SER Video Player for Windows and OS X

[cgarry]

I have been working on a little video player for .ser files so I guess this is mainly of interest to planetary imagers.  It is not completely finished yet, but I am looking for some brave testers to see how well the application runs on machines with different operating systems and especially without the development tools installed.  The player can be downloaded from here:

OS X Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_OSX.zip

Windows Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_Windows.zip

Thanks,

Chris

[David Smith]

Nice timing Chris I was struggling to process some solar data 2 nights back and was searching for a program to allow me to do just this to no avail.

I'm away from home at the minute but will give it a go when I get back.

Have you tried running it under Wine?

[cgarry]

Hi Dave,

The code should build to run natively on Windows, OS X and Linux so there should be no need to use Wine.  I have not gone through the process of producing a Linux release version yet as figuring out how to deploy on Windows and OS X has taken much longer than I expected.

Cheers,

Chris

[cgarry]

A couple of pictures I forgot to add to the original post:

Chris

[cgarry]

After a bit of playing around, here is a 32-bit Linux version (built on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS):

Linux Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_Linux.gz

Cheers,

Chris

[SnakeyJ]

Many thanks Chris - this will be really useful to enable a quick play back and visual check before stacking.   I'll have a go on my capture laptop (Win7x64) tonight and can also have a go on the Ubuntu 14.04 version as well.

[cgarry]

Thanks Jake.

I am still figuring out how the deployment of Qt based applications works, but hopefully this will work for you.

On my Windows machine I associated .ser files with the SER Player so that I can now just double-click on a .ser file to open it up in the player.  This has proved surprising useful during capture sessions.

Cheers,

Chris

[Davey-T]

Thanks Chris, will give it a go on MacBookPro as Im using James Fs oaCapture capturing SER vid's but can't watch them on the Mac.

Dave

[cgarry]

Nice one Dave.  It will be good to know how you get on with the Mac version as this is the only version that I do not have a 2nd machine to test it on.

Cheers,

Chris

[Davey-T]

Hi Chris,

Just downloaded and tried it, loads and runs SER OK but I can only see the middle of the video, the video is a full solar disc captured using a Skyris 274 mono  on Lunt LS60 at 1600 X 1200, it fits on the screen (13" MBP) horizontally but I only get the middle vertically.

Don't know if I can alter it in the Mac settings, not been using it long.

Thanks,

Dave

[cgarry]

Hi Dave,

Ah yes, I am still adding the functionality to handle the situation where the video size makes the program Window too large.  Still, it is useful to know it actually ran.

Cheers,

Chris

[Davey-T]

Yes, ran perfectly thanks.

Dave

[SnakeyJ]

Well done Chris, that works beautifully on Win7x64.    The addition of scroll bars would help with full frame captures, as I lost the controls of the bottom of my screen on some old lunar captures (1280x960).   Alternatively, perhaps the addition to resize the output to fit display window, as this would allow the output from the higher resolution cameras to be displayed on normal monitors.    This might be useful for Solar and Lunar imagers, though for the vast majority of planetary work the capture ROI will rarely use the full sensor.

Frame rates were reported accurately for the original mono capture files and the player plays at very near the original frame rate (84 seconds for an 80 sec capture).   On the PIPP quality sorted/frame limited, the frame rate is discarded and it plays these back around 30FPS.

I ran 20+ mono captures through this of the Moon, Jupiter, Mars with no problems whatsoever.   Unfortunately no colour to test the debayer option, but thin, slick and easy.   Minimal hit on resources, with processor almost unaffected and only 20-25MB of RAM claimed by the process.

I will try this on the Ubuntu 14.04 at home tonight!

[JamesF]

Gah, that reminds me that I have some bits to send back to you, Chris.  I'll get that one as soon as I can.

James

[Ibbo!]

Same report here runs on Win7 32 ser captured with ZWO 120 in Firecapture but only has the centre section

thank you very much

[cgarry]

Thanks guys.

Here is an updated version (v0.1.1) with support for changing the size of the window and therefore changing the zoom level.  This should help when large sized videos push the controls off the screen.  Double-clicking on the image will resize the video to 100% zoom in case it is not obvious.

The Linux version seems to have some issues while resizing which I shall look into when I have some time.

Windows (32-bit) Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_Windows_v0.1.1.zip

OS X (64-bit) Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_OSX_v0.1.1.zip

Linux (32-bit) Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_Linux_v0.1.1.gz

Cheers,

Chris

[Davey-T]

Thanks Chris, works like a charm.

Dave

[David Smith]

ust tried this on my Win 8.1 lappy, works great. Thanks Chris.

Will try it on the Linux Mint machine later.

[cgarry]

Thanks again to all those who have tested this.  I am pleased with how the latest updates have worked out and am going to create a web page and do a proper release if this latest version does not throw up any problems.

Windows (32-bit) Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_Windows_v1.0.0.zip

OS X 10.7 onwards (64-bit) Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_OSX_v1.0.0.zip

Linux (32-bit) Version: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/SER_Player_Linux_v1.0.0.gz

 

Changes:

* Improved zoom control, with a menu of preset zoom levels as well as the ability to resize the application window.

* Ability to change the playback framerate.

* New buttons to move forward or backward 1 frame.

* Ability to save individual frames as image files.

* The Windows version now has an installer which will optionally associate .ser files with the SER Player.

* The OS X version can now be started by double-clicking on a .ser file in Finder.

 

The Linux version is still a basic executable file as I still need to learn about packaging applications for Linux...

 

Cheers,

Chris

[SnakeyJ]

Great work Chris, this is proving to be a huge help in reviewing the archives and deciding what to keep.   

[tornado267]

Thanks very much, an excellent program  that works on my mac os x yosemite,  also on windows 7,  64bit bootcamp  capture laptop.

[cgarry]

Great work Chris, this is proving to be a huge help in reviewing the archives and deciding what to keep.   

Cheers Jake, it is good to know that it is of use!

[cgarry]

Thanks very much, an excellent program  that works on my mac os x yosemite,  also on windows 7,  64bit bootcamp  capture laptop.

Thanks for the feedback.  I have a question: In Finder on the Mac, do the .ser files get the same icon as Ser Player?  They should do but that is not working for me.

[Davey-T]

No just get a blank file icon.

Dave

[calli]

Thanks! This just came handy. Tested my new ASI120MC and was searching for a SER player, saw your name and PIPP and had found my player.

 

Carsten