Are there any plans to release the back issues of MRR on DVD like Kalmbach has done with Trains Magazine? I don’t have the Trains DVD set yet but I want it. Having all the MRR’s from the years would be amazing also.
I don´t think you can get an answer from the forum participants. Better to direct this question directly to the Kalmbach folks.
Or in downloadable E-pub or PDF format for my e-reader?
Sorry; the devil made me do it. I’ll be quiet now.
[swg]
I’ll be first in line to purchase the DVD or download, I hope it is in the future. (hint)
This question comes up a couple of times per year and there seems to never be a response from Kalmbach – What would such a DVD cost; and I don’t mean to actually mass produce a disk, but the time and labor costs involved in scanning all of the back issues? That may be what’s keeping it from happening. Perhaps they have already considered the project and realized that they wouldn’t sell enough to recover their investment.
Were it ever to come to pass, based on my own experience with other limited circulation magazines similar to MR in size, a full run of MR’s 1934-2010 on CD/DVD might market for somewhere around $300.
CNJ831
And at that price, you run the risk of rampant piracy and more “free” copies floating around that what you actually sell.
Why would there be rampant piracy on a DVD targeted to a rather small market? We’re not talking Lady Ga Ga music videos here.
In any case, the Trains DVD is being offered at $149.95 including shipping (see back cover of current issue of TRAINS). I don’t see any compelling reason to believe an MR DVD would be twice the price.
Andre
My guess is that Kalmbach “tested the water” with the Trains release on DVD. That would make sense, since scanning all issues of Trains involved less effort – fewer total issues, each with a lower page count. Now that they have put the DVD on the market, they can sit back, see how many they sell, and use that information to gauge whether it will be worth it to do the same with MR.
As one who would like to see MR issued on DVD, I just hope the Kalmbach staffers understand the difference in the demand for the two types of information offered in their two magazines. Much of the content in Trains is aimed at providing up-to-date information on contemporary railroading with some historical content thrown in. However, all that information soon becomes historical as railroading changes with the passage of time. Very little of what you read in a 5-year old issue of Trains will help you understand what is going on today. If you are modeling a particular time frame, then some of the Trains content from that era will be relevant to your efforts, but the rest of the DVD would simply make for interesting browsing. I would like to own Trains on DVD one day, but it’s not high on my priority list.
On the other hand, your average five-year-old (or fifteen or twenty-five year old) issue of Model Railroader contains a lot of how-to information that can still have an impact on your modeling efforts today. Even if you mo
I was hesitant at first to pay the 150 bucks for the Trains DVD. After finally buying one it’s some of the best money I’ve spent on railfan material!
I asked customer sevice at Kalmbach if they intend to do the same for Model railroader, but she wouldn’t give me a yes or no. I would be willing to bet that sooner or later they will. It would be worth the cost for the plans alone.
Let’s hope they do this!
It’s a matter of volume of content. Trains has only a faction of the page-count of MR and thus could be done more quickly and cheaply. We’re not talking fitting the entire volume of published material for MR from 1934-2010 on a single disk. It will obviously require a full set of them. The more pages, the more work and the more expensive and time consuming in production the effort becomes.
The magazine I wrote for, whose span of publication, page-count and circulation happens to be very similar to that of MR’s over the period in question, just put out all their back issues in a disk set. Because of the nature of the content, their’s is likely to sell more widely than MR’s, but the market price was still just under $300.
CNJ831
I have the Trains DVD and enjoy it and would probably purchase a MR series also. BUT to be honest with you, with the new index, I’d really enjoy being able to download PDF’s of articles I’d want, for a fee of course. Really seems archaic to call Customer Service for a photo copy of an article.
Chris