"Enabling Panasonic GH1 native 24p and higher bitrate recording"

[Dave Eaton]

Haven't tried any of this, just passing it on for anyone interested.

The HDSLR Wiki shows you how to enable 24p native recording and higher AVCHD bit-rates on the Panasonic GH1 without any fuss.

* List of recommended settings
* 24p native footage, no need to unwrap from 60i or use pulldown on NTSC models
* Increase in image quality
* Higher bitrates in AVCHD mode


I have created this page for shooters who want to use the GH1 Custom Firmware and PTools simply and quickly, or for people wanting to test and experiment with the firmware - this is a good starting point. It should also help the guy behind the software to avoid having to answer some of the more basic questions that really annoy him on the forum thread, which is meant to be for development work.

'Tester13' has done some very good work on the GH1 firmware, and having now tried it out for myself I can say that it does work very well. I will be shooting a native 24p video with the experimental higher bitrate settings soon to reveal how much image quality is improved, if at all.

Panasonic's implementation of AVCHD on the GH1 was indeed rather shoddy, and the latest custom firmware release appears to have a fix for 'mud' and allows many adjustments to be made. I am yet to verify that mud is fixed, and existing information just isn't clear enough over whether it does fix the issue or not.

I intend to find out.

One other thing I've put on the Wiki are some 'suggested' settings for the first time user, or shooter who wants to benefit from using the patch and not experiment or test. The Recommended Settings section of the HDSLR Wiki page above has optimised values and some recommended settings to use straight off the bat.

Currently the project appears to be somewhat bogged down in audio tweaks - let's hope they return to the major issues at hand soon - that is, improving image quality and enabling live HDMI out, if possible.

Please be aware that 24p/25p native recording crashes the camera's playback mode. This is hopefully going to be fixed, but in the meantime don't worry as it does not harm the camera and a battery-pull reboots the camera in an instant.

[John Wiley]

I'm still on the original firmware so 3rd party battereis work fine for me anyway. From what I've read they have upped the bit-rate but not yet confirmed if that has increased quality/decreased mud. I'm sure there's plenty of variables going on in the encoding and bit-rate may not be the only determining factor of image quality/mud.

24p MJPEG would actually be helpful to me. I'll be taking my GH1 to Hawaii this surf season and I'll be giving footage to both US and Australian clients. All editing/processing will be done on my laptop so it will save alot of time if I don't have to convert in cineform. The 24p would allow me to give the raw files to other people (US clients) then I'll just have to reconform to 25p for my own editing with a barely perceptible speed change.

It's an exciting time though - hopefully Panasonic will take notice of the effort users are going to to achieve certain features and implement them in future cameras - although they might go the other way and give us none of the features we want but with an un-hackable encrypted firmware!

[Dave Eaton]

I don't have a GH1 anymore, but I found some 3rd party batteries that said "Fully-decoded and 100% compatible with most current firmware version v1.2 or later" with a three year warranty. I bought one and it worked just fine in my GH1. This is their eBay store:

NEW Battery for Panasonic GF1 G1 GH1 DMW-BLB13P​P BLB13E

[Lorry Smyth]

OK so I made the plunge and actually installed the modded firmware that enables higer bitrate and direct 24p recording, ITS AMAZING!!!

This this is night and day, no more conversions needed and 60i to 24p crap... the image is breathtaking. One word of caution you will loose the English Menus totally, all gets reverted to Japanese no matter the language chosen.. I can live with it...

Forget about more conversions and all this crap. This is the real deal...its like having a whole new camera... results are incredible.. Ill shoot some stuff tomorrow and post some videos:)

[Paul Nixon]

Why does the camera revert to Japanese menus? Is the hacked firmware from the Japanese model?

