Panasonic GH2 42Mbps Firmware Patch Instructions

By Thorsten | Published July 29, 2011

UPDATE: PTool v3.62d Firmware Screenshots and Visual Instructions. Please refer to the new article for updated STEPS 4. Link will open in a new tab for easy comparisons. The new PTool v3.62d adds much better shadow detail and fixes the “blip” or hiccup in the first second of video and is super stable Steps 5-10 below still apply.

Simple instructions with visual aids for applying the Panasonic GH2 42Mbps firmware hack. This firmware hack changes the default Cinema 1080/24p bitrate from 24Mbps to a staggering 42Mbps. The firmware hack, developed by Vitaliy Kiselev, can be found on his personal website. Consider making a small donation to Vitaliy on his website, he spent the last 6 months creating this fabulous firmware update and is generously providing it for free. Damn near Canon 5DMK2 video quality for a fraction of the price.

This firmware hack is not for everyone, especially if you are not technically inclined….be warned. While I wrote these super simplified instructions, please do not ask me for tech support, all you will hear is chirping crickets from me, not trying to be rude….just sayin’ Tech support can be found on Vitaliy’s site, he wrote the software and knows it best.

FAQ regarding the 42Mbps firmware hack

Best uses for indy film videographers and video enthusiasts
This works for the Panasonic GH2 only…period!
Is it stable…yes. I have shot over 4 hours of video with zero issues
Will it “brick” my GH2, not if you follow the directions very carefully
Can I return to the default firmware version…sure, just uncheck the boxes in the patch and your back to default settings
Will my cheap ass class 2, 4 or 6 card work? Eh, why risk frustration and lost footage, I recommend a good Class 10 card, they start at $27
How many gigs do I need? My 16gig card holds 48 minutes of 42Mbps footage. Before the hack, the same card held 1 hour and 30 minutes. So the 42Mbps uses about 50% more space for the same shooting time. This is a good thing folks….nice clean video like the Canon 5DMK2 which shoots at 39-45 Mbps!
How does the video look? At 3200 ISO I see zero grain and noise in the shadows, looks like it was shot at 160 ISO.
This works on NTSC & PAL versions of the GH2. However, the PAL version of the GH2 will remove the 30 minute recording time limit . The only drawback for our European friends is that they loose 25p. PAL cameras will shoot 1080/24p….not 1080/25p. Vitaliy will update this and other features in future releases…so make a donation
I only post stable releases that I have personally tested and verified for commercial video shooting and paid shooting gigs.

OK, all aboard, lets go!

Required Tools and Downloads

PTool Firmware Manipulation Tool v3.61d – download the software tool from this website
GH2 Firmware v1.0E Download – firmware download link
Wine App for Mac Users – allows Mac users to emulate the PTool without installing Windows. Works great on my iMac in Lion OSX….download link
A SDHC card that is formatted in the GH2. This is how we load the new firmware on the GH2. Remember, formatting erases EVERYTHING on the card!

Loading the Software and applying the Patches in 10 Easy Steps

1) Begin with downloading all the tools and place them where you can easily find them. Mac users, be sure to have the Wine App installed to open the PTool Firmware Manipulation Tool. On my iMac, I simply “right click” and “open with Wine App”….simple as that. Another option is Parallels or Windows in Bootcamp. Windows users just open the “ptool3.exe” file.

Panasonic GH2 42Mbps Patch Required Tools and Downloads

2) Same procedure for Windows or Mac…..click load firmware and proceed.

Same for Windows or Mac

Loading Panasonic GH2 1.0E Firmware

3) This third step is REALLY IMPORTANT! Be sure to check the “Version Increment” box and type in 10 in the green type below. Some folks use “1″, but Vitaliy recommended “10″. The purpose of this step is to allow us to revert back to the default Panasonic firmware setting or make additional changes to the firmware patch as they become available. Future releases will allow changes to other features of the camera. Read the yellow toolbar on the top right… additional explanations.

GH2 Firmware Version Increment Setting...this is crucial folks!

