View DICOM images? MicroDicom DICOM viewer!

Hello all.

Thank you to everyone who tried to help me find a freeware viewer. I
finally found a viewer that worked in my very old, updated Windows XP
Pro SP3 machine: MicroDicom DICOM viewer from
http://www.microdicom.com/downloads.html ...
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Ant wrote:

Thank you to everyone who tried to help me find a freeware viewer. I
finally found a viewer that worked in my very old, updated Windows XP
Pro SP3 machine: MicroDicom DICOM viewer from
http://www.microdicom.com/downloads.html ...

That page also had some example DICOM image files. I was able to open
them using XnView, a popular alternative to Irfanview (I have both).
All I saw was the image, none of the data in the files, like patient
information. You said all you wanted was to view the images.

On 4/10/2015 10:26 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
Ant wrote:

Thank you to everyone who tried to help me find a freeware viewer. I
finally found a viewer that worked in my very old, updated Windows XP
Pro SP3 machine: MicroDicom DICOM viewer from
http://www.microdicom.com/downloads.html ...

That page also had some example DICOM image files. I was able to open
them using XnView, a popular alternative to Irfanview (I have both).
All I saw was the image, none of the data in the files, like patient
information. You said all you wanted was to view the images.

Yeah, the ones I have seems to be encrypted or something? Anyways,
MicroDicom DICOM viewer worked well but not IrfanView v4.38 with its
(lat/new)est plugins.
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VanguardLH wrote:
Ant wrote:

Thank you to everyone who tried to help me find a freeware viewer. I
finally found a viewer that worked in my very old, updated Windows XP
Pro SP3 machine: MicroDicom DICOM viewer from
http://www.microdicom.com/downloads.html ...

That page also had some example DICOM image files. I was able to open
them using XnView, a popular alternative to Irfanview (I have both).
All I saw was the image, none of the data in the files, like patient
information. You said all you wanted was to view the images.

The danger with this idea, is you would only see the first image
in the file. If the DICOM file contained multiple images,
XnView would ignore all of the ones after the first one.

The reason that can work, is an image viewer is designed to ignore
"tagging" fields. And only look for identity strings or 4CC codes
that are part of a particular image type. So while it might
"run into" an image as it scans the file, the image viewer application
is not designed to extract all possible images in there (as the DICOM
could be like a ZIP file in terms of organization).

Even if you didn't have a complete viewer application, but just had
a DICOM parser to "unzip" the file, that would be better than nothing
in terms of extraction.

*******

To test this out, you and Ant could agree on a test
file to use, then see who can locate the most images
inside it.

Paul

Ant wrote:

On 4/10/2015 10:26 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
Ant wrote:

Thank you to everyone who tried to help me find a freeware viewer. I
finally found a viewer that worked in my very old, updated Windows XP
Pro SP3 machine: MicroDicom DICOM viewer from
http://www.microdicom.com/downloads.html ...

That page also had some example DICOM image files. I was able to open
them using XnView, a popular alternative to Irfanview (I have both).
All I saw was the image, none of the data in the files, like patient
information. You said all you wanted was to view the images.

Yeah, the ones I have seems to be encrypted or something? Anyways,
MicroDicom DICOM viewer worked well but not IrfanView v4.38 with its
(lat/new)est plugins.

Irfanview didn't work for me, either; however, XnView did.

On 4/11/2015 7:45 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Ant wrote:

On 4/10/2015 10:26 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
Ant wrote:

Thank you to everyone who tried to help me find a freeware viewer. I
finally found a viewer that worked in my very old, updated Windows XP
Pro SP3 machine: MicroDicom DICOM viewer from
http://www.microdicom.com/downloads.html ...

That page also had some example DICOM image files. I was able to open
them using XnView, a popular alternative to Irfanview (I have both).
All I saw was the image, none of the data in the files, like patient
information. You said all you wanted was to view the images.

Yeah, the ones I have seems to be encrypted or something? Anyways,
MicroDicom DICOM viewer worked well but not IrfanView v4.38 with its
(lat/new)est plugins.

Irfanview didn't work for me, either; however, XnView did.

