CHAPTER 16: DISPLAY AND CONVERSION OF IMAGES AND MOVIES

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16.1 Displaying Image Files


UNIX Programs Used to View Image Files


    xv
        - Used to view a variety image formats (Section 16.3)

    display (ImageMagic)
        - Used to view a variety image formats (Section 16.3)

    imgview (SGI)
        - Used to view a variety image formats
           (Supported formats are listed by the imgformats command)


16.2 Viewing Movie Files


UNIX Programs Used to View Animation and Movie Files


    movieplayer (Associated program dmconvert is used to convert between var ious formats.)
        - Used to view
            AVI movie files (*.avi)
            Quicktime movie files (*.mov)
            SGI movie files (*.sgimv)
        - Available on SGI systems

    mpeg_play
        - Used to view MPEG-1 files (*.mpeg *.mpg)
        - Available on Alpha, Linux, SGI, and SUN system s

    xanim
        - Used to view
            Animated GIF files (*.gif)
            AVI movie files (*.avi)
            Quicktime movie files (*.mov)
            SGI movie files (*.sgimv)
        - Available on Alpha, Linux, SGI, and SUN system


Common Animation and Movie Formats


  Animation Formats

    Animated GIF (*.gif files)
        - Multiple GIF images in a single file.
        - Used to deliver Web based animations.

    Flash (Macromedia *.swf Shockwave Flash files)
        - Proprietary, published specification.
        - Used to deliver Web based animations to browsers with FlashPlayer plugin.

    JAVA (Programatic animation of *.png, *.jpg, and *.gif files)
        - Java applets (Web server programs) used to deliver Web based animations to browsers with JVM (Java Virtual Machine).


  Movie Formats

    AVI Audio Video Interleave (Microsoft *.avi files)
        - Specializaion of RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format)
        - 27 different CODECs (COmpression-DECompression) 8, 16, & 24 bit color

    QuickTime (Apple *.qt, *.qtm, & *.mov files)
        - Multimedia format integrating text, graphics, video, animation, 3D, VR, and sound.
        - MPEG-4 based on QuickTime.

    MPEG Motion Picture Experts Group (ISO Standard *.mpeg *.mpg files)
        - JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) intra-frame encoding
        - DCT (Discrete Cosine Transformation) interframe compression of changes between frames

    MPEG-1 CD-ROM Movies
        - Optimal resolution 352x240@30fps
        - 24 bit color
        - CD quality sound

    MPEG-2 DVD Movies and Cable & Satellite Broadcast Quality Video
        - Resolution: 720x480@60fps 1280x720@60fps 1440x960@30fps
        - 24 bit color
        - CD quality sound

    MPEG-3 HDTV (Standard not necessary, MPEG-2 tweaked to support HDTV)
        - Resolution 1920x1080@30fps

    MPEG-4 WEB Based Audio and Video
        - Streaming audio and video
          (Compressed files downloaded over a low bandwidth network can be played during the download.)
        - Support for hyperlinks

    SGI Movie (SGI *.sgimv files)
        - One format used by SGI programs moviemaker, movieplayer and dmconvert.

