Hacked Panasonic GH2 vs Hacked GH1 @ 1080p and 720p

 

 

 

 

Here is my first preliminary test comparing the hacked GH2 vs the GH1. The GH2 was using the following settings

Ptool 3.61D
720p SH mode
48mb high
35mb low
GOP 15

This is not a recommended setting, but has been working just fine for me producing 720p footage with average bitrates over 40mb a second with out causing any errors on PNY cards.

1080p mode
44mb high
35mb low

 

Just a slightly higher bitrate than Vitality’s recommended settings. Again, Vitality is stressing not to mess with the GOP right now, as I did with 720p, so do so at your own risk.

The GH1 was using lpowell’s 75mb high reliability patch

Both cameras used the same lens, same f-stop WB kelvin and shutter settings. The GH1 was used at 100iso and the GH2 at 160iso accounting for the difference in ISO ratings between the cameras.

GH2 Hack – 720p upgraded to 28mb with B-frames

Thanks to mpgsvcd in this thread: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/335/ptool-3.60d-gh2-avchd-encoder-settings/p1 We now have a greatly improved 720p mode for the GH2, and the first useful bitrate hack for the camera. Play the video below in “Original” quality on youtube to take a look at how the windmill motion is captured. For the most part, this will remove the macro blocking that was evident in this mode due to the low bitrate before the hack.

 

 

 

 
Here is a capture of the actual datastream of the windmill shot.