MVB -- General BSQ Tape to Video Transfer

Reads image data off a band sequential (BSQ), band interleaved by line (BIL), or band interleaved by pixel (BIP) tape, and transfers the data to image channel(s) on a video display. Often this task can be used when there is no task specifically available for the tape format. One example of this is EROS Data Center (EDC) LAS LGSOWG tapes.

The tape format may have a variable number of records before the image data, and a variable amount of non-image data at the beginning and end of the records. Image data can be packed with multiple lines per record, or with multiple records per line.

Progress of this program can be monitored. See MONITOR section.

See Also: MIB, MAGSTRU, IMB

PARAMETERS

MVB is controlled by the following global parameters:

Name     Prompt                                  Count     Type
MTIW     Mag Tape Input Window                   0-4       Int
VDOW     Video Output Window                     0-4       Int
MTIC     Mag Tape Input Channel List             1-16      Int
VDOC     Video Output Channel List               1-16      Int
STRUCTUR File Structure Information              2-4       Int
PREFIX   Record Prefix Bytes                     0-16      Int
SUFFIX   Record Suffix Bytes                     0-16      Int
SKRC     Records to Skip for Data                1         Int
STARTFIL Start File on Tape                      1         Int

MTIW

MTIW specifies a rectangular subset of an image on magnetic tape to be used for input to the MVB task:

 EASI>MTIW=Xoffset,Yoffset,Xsize,Ysize
 EASI>MTIW=                     | defaults to entire image

VDOW

VDOW specifies a rectangular subset of the image channel in the output video display that receives imagery from MVB:

 EASI>VDOW=Xoffset,Yoffset,Xsize,Ysize
 EASI>VDOW=                     | defaults to entire display

MTIC

MTIC represents a list of image channels that exist on the input magnetic tape, that should be used for input. Each MTIC value should be less than the number of bands specified in the STRUCTUR parameter.

EASI>MTIC=i,...,j,k

VDOC

VDOC represents the image channel to use in the output video display:

 EASI>VDOC=i                    | integer

STRUCTUR

Specify the structure of the input file:

 EASI> STRUCTUR = pixels,lines,bands,interleaving mode
Each value has the following meaning:

 Pixels         - Number of pixels (width) per line.
 Lines          - Number of lines in the image.
 Bands          - Number of bands (channels) of imagery,
                  default is one.

 Interleaving   - Mode of interleaving:
    0: band sequential (default)
          data is band sequential, with no extra headers, or
          file marks between bands.
    1: line interleaved
    2: pixel interleaved
    3: band sequential by file
          data is band sequential, with bands separated by
          EOF marks.  The SKRC record skip count is applied
          for each file containing a band.

PREFIX

Specifies the number of bytes at the beginning of each record that are not image data. If a single line of data spans more than one record, additional PREFIX values will be used. So PREFIX(1) applies to the first record, in a multi record line, PREFIX(2) to the second, and so forth. If insufficient PREFIX values are specified, the last supplied value will be used for unspecified positions.

In combination with SUFFIX, the PREFIX value is used to compute how much of the record contains actual image data.

SUFFIX

Specifies the number of bytes at the end of each record that are not image data. If a single line of data spans more than one record, additional SUFFIX values will be used. So SUFFIX(1) applies to the first record, in a multi record line, SUFFIX(2) to the second, and so forth. If insufficient SUFFIX values are specified, the last supplied value will be used for unspecified positions.

In combination with PREFIX, the SUFFIX value is used to compute how much of the record contains actual image data.

SKRC

Specifies the number of records to skip before data is read. These records are skipped after the files (STARTFIL) are skipped over. Note that for band sequential by file (STRUCTUR(4)=3), SKRC records will be skipping at the beginning of each tape file containing a selected band.

 EASI>SKRC=n                    | integer

STARTFIL

Specifies the start file number on tape from which to start reading image data. If STARTFIL is positive, the program rewinds the tape, advances to the specified file, reads the data, then rewinds the tape. If STARTFIL is negative, the program does NOT rewind the tape, skips STARTFIL-1 end-of-file marks, then reads the data without rewinding.

 EASI>STARTFIL=1   | Rewind, read first image, and rewind.
 EASI>STARTFIL=n   | Rewind, skip n-1 EOF's, read image, and rewind.
 EASI>STARTFIL=0   | Read image at current position; do NOT rewind.
 EASI>STARTFIL=-n  | Skip n EOF's, and read image; do NOT rewind.

DETAILS

Any arbitrary rectangular window on tape (MTIW) can be transferred to any arbitrary rectangular window on the video display (VDOW). If no output window is specified, then the window is defaulted to the full size window of the video display. Shrinking and/or zooming is automatically performed.

The parameters SUFFIX and PREFIX are used to compute the area of each record that is actually data, based on the size of the records read in.

