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  3. Image quality of a single frame GSV vs time lapse

Image quality of a single frame GSV vs time lapse

Topic created · 13 Posts · 80 Views
  • K

    Hi there,

    wanted to see the difference of a single frame image taken from a GSV video and a time-lapse video.
    Both images were taken in 8K mode so they are identical in size (7680x3840) but the one extracted from GSV comes in at about 3.7MB whereas the time-lapse one is only 1.6MB
    That - I would think is down to compression - which is somehow supported by the images.

    My question is - why???
    GSV - OK, fair enough - they don't want masses of data.
    But for time-lapse I would like a better quality to create content for VR headsets (without massive banding caused by compression).
    Any chance of a quality/bit rate setting for time-lapse video??

    Cheers.

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  • T

    It's very strange that an ordinary photo weighs almost twice as much as a whole timelapse video. It seems to me that everything should be the other way around. After all, a video is a whole bunch of consecutive pictures, or am I wrong? I'm not sure I fully understand how cameras work, especially with a resolution of 8K, so I doubt I can explain why such a phenomenon occurs. But I know for sure that each camera has settings, perhaps it is in the settings that you can solve your problem. As long as you don't have any problems with aperture in photography, you don't have to worry. There are cases when the problem is not in the settings, but with the camera itself. For example, in case of problems with aperture in photography, it is much better to contact the service center while you still have a warranty than to try to solve the problem yourself.

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  • K

    Again a nice move by Labpano.

    The latest firmware release has increased the bitrate for GSV and time-lapse video by 60% and preliminary test show that this has an impact on the image quality.

    Thanks Labpano

    Keep updates like this one coming!!!

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  • K

    Ooops, forgot that I mentioned VR in the beginning.

    So you are saying GSV has a higher bitrate than time-lapse - right?
    Why would that be - just out of curiosity.

    I can see that you need to restrict the bit-rate in normal video to achieve a FPS - higher bit-rates would slow down the recording process.
    Surely this is not the case for time-lapse - there is enough time to deal with the single frames.

    Also - will there - at any point be a possibility for a user to select a bitrate - especially in time-lapse??

    Why do I want to extract photos from a time-lapse video??
    Because the camera still lacks the basic functionality to actually take time-lapse photos.
    Just a simple option in photos which allows the user to select the number of seconds between photos would be nice - write the photos at a good quality and let the user do with them what he wants. That would give a user access to optical flow stitching and level images - BUT - sadly such an option is NOT available.
    The only option is to take a time lapse video - and there the bit-rate is - as you say yourself - lower than in GSV.

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  • 1

    @kronpano A single frame image quality differs extracting from a GSV video and a time-lapse video is because of the bitrate. The GSV mode has a higher bit rate.
    Anyhow, the photo quality extracting from the video will not reach the same level as Photo Mode. We can fetch higher photo quality in time-lapse mode by increasing the bit rate. Also, we wonder why do you have to extract photos from the time-lapse video? You can directly select the Photo mode to get higher image quality. Thank you.

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  • 1

    @kronpano The answer is to this question
    But for time-lapse I would like a better quality to create content for VR headsets (without massive banding caused by compression).

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  • K

    I was never talking about watching the video in a VR headset in the first place so all your answers "blaming" the VR headset simply do not apply.

    I was talking about extracting frames from a 360 8k video which can be done with a number of software solutions. The image quality of the single frames is determined by the bitrate of the video codec used - a higher bitrate will have more information and result in a better image.

    I really get the feeling that this torrent of answers today is simply to pacify people without really understanding what people have actually asked.

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  • 1

    @kronpano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-1Wd8lYRI for your reference, it is 8K time-lapse from Pilot One EE, the quality is cool and clarity.

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  • 1

    @kronpano The quality of the hardware determines the clarity of the VR headset

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  • 1

    @kronpano There are few VR headset in the market can decode the 8K video and the 8K image. By the ones which can decode 8K, however, due to the limitation of the hardware, the screen of VR headset, what you see through VR headset is 4K or less 4K, there is no business with the video or images from the camera, it is the issue of the headset. The root solution is to improve the hardware of the VR headset.

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  • K

    So Labpano ( @123 ) - any answers??

    Is there - or will there be in future firmware - a possibility to set a higher bitrate to achieve a better quality time-lapse video???
    Time-lapse video certainly is not having any HW restrictions in terms of bitrate - there is enough time and storage to write higher bitrate frames.

    You also seemed to suggest that there is a way of extracting high quality images from a time-lapse video - any news on that???

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  • K

    @123 If possible both.
    I would like to set a higher bitrate to improve the quality of a time-lapse video - yes.

    Your are suggesting " to get a high quality image extract from the Time-lapse video" - how would you be able to achieve that?
    You can't extract a higher quality image from a low bitrate video - either the quality is in the frame or not - right?
    I am using ffmpeg to extract the frames at their highest possible quality in both cases - but if there is a way to extract better images - I am always willing to learn and listen.

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    @kronpano said in Image quality of a single frame GSV vs time lapse:

    Hi there,
    wanted to see the difference of a single frame image taken from a GSV video and a time-lapse video.
    Both images were taken in 8K mode so they are identical in size (7680x3840) but the one extracted from GSV comes in at about 3.7MB whereas the time-lapse one is only 1.6MB
    That - I would think is down to compression - which is somehow supported by the images.
    My question is - why???
    GSV - OK, fair enough - they don't want masses of data.
    But for time-lapse I would like a better quality to create content for VR headsets (without massive banding caused by compression).
    Any chance of a quality/bit rate setting for time-lapse video??
    Cheers.

    Hello,
    Do you want to know how to set bit rate to get a good quality time-lapse video or you want to get a high quality image extract from the Time-lapse video?

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    K
     1 Reply
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