4) The GH2 NTSC camera patch differs very slightly from the European GH2 PAL version. PAL cameras need the 30 minute time removal and the 25p – 24p boxes checked. Two images below, first is for NTSC and the second image is for PAL. Obviously one needs to know which camera one bought…yep!

42000000 is the bitrate number that is stable on my camera and many other users have also reported stable video. Yes, some folks use 52000000 or higher, but I shoot for a living with my GH2 and I like stable results and zero F#@&%&. The suggested value by Vitaliy works just perfect

NTSC (USA) GH2 42Mbps firmware patch instructions

PAL (European) GH2 42Mbps Firmware Patch Settings

5) Lets save the firmware patch with a new name. NOTE: The firmware patch has to have the same format as the original name or it will not save or load….see the image below. The important thing is to name it other than “GH2__V10″ which is the original name that the Panasonic Mothership used. As new patches become available, we will name them in higher increments such as “GH2__V12″ and so on.

GH2 42Mbps Firmware Patch Naming & Saving Instructions

6) Drag the saved and newly named firmware file to your GH2 formatted SDHC card. In my case I named it “GH2__V11.bin”. The firmware file should be about 15.6MB on a Mac, Windows size may be a bit smaller or the same.

Drag the newly named GH2 firmware patch file to SDHC card

GH2 Firmware Patch installed on SDHC card

7) Loading the firmware into the GH2 Camera. IMPORTANT NOTE: Only use a freshly charged battery that is charged to 100%. If the camera looses power, it could very well turn into a $1600 paperweight. Simple as that! Charge your battery before going any further.

Firmware update procedure is the same on PAL and NTSC camera versions. Place the SDHC card into the camera and press the green play button just right of the eye-piece view finder. You will be greeted with the “body firmware update message”, press yes and let the camera do its thing. The firmware update will take about 4 minutes. DO NOT TOUCH any buttons. Just put the camera down and let the firmware update proceed till it is completed…….4 minutes.

GH2 Firmware update

GH2 42Mbps Firmware Patch Installing...DO NOT TOUCH!

8) SUCCESS After about 4 minutes the camera will restart and you will be greeted by the standard display we see when we first turn the camera on. Have a beer, coffee or cocktail…only two simple steps left. All the nerve racking stuff is done and we just need to set the camera to “Cinema 1080/24p High” shooting mode.

GH2 42Mbps Firmware patch success!

9) Cleanup the SDHC card by formatting it in the GH2. This will wipe the firmware off the card and any system files that our computer may have written to the card. Formatting also segments the card again and prepares the blocks, it is just good practice and digital housekeeping.

Formatting and cleanup

10) Setting up the camera for 1080/24p and 42Mbps bitrate. Use a good brand Class 10 Card, we just increased the bitrate by 90%. Good and reliable cards begin with the Transcend 16gig Class 10 card, about $27. I use the new 16 gig Sandisk Extreme Pro III for about $70 each which are also recommended for the Nikon D7000.

GH2 Cinema 1080/24p setting

GH2 Cinema 1080/24p High Setting for 42Mbps

That is it folks, happy shooting!

33 Comments

Posted July 30, 2011 at 5:24 PM by Brandon | Permalink

Thorsten,
Thank you so much for this. I consider this a personal favor, and would gladly post links, forward other posts, or any other derivation you might like, through my social network. I can’t wait to try this, probably have to wait another day or two to get it all done, but this is extraordinarily helpful. I can guarantee I would not be able to do this, without this thoughtful and detailed assistance. Truly, thank you. Well written and executed. The next time you are in LA, a cold one is on me.
Brandon
- Posted July 30, 2011 at 6:25 PM by Thorsten | Permalink
  
  You are welcome Brandon Lets hope that Vitaliy has other patch improvements on the way for 60p. The GH2 is an amazing camera. Next week I have a still and video shoot and will use the GH2 for everything. BTW, I like a good pilsner
  
  Thanks,
  Thorsten
Posted July 31, 2011 at 4:48 PM by Brandon | Permalink

Thorsten,

Thanks again. Just applied the update, nearly sh%t my pants, but appear to have survived. Was flawless til the parallels file size came out slightly different at 14.9MB (so your note on the slight variance was huge!) and then the last step, searching for creative movie mode, but realized I was in wrong function (P) to adjust setting. The 60p is a constant clamor, may well happen, who knows?
BTW, Had two great Porters on Friday, the Pilsner is gladly yours if you ever make it out.

