= gdal-ecw =

 * Read-only plugin for ECW and JPEG2000 Raster Formats
 * Requires gdal and manually-installed ECW 4.1 Runtime libraries
 * Write support for ECW and JPEG2000 via the ECW SDK is not available as part of OSGeo4W
 * Maintainer is FrankWarmerdam

== Installing ECW SDK ==

The GDAL ECW Plugin requires the ECW 4.1 Runtime library, which is by ERDAS.   In order to use the runtime libraries, the end user is required to download and install the DLLs into a system directory.  

ERDAS Web Site: http://www.erdas.com/products/ERDASECWJPEG2000SDK/Downloads.aspx

After downloading and installing the ECW SDK it is necessary to copy the runtime DLLs somewhere appropriate like {{{C:\windows\system32}}}, or {{{C:\Windows\SysWOW64}}} for 64-bit Windows, or {{{C:\\OSGeo4W\bin}}}.  

E.g.:
{{{
copy "C:\Program Files\ERDAS\ERDAS ECW JPEG2000 Read SDK\bin\vc9\win32\*.dll" C:\windows\system32
}}}

Note that downloading and installing these DLLs requires agreeing to a license. Please review the license terms carefully. 

It is imperative that the VC9 ECW 4.1 SDK binaries be used.  Any other ECW (NCS*) DLLs are unlikely to work properly.  Failure to install the correct ECW libraries will normally result in a popup message reading "This application has failed to start because NCSEcw4_RO.dll was not found." or a console error report like:

{{{
C:\warmerda>gdalinfo
ERROR 1: Can't load requested DLL: C:\osgeo4w\bin\gdalplugins\1.8\gdal_ECW_JP2ECW.dll
126: The specified module could not be found.

ERROR 1: Can't load requested DLL: C:\osgeo4w\bin\gdalplugins\1.8\gdal_ECW_JP2ECW.dll
126: The specified module could not be found.

Usage: gdalinfo [--help-general] [-mm] [-stats] [-hist] [-nogcp] [-nomd]
                [-norat] [-noct] [-checksum] [-mdd domain]* datasetname
}}}