Any file (image) on tape (STARTFIL) can be specified. MVB will advance or rewind to the selected file before transferring. As well SKRC can be specified to skip a selected number of header records before the image data. Note that for BSQ tapes no records can be skipped between bands. If a BSQ tape has a header before each band, it may be necessary to run MVB once for each band, setting MTIC=1, number of bands=1, and SKRC appropriately to beginning reading at the beginning of the band.

MVB is capable of reading tapes with multiple lines of data per record or multiple records per line. Which case (if either) applies is determined by MVB's knowledge about the tape organization (interleaving mode), the data area of the record (from PREFIX and SUFFIX) and size of the tape image (STRUCTUR(1) and STRUCTUR(2)).

If a line spans records, MVB assumes that the next line will always start on a new record, even if this means there is unused data area on the last record of the previous line of image data.

If one line of data does not tape up the entire data area on a record, MVB will only assume that additional lines of data exist on that record, if an entire additional line of data will fit in the data area of that record.

If the contents of the tape are not completely known the PCI tape program MAGSTRU is often helpful in determining the tape structure.

 A TAPE MUST BE MOUNTED ON THE TAPE DRIVE BEFORE MVB CAN BE
 RUN.  CLEANING THE TAPE HEADS IS RECOMMENDED TO MINIMIZE THE
 CHANCE OF TAPE READ ERRORS.

MONITOR

Program progress can be monitored by printing the percentage of completed processing in odometer fashion. A system parameter, MONITOR, controls this activity:

 EASI>MONITOR="ON"           | turn monitor ON  (default)
 EASI>MONITOR="OFF"          | turn monitor OFF (recommended if
                             | running in batch/background mode)

EXAMPLE

Example 1:

Using a LAS LGSOWG tape from the EROS Data Center, which has two forms of data (AT and PT), as an example:

The value of SKRC is 1, to skip the header record.

The magtape data size for PT data is 7168 pixels by 5965 lines.

The magtape data size for AT data is 6656 pixels by 5984 lines.

The value of STARTFIL will depend on the tape that you have mounted. You must know what file on the tape the image data is on. Usually, this value for a seven tape volume set is 5 for the 1st tape, and 3 for the 2nd to 7th tape.

As only one band appears on each tape, we will represent each tape as an independent data set consisting of one band. Hence STURCTUR(3) is 1. As only image data appears on the actual data records, we do not need to set a PREFIX and SUFFIX value. As there is just one band of data, we do not need to specify an interleaving type.

LAS LGSOWG PT data comes packed four lines of data to a record. MVB will recognise that the 28672 bytes of data per record represent four lines of input data.

 EASI>FILE="agrihot.pix"
 EASI>MTIW=
 EASI>VDOW=
 EASI>MTIC=1
 EASI>VDOC=1
 EASI>SKRC=1
 EASI>STRUCTUR=7168,5965
 EASI>STARTFIL=5
 EASI>RUN MVB
Example 2:

Read a sequence of files on tape without rewinding the tape in between runs of MIB, by specifying negative values for STARTFIL. Each 512 by 512 image is transferred to the first channel of different PCIDSK files. For the first file on tape, STARTFIL is set to 0, instead of 1, to prevent rewinding. Then, for subsequent files, STARTFIL is set to -1, to skip to the next file on tape.

 EASI>MTIW=
 EASI>VBOW=
 EASI>MTIC=1
 EASI>VBOC=1
 EASI>STRUCTUR=512,512
 EASI>STARTFIL=0
 EASI>RUN MIB

 EASI>FILE="file2.pix"
 EASI>STARTFIL=-1
 EASI>RUN MIB

 EASI>FILE="file3.pix"
 EASI>STARTFIL=-1
 EASI>RUN MIB
Example 3:

Running MAGSTRU on a tape produces the following report. It indicates seven bands of 6920 x 5728 data with each band separated by EOF marks.

 EASI>RUN MAGSTRU

  5728 records of  6920 bytes
           *** EOF ***
  5728 records of  6920 bytes
           *** EOF ***
  5728 records of  6920 bytes
           *** EOF ***
  5728 records of  6920 bytes
           *** EOF ***
  5728 records of  6920 bytes
           *** EOF ***
  5728 records of  6920 bytes
           *** EOF ***
  5728 records of  6920 bytes
           *** EOF ***
Setting STRUCTUR(4) to 3 indicates band sequential with EOF marks between bands, so we can read the entire tape in one pass.

 EASI>MTIW=
 EASI>VBOW=
 EASI>MTID=
 EASI>MTIC=1,2,3,4,5,6,7
 EASI>VBOC=1,2,3,4,5,6,7
 EASI>STRUCTUR=6920,5728,7,3
 EASI>RUN MIB

About PCI Help Gateway