Thanks again. I’ll be watching your site closely, any time you have updates with the GH2 Category in particular. If you can share anything from your shoot next week, please do! Your help is appreciated. Think I am going to donate a little something to Vitaliy, need to make sure he can keep moving forward.
(BTW, are you okay if I share this and pass this around, both your post and site info?-I think you deserve the widest audience you could want, but I know some artists -even on the net- still prefer to be a little secretive, which is fine by me if thats the case.) Be well.

Enjoy!
Brandon
- Posted July 31, 2011 at 5:59 PM by Thorsten | Permalink
  
  Brandon,
  Glad the patch worked out for you. Yes, Windows patch sizes will be a bit smaller, I have noticed that in the past, so no worries.
  
  Been testing out 720/60p all day since the shoot next week will have movement that I would like to slow down to 50% or 80% in post. Both the 42Mbps and 32 Mbps look great, but in camera playback is iffy at best for 720/60p. VLC player stops at about a minute so it is difficult to review material in or out of camera. The conversions to ProRes422HQ look great and all the footage is there. I think we will find more stable settings soon, even the GH1 patches took a while to mature.
  
  I organized the GH2 blog articles under one “GH2 menu” at the top. This should make the GH2 articles easier to find. By all means, feel free to share this blog on forums, that is why I started it. Having all the tech details and lighting diagrams is the easy part…..landing the job is the difficult part
  
  I should be able to post some images and video from the shoot near the end of the week, just need to clear it with the client first. Great location and model, so I am looking forward to it. The post production is pretty involved and may require some time to process and then I am doing many new things. It is not just a job, but also portfolio material.
  
  Porter is great, enjoying a brew from Amsterdam while the ProRes tests process out
  
  Talk soon Brandon,
  Thorsten
  - Posted August 1, 2011 at 4:47 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
    
    I stand corrected on the 720/60p and 1080/24p 42Mbps tests. This morning I ran two more tests and in-camera playback works just fine with 42Mbps at BOTH 720/60p AND 720/60p.
    
    I am using the Sandisk Extreme Pro 16GB 45MB/sec card and the Pany 14mm-140mm lens.
    
    Playback with VLC player is fine at 720/60p but with 1080/24p it stops at about 45 sec. This is not really an issue for me, as long as the footage can be viewed in-camera.
    
    Cheers…..Thorsten
    - Posted August 1, 2011 at 11:03 AM by Brandon | Permalink
      
      Nice! You’re getting it at 720/60 and 1080/60? Wow. I think my Transcend Class10 16GB struggled with the 1080/24 in Cinema playback. Tons of artifacting, unless I was doing something wrong. With controlled, measured, almost still shots on my 14-140 (which so many examples seem to use), detail was great, but any panning and movement ruined all the shots (probably should blame me, the novice shooter though!). I will look into the Sandisk cards you mentioned (for some reason, I thought those were class 6 but I may be mistaken as there are so many variations).
      
      Thanks for keeping us informed amigo!
      Brandon
      - Posted August 1, 2011 at 6:24 PM by Thorsten | Permalink
        
        I have not tested 1080/60i only the 720/60p. Most of my videos end up at 720p so I only tested for for stability with 42Mbps and it is clean …..Thorsten
Posted August 1, 2011 at 11:09 AM by Brandon | Permalink

BTW, this man is shooting at 65Mbps with the GH2 here?!? Sheeesh.

http://vimeo.com/27139989
Posted August 2, 2011 at 3:45 PM by Gray | Permalink

Hey there, just discovered this site after search (once again!) for GH2 firmware updates.
Many thanks for the awesome guide: I’ll be upgrading my Lumix as soon as I get a higher class SD card (8GB class 6 is the best I have at present).
Just wondering if anyone who has taken the jump has any issues with the camera cutting out or overheating; similar to the issues found with the Canon HDSLRs.

