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MLV Player on GPU
We have designed high performance CUDA-accelerated software for fast raw video processing from Canon cameras with Magic Lantern firmware. The performance is very fast - much faster than realtime. We've implemented full MLV processing pipeline on NVIDIA GPU.
 What's Magic Lantern firmware?
Magic Lantern (ML) is firmware for Canon DSLR cameras and EOS M. This is free open source solution. The most interesting feature of ML is the ability to shoot RAW video.
Magic Lantern adds 4K RAW mode to Canon 5D Mark III in 14-bit raw data with lossless JPEG compression. There are the following mode for 5D Mark III: 4,096 × 1,440 resolution at 25 fps, 4,096 × 2,560 at 12.5 fps and 3,840 × 1,600 at 24 fps. There are some more HD video options: 1,920 × 800 at 60 fps and square-crop-video mode.
Main difficulties of current solutions to play MLV files
Currently, we need to convert MLV to DNG, which is time consuming. To accomplish that task, we could try mlvrawviewer, mlvfs, mlv_dump applications, but they are quite slow. The best solutions are MLVP (MLV Producer) and MLVApp, but they are unable to offer high quality realtime processing for raw video. It happens because CPU-based image processing is slow. To check processed footages, it's very important to have smooth playback, but on CPU solutions the playback is usually limited by slow demosaicing. To get high quality, we can apply Amaze demosaic, but it's far from realtime on CPU.
It could be a good idea to try other software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Blackmagic Davinci Resolve, but they don't work with MLV, we need to convert MLV to CinemaDNG first.
Fast CinemaDNG Processor can directly work with Magic Lantern raw files, without MLVFS or any other additional software. On NVIDIA GPU we can accomplish fast MLV processing due to parallel implementation and optimization of all processing algorithms. To load MLV file to Fast CinemaDNG Processor software, just click with right button on that file at Windows Explorer and run Fast CinemaDNG Processor via context menu or you can drag-n-drop MLV file to player window. You will get smooth MLV playback due to realtime raw processing on GPU. If you need to apply high quality 3D LUTs for color grading, there is interoperability with external 3DLUT Creator software. Lots of options for output video encoding are available at Fast CinemaDNG Processor due to external FFmpeg.
Fast image processing workflow for MLV on GPU
- MLV import, parsing, decoding for MLV and audio, including support of spanned files (multi-file option)
- Focus dot pixels removal
- MLV viewer and MLV player with full image processing pipeline on GPU
- Noise removal with wavelets (raw and color)
- MLV post processing with DCP and LCP profiles
- Fast MLV grading with 3D LUT
- Smooth video output to the monitor
- Export MLV to DNG (uncompressed DNG or CDNG, lossless JPEG compression, lossy BMD RAW 3:1, 4:1 and 5:1)
- MLV converter: MLV to TIFF/JPEG/EXR export, MLV to MP4 with external FFmpeg
- Export MLV to Apple ProRes 422 LT, 422, 422 HQ, 4444, 4444 XQ
- Export of processed video (mlv to movie)
These are the most important features of Fast CinemaDNG Processor software for fast MLV video processing on GPU: direct support of MLV format, fast MLV decoding on CPU, high quality demosaicing, realtime noise removal, DCP and LCP profile support, 3D LUT (RGB and HSV), smooth MLV playback, export options (MLV to cDNG) and much more.
Useful third-party software for MLV processing
You can download and install that third-party software, then set path at Options window and interoperability with FFmpeg and 3DLUT Creator will be established.
Please visit www.fastcinemadng.com to download the software and some test footages for evaluation.
Useful links
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