Petition for Samsung NX1 hack

[kidzrevil]

29 minutes ago, caseywilsondp said:

Not sure banding will be fixed by a higher bit rate, and I'm not entirely sure it's the codec. Having shot 90% of my footage out to a shogun using proresHQ or dnxhr banding is still terrible when the image starts too flat. Conversely on the a7s with slog2 to the Shogun I could push and pull all I wanted and that little 8bit codec did just fine.

My guess is that we are seeing the limits of 420, and that hdmi out is unfortunately not 422

Higher bit rate certainly doesn't hurt the image though, it's a good bit more detailed.

Which causes more problems for you in post : low contrast or low saturation ?

i am currently experimenting with low saturation , sharpness completely off and contrast at default with the16-235 luma range. The camera is problematic in post at 0-255

[Mattias Burling]

Yeah, another example is the 200mbps app for android.

In some cameras bitrate does wonders.

 

[Pavel Mašek]

On 20. 2. 2016 at 7:30 PM, SMGJohn said:

You can request the SDK here http://nxcameraportal.cloudapp.net/SDK/UserInfo or through the i-Launcher application, I requested a copy now I just have to wait, apparently the SDK gives you control over the camera completely for development of software.

I have tried finding external download links for it, but no imbecile has bothered sharing it apparently. Talk about being greedy, I seen loads of people with the SDK tool but no one gives download link and their posts are usually months old.

Have you received SDK? It can happen that shell scripts will be deadend (I hope not) in way to higher bitrate...

[Arizona Sunset]

I joined EOSHD to let you guys know that I've been watching this thread, and will support ($100 on faith) a functional firmware improvement that includes some mix of RAW video and higher frame rates. I'd love to see low light video boost (and would donate more to that end) but won't hold my breath. 

[kidzrevil]

2 hours ago, Arizona Sunset said:

I joined EOSHD to let you guys know that I've been watching this thread, and will support ($100 on faith) a functional firmware improvement that includes some mix of RAW video and higher frame rates. I'd love to see low light video boost (and would donate more to that end) but won't hold my breath. 

Thank you for your support !

[MKSN]

3 hours ago, Arizona Sunset said:

I joined EOSHD to let you guys know that I've been watching this thread, and will support ($100 on faith) a functional firmware improvement that includes some mix of RAW video and higher frame rates. I'd love to see low light video boost (and would donate more to that end) but won't hold my breath. 

I just joined for same reasons. And i think there is more people who are silent, but waiting nx1 hack become true.

I would be ready to pay also for stable FW.

 

[nougat]

22 hours ago, Mattias Burling said:

Yeah, another example is the 200mbps app for android.

In some cameras bitrate does wonders.

 

Thanks for posting this Mattias.  I have this app on my Samsung S6 Edge+ and was wondering if this type of app-overlay could be applied to the NX1 to give us 200Mbps.  Maybe we should get in touch with the developers of the Cinema 4K app.  They probably won't be interested because the NX1 is Tizen and not Android so they couldn't apply a lot of what they've already developed, but it may be worth a try.

[Chant]

I posted about the work Im doing on the firmware side of the nx1 a few pages back, but it was/still is hidden for some reason. 

**no longer hidden on page 11 at the bottom. Much more detail about what I have found on the camera.**

To sum it up, I have been working on this the better part of 6 months, didnt know anyone else was interested until I found this thread a bit over a week ago and posted my findings. Im at a point of comparing the changes in the firmware versions to see how the code is written. I have uncovered the bootloader, the file format and language used for their custom control files for tizen, info on lut, rgb 888, sd card bus speed(its quite low should be ush1 u3 but its not set close to the speed stated in the sd association docs) and a few more things. 

My goal is similar to what the guy said on the gh2 hack. I had a hacked 144mbs gh2 I used for 5 years until moisture killed it a few months ago. The tech inside the nx1 should be capeable of pushing the hevc and the sensor to the limit, even if it shortens the life by 4-5 years its still cheaper than a red by a magnitude.

Ideal goals for me are raw/compressed raw output, see if cdng or another compressed raw format would work. As red raw is just their version of jpeg2000 modded for cine work.

There is not a deadline I have set to finish this, as this is just one of many projects I have on the go but comparing it to other cameras its quite promising.

[kidzrevil]

17 minutes ago, Chant said:

I posted about the work Im doing on the firmware side of the nx1 a few pages back, but it was/still is hidden for some reason. 

**no longer hidden on page 11 at the bottom. Much more detail about what I have found on the camera.**

To sum it up, I have been working on this the better part of 6 months, didnt know anyone else was interested until I found this thread a bit over a week ago and posted my findings. Im at a point of comparing the changes in the firmware versions to see how the code is written. I have uncovered the bootloader, the file format and language used for their custom control files for tizen, info on lut, rgb 888, sd card bus speed(its quite low should be ush1 u3 but its not set close to the speed stated in the sd association docs) and a few more things. 

My goal is similar to what the guy said on the gh2 hack. I had a hacked 144mbs gh2 I used for 5 years until moisture killed it a few months ago. The tech inside the nx1 should be capeable of pushing the hevc and the sensor to the limit, even if it shortens the life by 4-5 years its still cheaper than a red by a magnitude.

Ideal goals for me are raw/compressed raw output, see if cdng or another compressed raw format would work. As red raw is just their version of jpeg2000 modded for cine work.

There is not a deadline I have set to finish this, as this is just one of many projects I have on the go but comparing it to other cameras its quite promising.

Sounds good. Can you produce any evidence that you are able to hack with the custom firmware ? A "hello world" would be enough to start funding the project

[Marco Tecno]

chant. very interesting. a big question: do you have a vr emulating a nx1? did you write it?

