MLVFS - a FUSE based, "on the fly" MLV to CDNG converter

[Danne]

How could you edit defaultscale tag when it hasn, t been introduced since recently in mlvfs by dmilligan? Or is the tag included in mlv_dump, raw2dng?
Would be cool if you remember what you did exactly .

[bwinter88]

It's part of the DNG standard and has a default value of 1. I really thought I opened it up in TextWrangler and it was all there in XML format. Now when I open up a file all I see is gibberish. I can remember everything I did except how I edited the value in the first place! How are you all editing EXIF values anyway? Exif editor doesn't show the advanced metadata categories, defaultscale included.

Edit: So, I think the DefaultScale tag is misunderstood here. I'm not sure if MLVFS is doing this but I took a look at my 60p footage and the tag has values of H=1 V=1.6667. Not sure where these numbers are coming from. What we want to do is change this value to counter the "stretch" of 1728x606 footage, which is an aspect ratio of 2.85. We want an aspect ratio of 1.7778 (16:9) so the pixels will need to be taller than they are wide, does this make sense? That means the correct DefaultScale values should be H=1 V=0.624.

Problem is, exiftool returns "1 image files unchanged" every time I try to write the file, can somebody help?

Code Select Expand

exiftool -DefaultScale='1 0.624' test.DNG

[Danne]

Can you edit this file and test it in adobe premiere pro.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4tCJMlOYfirOUlSdDR4Q043NHc/view?usp=sharing

I didn,t get it to work in Ppro but it worked in adobe camera raw.

I suggest you write

Code Select Expand

exiftool -DefaultScale='1 1.6667' test.DNG to get correct values.


By the way here is the file with inserted defaultscale value set at

Code Select Expand

DefaultScale='1 1.6667'
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4tCJMlOYfirdlJicS0yX1l3Z1U/view?usp=sharing

[bwinter88]

Danne not sure if you misread my post but it's editing files in general that I'm having trouble with.

This is my command

Code Select Expand

exiftool -DefaultScale='1 0.624' test.DNG

and I'm getting

Code Select Expand

Nothing changed in test.DNG
    0 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged

Any idea why this is?

Again, the 1 1.6667 are the wrong values to use to "de-stretch," that's why we want to change it.

[dmilligan]

Again, the 1 1.6667 are the wrong values to use to "de-stretch," that's why we want to change it.

Nope, those are the correct values. The stretch is due to pixel skipping. The pixel skipping is every 3rd column and every 5th row. You can only skip odd numbers of rows or columns or you'd end up with missing colors (either blue or red) due to the bayer array. This means the ratio is exactly 3:5.

I think you have your horizontal and vertical mixed up. Horizontal (x) axis is always listed first. That means 1, 1.6667 is the correct value (3:5 = 1:1.6667). The equivalent of that would be 0.6:1, which would also work, and I think it's close to what you are going for (0.624 is wrong though, should be 0.6 exactly b/c like I explain above, we know the exact stretch ratio is 3:5), but I figure it's better to stretch things larger than to compress them smaller.

I have tested this and it de-stretches correctly in ACR (but not PPro, which just ignores it).

[bwinter88]

Ah, my mistake, thanks for the correction dmilligan, you are right. However I'm not sure I understand the 3rd column/5th row skipping reasoning for the PAR of 0.6. Regardless of what pixels the camera skips, the output (at least for my 5D3) is 1728x606 which is a 2.85 AR not 3.5. A PAR of .6:1 or 1:1.667 would give a 1.71 AR, not quite the 1.7778 we want, no?

Also, does anyone have any idea why I can't change any exif info using exif tool? I keep getting "1 files unchanged" returned. Verbose mode just says "nothing changed in test.DNG"

[dmilligan]

The amount the image is stretched is exact (it's 3:5 and I just proved why that is the case). Just because you are getting 1728x606 out doesn't mean that image is supposed to be 16:9 when "de-stretched" (which is the assumption you are making). The original recorded image area before stretch is not exactly 16:9 equivalent.

To get to a specific aspect ratio, you should "de-stretch" by the exact amount and then crop to get to the exact aspect ratio you want, otherwise you are slightly distorting the image either vertically or horizontally.

If you still don't believe me that the exact PAR is 3:5, then feel free to shoot a resolution chart (or something with a perfect square on it) and measure it exactly for yourself.

[bwinter88]

Ah! That makes sense. so I'm losing a tiny bit more resolution at these slo-mo rates. Bummer. Anyway I can recall that I also changed either a crop size or an image size tag to "1920x1080" have you tried that? It's so bizarre because Ppro is clearly reading some kind of PAR info from the file as evidenced by the Interpret footage dialog. I wish I could remember what I did to make it work.

[poromaa]

Hi, Is there anyway to enable saving a file in the virtual folder? Maybe a setting in the FUSE-thing? This would have been great because then you could grade first frame of the footage in lightroom and save the metadata in the virtual folder. Then load it in after effects and have the grading done.

[dmilligan]

I have implemented it so that you can save separate files into the virtual folder such as XMP sidecar files (when you do this, they will appear in a ".MLD" directory next to the original MLV file). Overwriting the DNGs themselves is impossible.