    RealVideo (RealNetworks *.rv files)
        - Proprietary streaming video


16.3 Image File Formats and Conversion Programs

MMM Image Format Conversion Tools
 
   
ImageMagick
SDSC
Netpbm
XV
SGI
Program Name
convert
imconv
pbm
xv
imgcopy
UNIX Availability
Alpha Linux SGI SUN
Alpha SGI SUN
Alpha SUN
Alpha Linux SGI SUN
SGI
Name Description
r = read
w = write
- = not supported
ALIAS Alias image file
-
rw
-
-
rw
ATK Andrew ToolKit raster object
-
-
rw
-
-
AVS Application Visualization System
rw
rw
-
-
-
BMP Windows Bitmap Format
rw
-
-
rw
-
BBN BBN BitGraph
-
-
w
-
-
BDF Adobe Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format
-
-
rw
-
-
BRUSH Xerox Doodle Brush
-
-
r
-
-
CMU CMU Window Manager
-
-
rw
-
-
CMYK Raw CMYK Data
rw
-
-
-
-
CURSOR Sun Cursor File
-
rw
-
-
-
DXF Autodesk Drawing eXchange Format
-
-
w
-
-
EPS Encapsulated PostScript file
-
w
w
w
-
EPSON Epson Printer File
-
-
w
-
-
FITS Flexable Image Transport System
rw
-
rw
rw
rw
G3 CCITT T.4 Group 3 Fax
rw
-
rw
-
-
GEM GEM
-
-
rw
-
-
GIF Graphics Interchange Format
rw
rw
rw
rw
rw
GRAY Raw Grey Scale Data
rw
-
-
-
-
HDF Hierarchical Data Format
rw
rw
-
-
-
HIPS Human Information Prosessing Lab, NYU
-
-
r
-
-
HPLJ HP Laser Jet File
-
-
w
-
-
HPPJ HP PaintJet XL PCLFile
-
-
rw
-
-
IBLM Amiga IFF ILBM
-
-
rw
-
-
ICON Sun Icon File
-
-
rw
-
-
ICR NCSA Interactive Color Raster
-
-
w
-
-
IFF Sun TAAC Image File Format
-
rw
-
-
-
ilTLC IL TCL script image
-
-
-
-
rw
IMG Img-whatnot
-
-
r
-
-
IRIS Silicon Graphics Image File Format
rw
rw
-
rw
rw
JBIG Joint Bilevel Image Group
rw
-
-
-
-
JFIF JPEG File Interchange Format
-
-
-
-
rw
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group
rw
-
-
rw
rw
LISPM Lisp Machine bitmap
-
-
rw
-
-
MACP Apple Macintosh MacPaint File
-
rw
rw
-
-
MGR MGR
-
rw
-
-
-
MIFF Magick Image File Format
rw
-
-
-
-
MPEG Moving Picture Expert Group
r
-
-
-
-
MTV MTV or PRT ray traces
-
-
r
-
-
PBM Portable Bitmap
rw
rw
-
rw
-
PCD Kodak PhotoCD
r
-
-
-
r
PCDO Kodak PhotoCD Overview
-
-
-
-
r
.pc1 & .pc3 Atari Degas
-
-
rw
-
-
PCX ZSoft Paint
rw
rw
rw
-
-
PDF Portable Document Format
rw
-
-
-
-
PDS Planetary Data System Format
r
-
-
-
-
PGM Portable Greymap
rw
rw
-
rw
-
PICT Macintosh Picture
rw
rw
rw
-
-
PIX Alias image file
-
rw
-
-
-
PIXAR PIXAR picture file
-
rw
-
-
-
PLOT Unix plot(5)
-
-
w
-
-
PNG Portable Network Graphics
rw
-
-
-
rw
PNM Portable aNy Map file
-
rw
-
-
-
PNTG Apple Macintosh MacPaint file
-
rw
-
-
-
PPM Portable Pixel Map file
rw
rw
-
rw
rw
PS PostScript File
rw
rw
w
w
-
PSID PostScript Image Data
-
-
r
-
-
PXT Printronix Printer File
-
-
w
-
-
QRT QRT ray tracer
-
-
r ppm
-
-
RAD Radience
r
-
-
-
-
RAS Sun Rasterfile
rw
rw
rw
rw
-
RGB Raw Raw RGB Data
rw
-
r
-
-
RGB SGI SGI Silicon Graphics Image File Format
rw
rw
-
rw
rw
RLA Wavefront Raster Image File
-
rw
-
-
-
RLB Wavefront Raster Image File
-
rw
-
-
-
RLE Utah Run Length Encoded Image File
rw
rw
-
-
-
SIXEL DEC Sixel
-
-
w
-
-
SLD SLD
-
-
w
-
-
SOFTIMAGE SOFTIMAGE Image
-
-
-
-
rw
SPC Atari Spectrum
-
-
r
-
-
SPOT SPOT
-
-
rw
-
-
SYNU Synu Image File
-
rw
-
-
-
TAAC Sun TAAC Image File Format
-
rw
-
-
-
TGA Truevision Targa File Format
rw
-
rw
rw
-
TIFF Tag Image File Format
rw
rw
rw
rw
rw
UIL Motif UIL icon file
-
-
w
-
-
VICAR Video Image Communication and Retrieval
r
-
-
-
-
VIFF Visualization Image File Format
rw
-
-
-
-
X10BM X10 bitmap file
-
-
rw
-
-
XBM X11 Window BitMap
rw
rw
rw
rw
-
XIM Xim toolkit file
-
-
r
-
-
XPM X11 Window PixMap
rw
-
rw
rw
-
XWD X11 Window Dump
rw
rw
rw
-
-
YBM Bennet Yee
-
-
rw
-
-
YUV Abekas video YUV
-
-
rw
-
rw
YUVRaw Raw YUV Data
rw
-
-
-
-
ZINC Zinc Interface Library Icon
-
-
w
-
-

The following are available via anonymous ftp:


16.3.1 xv


xv is an interactive image manipulation program for the X Window System. It can operate on images in the GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PBM, PGM, PM, X11 bitmap, Sun Rasterfile, RLE, RGB, BMP, PCX and PM formats. xv provides a wide variety of tools for manipulating images such, clipping out portions of an image, rotating or smoothing the image, or converting the image to another format. The document "XV Interactive Image Display for the X Window System" is available from our computing library.

Note: Currently, jpeg and tiff files cannot be read on the DEC Alpha architecture.


16.3.2 imtools


The San Diego Super Computing Center developed a suite of tools, called imtools, for performing manipulations on images. There is a man page available for each specific tool. This software is available on all of the Unix platforms.



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Copyright © UCAR 1997-2002 - Disclaimer - mmminfo@ncar.ucar.edu
Last Modified: 1 December 2002