[WINDOWS] MLV to DNG Batch Converter v1.9

[tonybeccar]

MLV Converter 1.9.2 for WINDOWS

Hello to all! 

I've been making this simple program in Visual Basic for the last few days. It is, like the title says, the first MLV to DNG batch converter for windows, which basically converts all your MLVs into different DNG folders. It has a lot of features, it is very simple and efficient. It runs from mlv_dump.

I am NOT a programmer! But when I was a kid I used to mess around with it, and Visual Basic is very easy,  so I managed to get it going! I aim this to be filmmaker-user-friendly. I only tested it on Windows 7.

List of features:

- Batch convert MLV files.
- Separate them into different DNG folders.
- Support for multi-folder if you have your footage organized in different folders. (Day, Card, Camera for example)
- Unique name system.
- Adobe DNG compression to Lossless or Lossy.
- Open listed MLV files with mlrawviewer.
- Select an XMP file to load automatically with Adobe Camera Raw. (just drop it into the Acr folder)
- WAV file renaming. This way you can grab all your folders in your root DNG folder and throw them into after effects. You will be prompted with ACR for each sequence. Time saver.
- Stop button.
- Check items to convert, move then up and down.
- Save settings and load them.
- Windos taskbar progress.
- Updater (will tell you when there's an update but you have to download yourself) NOT WORKING RIGHT NOW.
- Unique clip number for every comvertion you make. (the program remembers your last clip number, that way you will NEVER have duplicates. It goes up to 99999 and then goes back to 1)
- Card number increments on folder change.
- Support for small screens
- Info and warnings on disk space.
- Pause button
- Proxy creation (prores for now only) (can queue 2 proxies)
- Read MLV metadata. (resolution, fps, frames)
- THUMBNAILS, and more camera information.
- Individual progress.
- Dual ISO support.


Make sure you install Adobe DNG Converter, or it won't work! Download it here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=106&platform=Windows

Also, you have to install mlrawviewer to open files. Download here:
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=9560.0

And for thumbnails, you'll have to download IrfanView, maybe download the plugins too (for now, will try to fix it):
http://www.irfanview.com/

Everything is supposed to run smoothly, without any ugly terminals and windows coming up, with a nice progress bar, informing the user the progress all the way through. I aim it to be a professional solution for the ML RAW workflow, as this feature is SO great that it needs a proper and easy workflow!!!

Future features include:

- Optional LUT for proxies.
- Add reelname metadata. Useful for offline/online editing.
- Full MLV output, including compression to save disk space.
- Dual Iso support.
- Cinema DNG support.
- Drag n Drop.
- Display FULL metadata.
- Proper installer, with configuration saved in appdata.

For now the program is fully functional (and I hope bug free!) (don't worry, it won't erase anything..). I aim to continue it more, yes. When I started I only wanted the batch thing, but I got so excited that I had to keep going! I aim to do the queue function in a near future, but will see about the others! As some of them I have no idea how to make them... but if everyone's interested I can make the effort of course!

Version 1.9.2: DOWNLOAD

Hope you find it useful! My pleasure to make a contribution to the ML project... thanks SO much to the developers for making it possible! I await for your feedback if it has any bugs or if you have ideas on how to make it better!
Cheers!

[gary2013]

Thank you. 

[tonybeccar]

You're welcome!

[arrinkiiii]

Good work Tony 

[tonybeccar]

Thanks arinkiii

[kgv5]

WOW, I've been waiting for this for a long time Thank you,  i will test it tomorrow I think one of my biggest concerns about MLV processing is now gone

EDIT:
@tonybeccar - sweet app
It seems that we cannot select files for processing via your app window "files to convert" (yet at least), it shows every mlv in selected folder and than process them all. Could you implement right click and select/delete from the list?

[tonybeccar]

Hey! I really appreciate that you like it! And yes.. in the future I am planning to implement a queue feature, so you can select the exact files you want, move them around, have different values, etc. It is a lot of work as I am no programmer really so I will do it in the future. It is aimed to be as professional software as possible!

