Main Window DJV

DJV is an open source application for playback and review of image sequences. DJV can playback high resolution image sequences in real time, with audio, A/B comparison, and color management.

Features include:

GitHub


Main Window



Documentation

  1. Download and Install
  2. Main Window
  3. Viewport
  4. Working with Files
  5. Playback and Frame Control
  6. Timeline
  7. A/B Comparison
  8. Color Controls
  9. Exporting Files
  10. Keyboard Shortcuts
  11. Settings
  12. Troublehooting
  13. Building from Source



Download and Install

Downloads

NOTE: Download packages only include a minimal set of video and audio codecs. To enable full support, either compile from source or replace the FFmpeg shared libraries.

Linux

Packages are distributed as tar archives. Uncompress the archive and move the DJV folder to a convenient location.

Windows

Packages are distributed as ZIP archives. Uncompress the archive and move the DJV folder to a convenient location.

macOS

Packages are distributed as macOS disk images. Open the disk image and copy DJV to the Applications folder.

The first time DJV is started there will be an error about security; to fix this open the security settings and click the Open Anyway button: macOS Security



Main Window

Main Window Main window components:

  1. Menu Bar
  2. Tool Bars
  3. Tab Bar - Switch between currently opened files
  4. Viewport
  5. Timeline
  6. Bottom Tool Bar
  7. Tool Widget
  8. Status Bar - Errors and information about the current file

Components can be toggled on and off from the Window menu.

Splitters can be used to change the size of the components: Main Window

Full screen mode can be enabled from the Window menu.

A secondary window can be shown to mirror the viewport on a separate monitor. The secondary window can be shown from the Window menu.



Viewport

The viewport shows a view of the current file. The view can be panned, zoomed, or “framed” so the image fills the view.

Viewport controls:

The viewport controls can be customized in the Settings tool.

The bit depth of the viewport can be set in the View tool with the buffer type option. The value RGBA_U8 will use an 8-bit buffer which is useful for lower end GPUs. The values RGBA_U16 and RGBA_F32 will use 16-bit and floating point buffers respectively.

The background color of the viewport can be set in the View tool. An outline can also be drawn around the image to disinguish it from the background, usefull for images with transparency.

Grid

A grid can be enabled from the View tool.

One example of using the grid is for examining individual pixels: View Pixel Grid

  1. Set Minify and Magnify to Nearest
  2. Enable the grid
  3. Set the grid size to one

HUD

Information can be overlaid on the viewport by enabling the HUD (heads up display). The HUD can be enabled from the View menu.

Viewport HUD HUD components:

  1. Current file name
  2. Current frame
  3. Playback speed
  4. Number of frames dropped during playback
  5. Color picker
  6. Video cache usage
  7. Audio cache usage



Working with Files

Supported file formats:

Files and folders can be opened from the File menu, by dragging and dropping onto the main window, or from the command line. Opening a folder will open all of the supported files in the folder (non-recursively).

The native file browser is enabled by default on Windows and macOS. The built-in file browser can be enabled in the Settings tool.

The current file can be changed from the File/Current menu, the Tab Bar, or the Files tool.

Memory Cache

The memory cache can be configured in the Settings tool. There are separate values for video, audio, and “read behind”. The “read behind” value is the number of seconds that are read before the current frame. This is useful to ensure frames are cached when scrubbing.

Only the current file is stored in the cache. When the current file is changed, it is unloaded from the cache and the new file is loaded.

Layers

For files that contain multiple layers (i.e., OpenEXR), the current layer can be changed from the File/Layers menu, or the Files tool.

Files Tool

The Files tool can be used to set the current file, the current layers, and compare options.

The Files tool can be shown from the Tools menu or the tool bar.

Files Tool Files tool components:

  1. The current, or A, file
  2. The B file(s)
  3. The current layer of the file
  4. Compare mode
  5. Compare time
  6. Compare options

Image Sequences and Audio

Audio can be added to image sequences either automatically or explicitly.

To automatically add audio to image sequences, open the Image Sequences section in the Settings Tool. Audio files can be found by either specifying the file extensions to search for (e.g., “.wav .mp3”), or providing a specific file name.

To explicitly add audio to an image sequence use the File/Open With Separate Audio menu.

USD

There is experimental support for USD files. The USD file is rendered to an image sequence with the Hydra renderer.

