Film Scanner for 64-bit Windows

"Scott W" <biphoto DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1132933794.366625.124730@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Andrew Virnuls wrote:
>> Hello all!
>>
>> I'm thinking of purchasing a budget film scanner to scan my old 35mm
>> negatives. Two current UK magazines recommend both PlusTek and Konica
>> Minolta Dual IV scanners.
>>
>> I'm using Windows XP x64, and neither of the manufacturers web-sites
>> mentioned x64 at all. I e-mailed both lots of support people about two
>> weeks ago asking whether their scanners would work with Windows XP x64 -
>> PlusTek didn't reply at all and Konica Minolta replied to say they hadn't
>> tried it so couldn't say. Very poor!
>>
>> So, does anyone know whether either of these would work, or does anyone
>> have
>> any other recommendations? I'm not averse to the idea of getting a
>> secondhand one from Ebay as long as it's going to work!
>>
>> Andrew Virnuls
>
> You are using a bleeding edge operating system with really bad support
> for peripherals. If I were you I would be asking myself if I really
> needed to be using this operating system?

I can understand that point of view to a certain extent, and I do have a
dual-boot system (with SuSE 64-bit Linux), but I still think that it's
pretty poor that new products don't work with new operating systems, and
that manufacturers either don't bother to reply, or reply to say that they
can't be bothered to try it.

And why shouldn't I use Windows XP x64 - a new product from a very major
player in the software market? I've been using it since July without any
problems so far and it seems bizarre that many manufacturers don't even
acknowledge its existence.

I'm not really up on how WIA and TWAIN drivers work - are they actually
OS-dependent hardware drivers, or like application plug-ins. One of the
web-pages that Chris pointed to seemed to suggest that any WIA-complaint
device could be used with x64, so that sounds like something worth
investigating.

Andrew
 >> Stay informed about: Film Scanner for 64-bit Windows 

Andrew Virnuls wrote:

>
> And why shouldn't I use Windows XP x64 - a new product from a very major
> player in the software market? I've been using it since July without any
> problems so far and it seems bizarre that many manufacturers don't even
> acknowledge its existence.
>


It's just they can't afford to rewrite drivers everytime MS changes their
OS. This happened when they moved from win98 to win2K and there was a lot
of old hardware that was no longer supported.
--

Stacey
 >> Stay informed about: Film Scanner for 64-bit Windows 

"Andrew Virnuls" <forename.DeleteThis@surname.co.uk> wrote
>
> I can understand that point of view to a certain extent, and I do have
> a dual-boot system (with SuSE 64-bit Linux), but I still think that
> it's pretty poor that new products don't work with new operating
> systems, and that manufacturers either don't bother to reply, or reply
> to say that they can't be bothered to try it.
>
> And why shouldn't I use Windows XP x64 - a new product from a very
> major player in the software market? I've been using it since July
> without any problems so far and it seems bizarre that many
> manufacturers don't even acknowledge its existence.
>
> I'm not really up on how WIA and TWAIN drivers work - are they
> actually OS-dependent hardware drivers, or like application plug-ins.
> One of the web-pages that Chris pointed to seemed to suggest that any
> WIA-complaint device could be used with x64, so that sounds like
> something worth investigating.
>
> Andrew
>
>
>

It's called 'market penetration', 'development lead-time' and 'how much
money will we make/lose if we get involved'. These companies are in it for
the dollars/yen/roubles/whatever, not to make you happy. If you want to get
involved with a bleeding-edge OS, that's your choice - there's no reason to
expect companies to 'acknowledge' an OS that's only been around for less
than a year. They need to see if enough people are going to install it to
make it worth the effort of developing products to suit.

RobG
 >> Stay informed about: Film Scanner for 64-bit Windows 

On 26 Nov 2005 17:04:39 +1050, RobG <haha RemoveThis @happyland.co.mars> wrote:

>"Andrew Virnuls" <forename RemoveThis @surname.co.uk> wrote
>>
>> I can understand that point of view to a certain extent, and I do have
>> a dual-boot system (with SuSE 64-bit Linux), but I still think that
>> it's pretty poor that new products don't work with new operating
>> systems, and that manufacturers either don't bother to reply, or reply
>> to say that they can't be bothered to try it.
>>
>> And why shouldn't I use Windows XP x64 - a new product from a very
>> major player in the software market? I've been using it since July
>> without any problems so far and it seems bizarre that many
>> manufacturers don't even acknowledge its existence.
>>
>> I'm not really up on how WIA and TWAIN drivers work - are they
>> actually OS-dependent hardware drivers, or like application plug-ins.
>> One of the web-pages that Chris pointed to seemed to suggest that any
>> WIA-complaint device could be used with x64, so that sounds like
>> something worth investigating.
>>
>> Andrew
>>
>>
>>
>
>It's called 'market penetration', 'development lead-time' and 'how much
>money will we make/lose if we get involved'. These companies are in it for
>the dollars/yen/roubles/whatever, not to make you happy. If you want to get
>involved with a bleeding-edge OS, that's your choice - there's no reason to
>expect companies to 'acknowledge' an OS that's only been around for less
>than a year. They need to see if enough people are going to install it to
>make it worth the effort of developing products to suit.

True. And one of the dirty secrets of the computer biz is how many
companies _ do not _ support their older products. "Support" means
fixing driver bugs, and releasing drivers for newer OSes, even though
the product is no longer being sold.

The move to 64-bit OS will produce a _huge_ die off of older
peripherals, video cards, printers, etc. The manufacturers mostly
see 64-bit software as an opportunity to sell you all-new everything.

Wish it weren't so, but it is.

If MS is smart, they will have kind of backwards compatibility mode in
XP64 to accommodate 32-bit drivers, but that could be tough to do it
right, and it could weaken some of the digital rights management stuff
that MS is putting in Vista.



Father Kodak
>
>RobG
 >> Stay informed about: Film Scanner for 64-bit Windows