[ted ramasola]

Tested it. Its nice! I love that you placed the extracted files into their own folders.

Its slightly slower though than MLVBrowseSharp but not by much.

Maybe you can tweak the progress bar to move dynamicaly as frames are extracted and not by file as I thought it froze when I tested it. Realized later that it updates as soon as a one MLV file is finished. Not a big issue though.

Great job on this and looking forward to improvements.

[tonybeccar]

Yey!! Realtime progressbar is on my thoughts.. I just have to know how to find out how many frames does an MLV have inside.. and also to enable multiple instances.. because mlv_dump uses only 25-35% of my cpu.. I suppose it can go faster!

[ted ramasola]

I also like that you have a view MLV feature in one GUI. Hoping you can tweak it to also have a progress bar so the user can jump to a part of footage he wants, that way he can check if that footage is good or not thereby not including it for extraction if its bad, thus saving time.
Then an option or a check box which files to extract. Or perhaps just the option in a context menu to add or remove files on the list.

Again good job!

[ChadMuffin]

I just wanna say thank you! Everything you guys have been doing are what Canon and other companies higher huge teams and pay them quite well. You guys are doing this with a small, passionate team that work off of donations and in your free time. Everyday I see new milestones being reached! With this batch editor, this makes larger projects more practical. The technical side has been very fine tuned, just the work flow has become difficult for those not the most familiar with all of the different directions they can go. Glad you included the compression, that also makes it more practical for those who don't have top of the line machines and space. It is extremely hard to tell the difference and you cut the space by a fifth or so. Works great and I don't have any more ideas than the ones already said. Great job!

[atarijedi]

Look into ffmbc, it is a fork of ffmpeg that supports ProRes 422 and 4444, might be good for making proxies.

Also, ffmpeg supports Photoshop curve files (*.asv), if you could figure out how to create a curve file in photoshop that mimics Canon LOG, or whatever other curves you want to try, you should be able to use it.

http://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#curves-1

It also supports luts, and 3d luts. Including 3d LUTs made in DaVinci resolve.

[tonybeccar]

@ted: Why do you need an option to jump on a specific frame if you can open the file with the viewer? There you can play it anyway you want.. am I missing something?? And yesss think next thing I'm gonna work on is the queue, or checkboxes.. that'll be so sweet!

@Chad: I'm so flattered.. haha! The developers are the stars

@atarijedi: Thanks for the info!!! Is there something ffmpeg can't do??? Will look into it.

Thanks guys!

[ted ramasola]

@Tonybeccar,

The file can be opened in the viewer, its good already, but it plays from start to finish, I'm suggesting an option to fast fwd or pause OR show a line with a moving playhead that the user can scrub to any part of the file so one can do a quick confirm of a take.

[tonybeccar]

Yes, and it repeats after it finishes. It is a bit annoying. But I think that behaviour has to be changed from mlrawviewer, which I do not made! Maybe we can ask for a feature request for them? I'm sure though they have it in their plans... Although, I can make the file open with MLviewsharp.. but to be honest I like mlrawviewer more..

EDIT: Of course you can do that stuff at the viewer! SPACE pauses, "," and "." steps 1 frame at a time, arrows jump like 1 second.. etc. It's all on the readme on their thread, which is this one:

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=9560.0

Cheers!

[SteveScout]

Tony, thanks for writing this!! Great! Now I´m starting to test mlvs .. finally.

One question, though. I added three MLVs to the "files to convert" window, on the progress bar after clicking CONVERT it says 1/3 .. but then it only converts the first file, does not create folders for the other two .. and says "Successful."  Did you encounter something like that before? Or am I missing anything? It looks like that even in the commandline there´s no error etc. popping up.

thanks!

Steffen

[ted ramasola]

Yes, and it repeats after it finishes. It is a bit annoying. But I think that behaviour has to be changed from mlrawviewer, which I do not made! Maybe we can ask for a feature request for them? I'm sure though they have it in their plans... Although, I can make the file open with MLviewsharp.. but to be honest I like mlrawviewer more..

