>   How can I convert files created using BioRad ThruView into mpeg documents?
>   We are in the process of finding an analysis/presentation package for our
>confocal images, but until we buy something we are limited to reconstructing
>using ThruView.  I want to convert some of these ThruView projection files to
>mpeg format, which can then be made available on the WWW using a Macintosh
>server (MacHTTP) and then viewed by others using Mosaic as a browser with
>appropriate viewers.  The people at BioRad were unfamiliar with this and could
>not help.  Does anyone have a suggestion?
 
 
a year ago I when we were looking at both ThruView Plus and microVoxel, I
took a few days to brush up my macintosh programmimg (ahem) skills and
wrote a utility which converts both microVoxel and ThruView Plus animation
sequences to Macintosh QuickTime. The recent announcement of QuickTime 2
made a strong point of MPEG commitment and that beta development kits would
be available in the next few months. I think one of the free mac MPEG
viewers does include an MPEG converter, but I can't remember in which
direction it works. I'm also not sure whether these viewers yet include
MPEG2 capabilities, which should be significantly better than earlier MPEG1
and interim offshoots (such as by that German company).
 
What I've did was very basic partly because I didn't then have any
programming info for QuickTime, the new Inside Mac book was months away. In
my program you select an animation file, it figures out whether its from
microVoxel or ThruView+, and produces a folderful of PICT files, one per
frame. There is a shareware program that can take such a folder and convert
it into a QT movie.
 
I would have put it up with source code a year ago had there been an ftp
site for confocal material
 
cheers,
Danny Thomas
 
 
PS I did mention to both the microVoxel people (sent them a copy with a
board for repair), and did mention it to Eric Boxall who's high up in the
confocal division of BioRad UK, but I guess it hasn't filtered down to your
local rep.