[DeafEyeJedi]

Hi, Is there anyway to enable saving a file in the virtual folder? Maybe a setting in the FUSE-thing? This would have been great because then you could grade first frame of the footage in lightroom and save the metadata in the virtual folder. Then load it in after effects and have the grading done.

Perhaps why not just do it all solely in AE with SmartImport2 while running MLVFS?

[festr]

Hi Im experiencing vertical banding on my 5d mk3 but it is not corrected by the latest mlv fuse. I can get rid of them.only when I shoot to raw and use raw2dng utility which detects them in debug output and dng is clear. I even see vertical bands in mlvviewer. Is this known issue? What I can do?

[DeafEyeJedi]

Did you forget to "refresh" web browser after clicking on Vertical stripes fix in order for MLVFS to take effect prior to rendering otherwise?

[festr]

Oh I totally forgot that there is web settings and so as you suggested it is not enabled by default probably. I will check it once I get to my pc again. Thank you for the hint.

[iheartbmx]

I apologize if this has been asked, but its hard to track down - Right-clicking my folders brings up nothing for services. My MLV's are located on an external SSD if that makes any difference.

- Macbook Pro / 10.9.5
- I've installed the latest versions of FUSE and MLVFS (Also deleted previous versions)
- Attempted directly from CF and also from external SSD

Thanks in advance!

*Edit - Services is now working, however - WebGUI opens, navigate to the footage directory, WebGUI page does not exist. I attempt again, WebGUI fails entirely. Double clicking the mounted folder does not work either, but it shows up on the desktop.

[DeafEyeJedi]

How many GB of MLV in total? If lots of footage then give it some time for MLVFS to generate all the required .IDX files for them to show up on the WebGUI.

[iheartbmx]

How many GB of MLV in total? If lots of footage then give it some time for MLVFS to generate all the required .IDX files for them to show up on the WebGUI.

64GB's; Ill try again and give it some time. Thx for the help.

[bwinter88]

Is anyone else having issues using the files from MLVFS in Adobe Premiere? It takes several seconds for the image to update in the source/preview monitors and I get the "media pending" screen often. When I convert using another method, RAWMagic for instance, playback and workflow is smooth.

[budafilms]

- I have installed MLFVS in OSX Yosemite. I upgrade to EL Capitan, and everything is working with out resin tall again the scripts.

- The only confusing thing for me using this tool is the steps and pop up windows from navigator. I choose the option that I think (Resolve, Vertical Corrections) and I reload the page. After that I drag and drop the files to a local disk. I supposed that settings is applied in my DNGs footage.

- The other question is if exist a DNG compress, to save space.

[silenttapes]

Please accept my apologies if this has already been asked, I have attempted to search but to no avail.

Is there any chance of MLFVS being able to reference a pool of dark frames (1 for each ISO), and then subtract it on the fly?

I understand I can do it per clip with MLV_dump but would rather use a more efficient method. I am having a tough time bringing in FPN removal to my work flow. My subtract experiments work much better in AE (Davinci Resolve seems to massively darken image instead, maybe i'm doing it wrong). AE isn't so great for my .xml workflow and I would much rather be working Davinci.

[dmilligan]

- The other question is if exist a DNG compress, to save space.

The DNGs are virtual, so they already take up 0 space. "Compressing" them would only slow down MLVFS and they would still take up 0 space. However, it sounds like you are using this tool to permanently convert the DNGs ("After that I drag and drop the files to a local disk"). This sort of defeats the whole intended purpose of MLVFS, therefore I see no reason to do all the work to implement something like this. If you are permanently converting the DNGs anyway, there are plenty of tools out there than can compress them, and there are other MLV converters that provide compressed DNGs.

Is there any chance of MLFVS being able to reference a pool of dark frames (1 for each ISO), and then subtract it on the fly?

Yes it's possible, and something I'd like to see added. Can't say when I might have time to implement it.

[budafilms]

@dmilligan

It's true what you said. I'm permantently converting and dragging DNG. I tried all the converters under OSX, and the differences in quality from this to other are big. Not only in the size, I just tried to export with the same setting and color post processsiong one DNG from MLVS and one from other converter and the difference it's huge in color, in noise, even in death pixels from one to other.

The way to check and clean unusual shots in my case it's after copy DNG to my local disk, I open Resolve and see the take. I can leave or permanently delete with a tool in Resolve - with the other click of the mouse over the shot. I know lot of people use MLViewer to do this but I get repeat freeze from that software and lot of problems.

My question to compress is in the local disk. As I understood, DNG could be compress and the quality loss it's not percieve at all. Other sofware do this, but as I said, this is the more stable for me.

Thanks for your tme and sorry for my english, I talk italian or spanish.

[dfort]

My default browser is Chrome and after installing El Capitan I noticed that instead of the _PREVIEW.gif I'm getting a broken image icon. Don't know if it has to do with the system but it used to work fine.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[dmilligan]

Click the 'Load' button. Previews no longer load by default.

[dfort]

Doh!

Works fine. Thanks!