[Lorry Smyth]

No! I may have made a mistake. Today I re-flashed the camera and got my English Menus back so, no worries. Image quality of the GH1 outputting 24p directly from the sensor and at a higher bitrate is simply amazing! The firmware is still under development and you loose video playback on the camera (till that's fixed) but the image quality is simply, night and day... its a whole new GH1... Im thrilled...:)

[Paul Nixon]

Ah, thanks very much. Any chance of some sample clips with the native 24p?

[Gerald Webb]

hey guys, just spent the last 36 hrs "hacking" (lol) my GH1.
I gotta say, the change is massive. I did about 6 different versions b4 I found one that I'll use for a while.
Just running around the backyard filming flowers, grass, pool etc, then playing the card on PC via card reader made me giggle like a kid with an ice cream. this is gr8!
I gave up on the 25p after a couple of attempts when I realised you can get much higher bit rates out of the 50i, I rendered one of these to Cineform 25 p and there was no visual difference anyway.
I wont rave for too long, but one last thing, for anyone that is worried about warranty, the hack tool has an option to install your new firmware as Vers 0.0, so you can always put the factory firmware back on like it had never changed.

On another matter, can anyone suggest a good "bang for your buck" fast lens (f1.8?) and adaptor for the GH1?

[Paulo Teixeira]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/651751-REG/Panasonic_H_H020_Lumix_20mm_f_1_7_Aspheric.html
OK so it seams like it's a bit on the pricy side but it's fully worth it, if you can afford it. It'll be hard to find a lens as sharp, wide and fast at the same time unless money is no option.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/586191-USA/Leica_11_647_21mm_f_1_4_Summilux_M_Aspherical.html

[Gerald Webb]

thanks Paulo
I think the Leica might be a bit out of the park at the moment, lol.
the Lumix 20mm could be a go,
Would there be any advantage to getting that lens over a cheaper Canon lense with an adaptor?
the Canon 50mm f 1.4 lenses are everywhere, are they any good?

[Peter Gjevre]

The advantage of the Panny 1.7 would be the autofocus.

BUT

The big advantage of using a non micro 4/3rds lens such as the Canon with the adapter or a Nikon with adapter is that the electronic crosstalk used by the micro 4/3rd's autofocus mechanism as well as in-lens vignette correction will be minimized with deployment of a 'non-native lens.'

With the GH13 hack on board, you'll, at least in theory, be able to use that recovered processing power to further maximize bit rate.

Additionally, the increased bokeh with Nikon or Canon legacy glass may lead to decreased data requirements in the out of focus areas in shallow DOF shots.

I have the Panny 1.7 as well as a few non-native lenses, but I haven't yet done any formal testing to verify the above hypothesis (actually, I still need to take the plunge and install the hack).

Finally, the panny, while nice in the auto-focus department, is not as smooth or forgiving as a good old Nikon AIS when trying to do follow focus or merely fine tune a shot.

[Antony Michael Wilson]

Does anyone know where I can get the correct 1.3 version firmware to update my 1.2 GH1 firmware? The current Panasonic firmware upgrade locks out the hack and I think you can't roll back - so I need the previous 1.3 firmware update, I think...

Can anyone help with this?

[Gerald Webb]

here is the exact link....
http://www.gh1-hack.info/ptool3d.zip
you will love this, whole new camera.

[Paul Mailath]

I was happy with the original but the hack seems to have minimised/eliminated the 'mud' so I'm even happier.

Gerald! - a local boy - what are you using your GH13 for?

[Gerald Webb]

Hey Paul, I got the GH1 as an extra video cam a few months ago, only because the wife wanted a still camera and I figured I could kill two birds......
I'm just starting out at this stuff (opened a trial of Sony Vegas for the first time about 20 months ago and fell in love with all things video) but the more I play with the GH13 its becoming my fave toy.
ATM I'm enjoying doing the live band stuff and the GH13 will prob replace my HV20 as the mosh shoulder cam, so I can make use of the manual focus and depth of field.
Had a look at your site Paul, really really good. Its great to see people like you making a living out of doing what you obviously love, living the dream, lol.
cheers