the echothis blog

Published by Rolf on 02 Apr 2009 at 03:37 pm

Reading CT scans with eFilmLT.exe on Vista

A bit off-topic but I thought I’d share. A friend of mine had this CT scan on CD and was having trouble reading it on his PC (sometimes it worked, sometimes not). And simply copying it to his hard disk enabled it unreadable. So I offered to debug why, and lo and behold, a quick Google search shows that lots of other people have reported similar problems (e.g., see here).

It seems that this proprietary reader (eFilmLT.exe), made by Merge Software, looks for a valid binary “DICOMDIR” file that points to the metadata for the particular scan images on the CD (e.g., the patient name, date taken, image filenames, etc.). Why this isn’t a human-readable format like XML, I have no idea.

Anyway, if you have a set of images that you can’t read:

copy them to your hard disk
download the attached zipfile, which contains all the relevant reader files (e.g. ,eFilmLT.exe, associated DLLs, “Profiles” directory, and configuration files). All these are (I think) independent of the particular CT scan on a given CD. I have *not* included “DICOMDIR” here by design.
Overwrite your files with the contents of this zipfile.

Then try to launch the new eFilmLT.exe. It should pick up your DICOMDIR and now you can read your CT scans. This has been tested on Vista, probably XP works as well. Good luck.

Download: efilmbinaries.zip

94 Comments Uncategorized

94 Responses to “Reading CT scans with eFilmLT.exe on Vista”

RHK on 03 Apr 2009 at 2:01 am #

This solved the problem. Thanks.
Dariusz Gunia on 03 Apr 2009 at 6:33 pm #

Hi,

Thanks for sharing ! Your solution works perfect on Vista
Renee Barr on 11 Apr 2009 at 5:07 pm #

Thanks so much for posting this – completely solved my problem viewing the files! I appreciate being able to find this link online!
helped me out too on 17 Apr 2009 at 8:50 pm #

THank you! your files resolved the problem I was having as well. I can now review my MRI information. Now, if only there was a way for me to download the knowledge about what the images are supposed to be telling me….

THANK YOU!
Patrick on 17 Apr 2009 at 10:47 pm #

This is useful!

Thank you

but one question.

How do i overwrite?
Rolf on 17 Apr 2009 at 11:50 pm #

Just unzip the files in the zipfile and drag them into the eFilm directory. Then relaunch eFilm.exe and it should work.
Dylin on 21 Apr 2009 at 2:03 pm #

Thanks for your help, very much appreciated!!!

Maybe the hospital should give you a disk that works in the first place though, don’t know how they can charge for something that doesn’t work????
Chad on 29 Apr 2009 at 4:36 am #

THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!! I THOUGHT I WOULD HAVE TO VMWARE INTO XP PRO FOREVER TO BE ABLE TO VIEW MY OWN SCANS!
David on 05 May 2009 at 12:50 am #

This worked perfect! Thank you for your help!
Allen on 11 May 2009 at 3:15 am #

Is your zip file still a good file? I am not able to open or get anything out of it.
Thanks,
Allen
jennafer on 20 May 2009 at 11:53 am #

OMG thank you so much for this… I spent about 6 hours trying to get this stupid cd from my doctor to open on my computer…. what would we do without people like you… ??????
Heidi on 29 May 2009 at 9:53 pm #

Thank you so much for posting this! You are a lifesaver! Now if I can only figure out how to read these images . . .
D on 15 Jun 2009 at 7:39 pm #

Thanks. This helped me too, but I’m trying to do 3D volume rendering and it says there is no memory available. How to make this work?
noah on 17 Jun 2009 at 7:19 pm #

Worked for me too! Thanks!!
Lynne on 22 Jun 2009 at 11:46 pm #

It worked! Thank you.
Waspman on 24 Jun 2009 at 9:28 am #

Thank you! it worked perfectly!
broken guy on 27 Jul 2009 at 8:26 pm #

Thank you very much!! This solved my problem too. Now I’m able to view my pics
Chad on 29 Jul 2009 at 9:43 pm #

I have tried everything and I still can’t read the images from the disc or the hard drive.
clif on 08 Aug 2009 at 9:21 pm #

Thanks, I did exactly as you said and was able to view both my shoulder images and knee images. now, like others, if I could only read CT SCANS everything would be perfect. still its very interesting to view but prior to this point, I got nothing.
stillot on 09 Aug 2009 at 10:15 pm #

Thank you for this. It works!
Lisa on 15 Aug 2009 at 5:13 am #

I have NO idea what you mean by \overwriting\…. I’m really confused.
Rob on 15 Aug 2009 at 11:03 am #

I leave a message in the dutch language that it worked:

Deze methode werkt perfect bij CD’s van een CT scan gemaakt in het AMC (Amsterdams Medisch Centrum):

(translation / vertaling):

Kopieer de CD naar een map op de harde schijf en verwijder daarna de CD uit de computer.

