Firmware for Aficio MP C2000

[eL_PuSHeR]

Hello.

I have a weird request here. Does anyone how to contact Ricoh directly for requesting a firmware update. I am asking this because I have an issue when scanning using a Gestetner Aficio MP C2000 I have got. Now don't get me wrong. Scanning works flawlessly but I am very displeased with the compression options for the true colour and grayscale modes. It only resorts to JPEG lossy compression which kind of sucks for text. So I was thinking if some bright mind at Ricoh would release a new firmware with some sort of lossless compression into it (LZW, ZIP, even RLE). So far, I have been unable to locate any firmware at Ricoh's download pages. Contacting Ricoh software developers seems to be a bit cumbersome.

Any ideas. I guess I am out of luck here but no hurt in asking.

[Ollie1981]

I don't think a firmware update will solve your problem, firmware updates usually take the form of bug-fixes rather than adding additional features to the machine.

The only advice I can give if scanning quality isn't up to par:-

1/Make sure the optics are as clean as possible

2/Set the maximum scanning resolution to 600dpi,the machine default is 200dpi but 200dpi will give a noticeably grainy scan akin to a fax esp on small text and is a common reason why I get called out for "poor/grainy scanning"

3/Use the correct mode for the kind of document you are scanning, text mode gives a sharper scan to give better results with text but can make photos look grainy and add artifacts, photo mode gives a softer scan with smoother results for photos but can make text look blurry, text/photo is obviously a halfway house between the two.

[eL_PuSHeR]

Hi.

You misunderstood me. Quality is okay but if I disable JPEG compression the processing time increases a lot, specially scanning 300 dpi @ 24bpp. Transfering 20MB+ per page on a 10Mbit TCP/IP connection is rather slow.

[Eric1968]

I think you'll have to live with it. Like Ollie says, make sure the optics are clean. To download firmware you will need a Ricoh account. The latest firmware release notes are not mentioning anything for your problem.

[Ollie1981]

Well, both of those issues are down to the limitations of the existing hardware and the network connection, there aren't very many options under the circumstances.

Unfortunately Ricoh are extremely unlikely to release firmware adding different compression options for several reasons:-

1/The MPC2000 has now been superseded twice with 2 new revisions of this machine engine, major functionality upgrades tend to be held over for the next generation of hardware rather than be made available as upgrades for what Ricoh term as legacy hardware. This isn't just to incentivise customers to upgrade, usually Ricoh upgrades the processor and RAM used in the machine's controller with each subsequent generation to provide the extra processing muscle for these additional features (i.e the original embedded Equitrac PCC software used to take an age to load on the MPC3500, it's a heck of a lot quicker on the MPC5501)

2/The machines themselves are pitched as general office machines, designed to cover as much ground as possible with the widest range of customers possible at the lowest possible cost. Generally speaking, customers do not want to pay extra on the ticket price of the machine for additional features that they will not use or use very rarely. The machine itself can run Java based applications that may be able to add the functionality you seek, but where you'd get them from and how much they would cost I don't know.

3/Some lossless compression codecs are the intellectual property of other companies with the inherent licensing issues (the costs of which have to be passed on to the customer as per point 2) and even the open-source versions usually have clauses prohibiting commercial usage in their t's and c's. The only other option is Ricoh devising it's own proprietary lossless format which would be expensive and pointless.

[Choro1dal]

The MP C2000 is a GW 05 A model MFD and doesn't support the newer JPEG 2000 compression standard. The GW 09 A models do.

[eL_PuSHeR]

Thank you for your replies. Very interesting read.

As far as I know LZW compression is patented although Deflate/ZIP apparently is not. I guess I will have to live with it. Either I will be patient (with compression disabled and full quality - more time) or cope with the slight loss of quality and smaller processing times.