[RESOLVED] Dual ISO postprocessing workflow is not working

Started by Tai.Fighter, March 16, 2016, 05:58:43 AM

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Tai.Fighter

Hi everyone,

I am having a lot of trouble with this dual ISO in raw video. I was wondering if anyone knew the solution!

I'm shooting a 5DmkIII with nightly Build 2015Dec20.5D3123. Shooting .MLV. (Non-lite, and not .RAW)

I am processing using raw2cdng.1.7.5 to turn MLVs into DNGs, and then cr2hdr (downloaded off the ML downloads page) to "process" the dual ISO to get rid of banding. Exiftool.exe and dcraw.exe are in the path.

Before processing, the DNGs look banded as they should:



But after cr2hdr is done with them, why are they turning out like this:



The directory they're in looks like this now:



Thank you!

reddeercity

More info please , Camera model , nighty build , file type .MLV , .MLV Lite , .Raw
I have notice issue with cr2hdr of late not sure when it was updated  last

Tai.Fighter

I'm shooting a 5DmkIII with nightly Build 2015Dec20.5D3123

Shooting .MLV. (Non-lite, and not .RAW)

And I downloaded cr2hdr off the ML downloads page.

Screenshot of the cr2hdr I tried:



Today I tried again today with a cr2hdr from a different source and got a different result:

Input file      : C:\Users\USER\Desktop\New CDRHR\M14-201600066.dng
Camera          : Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Full size       : 1920 x 1080
Active area     : 1920 x 1080
Black borders   : N/A
ISO pattern     : BBdd RGGB
White levels    : 10000 5000
Noise levels    : 8.00 8.00 8.00 8.00 (14-bit)
Doesn't look like interlaced ISO
ISO blending didn't work

Screenshot:


DeafEyeJedi

5D3.113 | 5D3.123 | EOSM.203 | 7D.203 | 70D.112 | 100D.101 | EOSM2.* | 50D.109

Ottoga

@Tai.Fighter

I've had this happen to me in the past. After much searching and reading on the forum I found a reference to a similar problem.

The solution was to turn OFF the link to Dual ISO in Auto ETTR.

It may not be the case here but if you are using Auto ETTR and Dual ISO at the same time it might be worth a try.
EOS 7D.203, EFS 55-250mm, EF 75-300 III, Tamron 16-300 DiII VC PZD Macro, SpeedLite 580EX II.

Tai.Fighter

I'm just now learning what MLVProducer is. I'll try that, thank you!

And I was not shooting with any ETTR or anything. Just dual ISO.

Tai.Fighter

I tried MLVProducer but cannot figure out for the life of me how to export raw DNGs.

MLV_Dump I have no idea how to use, it doesn't appear to do anything when I run the command line and drag MLV_Dump in. It gives me something about all these variables but I don't know how to use them either. I tried following whatever vague instructions they give and nothing came of it, just errors.

C:\Users\USER\Desktop\mlv_dump (2)>mlv_dump.exe -0 rawstuff --dng -9 level m26-0224mlv
mlv_dump.exe: unknown option -- 0
Usage: mlv_dump.exe [-o output_file] [-rscd] [-l compression_level(0-9)] <inputfile>
Parameters:
-o output_file      set the filename to write into
-v                  verbose output
--batch             output message suitable for batch processing

-- DNG output --
--dng               output frames into separate .dng files. set prefix with -o
--no-cs             no chroma smoothing
--cs2x2             2x2 chroma smoothing
--cs3x3             3x3 chroma smoothing
--cs5x5             5x5 chroma smoothing
--fixcp             fix cold pixels

-- RAW output --
-r                  output into a legacy raw file for e.g. raw2dng

-- MLV output --
-b bits             convert image data to given bit depth per channel (1-16)
-z bits             zero the lowest bits, so we have only specified number of bits containing data (1-16) (improves compression rate)
-f frames           frames to save. e.g. '12' saves the first 12 frames, '12-40' saves frames 12 to 40.
-A fpsx1000         Alter the video file's FPS metadata
-x                  build xref file (indexing)
-m                  write only metadata, no audio or video frames
-n                  write no metadata, only audio and video frames
-a                  average all frames in <inputfile> and output a single-frame MLV from it
--avg-vertical      [DARKFRAME ONLY] average the resulting frame in vertical direction, so we will extract vertical banding
--avg-horizontal    [DARKFRAME ONLY] average the resulting frame in horizontal direction, so we will extract horizontal banding
-s mlv_file         subtract the reference frame in given file from every single frame during processing
-e                  delta-encode frames to improve compression, but lose random access capabilities
-X type             extract only block type
-I mlv_file         inject data from given MLV file right after MLVI header
-c                  (re-)compress video and audio frames using LZMA (set bpp to 16 to improve compression rate)
-d                  decompress compressed video and audio frames using LZMA
-l level            set compression level from 0=fastest to 9=best compression

-- bugfixes --
--black-fix=value   set black level to <value> (fix green/magenta cast)
--fix-bug=id        fix some special bugs. *only* to be used if given instruction by developers.

Walter Schulz


dfort

Looks like you're trying to over complicate things:

C:\Users\USER\Desktop\mlv_dump (2)>mlv_dump.exe -0 rawstuff --dng -9 level m26-0224mlv

Like Walter said, you used a zero instead of the letter "o" and that's not the way to set the compression level. Assuming your filename is M26-0224.MLV and not m26-0224mlv as you put in your post, this should work:

mlv_dump.exe --dng M26-0224.MLV
[EDIT: I transposed the letters 'l' and 'v' in my post. Sorry, fixed it. Try again.]

