Known limitations to the EGI/Philips MFF import/export plugin

• Timing accuracy limited to 10-50 microseconds precision. Matlab 2014b time conversion is not as precise as Matlab 2017a conversion (we can loose 1ms accuracy on some events in some specific rare files). With Matlab 2018a, the difference seems to be at most 10 microseconds. In most applications, this limitation has no consequences as event latencies are multiple of 1000 microseconds (1 ms) and the events are imported and exported perfectly.

• The plugin will not work with version of Matlab older than 2014a as the Java JAR file cannot be properly interfaced.

• When the Java Heap Memory is at its default level, few files can be imported. There is a special message guiding users how to increase the default settings in Matlab in case they encounter an error. Importantly, some large files require a computer with 16Gb of RAM or more (or Java Heap of 4Gb).

• Calibration data when present is applied to the data. However, if the file is exported this information is lost. Impedance data and channel status also contained in the info1.xml file is ignored.

• Importing trials of different length is not supported. This is a rare occurrence.

• Channel status and channel keys in category files are not imported

• Importing filter information and calibration information is not supported (except gain calibration which is applied to the data when it is imported)

• The plugin will import multiple subject trial averages in EEGLAB but the export is not correct or identical. The reason is that EEGLAB consider these averages as single trials from the same subject and cannot handle participant names.

• When importing in standalone mode (not as an EEGLAB plugin, if the file is exported, it will not contain event keys

• Video files are not imported and expoted

• This plugin was tested on platforms using little-endian byte ordering. Although we do not expect big-endian to be a problem, there is a small chance there could be problem

Revision history

Version 5.0

• Fix event latency with segmented data files
• Add aditional checks for epoch limits
• Improve event time resolution

Version 4.1

• Avoid errors when discontinuities are present
• Automatically detect channel location for source localization

Version 4.0

• Handle removed channels for exporting
• Fixed compilation issues
• Remove non-handle event characters
• Handle conflict with MFFimport plugin

Version 3.7

• Rename menu
• Error message when MFF files contain XML characters

Version 3.6

• Fix exporting datasets with no events

Version 3.5

• Fixes issues associated with standalone use
• Fix importing multiple datasets;
• Now import subject information into EEGLAB

Version 3.4

• Fixes issues associated with reading data under Fieldtrip

Version 3.3

• Fix reading on Windows

Version 3.2

• Fix error with boundary events

Version 3.1

• Implement auto-save for BIDS
• Fix event track type for segmenting in Netstation

Version 3.0

• Fix issue with PNS channels
• Fix imporing rare files with custom fields
• Fixing a variety of minor Git issues

Version 2.02

• Adding eeg_checkset to private folder to run in standalone mode (F. Tadel)
• Added fix for files with no events (R. Martinez fix for https://github.com/sccn/eeglab/issues/17)

Version 2.01

• Allow eegplugin_mffmatlabio to return version number
• Remove call in mff_import that was assuming EEGLAB was present

Version 2.00

• Octave compatibility
• Fix issue with boundary latency when importing file mff version 0
• Allowing to export random EEG files
• Rescale coordinates for non-MFF channel coordinates
• Allow exporting datasets which do not have a code field
• Allow exporting datasets with no event duration
• Better support for PNS channels for File-IO
• Fix command line call not rotating channels

Version 1.00

• Add file separator to EEGLAB export menu

Version 0.96

• Add license for each file
• Clean up documentation

Version 0.95

• Fix issues when running File-io import and now importing using File-io functions direclty
• Adding licence file

Version 0.94

• Fix EEGLAB history for pop_mffimport
• Fix boundaries when encoding types
• Minor documentation changes

Version 0.93

• Now import/export data files with PNS data only
• Through the graphic interface, now allow to specify the MFF events field to use for the EEGLAB event types.
• Now allow the plugin to function in standalone mode.
• Now check for Matlab version and issue an error for unsuported Matlab versions

Version 0.92

• Renamed all the functions
• Fix minor issue with multiple references

Version 0.91 - Difference with previous revision

• Fixed issue with info1.xml file which was missing some information

Version 0.9

• Adding support for layout and subject information