Does anyone have experience with running the new version of HP Photosmart s20 (with USB) on an iMac using Virtual PC as a platform

-- Josh Lipton (phoebe@inetone.net), February 18, 2000

Answers

I have evaluated several options for keeping my S20 in service with a Macintosh, and basically I have concluded that the best solution is to continue to use the S20 in Windows. Virtual PC is a great program, within its limitations. Virtual PC will take a Macintosh and dumb it down to a Windows machine within the Windows window. My understanding is that device connectivity is no problem as long as you have the right connectors (which you do with USB). Where you are going to pay the price is in performance. Virtual PC will run Windows Pentium speeds, which in my estimation is too slow to be productive. On my Pentium II with the standard HP software, I can scan 24-25 negative frames (in strips of 4 or less) in about an hour, with processing. Using Hamrick's VueScan software (www.hamrick.com), it takes about 10 minutes for the roll (because there is no user- correction for the images except for preset user parameters.) If you are running at speeds less than Pentium II, then you can expect your performance is going to lag. If you are only scanning selected frames, it might be good enough. But at this point, networking is cheap and if you can connect the iMac to a PC in a peer to peer setup (using a program like "DAVE" from Thursby www.thursby.com) you'll get more out of your scanner.

If you do not already own a PC, I'd suggest looking at a Mac native scanner. The PhotoSmart is a great scanner for the money, but you presumably could go a few hundred dollars more and do reasonably well and stay all Mac (and be much happier since you won't have to futz with Windows).

-- Jeffrey Sevier (jsevier@one.net), February 29, 2000.