That should give you the dng files. Looks like you already know how to run cr2hdr:

cr2hdr.exe *.dng

Try that and report back.

Tai.Fighter

Thank you for the help guys, I promise I'm not trying to be dense.

I tried again, but it still was giving me errors:

QuoteC:\Users\USER>cd desktop

C:\Users\USER\Desktop>cd mlv_dump (2)

C:\Users\USER\Desktop\mlv_dump (2)>mvl_dump.exe --dng M26-0224.MLV
'mvl_dump.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Users\USER\Desktop\mlv_dump (2)>

And then when I tried uisng CDRHR:

QuoteC:\Users\USER>cd desktop

C:\Users\USER\Desktop>cd New CDRHR

C:\Users\USER\Desktop\New CDRHR>cr2hdr.exe M26-162600000.dng
cr2hdr: a post processing tool for Dual ISO images

Last update: ab1e90c on 2015-11-24 09:50:19 UTC by a1ex:
cr2hdr: moved safeguard from median_int_wirth to kth_smallest_i...

Active options:
--amaze-edge    : use a temporary demosaic step (AMaZE) followed by edge-directed interpolation (default)
--cs2x2         : apply 2x2 chroma smoothing in noisy and aliased areas (default)
--wb=graymax    : set AsShotNeutral by maximizing the number of gray pixels (default)

Input file      : M26-162600000.dng
Camera          : Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Full size       : 1920 x 1080
Active area     : 1920 x 1080
Black borders   : N/A
ISO pattern     : ddBB RGGB
White levels    : 10000 5000
Noise levels    : 8.00 8.00 8.00 8.00 (14-bit)
Doesn't look like interlaced ISO
ISO blending didn't work

C:\Users\USER\Desktop\New CDRHR>

Walter Schulz

First error: Syntax! There is no MVL_DUMP.EXE!
Second error: Try another Dual-ISO file. CR2HDR tries to determine if the file is in fact contains ISO interlacing but - sometimes - fails to do so.

dfort

Sorry, my bad. I had the letters transposed in my post. Fixed it.

@Tai.Fighter -- try mlv_dump again. The second error is because you're using the same dng files that you extracted from raw2cdng.1.7.5, right? Same actions same results?

Quote from: Tai.Fighter on March 26, 2016, 10:36:40 PM
I'm sorry I accidentally clicked the wrong thread to comment in, and now I don't even know how to delete my own post (this one). Apologies for crowding up the thread.

I don't think there's a way to delete the post but on the upper right of your posts you will see a symbol that looks like this:

You can modify the message to just "Post Deleted."

Tai.Fighter

Thank you guys so much, you are hero wizards. I finally managed to get it working and processed. You were right on both accounts, the typo caused the mlv_dump error, and the other one because I was using the bad DNGs.

Just one last question. I noticed strange things going on, like details "jumping" or "shimmering" but I'm not sure what is going on/how to fix it and thought you guys might.

I made a small clip here that shows it (ignore the before/after comparison). You can see it mostly on the white text on the black box on the right, and on the curtain in the back:

https://youtu.be/kxwKLxCl6eQ

dfort

Quote from: Tai.Fighter on March 28, 2016, 04:41:38 AM
I noticed strange things going on, like details "jumping" or "shimmering" but I'm not sure what is going on/how to fix it and thought you guys might.

You're looking at one of the issues with Dual ISO. There's a lighter exposure and a darker exposure interlaced into one frame so you're losing about half the vertical resolution in areas where there is no overlap. Here's a better explanation from the dual_iso paper that a1ex published:

QuoteNot only you lose half of resolution in highlights and shadows; you will also get aliasing and
moire, because the splitting process is effectively sampling two lines, skipping two lines and so
on. Since the number of skipped lines is 2, the severity of aliasing in photo mode (at full sensor
resolution) should be similar to what you get in most Canon video dSLRs when recording
1080p.

Note that using the full resolution of the sensor will cause aliasing. When you are shooting raw video which already has aliasing it is much worse. Does this mean that Dual ISO is unusable with raw video? It depends on your subject matter, the shooting mode you're using (crop modes are better for Dual ISO) and your expectations. The best advice is to continue testing until you are familiar with the advantages and limitations of Dual ISO before using it on anything you can't easily reshoot. Even then, shoot a take with and another without Dual ISO if possible.

One more thing--you might also experiment with HDR video. This mode doesn't have the aliasing issues but it does introduce motion artifacts.

Tai.Fighter

Wow thank you so much for that information! Really helpful. That PDF is a goldmine.

So if I were to use HDR video for raw video instead of Dual ISO, is this the best resource to process that?

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=13512.msg130562#msg130562

DeafEyeJedi

MLP is king when it comes to HDR workflow for OS X. [emoji6]

Same applies for Dual-ISO as well.
5D3.113 | 5D3.123 | EOSM.203 | 7D.203 | 70D.112 | 100D.101 | EOSM2.* | 50D.109

dfort

Yeah, well since you're on a PC you might have to look for alternate workflows. Way back with this was new a1ex published a workflow that works with Windows and Linux using free and open source tools. You might want to check it out: https://bitbucket.org/a1ex/magic-lantern/downloads

There are several ways of working with HDR video. Do a seach on this forum and also on YouTube to see some examples.

[EDIT: You should probably edit the title and add RESOLVED to it. Maybe start a new topic on HDR video for PC.]