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How can I tell if my GH1 is hacked?

rrobinson54

New member
I am not into video, but I recently bought a used GH1 that the was hacked. How do I confirm that the camera was hacked? The serial number on the camera is FS0EA001065 and the camera shows 0.0 firmware. Is there a way to tell if it was in fact hacked for video?

Thanks!
 

slau

New member
Showing a body firmware of 0.0 is an indicator of a hacked GH1 for sure.

From checking the data rate during the .MTS video file playback, you can also tell if the camera is hacked or not: higher than ~17 Mbps can only from a hacked GH1. As an Apple user, I read the data rate with ToastVideo Player (Toast 10). Not sure which Windows program can provide the data rate during playback.
 

MRfanny

New member
if your not inclined to learn how to hack the camera and repatch it with settings you know, go out and film a very complex scene on a tripod static, then do some pans, and as stephen said check media info on playback of original mts files to see peak bitrate. Another good test is to shoot in 720 and reduce shutter down to say 1/30th. if bitrate is low and the footage looks terrible, it means you have a patch that is set up for 35Mb or higher capture.

or you can simply ask the seller what settings he applied.
 

rrobinson54

New member
Are there any experts on doing a hack on GH1 cameras that could check my camera and make sure it has been hacked properly? Dumb question - is it difficult to hack the GH1?
 

pcb_dpi

New member
As was posted earlier, your camera has been hacked, since it shows firmware 0.0, which is only possible for a hacked camera.

Hacking isn't difficult, but it can seem complex if you're not well-versed in video technology. Hacking allows changing many variables, and if you didn't hack it yourself you can't check which variables and values have been changed by just looking through the camera menus. As others have said, you'll need to shoot some video and dissect the output to check your camera's hacked settings.

With current tools the GH1 can be hacked repeatedly, and there's no single hack. There are folks who dedicate several SD cards to different hacks, re-flashing the firmware depending on what they're shooting. Highest framerate hack, highest stable framerate hack, best lowlight video hack, etc. Resetting the firmware version to 0.0 each time made that practical.

The home of GH1 hacking is here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?206-GH13-The-GH1-Firmware-Hack

If the link doesn't work, go to dvxuser.com, then look at the HDSLR forums. Drill down a couple levels for the GH13 Hack forum.

I doubt you'll find "an expert willing to check your camera for proper hacking." There is no "correct" hack, and though it's possible to choose variables that cause instability, as long as your camera shoots video without dropping frames or hanging up, you probably don't have anything to worry about. If you want to know more, dive into the GH13 forum on dvxuser.

If you're looking for help there, your best bet might be to take some time to learn about the hacking process before asking for help. Check out the FAQ fer sure. Everybody there is self-taught, and I don't see a lot of patience for the: "I'm a newbie, I haven't spent any of my own time trying to figure anything out, please spend your time to bring me up to speed" approach.

IMHO, if you're not a serious videographer and don't have a thorough understanding of the settings/variables involved, there's not much benefit to hacking. It does allow better video output and much more setting control, but if you're only a casual video user you may not see any meaningful difference in output.

I hacked my GH1 because it was possible and I thought it'd be cool, but I shoot very little video, and I'm pretty clueless about all the technology. I didn't hurt anything, but I still shoot very little video and couldn't swear my video output is any better post-hack. I don't really know what I'm looking at, or what to look for. Mostly I learned just how little I know about video. Makes still photography look like child's play.

But have fun with the GH1, it's a great cam!

Are there any experts on doing a hack on GH1 cameras that could check my camera and make sure it has been hacked properly? Dumb question - is it difficult to hack the GH1?
 

MRfanny

New member
agreed, if you are not super serious about video, the camera shoots amazing footage as is. you will know when you need to hack once you start noticing codec breakup with your eyes. Have you asked the previous owner what they hacked it to yet? That will answer alot of questions.

