One advantage of the DVD over internet

The major advantage is that once you purchase the DVD, you have access forever, unlike the on-line archive.  While the DVD's search capability is weak, it's on a par with the 75 year collection.

I've got all of the Kalmbach DVD collections for Model Railroader and Fine Scale Modeler.  In my opinion, they are preferable to the on-line archive in that I'm not dependent on either the internet nor Kalmbach's servers or customer service in order to access something I've paid for - and I'm not going to be paying eternally.  I'm willing to wait until the next 10 year collection is published in 2029 to electronically access the post-2019 issues.

Janet N.

I'm waiting for the MRH

I'm waiting for the MRH archive on DVD or something like that.  It would be nice to have.   

N-Scale Magazine is no on the 5th maybe 6th DVD archive.

I would like to see Model Railroad Craftsman do the same as well as the other N scale Magazine.  I'm needing more space in the train room and my office.  all the magazine in the library just eat up space.

Disappointed

Great job covering this release.  Like you, I was disappointed to read that there is no usable search function included in this archive.    

Plain pdf

On the plus side this release appears to be plain pdf files, no software wrapper, no drm.  As Janet pointed out above that means you won’t get shut out when some server goes down, or when you last dvd drive bites the dust (assuming you’ve copied the files onto whatever the newer media of choice is).

Photo caption ??

I downloaded the new issue this morning and have just gotten to this article.

The caption for photo 2 in my copy talks about City Classic curtains.

Something seems wrong there.

You get the prize!

Congratulations, you get the prize for finding the one glitch we hid for folks to find!

Seriously, how that got past the copy editors, I will never know. Fixing the issue as we speak.

The caption should read:

2. I found the search process on the original 75-year collection to be simple, and it searched the entire 75-year library of magazines.

UPDATE: The corrected magazine has been uploaded, so re-download to get the latest and greatest. Also the online  edition has been corrected.

Obsolescence

The problem with collections on specific media types such as this is obsolescence. DVD/CDR is already obsolescent as a media type. The last time I bought a computer a couple of years ago I couldn’t find one that had a dvd/cd drive on it and had to buy an external one. I haven’t looked at the market lately but imagine it’s even worse now. 
 

If the pdf files in this collection are accessible and viewable without using the viewer that comes with these dvds that’s great, otherwise it would be a problem. Then there’s the question of how long .pdf will be used as a media type, once again bringing in questions of obsolescence. 

I used to have an extensive magazine collection of both Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman that went back to the mid-1960s, but had to get rid of it all when I moved last. I have to say I regret that now, as having physical paper magazines seems the most stable media.

Obsolescence

CD/DVD are fading away for sure.  But pdf is an ISO standard, and there’s an archival format, and there are a quite a number of pdf readers and writers from a number of different companies.  And there are so many pdf documents out there of important stuff of all kinds that I think it’s pretty much guaranteed that there will be software that can read PDFs for a long long time.

DVD/CDR is already

What are you buying an Apple or Laptop? 

Just looked up 'computer' on Amazon all most every one has a  DVDRW, or BluRay of some sort built in.

You have specific form factors that are too small for a DVD type player built in like laptops etc.   But your normal desktop PC all come with some sort of DVD capability,  You do have the smaller work station computers that are used for business type terminals etc. that do not have them but those are normally used in a business type environment with no need for a DVD player.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=computer&ref=nb_sb_noss

...

My laptop came with a DVD drive that can be removed and swapped out for an extra cooling fan.

The cooling fan has been installed for a couple years.  No sign of the DVD drive, but I have an external when I need it.

most stable media

"I used to have an extensive magazine collection of both Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman that went back to the mid-1960s, but had to get rid of it all when I moved last. I have to say I regret that now, as having physical paper magazines seems the most stable media."

Your own actions seems to indicate otherwise.  

What about the smell?

I have an extensive collection of both MR & RMC going back to the 1940s. You can't beat the smell of a 60 year-plus old magazine! Even love to browse the ads. Further bonus: you don't need either mains power or batteries or a device to read it on.

