Petition for Samsung NX1 hack

[outerbeat]

4 minutes ago, kinoseed said:

It would not install if you didn't have the correct firmware, so you don't have to worry about that.

Good to know, actually! ))

[Garth Philpot]

I havnt remapped any buttons, but reset them to default just incase. EV = UP for me brings up the spirit level and histogram( i think). but I get the mod loaded etc, what I dont have is the BT icon top of screen, even though it says on in the menu

 

[kinoseed]

1 minute ago, Garth Philpot said:

I havnt remapped any buttons, but reset them to default just incase. EV = UP for me brings up the spirit level and histogram( i think). but I get the mod loaded etc, what I dont have is the BT icon top of screen, even though it says on in the menu

 

It's ok not to have the BT icon. You can turn on the bluetooth from the menu (which looks like you can't start)
Sounds like the keyscan is not loading, or maybe you are pressing EVF instead of EV?
sorry.. can't think of a reason why it wouldn't start.

[outerbeat]

22 minutes ago, Garth Philpot said:

Yes, confirmed, press EV (hold) click ok, then release both

Try to confirm that OK button is working like in menu or function window, It might be broken

[Garth Philpot]

Ok, folks, so my appologies to all. I picked this up from a samsung store as a "shop demo" for well below clear-out retail, but it seems some one may have fiddled with it. the map key reset has solved the issue, thank-you all, I will make a donation tomorrow. thanks again.

[Garth Philpot]

On a side note, would anybody be interested in working on a pdf with stills or an instruction video that we could embed in the post, so as to make this quite clear for new users. ie check firmware, reset camera to defaults, wipe card, place files in root etc, I can edit it in an afternoon, but would like someone to just check that the information is indeed correct. maybe some small points relating to what cards work best, and what speeds you will get out of them (maybe 5 most popular etc) I have 3 lens adapters arriving for EF, OM and M42 if there is any info that can come from those too...  

[kinoseed]

32 minutes ago, Garth Philpot said:

On a side note, would anybody be interested in working on a pdf with stills or an instruction video that we could embed in the post, so as to make this quite clear for new users. ie check firmware, reset camera to defaults, wipe card, place files in root etc, I can edit it in an afternoon, but would like someone to just check that the information is indeed correct. maybe some small points relating to what cards work best, and what speeds you will get out of them (maybe 5 most popular etc) I have 3 lens adapters arriving for EF, OM and M42 if there is any info that can come from those too...  

Checking-firmware is not essential, as if you don't have the proper one, the installation will let you know.
Wiping-card is not essential, as you can have other files and directories during installation, and it won't be a problem.
Resetting to defaults is not essential either, as it will work (i guess) with wherever you've mapped EV button to be.

recommended tool for SD-formatting is this one: https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

there is almost no difference in the cards (almost), and the recommended bitrate depends a lot on whether you can with a few dropped frames, what fps you intend to shoot, what scene, at what ISO. (btw, my personal ISO choices are 100 and 3200, as they show least amount of high-frequency band stop effects). My personal settings are -180Mbps.

Got m42 graphite adapter (costs more than some of the lens), which apparently was created "upside-down", so when I mount the lens, the dials that have to be on top, are on bottom, (hope yours doesn't have that design issue) however it doesn't bother me, but the only really big concern is cold temperatures, and extreme condensation from the old lenses in winter days (which need to be removed immediately)

Since it's not a DSLR I guess the polarizer does not need to be circular, and you can go with linear (if they still sell them) and save yourself part that brings LP light to circular (which is sort of sandwiched in the circular polarizer filetr). You can stack two of them and make yourself a variable ND too. ; )

Other than that, if you have questions feel free to ask.

[SMGJohn]

Update on testing the 1440p mode on NX500 both VGA replace and DC replace 25/24fps.

Because I did not want to drag with me my 5kg 15.6 inch Clevo laptop to Greece I took my 2006 12.1 inch Dell laptop which shows my HEVC files like a slideshow thanks to its awesome nVidia GeForce Go 7400, anyway during my testing which I have done quite a lot of while I also tested various profile settings (I will share my result when I get home) I recommend to everyone to avoid the 1440p mode overall, there is too many artefacts here and there to be useful for pro video, it seem to band slightly worse than 1080p which I did expect but my biggest issue it introduces these ugly lines all over the screen which looks like interlacing which varies too much from my test they are usually quite small but video players will think the video is interlaced and try to deinterlace it if you set it to automatic, most of the time they only appear in the sky, other times they appear pretty clearly in the video, I also had to turn down the bitrate to 140mbps even though my card does 160mbps just fine, the DC 24fps 1440p mode seems even more unstable, definitely avoid that one.