Thanks again.
- Posted August 2, 2011 at 4:20 PM by Thorsten | Permalink
  
  Hi Gray,
  I have not had any issues at 42Mbps, overheating or otherwise. This blog article is about my experiences with the patch for paid shooting gigs….I don’t try to push the extreme limits of what the GH2 might be able to do. I will let others do that on their own dime I need my gear to perform without glitches during a shoot….period!
  
  You may certainly take a look at the GH2 Patch discussions and read about the latest “what works and what does not”. If I find additional stable GH2 settings that I have tested and used, I will update the blog article or post a new article to that effect.
  
  Cheers,
  Thorsten
  - Posted August 2, 2011 at 5:33 PM by Gray | Permalink
    
    Wicked. Thanks for the reply. I’ll keep an eye on the discussions page while toying with the idea of upgrading.
Posted August 7, 2011 at 7:16 AM by Brice | Permalink

Hello, I did the hack yesterday, like you just the bitrate for and the time limite PAL GH2.

I filmed someone clips and I just want say everything ‘s ok. But for the first second of the capture the pictures ‘s “pixelise” just for one second is not a problem. And at the end the clip ‘s more short, may be one or two second.
You too?

Thanks
Brice
- Posted August 7, 2011 at 7:29 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
  
  Hi Brice,
  Yes, the fist couple of frames will pixelize and that is completely normal when using the 42Mbps patch. Thank you for mentioning this as I neglected to write this in the article.
  
  The end of the clip does “shorten” even without the patch or when using the “factory” firmware. I noticed this the first time I shot with the GH2. So whenever I shoot, I pre-roll for 10 seconds and also shoot for an extra 10 seconds at the end….before yelling cut!
  
  Shot some very nice stills and video the other day with the 42Mbps patch and will post an article in the next 2 days….editing right now.
  
  Thanks….Thorsten
  - Posted August 8, 2011 at 2:52 AM by Brice | Permalink
    
    Thanks Thorsten,
    I’ am in hurry for see your new footages.
    Have you a solution for black frames under fluo light, éco light or néon…?
    
    When I shoot in a shop under fluo light, I have a black bars, strip or frame. I tested all settings and anything improvement …
    Have you see that?
    
    Thanks
    Brice
    - Posted August 8, 2011 at 4:08 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
      
      Brice,
      
      Fluorescent lights have a frequency that can produce a flicker in video AND stills. In the US it is 60Hz and Europe it is 50Hz. So if your shutter speed is 1/60th or 1/50th you will see flickering or a black frame or stripe. If I remember correctly from photo-school days, 1/30th or 1/25th second shutter will correct this…..or was it 1/125th and 1/100th sec….I forget. Changing the shutter speed should correct the stripes, bars or black frame issue.
      
      It is much like flash sync speed. If we use a shutter speed faster than our camera’s flash sync speed (1/160th for GH2) we have a black strip across the image. To avoid the black strip, we have to keep the GH2 shutter at 1/160th OR slower.
      
      Thorsten
      - Posted August 8, 2011 at 5:20 AM by Brice | Permalink
        
        Ok Thorsten,
        Thanks for your information. If I understand correctly. With fluolight I need hight shutter, but with de 14-140 the opening ‘s not too large and the compromise between, shutter, iso and opening ‘s very difficult for find.
        
        I need test this, thank you very much Torstein
        
        Best regards
        Brice
      - Posted August 8, 2011 at 6:02 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
        
        Brice, I think you need to have the shutter at 1/60 or 1/50 with florescent lights. Do a simple test shooting at 1/30 thru 1/120 and see which one looks the best.
        
