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sRGB vs REC709 – An introduction and FFmpeg implementations
1. Basic Comparison
- What they are
- sRGB: A standard “web”/computer-display RGB color space defined by IEC 61966-2-1. It’s used for most monitors, cameras, printers, and the vast majority of images on the Internet.
- Rec. 709: An HD-video color space defined by ITU-R BT.709. It’s the go-to standard for HDTV broadcasts, Blu-ray discs, and professional video pipelines.
- Why they exist
- sRGB: Ensures consistent colors across different consumer devices (PCs, phones, webcams).
- Rec. 709: Ensures consistent colors across video production and playback chains (cameras → editing → broadcast → TV).
- What you’ll see
- On your desktop or phone, images tagged sRGB will look “right” without extra tweaking.
- On an HDTV or video-editing timeline, footage tagged Rec. 709 will display accurate contrast and hue on broadcast-grade monitors.
2. Digging Deeper
Feature sRGB Rec. 709 White point D65 (6504 K), same for both D65 (6504 K) Primaries (x,y) R: (0.640, 0.330) G: (0.300, 0.600) B: (0.150, 0.060) R: (0.640, 0.330) G: (0.300, 0.600) B: (0.150, 0.060) Gamut size Identical triangle on CIE 1931 chart Identical to sRGB Gamma / transfer Piecewise curve: approximate 2.2 with linear toe Pure power-law γ≈2.4 (often approximated as 2.2 in practice) Matrix coefficients N/A (pure RGB usage) Y = 0.2126 R + 0.7152 G + 0.0722 B (Rec. 709 matrix) Typical bit-depth 8-bit/channel (with 16-bit variants) 8-bit/channel (10-bit for professional video) Usage metadata Tagged as “sRGB” in image files (PNG, JPEG, etc.) Tagged as “bt709” in video containers (MP4, MOV) Color range Full-range RGB (0–255) Studio-range Y′CbCr (Y′ [16–235], Cb/Cr [16–240])
Why the Small Differences Matter
(more…) - What they are
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Narcis Calin’s Galaxy Engine – A free, open source simulation software
This 2025 I decided to start learning how to code, so I installed Visual Studio and I started looking into C++. After days of watching tutorials and guides about the basics of C++ and programming, I decided to make something physics-related. I started with a dot that fell to the ground and then I wanted to simulate gravitational attraction, so I made 2 circles attracting each other. I thought it was really cool to see something I made with code actually work, so I kept building on top of that small, basic program. And here we are after roughly 8 months of learning programming. This is Galaxy Engine, and it is a simulation software I have been making ever since I started my learning journey. It currently can simulate gravity, dark matter, galaxies, the Big Bang, temperature, fluid dynamics, breakable solids, planetary interactions, etc. The program can run many tens of thousands of particles in real time on the CPU thanks to the Barnes-Hut algorithm, mixed with Morton curves. It also includes its own PBR 2D path tracer with BVH optimizations. The path tracer can simulate a bunch of stuff like diffuse lighting, specular reflections, refraction, internal reflection, fresnel, emission, dispersion, roughness, IOR, nested IOR and more! I tried to make the path tracer closer to traditional 3D render engines like V-Ray. I honestly never imagined I would go this far with programming, and it has been an amazing learning experience so far. I think that mixing this knowledge with my 3D knowledge can unlock countless new possibilities. In case you are curious about Galaxy Engine, I made it completely free and Open-Source so that anyone can build and compile it locally! You can find the source code in GitHub
https://github.com/NarcisCalin/Galaxy-Engine
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Introduction to BytesIO
When you’re working with binary data in Python—whether that’s image bytes, network payloads, or any in-memory binary stream—you often need a file-like interface without touching the disk. That’s where
BytesIOfrom the built-iniomodule comes in handy. It lets you treat a bytes buffer as if it were a file.What Is
BytesIO?- Module:
io - Class:
BytesIO - Purpose:
- Provides an in-memory binary stream.
- Acts like a file opened in binary mode (
'rb'/'wb'), but data lives in RAM rather than on disk.
from io import BytesIO
Why Use
BytesIO?- Speed
- No disk I/O—reads and writes happen in memory.
- Convenience
- Emulates file methods (
read(),write(),seek(), etc.). - Ideal for testing code that expects a file-like object.
