Canon HF G30 Cinema Mode

[Dave Baker]

Update

I just found this on the Nvidia forum and judging from the number of complaints, this is a very common problem

I just got a $2200 MSI laptop (GS73 Stealth Pro 4K) with a "gorgeous" and "calibrated" IPS panel, GTX1060 and, of course, the banding is so heavy that the laptop is unusable. Even the default MSI desktop background shows wide bands of various grays instead of a gradient, every Youtube video is screwed, I tried:
- installing a fresh copy of Windows 10
- installing Ubuntu
- installing various versions of Nvidia and Intel graphics drivers
- booting into the safest possible mode
Nothing, the banding is the same, visible even in natural images (on each sky)

Strangely enough, knowing I'm not the only one is not particularly comforting!

Someone has posted a possible fix entailing the contrast setting. The trouble is, if I install the driver and this doesn't work, I've got another few hours work to put it right again.

Edit: I did try it, it doesn't work. Odd that it works better with the Linux driver than the Nvidia one.

[Bryan Worsley]

Does changing the dithering 'depth' in the NVIDIA settings utility help at all ? As per:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/5957...drivers-gt750m

[Dave Baker]

In a word, no. I tried that before, although not for the right reason, then.

Looking closely at the offending footage, there is a lot of noise in the sky which just isn't there in MM footage. I will have to compare similar clips shot in Mediterranean conditions in both modes to see what the difference is, but I doubt I will be shooting in Cinema Mode in those conditions again. Whether I shall ever use it again I can't say, but the option is there now the problem has been discovered.

[Bryan Worsley]

Originally Posted by Dave Baker

In a word, no. I tried that before, although not for the right reason, then.

Thought you probably had.

[Dave Baker]

For some reason, any colour control settings I make in the Nvidia settings window and confirm, do not hold and there is a warning that colour settings are made elsewhere, meaning the KDE Display settings. Neither Dithering nor Contrast (Nvidia window, they are not in the KDE settings) made any tangible difference.

By way of an update, I had some other display problems and had to re-enable the graphics card in BIOS. I found some similar shots to the ones that show banding on the laptop display, all shot in Manual Mode, from old projects. As I have found a quicker way to install or remove the Nvidia driver, involving a reboot each time, I reinstalled it and examined the footage. There is banding showing in all of them, although not quite as bad. Remove the driver, gone!

Something I forgot to mention, when I install the Nvidia driver all fonts increase in size by several points. There are times I wish I'd stuck to my older, slower tower.:-(

[Bryan Worsley]

As I understand, the principal reason why the proprietary NVIDIA driver is 'recommended' is because it accesses the full OpenGL functionality of the card, which may be required by Linux applications that use OpenGL extensively and/or to run certain Windows applications on Wine.

If the NVIDIA driver is proving so problematic and you don't notice impaired performance or functionality (otherwise) with the Linux applications you are running (KDenLive, Cinelerra etc), why not stick with the Nouveau driver ?

[Dave Baker]

If the NVIDIA driver is proving so problematic and you don't notice impaired performance or functionality (otherwise) with the Linux applications you are running (KDenLive, Cinelerra etc), why not stick with the Nouveau driver ?

That's what I'm doing. I've only re-installed the Nvidia driver to do some tests, removing it afterwards each time.

I've abandoned Kdenlive, Cinelerra is doing what I want it to. It can be set to use OpenGL, how I run it, but I have seen no performance hit without the Nvidia driver.

I normally use the laptop hooked up to an external display and the banding doesn't show up on it, suggesting what Don says about laptop displays is correct. The only reason I'm fighting this is because I want to do some laptop editing when away from home, as I said. I'm just so pleased it isn't the camera.

[Don Palomaki]

The sort of good (glass is half full) news is that you can do a lot of basic editing even with the funky displays in the laptop. You just have to find a good system display for the finer work like color grading.

[Dave Baker]

Where I finish up is, I must have the Nvidia driver installed in order to get the external display to work when plugged in (HDMI) and also to control the laptop screen when the lid is closed (as it needs to be when using the external display or it gets in the way), otherwise when re-opened it stays blank. Now I know how to relatively quickly install or remove the driver, it's a simple job to remove it if I wish to edit using the laptop screen when away.

Knowing there is nothing amiss with the camera other than the extra noise in Cinema Mode, I think I have a relatively good outcome. Thanks all!

[Dave Baker]

I thought I would resurrect this thread to give you an update.

Having been playing with the offending clips for the last few weeks, sad I know, I just couldn't get a satisfactory result. As my other laptop has a similar specification, bought to be able to edit video if my old PC died, I decided to swap them over. While it also has an Nvidia GPU (GTX 960M) it can output to an external monitor without the Nvidia driver installed.

The reason I persisted is, while in Tenerife a short while ago I took the opportunity to shoot some varied test shots side by side, in Manual Mode with various settings and customised Cinema Mode Standard. On the whole I preferred the finished CM clips. So, if I could sort out those difficult clips, easy ones should be no problem.

After the swap I can get very satisfactory results from (what used to be) the problem clips. Now I can see things clearly I find if I change the effects I use for CC in Cinelerra and change my modus operandi a little, things improve a lot.

Once again, thanks for your help.