        One thing I learned in school is to test…test…test before every shoot. And I still do it today when I have a complicated shoot. When I assisted professional studios, we always spent one day testing the lighting setups. Nobody wants surprises when the client is looking over your shoulder
        
        Thorsten
Posted August 12, 2011 at 4:12 AM by Lars | Permalink

Thank you very much!!! I did the hack a few minutes ago and I am surprised about the great quality. Ingenious Tutorial. ))
- Posted August 18, 2011 at 7:46 AM by Lars | Permalink
  
  Ptool v3.62d has been released.
  - Posted August 18, 2011 at 7:49 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
    
    Thank you Lars Will check it out today.
Posted August 18, 2011 at 8:02 AM by Brice | Permalink

Great!!
Have you see the new fonction?
I hope to 1080 25p and 60p…
Thanks Lars!
And Thanks Thorsten for your last info!

Have good test!
Posted August 19, 2011 at 5:23 AM by Toby De Jong | Permalink

Thanks so much the GH2 Hack site is quite hopeless as far as setting up and all my requests their for help were ignored, this was a great help you are my hero.
- Posted August 19, 2011 at 5:46 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
  
  Thanks Toby,
  Be sure to use the latest patch with the new features outline in the article I wrote yesterday. http://www.zeroplusplus.com/updated-42-mbps-gh2-ptool-v3-62d-patch-visual-instructions/
Posted August 19, 2011 at 6:00 AM by Toby De Jong | Permalink

Yes I have it I only got my GH2 a few days ago, unfortunately it has no sound and the HDMI out does not work so I have to send it back. I also cant see any bit-rate difference
in the file size when looking in FCP? how can I be sure if I am shooting 42mb ?
Thanks for your help
- Posted August 19, 2011 at 6:11 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
  
  Toby,
  Use VLC player and then select Window>Extended Controls>Statistics while playing the .mts file. FCP does not show codec bitrates that I know of. My .mts file are HUGE now with the new patch…about 500MB per minute compared to 200MB per minute in the stock Pany firmware.
  - Posted August 19, 2011 at 8:35 PM by Toby De Jong | Permalink
    
    Item Properties is where FCP shows the Data rate of the clip it says 13.4 MB/sec
    Thats after converting to ProRes through FCP?
    - Posted August 20, 2011 at 5:16 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
      
      One can only view the original camera bitrate by playing back the original mts footage in vlc or streamparser. Converting to another format only displays that formats bitrate
Posted August 28, 2011 at 3:50 AM by James Howarth | Permalink

I did as instructed but when finished the camera did not restart. It still have the old Ver.1.0 in version display menu. I bought this camera a week ago. Would the new models be resistant to this? The dial was set to video mode (movie camera manual symbol) when the update finishes it goes back to that mode as usual.
- Posted August 28, 2011 at 7:05 PM by Thorsten | Permalink
  
  Because of time constraints I just can’t offer tech support. The people that wrote the patch offer tech support here.
  
  If your firmware still reads 1.0 then the firmware did not update properly, new version should read 1.1. Recheck your steps, maybe you missed something such as “check increment” and “rename new firmware to new increment”. The patch does work fine, as many others, including Panasonic have stated last week.
  - Posted August 29, 2011 at 1:35 AM by James Howarth | Permalink
    
    Thanks for the quick reply:) I just checked a video clip on my computer and the upgrade/hack did work even though it still says version 1.0. I read on another post somewhere that if you rename the new file with extension 1 it stays v1.0 but rename 2 and above it shows 1.1 on the camera version upgrade. Mmm interesting.
    - Posted September 28, 2011 at 10:39 PM by elleyy | Permalink
      
      I forgot to add that I bought the Gh2 thailand version, and the box said “pal” but I had shot over the 30 minutes limit; I shot a footage that was over 50 minutes straight. So I’m wondering what do I have, a pal or ntsc? If i do the hack do I need to check the 30 minute limit or leave it unchecked? Thank you so much
      - Posted September 29, 2011 at 6:17 AM by Thorsten | Permalink
        
        You most likely have the PAL version. Yes, I would check the “30 minute limit”, it doesn’t hurt.
        
        Camera playback works on mine.
Posted September 28, 2011 at 10:31 PM by elleyy | Permalink

thank you +++. Finally someone with a big heart and time to help fellow filmmakers. Will this do in camera play back? Will this work on GH2 Thailand version or how do I find out if my gh2 is pal or ntsc? sorry for the novice.