ppmcentre Front End - Call for Beta Testers

[davidpretorius]

worked a treat!!!
can we have 480px width and height?

[iceman (Mike)]

You can set it yourself, Dave!

[davidpretorius]

tried lifting it above 440 with the arrows, but i got a little beep

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Well both PCFE and RGBshift have certainly saved me some time.

I took 25 avies (1200 frames each) the other night and it would normally take me the better part of 2-3 days to split each avie into rgb, r, g, and b avies with Aviraw, save each avi as bmps with Virtual Dub, align each batch of frames with ImagesPlus and process each batch of aligned frames with Regitax prior to final processing.

It took me about 8 hours yesterday to do the same thing. What a time saver. Thanks Adam, those two little programs are going in with Registax as two more must have programs for planetary processing. I love the way the batching works. I can actually get other stuff done while I'm waiting now, instead of hovering over the computer processing each folder one at a time.

[Harpspitfire]

just curious here after reading this thread- this program only works in BMP, so my AVI,s would need to be converted right?- im wondering about registax (regiscrap i call it at times- LOL)- doesnt the program just use that alignment square for processing? i was thinking about that centering but cant try it since i dont how to convert AVI,s to BMP- ill give centering and cropping a shot on a program i found called 'handyAVI'- you just draw a rectangle around what you want to crop and center and program does the rest- it also cuts the AVI into segments if its too large a file your comp- my program is anything over 400 frames takes 16 ridiculous hours to process- on another note, has anyone ever tried AVI-RAW?- it converts your ToUcam/neximage camera into RAW capture mode with and extra step before you feed it into the registax headache, from what i read in the program if you dont want to convert the camera 'efrom' (spelling?) you can just convert the camera to 'optimised color' mode, with me having the computer intelligence of a neanderthal, i couldnt get past loading the new camera settings- but ive seen others that used this with outstanding results- john

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hi Harp, I use Aviraw to split avies into rgb components and then use Virtual dub (great batching ability) into individual bmps. I used to just run the avies through registax, but I found that I got better results if I bmped and aligned each image first.

[davidpretorius]

I agree with Paul Harps,

if the image wanders around, then as soon as you start to align and estimate the quality of the frame, registax has trouble following the avi around. I have noticed that there may be a really sharp frame there, but if it follows a large movement on the screen, then it takes the alignment frame a few images to settle. Call it registax backlash for want of a better term.

Also for creation of a reference frame, non centred frames or avi's seem to cause errors if you fiddle too much at this stage.

Avi raw is great, I have not had the seeing to use 5fps raw mode as optimised 10fps is working well. I used to use it for splitting the avi into red, green and blue, but now I am hooked on Adam's rgb slit and ppmcentre frint end.

[davidpretorius]

Adam, given we have most likely to have split into r,g,b and have these sitting under a parent directory, can the ppmcentre front end simply point to the parent and process the three sub directories underneath?

just trying to save adding all 3 directories to the batch.

Very impressed with your stuff mate, just need to add the avi to bmp convert and combine all three processes into one "point at the directory, press the button and Dennis is your uncle!"

hmmmmmmmmmm... if only i could have dennis's alignment, i would ever need to go outside again!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Next we have to work on batch processing in Registax Dave

[davidpretorius]

I believe bird has been working on it on and off for a while.

Once he moves into his new house, I will start hounding him!!!

Imagine, on a beach in barbados, relaxing after an all nighter, the computer chugging away processing everything from splitting to submitting to IIS with even a few spams thrown in.....yup that is the life!!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

[iceman (Mike)]

Dave, the next version will have ppmcentre and RGBSplit integrated together - so you'll use 1 set of directories, and it will centre them and then split them.

Having said that, the way you worded it, it sounds like you're running RGBSplit before ppmcentre? Is that the case?

You should be running ppmcentre first, and then run RGB split on the resulting BMP's from ppmcentre. That way, you run ppmcentre once and RGB split.

Rather than RGB split once, and ppmcentre 3 times.

[davidpretorius]

ummmm, well yes, that is what I was meaning to do.......ummmm....wellll........... .











thanks mike......

[iceman (Mike)]

Don't worry Dave, I won't tell anyone!

[davidpretorius]

thanks mike, can this thread be sealed for 50 years in a government vault???

[Hitchhiker]

can we have 480px width and height?

Hi DP - yes you can go as high as 640 for the width and 480 for the height (I could change this, but I didn't think anyone would need to go bigger than that).

tried lifting it above 440 with the arrows, but i got a little beep

If you were getting a beep when you were trying to set a value,then I suspect you were trying to make CutX larger than Width, or CutY larger than Height, alternatively if you try to make Width smaller than CutX, or Height smaller than CutY you will get a beep and PCFE will stubbornly refuse to do your bidding. The cutout needs to be smaller than the final Width and Height (though I'm sure ppmcentre would gracefully handle CutX or CutY being larger than Width and Height - I haven't given you that option!)

I'm glad it's saving some time. As Mike said, I have the integrated version in the pipeline now. You will only need to select the source folders, press process and the new app will run ppmcentre with the parameters you have selected, then RGB Split the ppmcentred bitmaps. (You will actually have the choice as to what 'mode' the new app is in - ppmcentre only, RGB Split only or both ppmcentre and RGBSplit)

[davidpretorius]

thanks adam,

i will double check with the 480, i must have been clicking the wrong one. It still worked well. I usually have to go cut=440, width = 480, but having everything at 440, it worked great

[davidpretorius]

re conversions from avi to bmp's,

here is the command line for the bink and smacker program

BinkConv jup_o4.avi x.bmp /o /n-1

[davidpretorius]

# Done: BinkConv jup-10-o8.avi x.bmp /o /n-1
# Done: cd C:\data\Astronomy\Avis\jup_060604_1 300UT
# Done: BinkConv jup-10-o9.avi x.bmp /o /n-1
# Done: cd C:\data\Astronomy\Avis\jup_060604_1 321UT
# Running: BinkConv jup-10-o11.avi x.bmp /o /n-1

some more batch commands for bink and smacker

[Gendo (Justin)]

Okay, Mike and David got me to come to this forum finally.

I'm in on beta testing it Adam. I just need a new capture now as I deleted my other ones (tonight hopefully).