[MountneerMan]

Someone should try and recruit some of the ML community development staff.

I am sure there are a bunch of really smart programmers who are starting to get board of working with Cannon cameras and wouldn’t mind getting in on the ground floor of a new development.

From what I am hearing it sounds like making software for Samsung cameras is going to be significantly easier than cannon as well.

1 hour ago, Chant said:

sd card bus speed(its quite low should be ush1 u3 but its not set close to the speed stated in the sd association docs) 

 

Do you think this is a limitation of the hardware or could this be unlocked with software?

[SMGJohn]

14 hours ago, Pavel Mašek said:

Have you received SDK? It can happen that shell scripts will be deadend (I hope not) in way to higher bitrate...

Hey, I am currently on a shoot for a music video for 3 - 4 days but I have checked my mail, if nothing I will personally contact Samsung regarding the SDK for the NX1 in the weekend.

My guess is its sensitive SDK with very deep hardware binding codes because no one has leaked it anywhere, which means Samsung is having you write a deal with them to keep it to yourself. I literally spent days searching for it without a single trace of it. 

I personally have no clue what this SDK is, what it looks like and what it does exactly, all I know is what I have read and heard there is no images of it either, Samsung is really keeping it close to the chest and I only read about some people having it, I tried contacting them but no answers. I highly recommend people go around try contact these people whom possess the SDK for the NX1.

I will take a wild guess and assume it looks something similar to the Tizen SDK but with more hardware control, I will just post the image of the Tizen SDK here, however realistically it probably wont be as amazing as we think but it might be a good start to construct our own set of developer tools.

[Chant]

47 minutes ago, MountneerMan said:

Someone should try and recruit some of the ML community development staff.

I am sure there are a bunch of really smart programmers who are starting to get board of working with Cannon cameras and wouldn’t mind getting in on the ground floor of a new development.

From what I am hearing it sounds like making software for Samsung cameras is going to be significantly easier than cannon as well.

Do you think this is a limitation of the hardware or could this be unlocked with software?

It was written in the .cpp files showing the hz of the sd bus, this would be an incremental increase test that would just be raising it until it crashes or to the limit stated by the sd association. And if it changes depending on what type of file is being written to it. As well as tracking the sensor and chip heat out put to see if it is underclocked for a reason. Lots of fun.
 

 

1 hour ago, kidzrevil said:

Sounds good. Can you produce any evidence that you are able to hack with the custom firmware ? A "hello world" would be enough to start funding the project

Not at the point yet, still tearing it down. The base tizen didnt seem to change much through the updates. It was the control files for the camera, written in c and a whole new ball game. I do about 15 hours of work into this a week, which isnt much considering but things are moving. If you wanted me to just make hello world appear it wouldnt really prove much, at least not in the way that this camera works.

 

 

1 hour ago, Marco Tecno said:

chant. very interesting. a big question: do you have a vr emulating a nx1? did you write it?

Have not got to that point yet, still diving into the code and doing a control file comparison, as the updates for the camera happened they state what they changed, and that is what the major key point of what Im doing is. Its one of the nexts steps though. 

 

I can update as I progress and post summaries of what I find. Just to find the rgb888 and lut info I had to look though about 15000 lines of code. Its tedious. But worth while for me in the end, so I will continue to dig and deconstruct. And update!

[Marco Tecno]

thx a lot. please don't disappear as others did ;-) 

[Chant]

I started this research when the nx1 first came out, saved and tracked the firmware, and then started digging into when the rumors of the exit started happening. The tech inside this camera is just magic. Compared to what other companies are doing its a few years ahead. And due to samsung being able to roll their own chips it seems they didnt cripple anything because it was too costly. Im not going anywhere! 

[Arizona Sunset]

Some folks have mentioned a desire for a crop mode for NX1 to match the NX500's 4k crop and downsampling.  Out of curiosity, how does the NX1 implement digital / clear zoom during video OOB? Is the request for the feature because there is ineffective or poor quality digital zoom, or because there is none at all?  

[Chant]

Well afaik the NX1 and the NX500 have different versions of the DRIMe V (NX1) DRIMe V-S(nx500) But I have the firmware of the nx500 which is of interest for me also, again cheap b camera and see what it can do and how much it can be pushed and sacrifice the length of life. But that is secondary to the NX1 for me. I can browse the FW in the next few weeks and see if things are vastly different though. See if the camera control files are written similarly/

[DPStewart]

4 hours ago, Chant said:

I started this research when the nx1 first came out, saved and tracked the firmware, and then started digging into when the rumors of the exit started happening. The tech inside this camera is just magic. Compared to what other companies are doing its a few years ahead. And due to samsung being able to roll their own chips it seems they didnt cripple anything because it was too costly. Im not going anywhere! 

This is so frikkin' cool to watch...

I know enough about software structures to understand what you're doing, but not enough to help. Damn fascinating to watch though..

Again - THANK YOU to everyone involved!
 

[SR]

Higher bit rates and raw video is my dream for NX1. I love the raw out of this camera. It blows away anything my Canon is capable of. I've taken a grossly underexposed photo of the city in the dark and managed to pull out such ridiculous amounts of details that I thought it was voodoo.

[Mattias Burling]

2 hours ago, Arizona Sunset said:

Some folks have mentioned a desire for a crop mode for NX1 to match the NX500's 4k crop and downsampling.  Out of curiosity, how does the NX1 implement digital / clear zoom during video OOB? Is the request for the feature because there is ineffective or poor quality digital zoom, or because there is none at all?  

Its so we can shoot 4k and 4k crop, giving us 2 focal lengths per lens.

And it would likely minimize moire.