Just stick to shooting 1080p for now unless you can live with those lines appearing in ever 3 - 6 videos, funny enough I can shoot 160mbps 1080p and 200mbps with my fastest Lexar card so technically you are getting better quality overall out of the 1080p which you could just stretch to 1440p, remember that there are more bits per pixel for 1080p compared to lets say 2160p so you could drag more info out of shadows etc, also remember that 1440p is NR free so there is definitely a bonus in shooting 2.5k but also a drawback, it definitely should be avoided if you do pro videos.

I will continue testing it despite this, I like the look of 1440p its definitely more analogue than 1080p and 2160p, it also appear to be void of in-camera sharpness which is DAMN good, I can live with the artefact for my own use but for pro use its definitely a no-go unless the client can live with them too.

I would have uploaded some examples if the internet here was not slower than Pluto's year

[kinoseed]

15 minutes ago, SMGJohn said:

Update on testing the 1440p mode on NX500 both VGA replace and DC replace 25/24fps.

Because I did not want to drag with me my 5kg 15.6 inch Clevo laptop to Greece I took my 2006 12.1 inch Dell laptop which shows my HEVC files like a slideshow thanks to its awesome nVidia GeForce Go 7400, anyway during my testing which I have done quite a lot of while I also tested various profile settings (I will share my result when I get home) I recommend to everyone to avoid the 1440p mode overall, there is too many artefacts here and there to be useful, it seem to band worse than 1080p which I did expect but my biggest issue it introduces these ugly lines all over the screen which looks like interlacing which varies too much from my test they are usually quite small but video players will think the video is interlaced and try to deinterlace it if you set it to automatic, most of the time they only appear in the sky, other times they appear pretty clearly in the video, I also had to turn down the bitrate to 140mbps even though my card does 160mbps just fine, the DC 24fps 1440p mode seems even more unstable, definitely avoid that one.

Just stick to shooting 1080p for now unless you can live with those lines appearing in ever 3 - 6 videos, funny enough I can shoot 160mbps 1080p and 200mbps with my fastest Lexar card so technically you are getting better quality overall out of the 1080p which you could just stretch to 1440p, remember that there are more bits per pixel for 1080p compared to lets say 2160p so you could drag more info out of shadows etc, remember that 1440p is NR free so there is definitely a bonus 2.5k but also a huge drawback, it definitely should be avoided if you do pro videos.

I would have uploaded some examples if the internet here was not slower than Pluto's year

I included the 2.5K as option to be set on the DC channel (for testing), and ran a few test shots today, and looks like there is no difference in quality from when being on VGA.
However with regard to the "interlacing" you are talking about, I get it only once in a while - maybe once in 50 recordings.
2.5K does exhibit more problematic artifacts indeed, and increasing the bitrate does not help here, however it's far from "useless", well... I guess it's a matter of personal preference.

here is an example from today's 2.5K / 180Mbps test

out of camera:

applied RGB curves only:

 

 

[SMGJohn]

3 minutes ago, kinoseed said:

I included the 2.5K as option to be set on the DC channel (for testing), and ran a few test shots today, and looks like there is no difference from when being on VGA, so I will pull that option in the next release.
However with regard to the "interlacing" you are talking about, I get it only once in a while - maybe once in 50 recordings.
2.5K does exhibit more problematic artifacts indeed, and increasing the bitrate does not help here, however it's far from "useless", well... I guess it's a matter of personal preference.

here is an example from today's 2.5K / 180Mbps test

out of camera:

applied RGB curves only:

 

I might be overreacting a bit, artefacts is something I rather not have in my videos but its something I can live with if its not as visible and the bonuses outweight its downsides.

After all, with no NR being applied and no digital sharpening is definitely enough for me to continue shooting 1440p25 which looks bloody gorgeous.

But the interlacing look alike artefacts appear more frequent for me for some reasons, I have no idea what causes them, maybe its the heat? Its around 20 - 30 degrees over here so I am giving the camera some workout, I use 140mbps I noticed with DC it uses the pro setting which was set to 150mbps for some reasons the NX500 wont do 160mbps on my 128GB Lexar card but it will do 160mbps on my NX1 just fine but 24fps is not in my taste definitely.