. . .

" Further bonus: you don't need either mains power or batteries or a device to read it on. "

Hum!.. Last time power went out, I could not read from device or paper...  But I walked into the wall pretty good.

Man has invented FIRE!

If you can not do a candle,  how about having some spare batteries on hand. 

Batteries are the new rage ask the Dead Rail Guys

Beating the smell

I’ve had the misfortune of smelling some 60 year old magazines stored in less than ideal conditions, and the smell was so thick I think you could probably beat it with a stick.

The smell is why I got rid of the mags..........................

Instant asthma attack.  Couldn't deal with it anymore.  Bought the 75 year "Model Railroader" archive, never looked back.  Considering the latest archive copies which is the subject of this thread, and the archives for MRR and MRP. 

Too bad that I can't get an equivalent electronic archive for RMC.   I'd pop for that also, if for no other reason than to get the "Essential Freight Car" series by Ted Culotta. 

Regards,

Jerry

The smell...

I have several books purchased from a hobby shop owned by a fellow that smoked cigars all day.  That should give you an idea of how long ago they were purchased.

The books still reek of cigar smoke all these years later.   What's it been since smoking has been banned in stores?  A couple of decades?

gs

N Scale Magazine

N Scale Magazine has done the same thing. 

I have there complete collection (so far), 6 volumes representing 1989-2019.

I also have the 75 year MR set.

Plus, over the years, I have downloaded the entire collection of MRH.

That plus the historic PDFs I have downloaded amounts to just under 2,000 PDFs and about 50GB of data.

It is great to have so much information on one tablet.

I have them on my computer, on my tablet and backed up on an external hard drive.

I can read them on my 10" Samsung tablet anywhere I wish.

One advantage of the DVD over internet?

Janet N. said "The major advantage is that once you purchase the DVD, you have access forever..."  I would contest that.  Consider that Kalmbach's first DVD offerings - the MR library up through 2010, Trains through 2010, and Special Issue and Archive Collection all require Adobe Flash, despite the DVDs' cases making no mention of Flash as a requirement.  I bought all three of these, but now Flash is no longer maintained by Adobe, and is risky to install and use it with newer versions of any operating system.  Worse, when I addressed this issue with Kalmbach's customer service through several emails, they ignored me and my request for resolution (a newer version of the DVDs or the password required by Adobe Reader to access them with that program).  So Janet, no, forever access is not necessarily a major advantage when it comes to Kalmbach products..

Common thread

Magazines

The last few comments is why I find paper copies so valuable. They can't be taken away from you. The internet world can't make them inaccessible.

Only down side is moving them. I took my 45 year collection of what turned out to be 6 different publications and got very honest with myself and asked will I ever use what is in this issue? Hard question sometimes. If the answer was no it got recycled. If in doubt, I saved it.

If it was yes, I cut out what I wanted and laid it on a stack of like articles. Each category went into 1 or more binders. Binder went on to a shelf. And all told I have about 4 ft of binders and I can find what I'm looking for pretty easily.

Jack   

I have no problems

I have no problems, I have a new machine with the latest Windows 10 version.

I made it easy on myself. I just copied the contents of all the DVDs to my data drive. It takes up just under 21 GB.

But it is all there, I just have to run the one program "Model Railroader.exe".

No problems at all.

As for the other publications, when I knew I was moving 1200km to a new city, I scanned all the articles I was interested in and left the paper magazines at the local Model Rail club.

Same here

I agree Joe.

I agree, the digital version of any magazine is far easier to read / access than paper.

Not counting the MR DVDs which are on my computer. I have 672 model rail magazines on my 10" Samsung tablet. That includes the MRH collection. They all fit on one 32 GB USB stick.

On the same stick, I also have over 700 novels, in case I get tired of model rail literature.

That is a lot of information on one paperback sized device that can be taken and read anywhere.