What does the dcmdump +W command do?

[zanguzen]

Hi again,

I tried using the +W command and it created a .rar file for one of my .dcm images. I opened it using IrfanView and arbitrarily chose 16 bbp because that's what the BitsAllocated tag contains. Anyway, the image came out dark and grayish. However, when I use Dicom Eye (a seperate DICOM viewer program) to view the .dcm file, it is much brighter and actually corresponds with the raw pixel values I get from DCMTK functions. So my question is, why is the .rar file not being viewed the same as Dicom Eye if it supposedly contains the raw pixel data? Thanks!
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[Markus Sabin]

I think you mean the "*.raw" file. Your assumption is correct - the +W option extracts the raw pixeldata to the file.
There may be many reasons why the DICOM image is displayed differently from the raw data. Envision that all information about how the image has to be displayed still resides in the header dump and is not applied to the raw data which is just written "as is".

These information are e.g.

- RescaleIntercept/RescaleSlope
- WindowCenter/WindowWidth

Regards

Markus

[zanguzen]

Hm thank you I see what you're saying, although for some reason the pixel values that I get from raw-data methods (ex. findAndGetUint16(PixelData)) with modality disabled do not correspond with the .raw file. But perhaps the problem lies with DicomEye and not the .raw file. Thank you once again!
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