Author Topic: Those pesky Kodak Photo CDs  (Read 4829 times)

Offline Goatworks

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Those pesky Kodak Photo CDs
« on: November 23, 2012, 12:00:16 PM »
Hiya Kirk, thanks so much for all your work with PM, there's not a day that I'm not using the program.

I know that this subject has been covered here briefly before, but I was wondering about your views of incorporating the ability to properly read the now obsolete *.pcd Kodak Photo CD files and then saving them into 21st Century valid formats? I have about 90 disks, most with exclusive content that. I cannot otherwise access.

Although there are a few (poor) commercially available programs to open these *pcd files, none provide the perfect option of choosing which resolution size of file to open, as I seem to recall that using Kodak software at the time, one had a choice of 5 file sizes to pick; obviously, the biggest is most desirable, but sometimes thumbnails can also be useful.

I believe that Photoshop had an extra file to download from their "goodies CD" up to CS3 to read Photo CDs, but I'm now on CS6 on my Mac and I'm unable to get the plug in to work. I sincerely hope that I'm not alone in asking you if you have the resources to incorporate some backwards compatibility to Photo Mechanic in the hope that it pays you back for time and effort in writing the required codes.

Many thanks.

Peter


Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Those pesky Kodak Photo CDs
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2012, 08:25:10 PM »
Peter,

Hiya Kirk, thanks so much for all your work with PM, there's not a day that I'm not using the program.

I know that this subject has been covered here briefly before, but I was wondering about your views of incorporating the ability to properly read the now obsolete *.pcd Kodak Photo CD files and then saving them into 21st Century valid formats? I have about 90 disks, most with exclusive content that. I cannot otherwise access.

Although there are a few (poor) commercially available programs to open these *pcd files, none provide the perfect option of choosing which resolution size of file to open, as I seem to recall that using Kodak software at the time, one had a choice of 5 file sizes to pick; obviously, the biggest is most desirable, but sometimes thumbnails can also be useful.

I believe that Photoshop had an extra file to download from their "goodies CD" up to CS3 to read Photo CDs, but I'm now on CS6 on my Mac and I'm unable to get the plug in to work. I sincerely hope that I'm not alone in asking you if you have the resources to incorporate some backwards compatibility to Photo Mechanic in the hope that it pays you back for time and effort in writing the required codes.

It is unlikely that we'll add support for that file format.  There are many free converter programs out there.  Here is an article about one that is on Mac, Windows, and Linux:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/download-pcdtojpeg-to-convert-kodak-photo-compact-disc-pcd-format-to-jpeg-format/

-Kirk

Offline Goatworks

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Re: Those pesky Kodak Photo CDs
« Reply #2 on: November 26, 2012, 03:20:48 AM »
Thank you Kirk, but I have to admit that I'm not savvy enough to start writing code into Terminal to get my *.PCDs converted into usable files as per the link you provided. I was really hoping that this was something that PM could bring into the real world as I use PM exclusively for all my ingests, imports and batch file conversions.

When you state that it's unlikely that you'll incorporate this feature, I take it that you see no financial gain for the program if you spend x hours on writing software to make this happen. How does one know which features will and won't bring a viable return?

Thanks anyway.

Peter

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Those pesky Kodak Photo CDs
« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2012, 06:07:14 AM »
Peter,

Thank you Kirk, but I have to admit that I'm not savvy enough to start writing code into Terminal to get my *.PCDs converted into usable files as per the link you provided. I was really hoping that this was something that PM could bring into the real world as I use PM exclusively for all my ingests, imports and batch file conversions.

When you state that it's unlikely that you'll incorporate this feature, I take it that you see no financial gain for the program if you spend x hours on writing software to make this happen. How does one know which features will and won't bring a viable return?

By the number of requests we receive for a given feature.  We haven't gotten many requests for PCD support so far.  If there is an up-swell in requests for support for PCD files then we may undertake the effort.

Right now, Cataloging is our prime concern.

-Kirk

Offline Goatworks

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Re: Those pesky Kodak Photo CDs
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2012, 08:46:56 AM »
Thank you Kirk, understood. Hoping there are some other grey haired examples of our species out there in photographer's world.

Regards - Peter

Offline mbbphoto

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Re: Those pesky Kodak Photo CDs
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2012, 09:45:53 AM »
Are you on a Mac.
Convert them all to DNG or tiff or JPEG with pcdMagic software...
Marc
Marc

Offline Goatworks

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Re: Those pesky Kodak Photo CDs
« Reply #6 on: November 27, 2012, 10:51:24 AM »
Thanks Marc - I'll give that a try.

Peter