I e-mailed with Irfan recently and he said these things about my DICOM
issue:

"Sorry, I am using a third party Dicom plugin and not all possible and
crazy Dicom types can be properly loaded "

"My plugin is based on ezDicom ... and yes, ezDicom is not perfect and
there can be crashes.
Dicom is a bad format ... "

"I found the sources but sorry, the Aeskulap code is under the GPL
license and can't be used in non-GPL programs "


XnView isn't free like IrfanView.
--
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise: which
having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer and
gathereth her food in the harvest." --Proverbs 6:6-8 (Bible)
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) Chop ANT from its address if e-mailing privately.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

On 4/11/2015 7:07 PM, Paul wrote:

The danger with this idea, is you would only see the first image
in the file. If the DICOM file contained multiple images,
XnView would ignore all of the ones after the first one.

The reason that can work, is an image viewer is designed to ignore
"tagging" fields. And only look for identity strings or 4CC codes
that are part of a particular image type. So while it might
"run into" an image as it scans the file, the image viewer application
is not designed to extract all possible images in there (as the DICOM
could be like a ZIP file in terms of organization).

Even if you didn't have a complete viewer application, but just had
a DICOM parser to "unzip" the file, that would be better than nothing
in terms of extraction.

*******

To test this out, you and Ant could agree on a test
file to use, then see who can locate the most images
inside it.

I can't share mine since they are private, but I can share these if they
help from my Linux/Debian stable box:

$ file *
file1: DICOM medical imaging data
file10: DICOM medical imaging data
file100: DICOM medical imaging data
file101: DICOM medical imaging data
file102: DICOM medical imaging data
file103: DICOM medical imaging data
file104: DICOM medical imaging data
file105: DICOM medical imaging data
file106: DICOM medical imaging data
file107: DICOM medical imaging data
file108: DICOM medical imaging data
file109: DICOM medical imaging data
file11: DICOM medical imaging data
file110: DICOM medical imaging data
file111: DICOM medical imaging data
file112: DICOM medical imaging data
file113: DICOM medical imaging data
file114: DICOM medical imaging data
file115: DICOM medical imaging data
file116: DICOM medical imaging data
file117: DICOM medical imaging data
file118: DICOM medical imaging data
file12: DICOM medical imaging data
file13: DICOM medical imaging data
file14: DICOM medical imaging data
file15: DICOM medical imaging data
file16: DICOM medical imaging data
file17: DICOM medical imaging data
file18: DICOM medical imaging data
file19: DICOM medical imaging data
file2: DICOM medical imaging data
file20: DICOM medical imaging data
file21: DICOM medical imaging data
file22: DICOM medical imaging data
file23: DICOM medical imaging data
file24: DICOM medical imaging data
file25: DICOM medical imaging data
file26: DICOM medical imaging data
file27: DICOM medical imaging data
file28: DICOM medical imaging data
file29: DICOM medical imaging data
file3: DICOM medical imaging data
file30: DICOM medical imaging data
file31: DICOM medical imaging data
file32: DICOM medical imaging data
file33: DICOM medical imaging data
file34: DICOM medical imaging data
file35: DICOM medical imaging data
file36: DICOM medical imaging data
file37: DICOM medical imaging data
file38: DICOM medical imaging data
file39: DICOM medical imaging data
file4: DICOM medical imaging data
file40: DICOM medical imaging data
file41: DICOM medical imaging data
file42: DICOM medical imaging data
file43: DICOM medical imaging data
file44: DICOM medical imaging data
file45: DICOM medical imaging data
file46: DICOM medical imaging data
file47: DICOM medical imaging data
file48: DICOM medical imaging data
file49: DICOM medical imaging data
file5: DICOM medical imaging data
file50: DICOM medical imaging data
file51: DICOM medical imaging data
file52: DICOM medical imaging data
file53: DICOM medical imaging data
file54: DICOM medical imaging data
file55: DICOM medical imaging data
file56: DICOM medical imaging data
file57: DICOM medical imaging data
file58: DICOM medical imaging data
file59: DICOM medical imaging data
file6: DICOM medical imaging data
file60: DICOM medical imaging data
file61: DICOM medical imaging data
file62: DICOM medical imaging data
file63: DICOM medical imaging data
file64: DICOM medical imaging data
file65: DICOM medical imaging data
file66: DICOM medical imaging data
file67: DICOM medical imaging data
file68: DICOM medical imaging data
file69: DICOM medical imaging data
file7: DICOM medical imaging data
file70: DICOM medical imaging data
file71: DICOM medical imaging data
file72: DICOM medical imaging data
file73: DICOM medical imaging data
file74: DICOM medical imaging data
file75: DICOM medical imaging data
file76: DICOM medical imaging data
file77: DICOM medical imaging data
file78: DICOM medical imaging data
file79: DICOM medical imaging data
file8: DICOM medical imaging data
file80: DICOM medical imaging data
file81: DICOM medical imaging data
file82: DICOM medical imaging data
file83: DICOM medical imaging data
file84: DICOM medical imaging data
file85: DICOM medical imaging data
file86: DICOM medical imaging data
file87: DICOM medical imaging data
file88: DICOM medical imaging data
file89: DICOM medical imaging data
file9: DICOM medical imaging data
file90: DICOM medical imaging data
file91: DICOM medical imaging data
file92: DICOM medical imaging data
file93: DICOM medical imaging data
file94: DICOM medical imaging data
file95: DICOM medical imaging data
file96: DICOM medical imaging data
file97: DICOM medical imaging data
file98: DICOM medical imaging data
file99: DICOM medical imaging data
PS.DIR: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators
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"... Something wrong with the gun," he said. "But what if there is?
They'll get it right again. And even if there's a delay, how can it
alter the end? It's just men and ants. There's the ants builds their
cities, live their lives, have wars, revolutions, until the men want
them out of the way, and then they go out of the way. That's what we are
now -- just ants. Only --" "Yes," "We're eatable ants..." --H.G. Wells'
The War of the Worlds
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| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) Chop ANT from its address if e-mailing privately.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

