Why couldn't you release it 4 hours ago. I've just split 26 videos into seperate rgb vids, run each through vitual dub to create the bmps and now I'm part way through aligning them in ImagesPlus.
Thanks Adam for this. I'm so looking forward to not going though this again
I've been working on this a little more in the last couple of days - not allowing invalid default folder names, and generally trying to make it more robust as per Chris' suggestions.
Also have been working on the standalone ppmcentre front end which uses virtually the same interface, so any issues picked up here will benefit that as well.
Just as a tease... I've been using the ppmcentre front end to process some of my own runs - even though I don't mind command line stuff it saves a lot of time and fuss.
Me too.. i'm going to hold off writing part of my processing tutorial until these GUI's are ready. It'll make it much easier to explain to people than command line stuff and netpbm tools.
I'm sure it'll only be a week or so until we're up and running with a fairly stable version.
Adam, do you know how to create BMP's from an AVI?
If you could have a 1-stop shop that would take an AVI, save it as BMP's, run ppmcentre through them, and then split them into RGB channels, it would be awesome!
The virtualdub step is kinda annoying, but it's not too bad. It would be great if it could also be batched somehow. I mean, I know it can run batches but then it'd need to somehow kick off my ppm/rgb batch script afterwards.
At the moment I just run virtualdub on an avi as soon as i've captured it. It only takes 2 minutes and when it's finished i'm ready to capture the next avi.
It also means as soon as I walk inside with the laptop, I kick off the batch script that runs ppmcentre/rgb split. When I wake up in the morning, it's registax-ready!
The short answer is no, but I didn't know how bitmaps were formatted a month ago,either... the Internet is a wonderful thing!
I have thought of this (in fact, I'm surprised it took you so long, Mike ), but my LPI saves files as individual bitmaps, not avis so, personally, I don't have any need of such a thing. Though there could be a ToUCam thingy in my future!
Once I've finished the the current projects (stable version of RGBSplit, stable standalone version of front end for ppmcentre, integrated RGBSplit and front end for ppmcentre) I will have a look at the structure of avis - if it is not too hard (ie compression, or something I haven't thought of, yet) I might have a look at doing something. No promises, though.
If you could have a 1-stop shop that would take an AVI, save it as BMP's, run ppmcentre through them, and then split them into RGB channels, it would be awesome!
I will have a look at the structure of avis - if it is not too hard (ie compression, or something I haven't thought of, yet) I might have a look at doing something
No worries Adam, like you said, maybe something for the future
I also imagine it might get tricky regarding compression, different codecs etc.
My (probably wrong) impression is that an avi consists of a header and a string of 'bitmaps' - if it's that simple it probably wouldn't be too hard. The unknown, for me, is compression. I know most webcams compress to send the image 'down the cable', not sure if the actual avi is compressed?
Here is an updated version of the RGBSplit beta. This version has included a lot of the suggestions made by Chris (33South) and a couple of things I found.
Here is a rundown of the fixes:
First Chris's suggestions:
-Clicking Process with no folders gives an error - fixed, now if you click Process with no folders, a helpful message is displayed
-Ability to minimise to task bar while running - done
-The "save parameters" menu item should say "save options" or the tab label should say "parameters" - menu item changed to "Save Options".
-Should have shortcut letters on button and tab captions - done.
-After adding a folder it closes the add folder window - now the add folder window stays open and files can be added until the close button is pressed.
-You can add same folder twice. Fixed - whether you add a folder from the add folders dialog, or drag and drop, folder names are checked and the same folder cannot be added twice
-When restarting it would be nice if the previously selected windows were kept in the folder list view. I think I've fixed this (if I undestood the problem!)- the add folders window was supposed to remember the last added directory and go to that the next time it was run (unless the folder no longer exists where it will start in the Windows directory). I've changed the behaviour to go back to the last selected folder regardless of whether it was added or not.
-If you change a default folder name but don't save it you should get a warning to save it now or discard when changing tabs or exiting. Fixed - though had to ask the user when exiting rather than moving off the tab
Thanks for your input Chris - your suggestions have made this app much easier to use.
My fixes:
Stopped user from entering invalid characters in destination folder names (\ / : * ? " < > | )
Added "Processing..." to the main form caption when processing so user can see the status of the app even when minimised.
Selecting folders with no bitmap files gives an error. Fixed, a helpful message is displayed in this case.
One of Chris's that I couldn't do much with was the folder selection in the Add Folders window - the control I have used is a bit lame in that you have to double click on the folder you want to add. It's not very intuitive in that sometimes you can click add and find that the folder you thought you had selected is not selected at all. I will redesign this but that will take some time (also would like to be able to select multiple folders and drag and drop etc) Note that you can drag and drop from Windows Explorer and I find that very useful.
Thanks DP. Windows versions from 2000 onwards must have the Visual Basic runtimes but not necessarily all the Active X controls. Looks like some PCs/Laptops will have the ocx, others won't.
I will have a look at packaging up the application with all the required files - this will be a lot bigger but saves people having to download extra files.
yeh good idea - this app will have widespread appeal so you should think about packaging it up with an install wizard for installing required runtime libraries and ocx files.
I've had a go at creating an installer - works fine but the whole download is now 2Mb! I have attached just the zipped .exe file here, as usual.
20/6/2006 From Chris (33South). If there is only 1 bmp in the folder you get a msg saying no bmp files in selected folder – Fixed.
20/6/2006 From Chris (33South). You can start the app up multiple times, not sure if there is any benefit running it twice at the same time – Fixed, multiple instances not allowed.
20/6/2006 With Chris’s help, now will prompt user to save changes to default folder names on moving off the tab rather than on exit.
20/6/2006 If a user entered an invalid character as a default folder name and the previous default name was restored, the ‘Save Options’ menu item was enabled. Fixed – now only enables ‘Save Options’ if a genuine change has been made to the default folder names.
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
np Adam, I'm certainly looking forward to giving it a go.
