Planetary Imaging file download

[gfunkernator]

If I choose to capture 2000 frames into an AVI file I see that BYE will sample the fps, on my Surface it goes up to about 53fps, then begins to capture the frames.  When the capture completes,  I notice that the number "1" blinks in the Camera queue.  If I try to take another image, the framerate drops to 19-20fps.  I guess this is because the USB bandwidth is saturated while downloading the previous file.  Are the AVI files being saved to the camera first then downloaded by BYE?  Is there a way to capture the frames/file directly to disk?

[admin]

Not USB per say because at that time all the images are downloaded to disk (some may still be in the memory buffer waiting to be written to disk)

The "1" means that that AVI encoding job is in progress. This consumes a lot of resources because it's a heavy process... and will slow down your PC in general.

There is not image quality gain in creating a AVI file. The individual jpgs are actual used as-is to create the AVI.  I would recommend not creating the AVI in favor of using the individual jpgs.  Most planetary stacking software are just as happy with jpgs.

Regards,

[astroman133]

You misunderstand how BYE does planetary imaging. There is no file download from the camera.

With Planetary Imaging, LiveView is active. BYE downloads individual LiveView frames to the PC as fast as the camera can deliver them. Once  all the frames are stored on the PC, they are assembled into the AVI file. Unless you have told BYE to also keep the individual frames, they are then deleted and you are left with only the AVI file. The "1" that blinks in the queue is the number of videos that need to be completed.

[s3igell]

There are some bennies to allowing BYE/BYN to create the AVI versus retaining the JPGs:

1. Not all Image Stacking Programs can handle a "dump" of 500+ discrete JPG Files.  Several use a Drag&Drop Buffer that is limited to 4095 chars Total for all the Filenames.  Others try to Open all the Input JPGs at the same time - requiring significant Memory. Few try to store the entire AVI in Memory - at least not on initial Open.
2. There are pre-processing programs such as AstroPIPP, which will Crop and Trim the individual Frames so as to produce a smaller AVI where the Target is always Centered.  It can also apply a good Focus Score, and save only the Best ##% or #### Count of Frames.  This makes it easier to run the resulting AVI through RegiStax and AVIStacker (which have issues with Large Files - or large count of files per #1).  AutoStakkert3 has similar Stabilize and Pre-Grade Trim Functionality.
3. You can run the AVI from BYE/BYN through FFMPEG and produce a Lossless Compressed AVI or MPG file that is 50-25% the size (for long-term Storage). (Guylain:  There's a long-buried Feature Request for Compressed AVI output...  :^)

 

[gfunkernator]

Ah ok.  I use a Surface Pro 6 for AP which is great especially for mobility.  So the consensus is that it is better to use an AVI file instead of jpgs?

[astroman133]

The point is that which is best depends on the abilities of the processing software. If the processing software can take both an AVI and individual frames, then I would tend to prefer the AVI because it is easier to manage one file than it is several hundred files.

 

[admin]

3 hours ago, gfunkernator said:

Ah ok.  I use a Surface Pro 6 for AP which is great especially for mobility.  So the consensus is that it is better to use an AVI file instead of jpgs?

From an image quality perspective there is no difference.  In fact the AVI is just a container for all the same jpgs.

The advantage of the AVI is that you only need to copy a single file off you imaging laptop.

The advantage of jpgs is that you do not use computer resources to create the AVI.

I would say it's a personal choice.