (unlike the canon videos), lots of them have a lot of macroblocking or whatever and causes the video not to be smooth, and sometimes there are some sort artifacts (I think it's because of the compression or something...). I'm a bit of a pixel-peeper :P Could someone explain me the causes of the un-smoothness, and why are some videos really clean compared to others ?

Example of smooth videos I've found :

PS : Can someone give me the link to download the 244mb/s hack ?

And here on EOSHD there's an article about Intra :

http://www.eoshd.com/content/4452/gh2-gets-avchd-intra-at-176mbit

But I still don't understand the difference between the 176mbit so-called "Intra" hack and any other one ! I'm confused...

Please answer !

Thank You.

Basic Info

Patches For End Users

• E1 >= E2 >= E3 >= E4: http://timelapser.net/about/ says "MJPEG quality settings are a tradeoff between image quality and recording duration. Setting E1 Table: 4 makes a big difference. My understanding is that the E1 Quality/Table setting is used initially and E2/E3/E4 are a fallback if the camera can’t keep up. As we’re only recording at 2fps this is unlikely to be a problem, but I recommend using settings that descend down from your E1 quality setting. E1 Quality: 400 will give you super-high quality jpegs, but only about twenty minutes of recording time at 1080p."

• F1 >= F2 >= F3 >= F4: Prolly similar to the E* family

• Video Bitrate FSH/SH: for 1080i60 FSH and 720p60 SH
• Video Bitrate FH/H: for 1080i60 SH and 720p60 H
• Video Bitrate 24H: for 1080p24 H
• Video Bitrate 24L: for 1080p24 L

Patches For Testers

• Video Bitrate 24H ADD: How is it different from the end user's Video Bitrate 24H setting? @Vitaliy Very different. You can try to use it for testing, but normally you don't need to.
• Overall Bitrate & Bitrate 2: This applies to all video modes? @Vitaliy Yes. It is some time related constant, in fact. Not bitrate. But it can affect bitrate.

• Quantizer tables: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/366/pro-avchd-quantization-process No freaking idea. Maybe @driftwood's post helps.
• Quantizer scaling tables: See @driftwood's post
• Frame buffer size: It covers all modes.
• Encoder frame limit: What?
• Bitrate settings: High Top, High Bottom, Low Top, Low Bottom? Always keep lower bitrate settings within 95-70% of high bitrate settings. Otherwise, you'll see a dramatic bitrate drop in the low modes. There is currently a known drop in bitrate in the first frame set or GOP - known as the blip. Still to find out a definitive answer as to why.

Misc