Ant wrote:
On 4/11/2015 7:07 PM, Paul wrote:

The danger with this idea, is you would only see the first image
in the file. If the DICOM file contained multiple images,
XnView would ignore all of the ones after the first one.

The reason that can work, is an image viewer is designed to ignore
"tagging" fields. And only look for identity strings or 4CC codes
that are part of a particular image type. So while it might
"run into" an image as it scans the file, the image viewer application
is not designed to extract all possible images in there (as the DICOM
could be like a ZIP file in terms of organization).

Even if you didn't have a complete viewer application, but just had
a DICOM parser to "unzip" the file, that would be better than nothing
in terms of extraction.

*******

To test this out, you and Ant could agree on a test
file to use, then see who can locate the most images
inside it.

I can't share mine since they are private, but I can share these if they
help from my Linux/Debian stable box:

$ file *
file1: DICOM medical imaging data
file10: DICOM medical imaging data
snipped
PS.DIR: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators

The microdicom site had some sample files.
Find one for which the viewer you downloaded,
locates multiple files. Then Vanguard can try
his viewer and see if he can locate all the
image files inside.

I looked at a couple of sample files from that
site, but with my hex editor, I couldn't
figure out where the images began, and where
I should be snipping. What I was seeing was
weird, and almost looked like it had a
double-byte orientation. This is unlike the
mypacs sample I got, where I could see PNG
multiple times inside the file, and it was
easy to snip them out with the hex editor
and open each PNG separately.

Paul

Ant wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Irfanview didn't work for me, either; however, XnView did.

I e-mailed with Irfan recently and he said these things about my DICOM
issue:

"Sorry, I am using a third party Dicom plugin and not all possible and
crazy Dicom types can be properly loaded "

"My plugin is based on ezDicom ... and yes, ezDicom is not perfect and
there can be crashes.
Dicom is a bad format ... "

"I found the sources but sorry, the Aeskulap code is under the GPL
license and can't be used in non-GPL programs "

XnView isn't free ...

Who said XnView isn't free? You? Or were you quoting the Irfanview
author? Of course it is free - for personal use.

http://www.xnview.com/en/xnview/#downloads
"If you intend to use XnView in a company, you must purchase a license."

You never said whatever Dicom viewer you found would be deployed within
a business. So far, it has been all about just you.

... like IrfanView.

But Irfanview didn't work on the sample images. From Irfanview's
download page, 4.38 is the latest version. That's what I have. I also
downloaded and installed the 4.38 version plug-ins. Under Help -
Installed plug-ins, DICOM.DLL 4.20 "Dicom images - DCM ACR IMA" is
listed and that's the version listed on Irfanview's download page. It
didn't work when I tried using Irfanview with the Dicom plug-in to view
the sample images. Could be XnView works on some Dicom images where the
Irfanview Dicom plug-in fails, and perhaps visa versa, too.

Who said XnView isn't free? You? Or were you quoting the Irfanview
author? Of course it is free - for personal use.

http://www.xnview.com/en/xnview/#downloads
"If you intend to use XnView in a company, you must purchase a license."

You never said whatever Dicom viewer you found would be deployed within
a business. So far, it has been all about just you.

It's personal home usage so I can view my own images. Ah, I missed that
part. So I tried it, but it failed to open the images.


