Model Railroading > MR on CD

Do you all have a recommendation for the MOdel Railroader CD's? I would like to get rid of my MR collection and need to know if they are good quality first.

I have them, and have no beef with the image quality. The only grump I do have is originally installed with all issued on my hard drive (Full). I lost that drive, put in a new one, and when I re-installed the software, I can only do the shuffle the DVD version. Full install is not an option.

If anyone knows a workaround, please let me know.

It might have a key to prevent multiple downloads. Much like "Windows" operating system. You might try to call Kalmbach for a new key then try to install it again

You could subscribe to their archives which has every issue up to the present one for about $3 a month.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You could subscribe to their archives which has
> every issue up to the present one for about $3 a
> month.

The DVDs stop at December 2011.

ʎɹɹɐl

I second using the MR Archives. I find the cost worthwhile. YMMV.
Bill in Ft Worth

A few points about the DVD's they once sold with back issues:

They're searchable, which is nice.

They were done using high speed scanning, and the pages have lost about 0.25" from the gutter (the center of the two page spreads). This causes gaps in all drawings and plans that span those pages.
Additionally, if you print them out.. eh. Some pages were scanned with water stains.
Given how many people often want to give away their back issues, I can't see why it was impossible to obtain a decent copy to scan.

Outside of all of this(no opinion here, just tech info), here's the really large issue: the version of Imprasario Xtra/Director used by Adobe at the time, and Kalmbach for the work they did, is no longer supported. Meaning, if you run Windows 7 or Mac OS 10.9, you can install the program and view the issues. If you upgrade to Win 8.x or 10, or Mac OS 10.10 and up, they will no longer work. You can run the installer, but Adobe and thereby Kalmbach, don't plan to release any updates and haven't for over 4 years.

This is likely the reason they moved to an on-line model, that coupled with cloud storage and compatibility with tablets, and the lovely added bonus of charging a subscription fee. The scans used on line are the same scans that were on the DVDs and I was told they had no intention of rescanning everything as the process was too large an undertaking. Obviously with it being digital now, new issues can be added to the heap with little effort.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/17 18:48 by tmurray.