As most of us who regularly visit the forum or have a MR subscription know, the complete set of back issues of Model Railroader from day 1 will becoming available on DVD. What I didn’t see getting any coverage was that Kalmbach is starting to release some of the MR Books in digital format. I received an announcement that they were planning on making various titles of their books available in electronic format, even some titles that have been out of print for a while.
I’m guessing that based on the announcement of the upcoming magazine back issue DVD and the release of some of the model railroader books, there maybe the release of a digital format of Model Railroader in the near future. I’ve been slow to acclimate to this new media but I think it is here to stay. I just don’t know if I’m ready to give up my hard copy of my magazines or books yet.
So my question to all is, what do you prefer, hard copies or digital format?
And if you could make a request, what MR book titles do you think they should release digitally or if its out of print, do a reprint?
This topic has been bantered about a number of times before - even recently with the advent of the 75 years of MR DVD. I still prefer the hard copy of MR, as a majority of subscribers probably do. My understanding is that MR doesn’t have any plans to go this route.
I would prefer a hardcopy subscription also but what I would like to see with the advent of the 75 yr DVD is a digital download of the previous year available to either subscribers for free or a small fee for the DVD purchasers for yearly updates.
And the same for Trains, Classic Trains and any future magazine they decide to publish the back issues digitally.
Each month, I can hardly wait for my hard copy of MR to arrive. There is nothing finer than to retire to the sofa and leaf through the magazine. I´d never do that with any electronic book reading device [swg]
My vote is for “BOTH”. I prefer to have the material available in both mediums which better accommodates the way I use information. For instance, I just love the day that MR comes in the mail, and I have ever since I was a little kid. There is just something exceptionally special about “MR Day” that is kinda like your birthday and having your very own chocolate fudge sunday all rolled-up into one. Sure I get other magazines but none of them (and I mean NONE of them) have ever delivered the quality magic so dependably month after month, year after year. Sure it drifts around a little now and then, but through the years they have managed to deliver the goods.
But, that said, the world is now pretty much digital. Whenever I have a question the first place I go is “Google” and/or here for informa
Another model railroading publication I subscribe to sent out their June issue as “digital only” with a notice to everyone that they were doing so because of the postal strike in Canada and all future issues would become digital.
There was apparently such an outcry from subscribers that they quickly back-pedalled and notified everyone that the print version will continue.
Their biggest mistake was that the digital version was available only in Adobe Flash Player format which could not be saved to a hard drive or even be printed.
I have a Nook Color and it is nice to have magazines on it but it does have some short comings in reading articles and seeing photos at the same time… But I would like to have it in both formats. This way I can have several back issues in the palm of my hand and then can go back to get the acutual copy the shelf.
I subscribe to a free on line model railroad magazine that has PDF format I download. Great way to do this. All copies are stored in my PC and external hard drive. Some have a video with the article. Great with a tablet also.Tablet right at the workbench or layout for reference. This is 2011.
I would like to have both. Hard copy in the mail and then as a subscriber you can get the MR+ stuff and download a digital copy.
There is a time and a place for both versions. I like to try to keep my MR in pretty good shape so I would like the digital copy to put on a reader and take with me that way my hard copy stays in good shape.
A problem with digital media is how fast it becomes obsolete or is replaced with something new.
The first computer I ever owned, a Sinclair ZX-81, used a cassette tape for data storage. My first Atari 8-bit computer had a 5-1/2 inch single sided floppy disk. Then came double-sided floppy disks; then 3-1/2 inch floppy disks, then hard drives, then CDs, and now DVDs in many different types.
Cassette tapes and floppy disks are practically extinct, and I no longer have a computer than can read or use the data stored on them.
The next thing coming down the pike seems to be flash memory drives that will eventually replace hard drives, and developers are always experimenting with other potential types of storage media.
Eventually, in 10 or 15 years, the MR DVDs will probably become unreadable because there will be no computer with a DVD drive.
I use and abuse computers and digital information on a daily basis but for my hobby, I prefer paper. Both would be best, just in case, but keep my hard copy please and thanks.