But Irfanview didn't work on the sample images. From Irfanview's
download page, 4.38 is the latest version. That's what I have. I also
downloaded and installed the 4.38 version plug-ins. Under Help -
Installed plug-ins, DICOM.DLL 4.20 "Dicom images - DCM ACR IMA" is
listed and that's the version listed on Irfanview's download page. It
didn't work when I tried using Irfanview with the Dicom plug-in to view
the sample images. Could be XnView works on some Dicom images where the
Irfanview Dicom plug-in fails, and perhaps visa versa, too.

Well, both of them failed for me with the non-sample images I have.
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Ant wrote:

It's personal home usage so I can view my own images. Ah, I missed that
part. So I tried it, but it failed to open the images.

For the Minimal version, there are *two* downloads to install:
#1 - Program (Irfanview).
#2 - Plug-ins (including Dicom DLL).

You probably forgot the 2nd download and install. Not all users want
the plug-ins so they have a Minimal version that omits the plug-ins. If
you want the Minimal version with plug-ins, you have to do 2 downloads.
The Standard version only includes some plug-ins, so you'll still need
the plug-ins download to get all plug-ins. I suspect the Dicom decoder
is consider esoteric and probably not included in a partial plug-ins
bundle. The Extended version includes all the plug-ins.

For the install of XnView, I don't included everything they bundle in
their installer. I don't convert batches of images mostly because any
conversion results in loss of quality, so I don't need their Nconvert.
I didn't bother to install their XnShell (Windows Explorer integration).
I directly use the XnView program, not by right-clicking on image files
to use XnView from a context menu. Too many programs want to add
context menu entries in Windows Explorer making it busy and messy. To
me, their Media Detector seems superfluous and wastes memory. It reads
image files on digital memory cards inserted into a card reader. I
don't need a resident program for that.

http://www.xnview.com/en/nconvert/
http://www.xnview.com/en/xnshell/

As I recall, I installed the Minimal edition and the plug-ins package.
That eliminates their bundleware for Nconverter, XnShell, and Media
Detector.

XnViewMP is the successor to XnView. I haven't bothered to look at
XnViewMP (http://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/).

Since you found a Dicom viewer that meets your needs, don't bother with
XnView unless you want an alternate image viewer to Irfanview that has a
more modern user interface.

On 4/14/2015 12:55 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
Ant wrote:

It's personal home usage so I can view my own images. Ah, I missed that
part. So I tried it, but it failed to open the images.

For the Minimal version, there are *two* downloads to install:
#1 - Program (Irfanview).
#2 - Plug-ins (including Dicom DLL).

You probably forgot the 2nd download and install. Not all users want
the plug-ins so they have a Minimal version that omits the plug-ins. If
you want the Minimal version with plug-ins, you have to do 2 downloads.
The Standard version only includes some plug-ins, so you'll still need
the plug-ins download to get all plug-ins. I suspect the Dicom decoder
is consider esoteric and probably not included in a partial plug-ins
bundle. The Extended version includes all the plug-ins.

I do have all of them.


For the install of XnView, I don't included everything they bundle in
their installer. I don't convert batches of images mostly because any
conversion results in loss of quality, so I don't need their Nconvert.
I didn't bother to install their XnShell (Windows Explorer integration).
I directly use the XnView program, not by right-clicking on image files
to use XnView from a context menu. Too many programs want to add
context menu entries in Windows Explorer making it busy and messy. To
me, their Media Detector seems superfluous and wastes memory. It reads
image files on digital memory cards inserted into a card reader. I
don't need a resident program for that.

http://www.xnview.com/en/nconvert/
http://www.xnview.com/en/xnshell/

As I recall, I installed the Minimal edition and the plug-ins package.
That eliminates their bundleware for Nconverter, XnShell, and Media
Detector.

XnViewMP is the successor to XnView. I haven't bothered to look at
XnViewMP (http://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/).

Since you found a Dicom viewer that meets your needs, don't bother with
XnView unless you want an alternate image viewer to Irfanview that has a
more modern user interface.

I grabbed the whole package, but in portable package. Thanks though.
--
"Since the world began, we have never exterminated. We probably shall
never exterminate as much as one single insect species. If there was
ever an example of an insect we cannot destroy, the fire ant is it."
--an entomologist quote mentioned by Leonard Nimoy on In The Search Of:
Deadly Ants (1978)
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/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) Chop ANT from its address if e-mailing privately.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.