WHY WON't Forward_Reverse.GIFs play or open?

[AngeloM]

Using Live planetary Stacking/enhancement.
ZWO ASI678MM, color space MONO16, with a Celestron 6" SCT on the AVX Mount.
Windows 11Pro, CPWI, SharpCap4.1 Pro, SharpCapInstall-4.1.13417-64bit
Is the issue with the Color Space MONO16 selected.
I usually use RAW16 but for some reason MONO16 was selected.

On the Time Lapse TAB I select :
Save To: SER Video
Check the box for "Create short animated GIF versions when complete (forward and forward/reverse)".
I also check "Save an extra timelapse file with unsharpened/unadjusted images"

Upon completion I do get GIF files named such as "Timelapse of 2025-09-23-0423_6-Saturn-C6-678MM-TV2.5X__forward_reverse"
but when I double click any of the 8 files created in the Windows File Manager what opens is a black screen with a white square box in the center. None of the software I have can open the Gif files. All programs say the format is unsupported, or the file is corrupted.

I know this worked once in the past using an earlier version of Sharpcap.

Thank you for your support.
Mike

[admin]

Hi Mike,

thanks for reporting - it looks like there is an issue with the GIF timelapses when the camera is in MONO modes and the 'Solar Colorization' is not turned on. I will have to check this out and see if I can work out if it ever worked or how it broke. It might have taken quite a while to spot because people usually use mono cameras for solar and probably often use the colorization feature which bypasses the issue.

cheers,

Robin

[AngeloM]

Thank you Robin for responding...How you find the time is a wonder.

FYI: I was imaging Saturn and Jupiter; not Solar.
I downloaded the newest version offered through the Help Menu "check for updates" last night. (V 4.1.13502.0 - 7/22/2025)
This morning I imaged Jupiter and have 4 jupiter Gif's that do rotate. It's simply amazing!

Although the brightness keeps flickering bright/dim/bright; Jupiter still looks great and rotates.
NOTE: The Gifs I saved early this morning are 'Colour Space=RAW16'.

I'll test the Mono8 again .... If it ever stops raining
The problem may have been with the beta version I was using so may I suggest you hold off looking for an issue for now. I'll retest and let you know via reply to this message thread.

Hope this helps.

Thanks again.

Michael

[admin]

Hi Michael,

I checked it out and there was a bug with mono images being converted to animated GIF - the GIF creation library seemed happy to accept mono images, but the resulting file is corrupt. For the next update I am changing the code so that it will put colour images (containing a mono picture) into the GIF, which fixes the problem.

For the brightness fluctuations, unless you were adjusting the image processing settings, the most likely cause is the transparency changing (thin cloud coming and going). Try enabling the tick box in the timelapse page to Stabilize image brightness - it might not eliminate all the variation, but it should greatly reduce it.

cheers,

Robin

[admin]

Hi,

should be fixed in the very latest update (4.1.13789).

cheers,

Robin

[AngeloM]

Robin:

Thanks. I'll update to the v> (4.1.13789).

Thank you.

Mike