Hi Roelof,
Thanks for the link. That is cheaper than another commercial codec I found a short time ago.

You say this is a known issue. Can you provide a link to any detailed discussion on this topic? Do you know if there a reason why MS has chosen not to release a Win 7 version of Microsoft Raw Image Viewer? 

David

I have just upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and have lost the ability to view both DNG thumbnails and Canon raw file thumbnails in Windows Explorer. The DNG thumbnails used to be visible under Windows XP as a result of installing a registry patch but I have not yet found anything similar for Windows 7. The Canon raw files also used to be visible under Windows XP as a result of installing the 'Microsoft Raw Image Viewer' utility program but this does not seem to have a Windows 7 version.

Any suggestions?

David 

I successfully invoked ExifTool from my ASP.NET application and wrote information into the metadata of some image files - but this only worked during a test confined to my own PC. When I tried the same thing on my live website it failed with a Security Exception error. It turns out that to do this sort of thing, you need ASP.NET to be running in what is called 'Full Trust' mode. Unfortunately, ISPs do not normally allow this in a shared hosting environment. My ISP restricts ASP.NET to 'Medium Trust' for shared hosting. Dedicated server hosting is an unaffordable option for me.

It's beginning to look as if I will have to do my metadata updates as a batch process after downloading my images from the webserver, which is rather annoying.

David

I also found similar guidance after some googling and am currently investigating System.Diagnostics.Process. I have also downloaded ExifTool. However, I might put off a serious effort on this until the weekend. It's getting late (here in the UK) and my brain is starting to shut down....

Integrating this process into my website is certainly the way I would prefer to go, rather than clunky batch processing methods. Thanks for all the help so far and the offer to assist with ExifTools if I hit problems there. 

David   

Hi Roger,
Thanks for that suggestion. I'm still pretty new to ASP.NET so I don't yet know how I would "build a process in your ASP.NET application to call exiftool directly". However, I will start googling for guidance on how to do that and post my results back here in due course.

David

I have written an ASP.NET 3.5 website application on behalf of an annual international photographic competition. Entrants will be uploading digital photos in either JPEG or TIFF format. Ideally, I would write entrant identity and image title information into the XMP metadata for each image immediately after upload - but so far, I have failed to find any way to do this in ASP.NET.

Thousands of images are involved, so I need to find a way to automate the metadata insertion, perhaps with some sort of script that uses a text file (extracted from the SQL Server database on my website) as the source of the metadata for a batch of images. Can any of the scripting gurus on this forum advise on a good way to do this task?

I have the Adobe CS3 suite, Extensis Portfolio 8 and iView MediaPro 3 on my Win XP PC, in case any of these could be exploited for this purpose. I also have a colleague who has an Apple Mac (running under the Leopard OS), so we could use scripts for either platform.

David

Sossity,
This forum is not perhaps the best place to be asking questions about audio sync problems with your home movies. In my experience there is no topic so obscure that it does not have a dedicated online user forum somewhere in cyberspace. Just Google for 'video forum' or 'audio sync problem' and you will get lots of hits.

Good luck.

David

But still no support for embedding metadata in DNG files. Aaaaaargh!!! I just can't understand why Extensis refuses to address this issue.

David

Don,
My earlier suggestion of a Network Attached Storage (NAS) solution was based on my assumption that this is cost effective compared with a traditional full-function server. I have no practical experience of NAS, so Peter's cautionary remarks should be given due consideration.  However, even if there are some issues with this technology, it need not mean that it is the wrong way to go. If you have already addressed the need for secure backup in a proper manner without depending on the NAS, then any risk would only affect the remote accessibility of your images. Losing your images for ever would be a disaster but perhaps you can live with a less than 100% guarantee of them being available remotely via the internet.

One of the reasons why a NAS device is cheaper than a traditional server is that it contains a cut-down server operating system tailored to specific NAS requirements and not much else. Normal Windows server software costs far more than desktop versions of Windows. All the big storage vendors sell NAS solutions to blue chip companies so there is nothing wrong with the idea in principle.

If you are worried about power consumption (as indeed you should be), then just check the specs of a full-function server versus a NAS device. I suspect that NAS will be a clear winner on this point.

David


 

Hi John,
Taking a look at any of the more promising options would probably help me make up my mind, but I have no recollection of ever seeing PermaJet or Da Vinci samples on display in any of the photographic dealers in the Southampton area. However, I may be wrong on that point. I only got the printer yesterday, and have not yet gone hunting for paper. Do the London shops have paper samples available for inspection?

David

Please forgive me for asking a question that is rather off-topic for a digital asset management forum, but a lot of the regulars here seem happy to share their wisdom on a wide range of photographic subjects so I thought it was worth giving it a go.

I have just bought an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 printer and would appreciate some tips on what papers work best with this printer (my first to use the K3 Ultrachrome inks). In the past I have normally used Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper (with an Epson 1290) but the first thing I have observed with the new printer is that the surface is now significantly less glossy than before. The benefits of a glossy paper in providing deeper and richer colours are now much less obvious, so I am interested in finding out what other types of paper are like. Up to now, I have never tried any matt or lustre finish papers. I don't have any convenient access to samples of other papers so it is quite difficult to know where to start - and many options are quite expensive, so I am reluctant to spend the money without some indication that the results will be acceptable.

I fully realise that I am posing an almost impossible question, as paper selection is a very personal thing, but I would still welcome any views on this topic. For the record, I am biased towards papers that are at the whiter end of the range and don't have too much surface texture. I'd like to narrow my choices down to no more than two or three papers before I start to reach for my credit card.

David  

Andrew,
Another brand you might want to check out is Infrant ReadyNAS. A while ago I read some very positive reviews of some of their kit. It is also available in Canada.

http://www.comtec.ca/index.php?cPath=42_380_932&osCsid=9bda23c68eca0a1f7205ec2cda37addb

David

Andrew,
The Buffalo unit I referenced is preconfigured with 4 hard disks. It doesn't have spare drive bays. This means that when you run out of space you have to replace all the drives with identical larger units (if you want to run RAID 5). More expandable solutions are offered by Dell (with 6 or 10 internal hot-swappable disk drive bays) and most of the other main suppliers. The prices rapidly increase as you head towards more serious business-oriented solutions.

My assumption is that all of these units would happily communicate with any other computer on the Ethernet network, whether PC or Mac, but I'm not a Mac person so check the small print.

David

Andrew,
I have no practical experience of such things, but from what I have read, Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions are simpler to operate than a full-blown server, which needs an expensive server version of Windows. The Buffalo Terastation Pro range (with several RAID options) might be worth a look. They are also available in Canada:
http://www.insight.ca/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=BUF000007&nbs_search=C%3D112%26S%3D300179%26M%3DBUF

BTW, my experience of owning two LaCie external Firewire 800 hard drives has been very positive. They are both 300GB LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme units and I intend to replace them with the more recent 500GB LaCie d2 Quadra units when space starts to run low. This kit is very robust, never gets too hot and has never given me any cause for concern. However, they really address a different need from NAS units or file servers. The latter items are intended to be left running all the time in a permanent location and offer instant availability and high fault resilience (if you use RAID 5). On the other hand, portable hard disks offer the security of offsite storage ability (a vital component of any serious data storage system).

David

Has anyone else got an explanation for my inability to get Photoshop CS2 to do an effective job of colour management?

David