The camera used to render the scene, in order of priority:

  1. If the USD file is referenced from an OTIO file, the name of the clip
  2. The primary camera in the scene
  3. The first camera found in the scene
  4. A temporary camera is created that frames the scene



Playback and Frame Control

Playback and frame controls on the bottom tool bar: Playback Controls

  1. Playback controls
  2. Playback shuttle - Click and drag to change playback speed
  3. Frame controls
  4. Frame shuttle - Click and drag to change the current frame
  5. Current frame
  6. Duration
  7. Current speed
  8. Time units (frames, seconds, timecode)

In and out points can be set frome the Playback menu to limit playback to a section of the timeline.

The number of dropped frames during playback can be viewed in the HUD, which is available from the View menu.



Timeline

Timeline Timeline components:

  1. Current frame
  2. Video cache display (green)
  3. Audio cache display (purple)
  4. Video track
  5. Video clips
  6. Audio track
  7. Audio clips

Controls:

The size of the timeline thumbnails can be set from the Timeline menu. Thumbnails can also be disabled to improve performance.



A/B Comparison

To compare files, open both files and set the B file from either the Compare/B menu or Files tool. The A file is the current file.

Compare modes:

Multiple B files can be viewed with Tile mode.

One example use for Tile mode is to simultaneously view multiple layers within a file. Open the file multiple times and set the current layer for each instance. Set one of the files as current, or the A file, and the rest as B files, and enable Tile compare mode.

Tile Mode Compare multiple layers:

  1. Set the current, or A, file and layer
  2. Set multiple B files and their layers
  3. Set the compare mode to Tile

Files can be compared in relative or absolute time mode. In relative time mode the time of the B file will be offset to match the start of the A file. In absolute time mode the A and B times will be the same.



Color Controls

The Color Controls tool can be used to set OpenColorIO options, specify a LUT (Look-Up Table), or apply other controls like brightness, contrast, and levels.

The Color Controls tool can be shown from the Tools menu or the tool bar.

Color Tool OpenColorIO options:

  1. Enable OpenColorIO
  2. OpenColorIO configuration file
  3. Input color space
  4. Display color space
  5. View color space

A LUT file can also be applied either before or after the OpenColorIO pass, by setting the LUT Order option to PreColorConfig or PostColorConfig.



Exporting Files

The Export tool can be used to export the current file as an image sequence, a movie, or the current frame as a still image.

The Export tool can be shown from the Tools menu or the tool bar.

Export Tool Export components:

  1. Output directory
  2. Render size
  3. File type
  4. Base file name
  5. File extension
  6. Movie codec

To export an image sequence set the file type to Sequence. To export the current frame set the file type to Image.

Note that audio export is not yet supported.



Settings

Settings are stored as a JSON file in the DJV folder in your Documents directory.



Troublehooting

If the application fails to start, try running from the command line to check for are any errors.

Check the log file located in the DJV folder in your Documents directory.

Try resetting the settings:



Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shorcuts can be customized in the Settings tool.

The Settings tool can be shown from the Tools menu or the tool bar.

Keyboard Shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts components:

  1. Keyboard shortcuts settings
  2. Shortcut with keyboard focus
  3. Conflicting shortcuts

To set a shortcut, click the shortcut widget or use the tab key to give it keyboard focus, then type the new shortcut. The widget will turn red if the shortcut conflicts with another one.



Building from Source

A CMake “super build” script is provided to build DJV and all of the dependencies.

Building on Linux

Dependencies:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/DJV.git

Run CMake with the super build script:

cmake -S DJV/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Start the build:

cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release

Run the application:

./Release/DJV/src/DJV-build/bin/djv/djv

Building on macOS

Dependencies:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/DJV.git

Run CMake with the super build script:

cmake -S DJV/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Start the build:

cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release

Run the application:

./Release/DJV/src/DJV-build/bin/djv/djv

The CMake variable CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES can be used to specify the build architecture:

-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64

-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64

These aliases are convenient for switching between architectures:

alias arm="env /usr/bin/arch -arm64 /bin/zsh --login"
alias intel="env /usr/bin/arch -x86_64 /bin/zsh --login"

Building on Windows

Dependencies:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/DJV.git

Run CMake with the super build script:

cmake -S DJV\etc\SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%CD%\Release\install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=%CD%\Release\install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Start the build:

cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release

Run the application:

set PATH=%CD%\Release\install\bin;%PATH%

.\Release\DJV\src\DJV-build\bin\djv\Release\djv
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