Author Topic: Chronos V0.3.1-RC1  (Read 11134 times)

skronstein

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Chronos V0.3.1-RC1
« on: November 19, 2018, 07:15:50 PM »
Update: Software V0.3.1 full release is now available: http://forum.krontech.ca/index.php?topic=460

Here is Chronos 1.4 Software V0.3.1-RC1. Do not use this software version if you are capturing something that is not easily replicated.

    +----------------------------------+
   ++                                  ++
   |   Chronos V0.3.1 RC1 Changelog     |
   ++                                  ++
    +----------------------------------+


Changes from beta-9 to RC1

Notable Changes:
 - Recording speed boost! Save up to about 90fps on h264 saves at full resolution.
 - Revert to 8-bit gamma for monochrome TIFF to improve software compatibility.
 - Split the TIFF encoding into two use cases: "TIFF" for easy editing and software compatibility and the option to display the overlay in the saved images, and "TIFF Raw" for getting at the full 12-bit encoding (linear raw data) for scientific uses.

Minutiae:
 - Future updates can be applied from the SD card, and there should no longer be problems with the camera not finding updates that are present on USB sticks after this update is applied.
 - Save settings window: enlarge buttons for easier use, and save location dropdown for longer names
 - Animated dots during saving and aborting to indicate that progress is being made.
 - When autosave is enabled, always use autoname (name by date and time) to avoid naming conflicts

Fixed bugs:
 - Trigger/IO settings window: If exposure trigger or shutter Gating were selected on IO2, it would revert from IO 2 back to to IO 1, though the choice between Exposure Trigger and Shutter Gating would remain.
 - Bad white balance when factory cal is absent.
 - "File already exists" warning not showing up when autosave is disabled

Also, some bugs that were introduced in beta-9 but now fixed:
 - Improve compatibility of CinemaDNG sets of images saved from monochrome cameras.
 - corrupted video with low resolutions are used
 - Trigger/IO settings window had a bug preventing exposure and shutter inputs on IO2 and 3.




More changes (from beta-4 to beta-9)

    +----------------------------------+
  ++                                          ++
    |   Chronos V0.3.1.9 Changelog   |
  ++                                          ++
    +----------------------------------+

Notable Changes:
 - New Demosaic algorithm based on AHD, which should improve color reproduction and reduce edge noise.
 - Standalone daemon to operate the video system, with DBus API.
 - External HDMI displays are supported at 1080p and 720p resolutions.
 - Recording speed improvements.
 - Add CinemaDNG and TIFF as save file formats.
 - Deprecate Raw 16-bit right-justified save format in favor of CinemaDNG.
 - Add a demo mode to replay a section of recorded video in a loop.
 - Add option to overlay frame statistics onto processed video formats (H.264 and TIFF).
 - Jog wheel can be used to adjust the exposure, and navigate the settings menus.
 - New video memory recovery tool to download video (slowly) in the event of a software crash.
- Redesign of the white balance window, including a new dialog to edit the color matrix.

Minutiae:
 - Add whitebalance preset for 3200K/Tungsten lighting.
 - Adjust highlighting of text when selecting text boxes.
 - Auto-record and auto-save modes independant of one another.
 - Improved algorithm to estimate framerate during file save.
 - Date format in the Utility window changed to shorten the Month string.
 - Display separate version strings for both the Application and Filesystem/Release.

Fixed Bugs:
 - Crash causing the video to freeze after approximately 45 recording attempts.
 - Trigger delays would scale incorrectly when using segmented recording mode.
 - Abort recordings when the free space drops below 20MB to avoid crashing when the disk is full.
 - UI bug causing the selected save location to always select the first mounted disk.
 - First frame of a raw recording would contain corrupted NV12 image data.
 - First pixel of a Raw 12-bit packed frame was sometimes being dropped.
 - Corrupted pixels at the end of a Raw 12-bit packed frame.
  - Add crosshairs to the white balance window.
  - Add Qt stylesheet to improve focus visibility.
  - Main window exposure now shown in microseconds and shutter angle.
  - Jog wheel now adjusts exposure logarithmically, or by degrees when pressed.
  - The 'close' button on the soft keyboard now applies the entered text.
  - Reorganization of the soft keyboard to include a negative key.
 - Black ares of the UI become transparent after an HDMI hotplug.
  - HDMI hotplug while on the playback window would revert to live display.
  - Add missing ColorMatrix1 and CalibrationIlluminant1 tags to CinemaDNG files.
  - Fix possible crash of the video system when aborting a file save.
  - Fix possible carsh of the UI when rapidly aborting and re-starting a file save.
  - Fix color correction math so that saturating the image sensor tends towards white.
Also, some bugs that were introduced in beta-4 but now fixed:
  - Monochrome TIFF now pads the pixel values with least-significant zeroes.
  - H.264 bitrate setting was being ignored and defaulting to 0.25 bpp.



Compatibility Issues:
 - The pixel packing order in Raw 12-bit mode has been changed for the v0.3.1 release.
   Given a pair of two 12-bit pixels in hexidecmal as (0x123, 0xabc), the bytes produced
   by the Raw 12-bit packing mode changes as follows:
     v0.3.0 and earlier: (0xab, 0xc1, 0x23)
     v0.3.1 and later: (0x23, 0x1c, 0xab)

Known Bugs:
 - The first frame of an H.264 recording is erroneously copied from the display buffer before the recording starts.
 - Cal and settings data sometimes don't want to be backed up.

Please let us know what you think of the updates. And most importantly, let us know the bugs and things you do not like about the update. If there are any serious issues, please email [email protected].

Updating Your Camera
====================
 - Extract the `.zip` file into the root directory of a FAT32 formatted USB drive.
 - Turn on your camera and insert the USB drive into the USB/eSATA combo port, not the one labeled 'OTG'.
 - From the main window, tap the `Util` button to open the utility window.
 - As a precaution, tap the `Backup Calibration Data` button on the utility window before starting the update.
    - When the backup is completed, a pop-up window will be displayed.
    - Tap the `Done` button to close the pop-up window.
 - From the utility window, tap the `Apply Software Update` button to begin the software update.
    - A warning message will be displayed, tap the `Yes` button to confirm and begin the update.
    - If a pop-up that says 'No software update found' is displayed, even when a USB stick containing the update in the correct location is connected, reboot the camera and try again.
 - During the update, the screen will go blank and an `Applying Update` message will be displayed.
 - After approximately 60 seconds, the update will be complete and the camera will restart.
« Last Edit: March 31, 2019, 01:36:18 PM by skronstein »

Lambert_Johan

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Re: Chronos V0.3.1-RC1
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2018, 04:31:49 AM »
Hello,

We tested the new version of the firmware and it seems to work fine. For us it fixed a problem with the Trigger out (BNC) Exposure sync. With the previous version, it kept swapping back to 'none'.

I have one remark, the HDMI works, only we would like to use the camera upside down. There is an option to turn upside down, only it swaps the interface, it does not swap the stream and also not the HDMI output, do you confirm?

foobar

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Re: Chronos V0.3.1-RC1
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2018, 01:02:28 PM »
There is an option to turn upside down, only it swaps the interface, it does not swap the stream and also not the HDMI output, do you confirm?
Yes, we confirm that this is how the option should work. We feel that the orientation of the video as displayed on the LCD should match the orientation of the camera and it becomes confusing if video on the back of the camera is rotated.

I agree that it would make sense to rotate the video being output over the HDMI port when using the camera is upside down, but that is not presently implemented.