Optimal settings for H264 packed video

[Liskomies]

While RAW shooting has made Magic Lantern famous, I've found ML also a powerful tool for a casual video shooter who wants his video packed in MOV-files. Also some EOS cameras (including EOS M) can't write fast enough to the memory card for RAW video due buffer limitations.

So, how do you improve your videos shot with EOS cameras using Magic Lantern and native options?

I'm a total beginner to this art, but I've found following settings on my EOS M helpful:

Magic Lantern:
-Video quality, CBR 3x (Makes a difference!)
-Negative digital ISO gain (-0,5 EV) (Reduces noise a lot)

Others:
-1/50 shutter speed (for shooting 24/25 fps, evades flickering for moving options)
-Appropriate picture style (for example X-Video by Canon)
-ISO speed no greater than 800 (more means lots of noise)
-Manual audio gain.

Any ideas?

[tupp]

Set GOP to 1 (or, at most, 3).  Might have to use Tragic Lantern to find this setting.

GOP is an abbreviation for "group of pictures."  H264 compression can share image elements within a "group" of adjacent frames ("pictures") for the sake of lower bandwidth.  The size of this setting determines how many adjacent frames share image elements.  For example, a GOP setting of 3 shares image elements between every 3 adjacent frames.  Such sharing of image elements between frames is also known as interframe compression, and the greater the interframe compression, the greater the tendency for the appearance of artifacts.

So, a GOP setting of 1 eliminates H264 interframe compression -- each frame is its own image, completely lacking shared image elements with adjacent frames.  Any greater GOP setting shares image elements between adjacent frames, possibly increasing artifacts.

D-block settings can affect the appearance noise and blocky artifacts, but if such settings are currently available for the EOS-M, it would likely be in a version of TL.

Here is an article that explains some of the additional h264 settings offered by early versions of Tragic Lantern for the T3i/600D.  The article gives links to more detailed pages on this forum.