EDIT: Of course you can do that stuff at the viewer! SPACE pauses, "," and "." steps 1 frame at a time, arrows jump like 1 second.. etc. It's all on the readme on their thread, which is this one:

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=9560.0

Cheers!

Awesome! Thanks for the link!

[tonybeccar]

Tony, thanks for writing this!! Great! Now I´m starting to test mlvs .. finally.

One question, though. I added three MLVs to the "files to convert" window, on the progress bar after clicking CONVERT it says 1/3 .. but then it only converts the first file, does not create folders for the other two .. and says "Successful."  Did you encounter something like that before? Or am I missing anything? It looks like that even in the commandline there´s no error etc. popping up.

thanks!

Steffen

:/ !!! How are your mlv files named? Do you have enough disk space? Have you renamed any file alongside the Converter.exe? What are your DNG and MLV paths? Did you try renaming options?

Sorry there are no logs for now haha, there will be though.. Well, you can take a screenshot of the program and upload it..

Does it happen with every mlv file or just with those 3?

[tonybeccar]

I'm thinking.. did you choose the lossless or lossy option? I guess if you don't have adobe dng converter installed then the program will not continue.

[SteveScout]

Tony, thanks for investigating.

Just tried it again, it always extracts the first file, any of those three. But as soon as a second file comes into the directory it always keeps extracting the first one in the list (alphabetically).

1. Did not choose to use the lossless or lossy option - the DNG converter is installed (BATCHelor uses it), but every checkbox for its use remained unchecked here.
2. The MLV files´s names are
M18-1528.MLV
M18-1529.MLV
M18-1531.MLV
3. Disk space is fine, plenty left.
4. No files in the program directory were altered or renamed.
5. DNG and MLV paths are both the same external harddrive. But the MLV path has 30 characters. Too long? Guess not, otherwise it wouldn´t find even the first file.
Copying the program files to another directory did not help as well.
6. I used the renaming options on all previous attempts, now I am running one without any renaming. Argh, same result. Even without renaming - only one file extracted.

I´ll record new MLVs tomorrow and try another machine

Thanks!

Steffen

[ted ramasola]

Tonybeccar,

Another suggestion, how about letting the program "remember" the last folder settings, as usually when users have established a workflow, they always assign a folder(s) where they copy footage for a particular project, also assign where to extract to, so I think it would be intuitive that every time you open the application it defaults to the last ones used?

[kgv5]

One question, though. I added three MLVs to the "files to convert" window, on the progress bar after clicking CONVERT it says 1/3 .. but then it only converts the first file, does not create folders for the other two .. and says "Successful."  Did you encounter something like that before? Or am I missing anything? It looks like that even in the commandline there´s no error etc. popping up.

I had the same issue like SteveScout. Tried (three times) to process mlv files directly from CF card (to selected directory on my HDD) - there were 5 files on card (and in the convert window) but only 3 processed and "success" was displayed.
After copy all mlv to HDD it was ok.

[jayzed]

Fantastic. Now that we have audio recording, I'm switching completely to .MLV. This utility is the final piece of the puzzle for me, the only reason I was sticking with .RAW was due to the  number of steps to convert to  .DNG.

[tonybeccar]

@steve,

Wow, i have no idea what's going on! Could you send me a screenshot of the program all filled out ready to convert?

@kgv5,

Ok I see.. so weird that only processes 3 :S. Would love to track the bug, could you also send me a screenshot of the program with every setting filled?

@ted,

Yes!! Indeed! It is on my thoughts.. to make a config.ini and a button to save settings. Very useful!

@jayzed,

Thanks! Yess, that's why I was so compelled to make it!

I'm working on 1.1, already added a checkbox to select which mlv files to convert. Enhanced the renamer to follow the basics of RED naming mix with BMCC folder structures. Working also to compress the MLV files (slow but yes! more space saved!). Will support full MLV output of course.

[kgv5]

@tonybeccar, sure, i will try to reproduce the bug and give you results 

One more important step is needed: support of DualISO files processing in such a converter app. I know it would be hard and requires cooperation of the devs in the first place. That would be the dream app for all ML users