Can't really say Gendo. From force of habit (I learnt Virt Dub first) I always use VD to split my avies, I didn't even know that Aviraw did it Can Aviraw batch process? Now though with PCFE and RGBplit I wont need to use Aviraw at all.
welcome gendo, once this has the conversion of avi's to bmp's, then it will do away with everything else. Bird has his stacking project for ppmcentre as well.
I had my usual 6.30am breakfast meeting, but before I left, I batched all my saved bmps, thru the ppmcentre frontend and walked away.
A real time saver.
I will now have the RGB split working in the background all day so I can free up time to do work (spelt forum)
Here's a little preview of the integrated app - the folders tab will be the same, with all the changes on the Options tab.
You can select the mode of operation - ppmcentre only, RGBSplit only, or both. Set the ppmcentre options you want. Change the RGB Split default folder names (if you want). Go to the Folders tab and press Process. The app will run ppmcentre on the folders you selected, RGBSplit will then process the resultant ppmcentred bitmaps - all as a 'batch' process, so no user input required.
Maybe a week - maybe a little longer. I haven't got a lot to do to finish it, but my workload (at home and at work) is pretty heavy at the moment.
I have a working version but I've 'hard coded' some stuff for testing purposes. I've also got some improvements suggested by Chris (33 South) to do - those will go into the new app rather than PCFE.
Just a couple of points. I've noticed with both GUIs the expand (maximise) button isn't working?
This isn't a big problem unless you're working with long directory strings.
Also, mousing over first/last in the "Renumber" box (in PCFE) doesn't tell us what those two options (first, last) mean??? By default "renumber" box is ticked and "first" is also selected.
I assume that if you check the "ppmcentre only" radio button that the RGBSplit controls go grey, and vice versa
Yes, the controls will be disabled depending on the mode.
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I've noticed with both GUIs the expand (maximise) button isn't working
That's right - if I allowed you to expand or resize the form, I would have to write code to resize the tab, the folder list box and reposition buttons! In the interests of rapid development, I haven't done that (OK, I'm just lazy!). I might do this for a later release. For long directory strings, I'm looking at putting a scroll bar on the folders list when the path is too long for the box.
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Also, mousing over first/last in the "Renumber" box (in PCFE) doesn't tell us what those two options (first, last) mean??? By default "renumber" box is ticked and "first" is also selected.
Oops, I did forget to add the tip to the First and last options. Yes the default is renumber and first (ppmcentre uses these defaults, so I use them too) If you want to have other default values, change them, then go up to File|Save ppmcentre options and these will be your new default values. I think you will find that you always use similar values in your processing - save these as your default values and PCFE will use them every time you start the app. You are also prompted to save new default values if you have changed something and you move off the ppmcentre tab.
Oh yes. When I opened it yesterday I was thrilled by the looks of it!! I like the addition of RGB split shown in your preview picture as well Adam. Makes it even better, and like David said, a real time saver.
1ponders, with AVIraw I have to save the avi into RGB avis, then open each of them to convert into bmps. Finally I use ppmcentre. This front end application Adam has made with Anthony's ppmcentre and the rgb split (not sure who made it) will make things much easier. Its kind of funny I use AVIraw since I don't use the RAW mode for the Neximage anymore.
When I opened it yesterday I was thrilled by the looks of it
Thanks Gendo and welcome to IIS!
RGBSplit actually came first - it started out as an app I wrote for myself to split colour bitmaps into RGB channels.
The visual front end for ppmcentre came next so that more people have a chance to use bird's fantastic application (without having to go to the command line to do it - even users who are comfortable with the command line seem to like the convenience of the GUI)
Next will be the combined app. It's now a little more than a month since Mike and I started talking about making RGBSplit available to everyone - a very busy month!
Sounds like you had a similar process to me Gendo. Split avies into rgb using Aviraw (two steps, saving the rgb and then splitting into r, g, b), convert split avies to bmps using VD/Aviraw (4 processeses (might a well do the rgb avi while I'm at it ) though fortunately VD has batching), then I'd align the bmps with Images Plus (4 processes for rgb, r, g, b x 25 for the number of original avies plus). Then process the full size bmps through Registax.
Now it's once through VD (batched avies) to convert to bmps, then batch process all the bmps with PCFE and a batch run through rgbsplit, all while I'm doing other more constructive things, like hanging around here.
^^ Yes, that about summed it up. I finally had some decent seeing last night, so I've been using PCFE, and it works flawlessly so far.
Thank you so very much Adam!!! It makes processing much easier.
Not that I'm command line challenged, but more like spelling challenged on that command line. It seems like if I do type the whole command string right, then something else goes wrong (like an image too near the edge of frame which stops ppmcentre dead in its tracks).
Like you, I don't mind the command line but I find the GUI a bit more convenient. I did some processing on the weekend, too, and the front end makes things a whole lot quicker and needs a lot less interaction.
I've run a series of bmp's through ppmcentre and it keeps placing what looks like the worst frame (the darkest) at 0000 and the best (or among the brightest) at the bottom of the list at 1000. (It's a 1000 frame image sequence).
The avi was affected by cloud cover varying the brightness of the frames.
I've got the Quality Estimate box ticked, also Renumber ticked, and I've tried "first" and "last" in the Renumber box without it making any difference.
How do I get ppmcentre to put the best frame at 0000 and grade them down to 1000? Or is it possible the "darker" frames are the best?
Thanks
Also, is there any way of saving our preferred settings rather than it always defaulting?
I can't claim to be an expert in how the Quality Estimate function works, but I think that the image is compressed and ppmcentre uses the result of the compression to determine how much 'information' is in the image and therefore its quality (a fuzzy image will have less information).
I have had problems with the quality estimation function in Registax if I have a mixture of darker and lighter frames, so I think that is where the problem lies. In those cases, I just made sure I picked the sharpest frame I could find as the reference frame in Registax.
You can save your preferred settings as the new default. Just change the settings on the ppmcentre tab and select File|Save ppmcentre options on the Menu.
You can save your preferred settings as the new default. Just change the settings on the ppmcentre tab and select File|Save ppmcentre options on the Menu.
Doesn't look like it will let me. That option (in file) is greyed out
Hi Matt, have you changed any of the parameters on the ppmcentre tab from their original settings?
When you initially install and run PCFE it will run the first time with some 'vanilla' defaults. If you change any of the parameters to a value other than the defaults, the Save ppmcentre options menu choice is enabled (not grayed out). Also, if you have changed a parameter and move off the tab, you will get a message box asking you if you want to save the new values as defaults.