CHDK NEWS: 1 GIG Video Limit Removed

One of the remarkable Ukrainian CHDK authors has recently found a way to also
break the 1 GIG filesize limit on all videos by just using the CHDK interface
without altering the original firmware. Something that everyone thought was
impossible until now. If you think that's great news there's more. You now have
video compression options of 1 to 99.

The interesting thing is that when testing a few short clips taken at various
compression settings all of them could be played back in the camera.

I'm now presently testing one of the experimental builds on a 2G SD card. It's
already recorded well past the 1 gig limit (21 minutes at 640x480 30fps, 44.1
kHz audio). Presently testing it at a compression setting of 50 to check for
compression artifacts. I don't know if there's still the 1 hour limit, we shall
see. I have to test it on a 4GIG card in FAT16 too to see about the FAT16
filesize limit.

Why didn't Canon offer that many compression options for their new models?

Download links for experimental versions for A630, A640, A710, and S3 IS (full
and lite versions for S3) available at http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK Read the
feedback section.

On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 10:07:19 GMT, KevenGaston wrote:

One of the remarkable Ukrainian CHDK authors has recently found a way to also
break the 1 GIG filesize limit on all videos by just using the CHDK interface
without altering the original firmware. Something that everyone thought was
impossible until now. If you think that's great news there's more. You now have
video compression options of 1 to 99.

The interesting thing is that when testing a few short clips taken at various
compression settings all of them could be played back in the camera.

I'm now presently testing one of the experimental builds on a 2G SD card. It's
already recorded well past the 1 gig limit (21 minutes at 640x480 30fps, 44.1
kHz audio). Presently testing it at a compression setting of 50 to check for
compression artifacts. I don't know if there's still the 1 hour limit, we shall
see. I have to test it on a 4GIG card in FAT16 too to see about the FAT16
filesize limit.

Why didn't Canon offer that many compression options for their new models?

Download links for experimental versions for A630, A640, A710, and S3 IS (full
and lite versions for S3) available at http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK Read the
feedback section.



Update: Test versions now available for the A610 v1.00e,f; A620; A630; A640;
A700, A710, S2 v1.00e,f,g; & S3

So far it has been thoroughly tested on the A710 and S3 with no problems. Only
one "problem"(?) has been found. When using higher quality settings your SD card
speed may not be able to keep up. Now there's a new reason to purchase only the
highest speed, highest capacity SD cards. It used to only be important to
sustain high-speed continuous single-shot mode, it now applies to these new
high quality video modes too.

Be sure to read the firmware usage notes being collected and added to the Wikia
discussion page in the download section:

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Down...are_Usage_Info

Some very interesting findings (recap): Video bit-rates on 640x480 30fps video
can get higher than 7MB/s on the highest quality settings. Far surpassing the
video quality using the camera's own default compression settings, a setting of
70-75 being an average of the camera's own standard video quality. These tests
were being done with 8bit 11kHz mono audio recording. If using 44.1kHz stereo
recording available on some cameras the bit-rates will far exceed the 7MB/s
found at a quality setting of 98. You will have to test what audio and video
quality settings are capable of being sustained by your particular camera model
and SD cards if you choose to use the highest quality audio and video available.
You may have to make a trade-off between highest quality audio and video options
depending on your needs and SD card speeds. A compression setting of 50-55 is
about the same quality as the LP mode on some of the newer Canon cameras. You
still have 50 stronger compression settings below that if needed, which will no
doubt become extremely important for lengthy surveillance and other
documentation purposes.

Who said a still-frame camera couldn't record video as good as, or better than,
any camcorder? They were wrong.

It looks like another new competition level has just been set. All manufacturers
have their work cut out for them this year. It's about time that they started to
do enough work to earn the money that we pay them every year.