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Programming IT Technology

Panasonic Calls It .PBE? 13

Posted by Cliff from the converting-it-to-something-readable dept.
TrumpetX asks: "A friend of mine and I have been asked by our boss to do an image extraction from a KV-F510 Panasonic scanning station. The extraction program (which works in a 16 bit environment only) works fine, but it spits out .PBE file formats with some unreadable .INF files. I was wondering if any of the /. readers out there have used one of these dinasour scanning stations before, and if someone could shed some light on how to convert the .PBE files to another format (TIF, GIF, BMP, or anything else readable, really)."
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Panasonic Calls It .PBE? More

Panasonic Calls It .PBE?

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  • Panasonic Binary Enigma! :)

  • What does file say? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Spoing ( 152917 ) on Sunday November 18, 2001 @01:29PM (#2581287) Homepage
    When confronted with an unusual file, I usually use file to check what it _might_ be;

    1. file image.pbe

    Not a direct answer, but if you haven't tried it yet you might be lucky and find out the format isn't propriatory.

    Additionally, if you know a specific image is simple, take a look at it in a hex editor and look for patterns. It's possible that the file is some form of PCX or TIFF image (many document processing systems use this), with an extended header. Chop off the old header, put on a standard one, and see if it can be viewed at all. You could be lucky!

    Remember, dd is your friend. :)

  • When you say 16-bit, I'm imagining win 3.x or some variant. Cound you not just bring up the image in the software's window and do a + and then open up paint and paste it there to save it as a bmp file? You would need to trim off the edges, but it should work. I just don't know if if MS Paint in win 3.x and wfw do more than 256 colors. I would think so though...
    • my bad.... I forgot to preview. The filter must have scrubbed the text in the carrots. I was trying to say "do a (alt) + (print screen) and then open paint and paste it there"
      • I seriously doubt they're using this scanning station to do scans at less than their screen resoltion (1600x1200x72dpi is NOTHING in the print world) -- this seems like a high-end system, so this won't really work.
  • PBE, huh?

    It sounded familiar, and still does - so I started thinking it might stand for "Portable Bitmap Exchange" - some googling on that started yielding things - so do some more googling on "Portable Bitmap" and the PBM format.

    It could be PDE are nothing more than renamed PBMs, perhaps. There does seem to be software out there that will do conversion, if it is a PBM (pbm2gif, etc). Also, if it is PBM, or you suspect it, the format spec can be found here [wotsit.org].

    Also, in response to the poster who couldn't find anything on these scanning stations by googling on "KV-F510" - google on "KVF510" - and you will get a few hits (but still close to none). However, to the original poster, maybe these "sellers" of the equipment might be able to give you some help (manuals, contact phone numbers, etc).

    I am surprised the the manual or info you have with the equipment doesn't list the specs for the format, unless it is considered a dire secret, or what. Most manufacturers of the larger equipment give pretty detailed interfacing specs, or at least provide them to interested parties - you might contact Panasonic and ask. If they refuse you, ask them what the format is, or such. State your needs clearly. Maybe even offer them a copy of the package back in exchange?

    Above all, be persistent - you will find the answer eventually...

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