Stacking software that can open .mov videos

[Shekhar Phatak]

Hi Guys,

I have a Canon 7D camera and want to photograph Jupiter with the same. The problem is that 7D, to my knowledge can only save videos in .mov format and these files cannot be opened in Registax. I tried to open the file in Windows Movie Maker and then save it in .avi format. It asked me quite a lot of questions such as codec to be used etc. I tried to save it without any codec. The file now opens in Registax but I cannot process it further as it takes ages to complete even one step. The time taken to process a normal avi file saved by my DMK 21AUD4.AS camera is just a few seconds. I have already captured Jupiter with this camera and am attaching the pic for your perusal. But this image is monochrome and I want to take a coloured image with my Canon 7D. So I have a few questions:

1. Is there any way I can save the video as a avi file directly from the camera?

2. If not is there any decent stacking and processing software which can open .mov files?

3. If not what is the best method of converting the .mov file to a .avi file so that it can be processed in Registax?

Please let me also have your comments on the Jupiter image attached.

Warm regards,

Shekhar 

[Amar Sharma]

This is welcoming Mr. Shekhar to the b-a-s family. He happens to be another senior member within us, and the President of JVP (Jyotir Vidya Parisanstha) in Pune, the oldest astronomy association in the Country, from 1944 ! Some of us have had the occasion to meet him in an earlier BAS event, Vishnu Reddy's workshop on astronomy career. And the last one was recently at Dr. Suresh's astrophotography workshop in IIT, Chennai. Mr. Shekhar and group indeed possess some observatory class equipment like a C-14, an SBIG ST-8300 CCD camera with accessories and Canon 7D. There is a lot we look forward to be interacting with, and seeing from them. I would be having the opportunity to meet him in the coming week at Pune. Here's welcoming you Sir. Thanking You, Amar.

[keerthi kiran]

Hi Shekhar,
Wonderful photo of the Jupiter there... Congrats...
I think you can use ImagesPlus to directly grab live view video from 7D and then stack them.

Regards,
Keerthi

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[siva subramanyam]

Hi, even I had this issue with mov files. The best solution is to convert the files using a converter. I have tried many softwares but WINAVI seems to be the best. After converting Registax had no problem in stacking.

                                   

                                                             Wish you clear skies,

                                                             Sivasubramanyam. A

[parag kulkarni]

yes nice image of jupiter.

me too had faced this issue. i dont clearly remember which conversion software i used,  just googled and downloaded some freeware. There are some freewares available for this convesrion.

-parag

[Harshad RJ]

Hello Shekhar et al,

Here's what I do..

1. Convert the MOV file to individual frames. In Linux, you can use a command like this:
mplayer inputfile.mov -vo png

2. Discard very bad frames right away. This is to reduce your effort and disk usage.

3. Use ninox to center and crop the images. It is available here:
http://www.acquerra.com.au/astro/software/ninox/
(There are lots of options to this program, but the default is sufficient to begin with)

4. Discard the bad frames (from the output of ninax).

5. Use these frames as input to Registax.

This is just a rough outline. Depending on circumstances, we can try lots of other stuffs. (Filtering channels for Moon, for example).

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[siva subramanyam]

How to do it in windows?

[Harshad RJ]

 I had forgotten to mention:

On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Harshad RJ <harsh...@gmail.com> wrote:

1. Convert the MOV file to individual frames. In Linux, you can use a command like this:
mplayer inputfile.mov -vo png

Working with PNG frames is better than transcoding to AVI (or even JPEG frames) as it avoids transcoding errors / lossy compression etc.


@Siva
The simplest way to do the same under Windows is: Install Linux and then follow the same process :)
But seriously, you might find a port of mplayer for Windows.
However, you might find it better in the long run to use Linux.. there is lot of powerful software that comes standard with most Linux distributions, and there is no head-ache from Anti-virus software (which is often worse than the virus itself).

[Anand Sivaram]

1. Normally I use "vlc" to view videos.  It can handle most of the video formats.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

2. To process and change format, "ffmpeg" would be a wonderful tool.
http://ffmpeg.org/
You could get pre compiled ffmpeg for windows from
http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/

3. Some ffmpeg commads
To create avi, do something like
ffmpeg -i /path/to/input_video_file -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1024k -acodec libmp3lame -ab 128k -f avi output.avi
You could find more information about ffmpeg commads from
http://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-doc.html
http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/19-ffmpeg-commands-for-all-needs

Both ffmpeg and vlc are great free/open source softwares.

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[Shekhar Phatak]

Thanks a lot guys, for the quick and encouraging response. I was thinking of buying ImagesPlus, but Keerthi's reply has given the necessary final push. And I would like to thank Amar for the kind words.

Shekhar

On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 10:55 AM, parag kulkarni <mip...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Warm regards,

Shekhar Phatak

[Shekhar Phatak]

Hi Guys,

I was just looking up the Web before buying ImagesPlus. I came across a software called Nebulosity which claims to be having the same functionality as ImagesPlus but is costing just 60 dollars as against 230 odd dollars for ImagesPlus. Has anyone heard about this software? Or alternatively, is there any cheaper way of getting the software?

Thanks in advance,

Shekhar

[keerthi kiran]

I found this discussion on cloudynights.
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2796317/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1/vc/1

I think both the softwares have trial versions. Probably you can try them out first before buying.

Regards,
Keerthi.

[keerthi kiran]

Also, please note that the thread I have posted is pretty old (2008). Many things might have changed over time.

Regards,
Keerthi

[Abhilash P]

hi sir,

awesome picture! is that GRS in the pic??

[kishan kumar]

U can use total video converter softwere. It's allow u to change
format(.mov to .avi)

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[Shekhar Phatak]

Thanks, Abhilash. No, that is not the GRS.

Shekhar