Download het zip bestand en unzip de bestanden van het zipbestand in dezelfde map op de harde schijf waarin je de CD hebt gekopieerd (sommige bestanden zullen worden overschreven, maar niet JOUW foto’s!, dus wees niet bang – bovendien heb je ze nog op de CD.)

Start in die map op de harde schijf efilmlt.exe

en zie daar…: jouw foto’s.
elle on 04 Sep 2009 at 2:44 am #

Thanks so much. This worked perfectly.
Noah on 06 Oct 2009 at 10:00 pm #

Worked perfectly!! Thanks
Wendy on 07 Oct 2009 at 4:13 am #

You absolutely ROCK! I was going crazy for an hour trying to look at xrays w/ Vista…all kinds of programs wanted to sell me things…you actually solved the problem!

Worked Perfectl!! You’re the best! Thanks
Wendy on 07 Oct 2009 at 4:13 am #

You ROCK! this worked perfectly! I’ve been struggling for an hour to look at xrays on vista…nothing worked till this…thank you!
Glenn Counsell on 07 Oct 2009 at 5:30 pm #

Rolf

Excellent – that’s great. Works like a treat! Thank you for taking the time to sort this out.
Sunshine on 13 Oct 2009 at 5:02 pm #

Worked perfect. Did not have to copy my files from CD to hard disk. Once zip file had been extracted, I inserted my MRI disk and the home screen populated. Those images are so good. Thank you SO much
osprey on 06 Nov 2009 at 1:04 am #

Great assistance. You the man!!
thanks
osprey
Karin on 20 Nov 2009 at 9:28 pm #

Thanks! Now the program works, but there is no patient information coming up in the start page, so I can’t pick any file to open, any idea? The CD worked perfectly on XP, but not on Vista…..
Todd on 01 Dec 2009 at 12:26 pm #

This worked great in Vista 64bit. Thanks!!!
joseph on 05 Dec 2009 at 9:14 pm #

I have downloaded the zip file and copy the CD to my Vista hrad drive. May I ask what is the next step to overwrite or unzip the file?

Thanks
Gilbert on 11 Dec 2009 at 9:40 am #

Very nice! Works on Windows7 Professional 64bit!

Greetings from Dresden, Germany.
RJG on 12 Dec 2009 at 12:53 am #

You rock. It was buggy before, but now I can actually view it. Thanks so much!
RJG on 12 Dec 2009 at 12:53 am #

Thanks so much! I can actually see it now! You rock.
curtis on 20 Dec 2009 at 1:11 am #

think i needed that so much
Dave on 21 Dec 2009 at 10:53 pm #

Worked perfect, very valuable and appreciate being able to look at my scan. Thank You!
HALORIDGE on 24 Dec 2009 at 2:12 am #

Many thanks!!! our normal vet uses a different system for our dogs minivue which works great, kinda disappointed in this software making itr virtually unreadable for many people at home….
Robin on 08 Jan 2010 at 12:15 am #

The zip file worked! Wow – thanks so much
Kell Larsen on 18 Jan 2010 at 8:37 am #

Thank you for making this work on Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit.

Kell
Randers Denmark
Karli-Rae on 12 Feb 2010 at 1:04 am #

Hey there! Do you know of how I can do this on an Intel-based Mac? Thanks!
Vahe Almoyan on 04 Mar 2010 at 10:28 am #

Thank You very very much for helping.
Barry on 13 Mar 2010 at 4:11 pm #

Thank you V E R Y much !!! At last we’re able to veiw the files on Vista
Dave B on 16 Mar 2010 at 7:11 pm #

Thanks.
This worked on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.
Had to run as administrator and install the MS XML 4.0 parser.
Lisa B. on 24 Jul 2010 at 1:17 am #

It worked! Thank you so much for your help! Was able to look at MRI of my head! Amazing stuff!
Travis on 30 Jul 2010 at 10:24 pm #

