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21 Sep 08 - 10:10 PM (#2446932) Subject: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: Janie I have a bunch of important photos from an old computer saved to a DVD in a .mix format, which Microsoft discontinued a while ago. I can't find any way to convert them to jpeg or another common format, and am wondering if anyone is aware of any digital image photo places that may have the capacity to convert them to a format I can open. .mix was the format used for Microsoft "Picture It" and Microsoft "Photo Draw." Thanks. Janie |
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22 Sep 08 - 12:05 AM (#2446991) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: The Fooles Troupe The only .mix file format Wikipedia knows of is an Object file format for a compiler called 'Power C' http://www.cryer.co.uk/filetypes/m/mix.htm http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=20592 http://www.fileinfo.net/extension/mix http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum36/203.htm http://www.tech-faq.com/how-do-i-open-.mix-files.shtml http://www.techimo.com/forum/graphic-design-digital-photography/14819-viewer-mix-file-format.html these links may be of help. http://www.brothersoft.com/downloads/mix-file-viewer.html refers to a list of programs supposedly that will open .mix picture format files (correctness unknown). http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/ejay-mix-files.html referes to a version of Flash files, probably not what you want There's a whole pile of links to this out there on Google, if these don't help - seems to be a common gripe against MS... |
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22 Sep 08 - 08:53 AM (#2447179) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: Bill D If I read this correctly, MS says you can download Picture IT here with a patch allow it to run on later systems. If this works, you could view the images, then do a screen capture and save them in another format....using something like MWSnap NONE of my usual converting programs have .mix listed. |
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22 Sep 08 - 09:05 AM (#2447191) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: Bill D a search on "view mix files" got some ideas....like this... http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/tech-support/56831-how-can-i-open-mix-file.html |
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22 Sep 08 - 09:45 AM (#2447230) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: Malcolm Douglas The Microsoft link is to a security update, not to the program itself. Assuming that you don't have the original software on a disk somewhere, you can get a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Digital Image Starter Edition 2006 at (very long url). Whether this (also discontinued) relative of 'Picture It!' will open your .mix files I don't know (there was some talk of PI and PD versions not always being compatible; might be something to do with layering) but there doesn't appear to be anything else that will do it (the 'insert in a Word doc' wheeze may not work if you don't have the appropriate filters) so you may have nothing to lose. After this, you won't need me to tell you never to save image files in mickey-mouse proprietary formats. Always use an industry standard format like tif[f] if you want to be able to open them a few years down the line; use jp[e]g only if you don't intend to edit them. |
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22 Sep 08 - 10:41 AM (#2447266) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: Janie When I retired the computer they were on, I saved them to a CD as jpeg files. Presumably because of problems with the hard drive on that computer, the disk would not open on the next computer (an error message indicated they were likely corrupted)which used Microsoft Digital Image. I recently took the old computer into my computer guy and asked him to pull the photos off of it. He burned them to a DVD, but they are now in the .mix format. The version of Digital Image on the newer PC can not open them. I'm going to be sick if I can't retrieve these photos. As an aside, I didn't know it was preferrable to save photos as tif rather than jpeg. I have noticed a degradation in image quality over time, and wondered why that was. Does it have to do with the jpeg format? |
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22 Sep 08 - 10:45 AM (#2447268) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: Stilly River Sage I have a copy of Photo Draw here, though it isn't currently installed on this computer. I've had it up an running but uninstalled it at some point and never got around to reinstalling it (I use XP Pro, which still plays nicely with older programs). Like you, I have a few old MIX files floating around and used it to save them to other durable formats. If you want to send me the disk of old MIX files I can convert them and send them back on a disk as JPG or PNG, whatever, in the full size. Much better quality than saving a screen shot. SRS |
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22 Sep 08 - 11:18 PM (#2447817) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: The Fooles Troupe "degradation in image quality over time" Only if you keep opening and resaving ro new files the jpeg files. |
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22 Sep 08 - 11:32 PM (#2447822) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: Stilly River Sage PM sent to Janie. |
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19 Oct 08 - 05:54 PM (#2470232) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: GUEST,eugene mc donagh hi i have three mix files if i send them to you can you convert them and send back thanks eugene email is emcdonagh@oceanfree.net send me your email and ill attach them to it thanks again |