Also did the NX500 have NR applied in UHD and 4K mode before your hack is applied? Because as I stated earlier on page 64, UHD and 4K seem to lack the presence of NR and have similar noise patern like the 1440p mode, is this something you can confirm? Or was it already there before the mod was applied?

[kinoseed]

18 minutes ago, SMGJohn said:

I might be overreacting a bit, artefacts is something I rather not have in my videos but its something I can live with if its not as visible and the bonuses outweight its downsides.

After all, with no NR being applied and no digital sharpening is definitely enough for me to continue shooting 1440p25 which looks bloody gorgeous.

But the interlacing look alike artefacts appear more frequent for me for some reasons, I have no idea what causes them, maybe its the heat? Its around 20 - 30 degrees over here so I am giving the camera some workout, I use 140mbps I noticed with DC it uses the pro setting which was set to 150mbps for some reasons the NX500 wont do 160mbps on my 128GB Lexar card but it will do 160mbps on my NX1 just fine but 24fps is not in my taste definitely.

Also did the NX500 have NR applied in UHD and 4K mode before your hack is applied? Because as I stated earlier on page 64, UHD and 4K seem to lack the presence of NR and have similar noise patern like the 1440p mode, is this something you can confirm? Or was it already there before the mod was applied?

honestly, those cameras are a bit like a black-box, and you never quite know what and why they do it.
if your 2.5K turns out "interlaced" is absolutely useless. imho, it is not really interlaced, but looks like it, and you will not be able to fix it.
It is not the temperature, as in the span of 15 min, I shot 4-5 clips, and only one was "interlaced". Why - no idea. I don't think I changed the settings then.

My own camera can't be used as a reference as it has been messed with extensively, however I noticed that @outerbeat's video looks much more NRed, and at least here (on my nx500), the effects of NR are far less noticeable. In the mod there isn't anything that specifically changes NR. However especially at ISO 3200, I get quite a nice grain, which does not look NRed at all (at least at the very high frequency)

I though that it may be due to the different models, and the NX1's are the one suffering a lot from NR, but if you notice fine grain on NX1 footage, maybe it's something else.

edit:
if you have noticed it only on the NX500, and is different than before, the only difference from NX1is setting the VGA to 2.5K, which I'm not sure how may affect it, but there is also the "silent shutter" which you probably have enabled (but if it affects the NR - I don't know).

[outerbeat]

2 minutes ago, kinoseed said:

however I noticed that @outerbeat's video looks much more NRed, and at least here (on my nx500), the effects of NR are far less noticeable

That is very true, I think there is a big difference between nx1 and nx500 here in NR section. I can't shoot any video with proper noise, but it's almost two month since we start digging NR in NX. But you know, while I print this, one thought come to mind and I think there is a way to test nx1 about NR I didn't check yet. As always, good talk ))

[kidzrevil]

A way to test NR you say ?? Hmmm need a guinea pig ? @outerbeat

[sandro]

Is it possibile to see this NR difference between nx500 and nx1 somehow on the same scene?I didn't spot this difference.

[SMGJohn]

8 hours ago, sandro said:

Is it possibile to see this NR difference between nx500 and nx1 somehow on the same scene?I didn't spot this difference.

Someone else has to do the test, I am on Krete wont be able to do it before later this month in that case, I cannot be the only one who owns both cameras.

[AaronL]

quick question for nx500 users, how is the rolling shutter on 1440p? does it fall somewhere between 1080 and 4k or does it not co-relate

[LawDude]

Just a heads up to everyone - Samsung posted a new firmware update for the NX1.  It's v. 1.41.  So dust off your i-Launcher

[outerbeat]

1 hour ago, LawDude said:

Just a heads up to everyone - Samsung posted a new firmware update for the NX1.  It's v. 1.41.  So dust off your i-Launcher

Just real heads up to everyone - Bitrate Mods are not working with this FW update, not on NX1 not on nx500. If you use bitrate hack - doesn't upgrade YET, you are loose this option for good, probably.

[Joe Charlie Obuchowski]

Just read about the firmware update, In short it let's the camera connect to a newer version of the Samsung Camera Manager app which now works on Android 6.

Really hope they have more to update us on in the future....

Just a thought... if there was a way to implement a 2:35:1 crop, would that possibly allow us to use a higher bitrate as less data would be captured?

[kidzrevil]

My guess is that Samsung got hip to the fact that people are hacking the camera and this....worthless update is to patch whatever exploit was used to hack it. Seen sony do this shit with the PSP when people figured out how to hack it. That app aint worth it.