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Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 gets firmware hack for higher quality HD video recording
The Panasonic GH1 can do some great video for its size, thanks to that fancy micro four-thirds optical setup, but it's been held back the low bitrates it uses when recording. Now some enterprising hacker named "Tester 13" has reversed engineered the GH1's firmware and unlocked the true power of the camera (much like Magic Lantern has done for the 5D Mark II). In fact, the main trouble now is that Tester 13's firmware uncovers too many options: users are trying out different configurations to maximize quality without bumping into the camera's buffer limitations. The current flavors of choice include 50Mbps MJPEG at 1080p (the stock camera caps out at 720p in MJPEG), to be augmented by 32Mbps AVCHD when the crazy high-end MJPEG causes the camera to buffer overflow. It's all very technical and video-nerds-only in theory, but results speak for themselves: check out a sample video after the break. And try out the new firmware if you dare. [Thanks, Steve]
Memup's 30GB Orizon PMP looks oh-so-sleek
Mmm, nothing like a sleek, glossy black PMP to get your juices flowin'. If you tend to agree with that sentiment, Memup's Orizon should suit your fancy quite well, as the 30GB unit comes in an ebony outfit, sports a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 resolution display, and even includes an SD / MMC card slot to watch media clips stored on your flash memory. You'll also find a text viewer and built-in FM tuner to complement the obligatory MP3, WMA, MPEG4, JPEG, BMP, and GIF file support, but the ability to play nice with Motion JPEG and XviD are welcome extras. Unfortunately, you're going to have to love the looks some kind of fierce in order to find value in the purported $378 pricetag. [Warning: PDF read link][Via AnythingButiPod]UPDATE: Looks like this creature may actually be a straight up rip of another. Check out Coby's PMP4330 to see for yourself.
Full resolution videos possible on firmware 2.80! [m]
One of the biggest complaints about the PSP's video playback interface is how limited it is. There used to be a strict naming scheme involved, and videos were limited to 76800 pixels, only 59% of what the PSP is actually capable of (480x272 resolution). PSP-Vault has uncovered a long-unknown secret: you can play full resolution videos on the PSP, as long as they're encoded with the highly size-inefficient Motion JPEG codec, the same kind used by Chotto Shot. Sony never advertised this fact, but you can see for yourself! Download the following sample video and place it in your PSP's VIDEO folder:As you can see by this download, the Motion JPEG codec is not a very efficient one at all. One minute of video takes 29MB, which is highly restrictive for people with smaller memory sticks. It's an interesting find, and it shows that Sony's taking tiny steps towards fully unrestricted video on the PSP. If you'd like to encode your own motion JPEG videos, download 3GP Converter, and PSP-Vault's INI file. The INI file is placed in 3GP's "default_settings" folder. When you're done converting, simply place your video in PSP's VIDEO folder.