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20 Oct 08 - 01:01 AM (#2470471) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: JohnInKansas Always use an industry standard format like tif[f] if you want to be able to open them a few years down the line; use jp[e]g only if you don't intend to edit them. Even .tif (.tiff) is not a completely safe archive format. The TIFF standard defines, if I recall correctly, seven separate kinds of .tif files in reasonably common use, along with several others that are almost never seen. Many programs that can open two or three of these formats may not be able to open the others. In addition, the TIFF standard specifically allows "additional parameters" that a program can define for its own use, which may make "legal .tif" files unopenable in anything other than the program that created them. Adobe Illustrator, for example, in the last version I used, often produced .tif files that cannot be opened in my Adobe Photoshop Elements. I've encountered a couple of other programs that produced "apparently legal" .tif files, but with "proprietary features" that made them unopenable except in the program that made them. The .jpg format is probably the closest to being a "universally openable" file for correspondence with those who may not have the same programs you do. The .jpg format is, technically, a .tif file that is compressed, but the compressed format is almost universally readable. Although you can COPY .jpg files without loss, if you open them and re-save them, they're compressed again; and the compression is not perfectly lossless. If you open and save a few times, with even moderate compression, some picture detail is lost. Better editing programs allow you to choose the amount of compression when saving a .jpg, and if a "high quality" (= very little compression) is consistently used, multiple saves can be made with very little loss, although the files are likely to be about as large as the .bmp file for the same image (and sometimes larger than the .bmp - a .jpg file with NO COMPRESSION is possible, but usually is larger than the .bmp.) Alternate file formats, such as .png or .gif use a lossless compression, so you can do repeated open/saves without additional loss in picture quality, but the original creation of these file types does discard a little bit of image information, so even these are not "perfect archives." The .gif format, in particular, discards a lot of picture information when first created, if it's made from a "continuous tone" image; and it has the added disadvantage of being a "patented process" that requires payment of a royalty by the creator of the program - hence the absence of legal freeware that can create and save .gif files. The .gif is probably the "most compressed" format available, giving a very small file size; but it is really only suitable for "line drawings" with a few distinct colors and no shading of one color into another. The "gold standard" for getting all the picture from digital cameras (and some other devices like production scanners) is the RAW form produced natively inside the device. Most cheaper cameras and most scanners don't even allow you to save in this form, and even for the "higher quality" cameras that feature a RAW format output, there is no established standard, so each camera pretty much requires its own proprietary program(s) to download and process the RAW format. This means that the RAW format used by your camera today may become obsolete - and unreadable - as more uniform standards appear. Choose a camera maker with some "staying power" if you choose to use RAW format(s). Most cameras allow you to save pictures as .jpg, and when you select "how big" to save them what you are actually doing is selecting how much compression is applied in the conversion from the RAW format peculiar to the innards of your camera to .jpg. For most people with "consumer grade" cameras, a "pretty big .jpg" is the best you'll get out of your camera. Recommended practice is to save the image (.jpg) downloaded from the camera in an "archive folder," and make a copy of it somewhere else before doing any retouching or other editing only on the copy. Some cameras don't even allow this, since they "automatically" do things like red-eye correction and other "modifications" during download (especially if you allow their "free programs" to be installed on your computer). When working with .jpg (and other formats that may have "lossy" compression) a recommended practice is to NEVER USE SAVE. Always use SAVE AS and add a slightly changed filename for each saved version. This allows you to always be able to start over with the "best version you ever had" (i.e. and new copy of the original saved directly from the camera). When you're done with a multi-step edit (which of course you saved multi-times for recovery purposes while taking the multi-steps, each time with a different name) you can of course delete the intermediate steps, and keep just the finished edit. Converting a .jpg from your camera to a .tif file will lose some of the image detail contained in the original .jpg. If the .jpg is what comes out of the camera, the original .jpg is what you should save. Generalizations about what file format is "best" usually overlook the fact that each format was created with specific uses in mind, and each has its own capabilities and limitations. Before you can pick a "best" you MUST KNOW the exact and complete intended use, and the programs/resources the user you're advising has at his/her disposal. (And resources obviously include operator skills.) John |
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20 Oct 08 - 05:20 AM (#2470542) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: treewind I think the royalty requirements for GIF expired some years ago now. But it's irrelevant as PNG can do everything GIF did and more and it's unrestricted. JPEG does one thing better than PNG, which is enable photographic images to be compressed to very small file sizes without significant loss of detail. The only other format I ever use is XCF, which is the GIMP's internal format that stores all layer information, equivalent to Photoshop's PSD, and that's only when I need to keep the layers separate for later editing. John's advice about keeping originals and intermediate versions is, of course, spot on. Anahata |
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20 Oct 08 - 05:51 AM (#2470553) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: GUEST PNG can do everything GIF did It can't do animation. |
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20 Oct 08 - 11:59 AM (#2470816) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: Bru Janie Microsoft Picture It (7) certainly can read .mix files - at least the version I have can. If you don't get sorted out elsewhere, send me one of the files, and I'll have a trial go at converting it to jpeg. If the disc is in any way readable, there's always somebody who can retrieve files. |
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17 Nov 08 - 10:03 AM (#2495802) Subject: RE: Tech: .mix files to jpeg From: GUEST,Joel Weber I have 2 .mix files and I would ask if anybody could open it and convert it to jpeg format my e. mail adress is Joelw1967@g.mail.com |