The hack in a whole addresses the issue of codec breakup on highly detailed scenes like walking through a park with lots of trees, grass, leaves, flowers. If you were to surprise the camera by moving or panning suddenly, all the glorious detail will turn into macro blocky "mud" as the codec catches up with the scene. Paparazzi flashes going off in scene is another good test for codec breakup. The hack ups the standard bitrate from 17Mbit to at present a possible 70Mbit fairly stable setting. This gives the codec enough room to cope with those sudden changes maintaining quality throughout. Keep in mind the codec is variable so it will only use what it feels is required, so if you are shooting low light or super shallow DOF it may only require 10Mbits. So don't get caught up in the more Mb the better.

a safe patch is the 32Mbit hack that in my mind is a no brainer all rounder, i think this will suit you well until you think you need more. no fear of write speed errors, being able to shoot below 1/50 1/60 in 720p without codec degradation.

To answer your question if its difficult to hack, no. I personally think its quite a logical process and the program used to do it is very well set out. If you follow all the steps its quite straight forward.
 

Tesselator

New member
Are there any experts on doing a hack on GH1 cameras that could check my camera and make sure it has been hacked properly? Dumb question - is it difficult to hack the GH1?
I wrote the manual for the hack so I know a little about it. Fist let me clear up some misinformation however. The GH1's video on it's own is NOT good and really rather poor to anyone who knows what they're looking at - it's among the worst compared to all other competing DSLRs. That's without the hack. With the hack it rates at about #4 in rank among others - 8 or 9 months ago. Since then several cameras have appeared that lower the GH1+Hack in that position rank. I dunno exactly right now but I believe it's #6 - and that's still above the GH2 - which is not and never will be hackable.

OK, with that out of the way basically the goal of the hack as it concerns video is to increase the bitrate high enough that the compression (which is quite bad on the GH1 unhacked) doesn't destroy fine detail and the other aspects of of IQ that high compression imposes. The trouble in tuning this bitrate comes from the fact that the memory-card and card-bus are limited in throughput I/O capabilities. To optimize this environmental the most you can do as a user is find out which are the very fastest cards in your camera and use them exclusively - and then use bitrates that are close to that maximum.

Setting higher bitrate limits via the PTool patcher sets the least amount of compression the camera is "allowed" to record at. So, when there's more detail or difference per frame the camera can use the higher programed limits of the newly allowed bandwidth or throughput. It /can/ record more data and therefor more information per frame, per block, and per second of video. The result is that you get a very improved recording.

How much improved is it? Well if you're editing using keying techniques (chroma-key: blue/red/green/yellow screening keys, luminance keying etc.) or layering and etc. it becomes extremely obvious! To the point where very often the unhacked GH1's footage is simply unusable for achieving a high quality result. On the other hand if all you're doing is watching cuts-only edited clips or uploading to youtube you likely will not see any differences. So it really depends on what you're doing!

If for example, you own Eyeon's Fusion, Adobe's After Effects, or are even incorporating video in a project done with a product like Lightwave 3D (which I'm personally biased toward having written parts of it! :)) then you will definitely want to maximize your camera's video abilities!

So where to start? Well every camera and every card may be a little different due to sample variation and every card/camera combination is also different. The later can be radically different. So, you need to understand basically what you're trying to achieve (which I just summarized above) and then through trail and error come up with settings that work the best with your system. You need to ask a few questions like do you need the camera to be able to play it back or only be able to record it? And etc. I can't cover everything here as there's too many variables but it's not that difficult. It's just some time spent reading. Here's some threads to start with:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?215511-PTool-settings-sharing-thread
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?212263-Ptool-for-beginners-Ptool-FAQ
http://www.gh1-hack.info/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.ShootingMoviesWithHackOnVeryTightBudget
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?220875-Shooting-with-hack-on-a-very-tight-budget
And an early version of the manual
The actual steps to apply the hack

Be careful what you believe as far as settings, resulting quality, and recommended equipment goes tho because there are A LOT of self appointed experts out there who just don't know what they're talking about! Stay mostly inside the DVX-USER site and mostly only threads where one of the mods is participating - especially Vitaliy.

Have fun and if you have any questions about video, settings, and etc. I recommend you ask them there.
 
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