Thanks, worked on windows 7 as well
Don on 27 Nov 2010 at 4:39 pm #

Your file and suggestions were dead-on! I’ve been on the phone with my sister for over an hour and was trying to help her with her own efilmlt program error. Found your information, downloaded it (hesitantly because I am VERY cautious about downloading ANYTHING), and viola!….It WORKS!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!
Tania on 03 Dec 2010 at 10:59 am #

Thank you so much – it worked! Great to find a solution. I have Windows 7 Home edition.
Joette on 16 Dec 2010 at 6:34 pm #

I was banging my head trying to get the efilm lite viewer working on a Vista machine. Apparently, your efilmlt.exe is a different version than the one they are sending out now. OLDER, go figure!! KUDOS! Worked like a charm!! Thank you for posting!!
Kara on 17 Jan 2011 at 6:17 pm #

THANK YOU, this worked like a charm! Now I can see my X-rays on my laptop running Windows 7!
Juniper on 18 Jan 2011 at 11:37 pm #

All told, thanks to you, it took maybe ten minutes to take care of this. I put cd in, running file did nothing, googled, first hit was this. Copied. Ran it again. BLAMMO!

Thank you so much!
Brazilian boy on 27 Feb 2011 at 10:51 pm #

Thanks a lot, man. I don’t know why this program wasn’t running on my Windows Vista. But with your solution, now it’s running perfectly and I can see my X-rays and magnetic resonances! Hugs from Brazil.
Allan on 01 Mar 2011 at 2:12 am #

Thanks for this. Just wanted to let you know this helps get eFilmLT working using Wine under Ubuntu 10.10. The menus don’t work (crashes Wine) but at least I can view my x-rays/scans. Thanks again.
JM on 12 Mar 2011 at 7:27 pm #

Thanks worked great!! Able to view the images………
Sean Kung on 18 Mar 2011 at 7:35 pm #

Exactly as this statement…. but Thanks anyway~

[Dave B ..................on 16 Mar 2010 at 7:11 pm #

Thanks.
This worked on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.
Had to run as administrator and install the MS XML 4.0 parser.]
luz Elena Yriberry on 25 Mar 2011 at 3:09 pm #

I really need to see my dvd from my back
chmonster on 26 Mar 2011 at 6:22 pm #

Thank you man!! It works on my laptop with windows 7.
Mónica on 31 Mar 2011 at 5:32 pm #

resolvió mi problema, gracias!
marina_V on 05 Apr 2011 at 6:08 pm #

Thank you, this enabled me to view my MRI files! I downloaded the zipfile to my downloads directory then unzipped/extracted to a newly created folder on my hard drive containing a complete copy of the directories and files off the CD, thus overwriting all the necessary files. Launched the eFilmLt.exe from inside that directory and it worked like a charm
JP on 06 Apr 2011 at 5:21 pm #

Confirmed — works with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

1. Copy the files from your cd to your desktop.
2. Extract the zip files from this website.
4. Copy and paste into the folder you copied from your CD, overwriting all files that it asks you about (should be about 40).

Thanks, Rolf — excellent work.
Andy on 26 Apr 2011 at 1:56 pm #

Yep. Thanks so very much. It works perfectly on Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit! Wow, the quality and the contrast possibilities of these images are extraordinary!
Sonya on 04 May 2011 at 11:58 pm #

Thank you for this post & thank you JP for your instructions. I finally got it figured out.

1. Copied the files from my CD into a new folder on my desktop I titled MRI
2. Downloaded the zip file from this website
3. Unzipped the file & had it saved into my new MRI file I just made on my desktop
4. When asked to copy & replace (or move) I answered yes to all files (there was a box at the bottom) there were about 40 files as.

It worked! Thanks everyone!
miner on 17 May 2011 at 12:28 pm #

It works… thank you… you saved me from getting more nervous and CD burning guy from being beaten…
random physio on 18 May 2011 at 5:00 pm #

That solved the problem on Vista SP1

Thanks a lot!
JohnRH on 23 May 2011 at 9:10 pm #

Confirmed again, this worked for me today on Win 7 Home 64bit. Thanks much for the fix.
BadDog on 25 May 2011 at 2:19 am #

Super! Found your zip file on Google. Was hesitant to use it, but it works perfectly & superfast. I got to see my images in about 60 seconds!!! Thanks Rolf!!!!
pradyumna shinde on 30 May 2011 at 5:53 am #

