This months Magazine....

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Stuart B-M
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Joined: Apr 6 2001

Just a quick thanks to all.... !

Some great reviews this month.
Kind regards

bcrabtree
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Joined: Mar 7 1999

Thanks Stuart!

But, this month's issue neatly demonstrates on the Apple news story, the disadvantages of print vs web.

The eagle-eyed among you will already have spotted the typo in the first line which the author (me) and our sub-editor failed to spot despite reading the story six or more times between us after I'd written the original.

Grrr!!!

No such typo exists on our web site, though, cos I've just been up there and corrected it.

Bob C

cstv
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Joined: Jul 26 2002

well done as allways for the great reviews but it seemed to me that there wasn't anything else in the mag... It just seemed that page after page was a review of yet another interesting product that i didn't really want to buy. The mutlicam review was fantastic, until i saw the price. I'm continually surprised by the prce of products like this because they don't seem like they do anything that special. I appologise if i just completely slated anyone who has spnt many a moon developing this sort of software.

The other feature of the mag that is a consistant savior of CV is John Ferrick's page. It wouldn't matter what you put in the mag i wouldn't care as long as you kept DVDoctor at the end.

I think it's just because i spend too much time on these message boards but i seemed to allready know most of the news articles, that'll teach me...

I assume the recomendations Bob asked for will begin to appear in the mag next month.

thanks again for a none-the-less great mag compared to the competition.

PaulD
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Joined: Aug 31 2002

Hi Bob
I enjoyed my cover to cover session with the Nov issue. There's only two ways to learn about new technologies and creative opportunities:
1. Read about it
2. Do it
3. Goto 1 recursively....
So though I will never buy most of the stuff you review feel I need to know about it - and when I do need to buy something what I most need is a critical and in-depth evaluation - which is exactly what you provide.
Keep it up!

One little point though :

Page 66 - Review of LaCie 80Gb FireWire Drive by Steven Hood.
The Screenshot of Silverlining Pro for Macintosh at the bottom of the page is misleading.
The article describes the problems of initialising a Windows formatted FW drive in Mac format. The screenshot shows the Volume Setup dialogue box for Erasing an existing Macintosh partition on the drive.
The blue highlit selected area at the top of the dialogue box is over the existing partition (La Cie Two) - by the unlocked icon.
If Disk icon in the line above is selected - DISK 1: ... then you get a much more useful set of options - Test, Format, Scan for Bad Sectors, Create File Sysytem etc. This last option enables a Custom Button with all the OS/Partitioning options (HFS/HFS+/DOS etc). This is where a Windows drive would be setup for Mac use.

I point this out because I found a bewildered new Mac owner asking how to partition a new LaCie FW drive in the sospubs Mac forum just a few days ago. Its obvious once you know - but easily missed...

BTW The HFS+ option in Silverlining offers a choice (unlike Apple Drive Setup) of sector sizes - from 512 - 64K per sector (default 4K). The manual just says "choose a larger increment if you deal with large file sizes..."
I wonder if in a Digital Video context there are speed etc advantages (or disadvantages) in choosing larger sectors? I haven't got an empty drive to test at the moment...

Also I note with interest from the screenshot that the LaCie FW drive bridge board is allowing Silverlining Pro to identify the Seagate hard drive (ST380021A). My Taiwanese FW case doesn't allow Apple System Profiler/Silverlining to 'see' into the drive. I was wondering if that was why I couldn't use Drive Setup on my drive - but Steven Hood's review shows he couldn't use it either so now I know its Silverling only for FW formatting. However if a drive is formatted on the ATA buss inside a Mac then it works fine if transferred to a FW case, so if you want to stick with Apple formatting software thats what you have to do.

Best wishes.

PS Glad to read that Intel and AMD are right up there with my Sinclair Spectrum!!!

red
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Joined: Oct 1 2000

Quote by B. crabtree;

Web will never take the place of print! You can't bosh out on the sofa, beach or sunbed with a p.c. (laptop included). You can with a mag.

A mere typo is a poor example for comparison betwixt the two.

Jim Bird
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Joined: Sep 15 2000

Hi,

A friend of mine has just bought a Palm hand held thing, so he can read ebooks on the plane and train, or lying down on a sofa or park bench.

Jim Bird.

bcrabtree
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Joined: Mar 7 1999

quote:Originally posted by red:
Quote by B. crabtree;

Web will never take the place of print! You can't bosh out on the sofa, beach or sunbed with a p.c. (laptop included). You can with a mag.

A mere typo is a poor example for comparison betwixt the two.

Please you've thought this out so thoroughly, and misinterpreted what I said entirely.

Actually, I think mine is the near perfect example - in a perfect little nutshell.

If we published the mag on the web, then it would be possible to (and I would want to) update reviews, for instance, to cover any aspects that we might have missed and to include feedback generated by users.

The review becomes not a historical document but a living document.

The point I was trying to make is that a magazine is set in stone from the moment that the pages are signed off by the editor.

In some cases (I mention no names!) the time between a page being signed off and its being published can be months, not weeks, as it is in our case.

But, even when it's weeks, the delay between creation and publication means there is huge potential for error (or the sum of the know facts to have changed).

And, if if there were nothing wrong when it was first published, it's still set in stone and can't be updated in any sensible fashion to take account of changes.

That's the real point.

Bob C

cstv
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Joined: Jul 26 2002

i agree with bob - take the recent "discussion" regarding pinnacle edition and certain compatability issues with sony cams - this wasn't in the review because CV didn't test edition with a sony cam. a certain user of this forum then slated bob and cv for not telling him (a little unreasonable me thinks). If the review was published online then as soon as this problem was discovered the reveiw could be ammended or commented on by readers...

sounds like a plan to me bob - how would you make money though?

Bomag
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Joined: Aug 15 2000

It would be simpler just to put in the mag that if you are thinking of buying something on the basis of a review you should check this forum for any updates on compatibility etc?

red
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Joined: Oct 1 2000

Ah I see, I automatically linked your post to previous comments. So you don't want to abandon paper and move onto the web then?