- Emulates file methods (
- Safety
- No temporary files cluttering up your filesystem.
- Integration
- Libraries that accept file-like objects (e.g., PIL,
requests) will work withBytesIO.
- Libraries that accept file-like objects (e.g., PIL,
Basic Examples
1. Writing Bytes to a Buffer
(more…)from io import BytesIO # Create a BytesIO buffer buffer = BytesIO() # Write some binary data buffer.write(b'Hello, \xF0\x9F\x98\x8A') # includes a smiley emoji in UTF-8 # Retrieve the entire contents data = buffer.getvalue() print(data) # b'Hello, \xf0\x9f\x98\x8a' print(data.decode('utf-8')) # Hello,
# Always close when done
buffer.close()
- Module:
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Marigold – repurposing diffusion-based image generators for dense predictions
Marigold repurposes Stable Diffusion for dense prediction tasks such as monocular depth estimation and surface normal prediction, delivering a level of detail often missing even in top discriminative models.
Key aspects that make it great:
– Reuses the original VAE and only lightly fine-tunes the denoising UNet
– Trained on just tens of thousands of synthetic image–modality pairs
– Runs on a single consumer GPU (e.g., RTX 4090)
– Zero-shot generalization to real-world, in-the-wild imageshttps://mlhonk.substack.com/p/31-marigold
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.09358
https://marigoldmonodepth.github.io/
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Runway Aleph
https://runwayml.com/research/introducing-runway-aleph
Generate New Camera Angles
Generate the Next Shot
Use Any Style to Transfer to a Video
Change Environments, Locations, Seasons and Time of Day
Add Things to a Scene
Remove Things from a Scene
Change Objects in a Scene
Apply the Motion of a Video to an Image
Alter a Character’s Appearance
Recolor Elements of a Scene
Relight Shots
Green Screen Any Object, Person or Situation
FEATURED POSTS
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Want to build a start up company that lasts? Think three-layer cake
https://www.fastcompany.com/91131427/want-to-build-a-company-that-lasts-think-three-layer-cake
Building a successful business requires a focus on three key elements: product excellence, go-to-market strategy, and operational excellence. Neglecting any of these areas can lead to failure, as evidenced by the high percentage of startups that don’t make it past the five-year mark. Founders and CEOs must ensure a solid product foundation while also integrating effective sales, marketing, and management strategies to achieve sustainable growth and scale.
- Foundation: Product Excellence, Core Values and Mission
- Core Values: These are the guiding principles that dictate behavior and action within the company. They form the ethical foundation and are crucial for maintaining consistency in decision-making.
- Mission: This defines the company’s purpose and goals. A clear and compelling mission helps align the team and provides a sense of direction.
- Efficiency and Scalability: This layer focuses on creating efficient processes that can scale as the company grows. Streamlined operations reduce costs and increase productivity.
- Structure: Operational Excellence and Innovation
- Operational Excellence: Efficient processes, quality control, and continuous improvement fall into this layer. Ensuring that the company operates smoothly and effectively is crucial for sustainability.
- Innovation: Staying competitive requires innovation. This involves developing new products, services, or processes that add value and keep the company relevant in the market.
- Quality Control and Continuous Improvement: Ensuring that operational processes are of high quality and constantly improving helps maintain product excellence and customer satisfaction.
- Technology and Infrastructure: Investing in the right technology and infrastructure to support business operations is vital. This includes everything from manufacturing equipment to software systems that enhance operational efficiency.
- Strategy: Go-to-Market Strategy, Vision and Long-Term Planning
- Vision: A forward-looking vision inspires and motivates the team. It outlines where the company aims to be in the future and helps in setting long-term goals.
- Strategic Planning: This involves setting long-term goals and determining the actions and resources needed to achieve them. It includes market analysis, competitive strategy, and growth planning.
- Market Understanding: A deep understanding of the target market, including customer segments, competitors, and market trends, is essential. This knowledge helps in positioning the product effectively.
- Marketing and Sales Execution: This involves creating a robust marketing plan that includes branding, messaging, and advertising strategies to attract and retain customers. Additionally, building a strong sales strategy ensures that the product reaches the right customers through the right channels.
- Customer Acquisition and Retention: Effective strategies for acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones are critical. This includes loyalty programs, customer service excellence, and engagement initiatives.
- Foundation: Product Excellence, Core Values and Mission