Dear Rolf, than you so much for your post. you have certainly helped s many people by sharing this valuable info.
Dave on 01 Jun 2011 at 8:15 pm #

now able to open efilm lite but no files are shown
Brent on 26 Jun 2011 at 4:48 am #

Thanks for this…..
Michael on 13 Jul 2011 at 12:38 am #

Works Awesome with Windows XP Pro
Kathrine on 14 Jul 2011 at 6:46 am #

Can open the program but can’t see my films….

have a little plus sign when i click and drag but they don’t appear….
Gustavo La Riva on 05 Aug 2011 at 12:58 am #

Muy agradecido, excelente solución.
Marcec on 18 Aug 2011 at 4:26 pm #

Hvala puno! Pozdrav iz Hrvatske. Radi odli?no na Win7/64bit
Dorota on 30 Aug 2011 at 10:28 am #

Hi, thx, on Win7/64bit it worked too ))
Murodullo on 02 Sep 2011 at 5:14 pm #

It worked for me as well. Thanks a lot!
Ricardo on 06 Sep 2011 at 7:35 pm #

I have a slightly different problem:

I have a set of images with no DICOMDIR file (i.e. just the raw Dicom files). Is there anyway I can use this to view them. So, I guess, how can I create the DICOMDIR file (at least the bare essentials like file path, etc)?
Richard on 08 Sep 2011 at 2:13 am #

This didn’t work for me – I had the same issue that another poster had where the program would open but it was blank – no patient data.

I left clicked the eFilmLt.exe and chose Properties. Then I chose the Compatibility tab. I checked the box “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and chose Windows XP (Service Pack 3).

Worked after that.

Windows 7 Home Premium – SP1.
Angel4o on 02 Oct 2011 at 9:44 am #

Very nice! Works on Windows7 Professional 64bit!

Greetings
Joseph on 15 Oct 2011 at 9:25 pm #

Thank you so much!
that solved the problem both in XP and Vista, because the problem was that many dlls file were simply missing from the CT SCANS CD…
Regards
J.
Faith on 24 Oct 2011 at 8:24 pm #

This was wonderful and much appreciated. thank you so much for the extra effort!
KATY K on 09 Nov 2011 at 7:33 pm #

Amazing! I somehow missed the final step about opening up eFilmLite to actually view the files but once I did my scans popped right up. Awesome!!!
Johnny on 20 Nov 2011 at 9:56 am #

works fine with windows 7… great… is there a permenant fix to this??
i 2 scans – lweft and right knee and had to creat 2 separate files. is there a way to avoid this?
Pauline on 23 Nov 2011 at 2:11 pm #

Hi,

can you please explain me how I copy the cd to my hard disk ? Thank you for your help

Pauline
Anton on 07 Dec 2011 at 5:10 pm #

Thank you!!!
Terra on 23 Dec 2011 at 8:39 pm #

THANK YOU!!! Quick find on google search and your easy instructions and provided files got me going fast, Merry Christmas!
Frank on 16 Jan 2012 at 6:17 pm #

Thanks from me too!!! It solved the problem in Vista 32bit!
Alexey on 29 Jan 2012 at 9:07 am #

Thank you, this zip was realy helpfull. But on Windows 7 I need also to instal ms xml parser 4.0, after that it works!
Jim Stockton on 26 Feb 2012 at 4:27 pm #

Worked like a charm when I merged it into the correct directory.
AGreenhill on 03 Mar 2012 at 1:37 am #

THANKS – solved my problem… I can’t believe they knowingly distribute this broken crap!
Carol Woodyard on 08 Mar 2012 at 10:33 pm #

Thank you so very, very much! Works great!
Smyers on 16 Mar 2012 at 1:03 am #

worked like a charm! Thanks so much for making this available
Peter L on 13 Apr 2012 at 5:11 pm #

Win 7: Got an error message that I needed to install the MS XML Parser. However, if you copy the “DICOM” directory *and* the “DICOMDIR” file into the same folder with the expanded binaries provided by the author, it works just fine! (though probably not as elegant as installing the MS XML Parser, but I didn’t want to look around for that before seeing my xrays). Thanks!
Izia Elman on 29 Apr 2012 at 7:53 pm #

Thanks a lot, it works with windows 7!!!
Izia Elman on 29 Apr 2012 at 7:56 pm #

It solved my problem, works fine with windows 7. Thanks a lot!!!