Panasonic Calls It .PBE? 13
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)."
Re:Help (Score:3, Insightful)
The guy's comment is just a link to the front page of the Panasonic support site. The story is looking for information on a file format, PBE. A search for 'pbe' on the site yields no results.
A Google search for KV-F510 yields no results.
Five minutes of searching for pbe gives only irrelevant results.
Thus the problem of proprietary data formats is illustrated.
Re:Help (Score:1)
The support homepage gives email addresses and phone numbers.
PBE...hmm...PBE...got it! (Score:2)
What does file say? (Score:3, Informative)
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. :)
Re:PBE is a hooky one... (Score:1)
Just a thought... (Score:1)
Re:Just a thought... (Score:1)
Re:Just a thought... (Score:2)
Some funky googling... (Score:2)
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...