Value Representation

OV Other Very Long

Category
binary-stream
Max Length
2^32-8 bytes
Fixed Length
No
Source
PS3.5 §6.2

Definition

A string of 64-bit words where the encoding of the contents is specified by the negotiated Transfer Syntax. OV is a VR that requires byte swapping within each 64-bit word when changing byte ordering.

Attributes using OV

3 DICOM attributes declare this VR.

Working with OV in integration code

VR-aware transformations are where most DICOM integration bugs hide — truncating a PN's 5-component structure, misaligning OB padding, or dropping leading zeros on IS. Saga IT builds production DICOM pipelines that respect VR semantics across Mirth Connect transformers, DIMSE gateways, and cloud DICOM services.