Official Histories (France & Belgium) on DVD

[Alan Tucker]

Read the small print by the way. the flier I got enabling a discounted purchase gives the price as x + y VAT. By law firms should only have to advertise total price inclusive of VAT.

[Charles Fair]

This is one that I will pass on for the moment. As I've already got all the volumes on the DVD (a mix of originals and reprints) its seems a lot to pay for a search tool. I don't want to part with the hard copies just yet.

I would have considered it if N&M had been able to go a bit further and included the Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia, Togoland/Cameroons, East Africa volumes which I am unlikely to ever want in hard copy. They would be useful for researching those units or senior officers whose service included time in theatres other than the W Front. Becke's ORBAT volumes would be a useful inclusion too.

While I'm still in wishlist mode, a similar DVD containing all the divisional histories and the 4th Army in the 100 Days would be pretty handy. I already have those div histories that I need on a regular basis, but it would be good to be able to search across all the published ones.

[MartinWills]

I gather that the DVD is due in 3-4 weeks or so, so I guess there will be a lot of expectant waiting till then.

Ian, as regards searches, I just wonder if a search on Haig (or gas, say) may turn up so many options that you can't see the wood for the trees ... but let's wait and see.

Charlws, I see you missed out Italy .... for which the original is very scarce. Soldiers Died aligns Italy as part of France and Flanders with the lovely phrase - France and Flanders includes Italy .......

Martin

[ianw]

Yes, we will have to wait and see as regards the functionality of the disc. In my experience, such things never do all of what you would want it to do and there always seems to be a really basic "killer" ommission or failing that really irritates - sometimes corrected in a later revised version at extra cost!

Folk who have full sets of the OH understandably(?) seem averse to shelling out for the DVD. Although one might expect that they would be the easiest group to convince about the advantages of portability and searchability. I would tend to view the DVD as a super-index and a shrinking package in one.

As I don't own large numbers of volumes of the OH, I remain very tempted but would like to have a play with it first.

[Chris_Baker]

I am sure I'd find it very handy, even though I have all the book volumes listed as being on the DVD. I just think it is hugely overpriced.

[themonsstar]

You can add to the list Macedonia.

[ianw]

I just think it is hugely overpriced.

I don't know the costs of digitising books and bringing a project like this to completion - and of course, commercial companies have to make a return on their investment. Also this isn't a mass market product.

I would agree that N&M might perhaps reduce the price of the DVDs after a few years but they don't seem to adopt this policy - but there is limited competition

[MartH]

Surely the price is what the market will bear.

[27thBN]

Surely the price is what the market will bear.

Most resources we need are expensive .The dvd Will sell only time will tell whether the market .ie us is prepared to pay that much .MC

[themonsstar]

I took the first one 1914, August-October. Mons, the Retreat to the Seine, the Marne and the Aisne. Vol. I, and photograph it, then turned it in to a PDF doc (77.5MB) it took me about 35mins in total.

The second one Vol. II 1914, October-November. Antwerp. La Bassee, Armentieres, Messines and Ypres ( 69.6MB).

[Guest]

Nice chap from N&MP sent me this link.

Official History of The Great War DVD-ROM

" Yes - an Other Theatres DVD-Rom is planned "

Mike

[Guest]

This is the email from N&MP

" We fully appreciate that £175 + Vat is a large sum of money even in this age of the nearly £6 gallon of petrol.

The pricing of all our products both digital and printed is a balance of cost of production and our estimated number of sales.

With such a very specialised item as the Official History's on DVD-Rom the economy of scale is such that the pricing structure say as that of computer games etc does not work.

The list of costs involved in the R&D of a professional mixed media DVD-Rom is extensive and our pricing allows us to recover these costs and reinvest in more state of the art products for our loyal customer base.

Our clients are sophisticated, computer savvy and demand a level of excellence that is not easy to achieve without considerable expense.

Initial sales are on our projected target, and we are set to recover our costs within the next 12 to 18 months.

Yes - an Other Theatres DVD-Rom is planned, and No we have no plans to reduce the price for the existing range of current digital products.

Those who would like to explore the disk in detail can go to our dedicated and newly completed website

( click link post # 86 )

and see an online demonstration of the disk in use.

We take all comments on board - we may not agree with them all! But we do listen and try to respond in a positive way to all reasonable and constructive suggestions. "

Cheers Mike

[ianw]

I am not sure if I could scan the entirety of volume 1 of the OH in 35 minutes. Monsstar must be most dextrous on the scanner.

However at that speed of scanning, the disk seems to be capable of saving me approaching 10 hours of tedium and of course will come all nicely tidied up and organised for me.

So by my calculation, on a time saved basis and assuming I want a searchable OH , it would seem worth the money.

I would also have thought that you would be able to dispose of it in decent condition for £150 without too much difficulty - assuming it isn't hackable.

[dfaulder]

I am not sure if I could scan the entirety of volume 1 of the OH in 35 minutes. Monsstar must be most dextrous on the scanner.

>><<

And have an excellent OCR utility if his scan is to be fully searchable!

David

[ianw]

David,

Yes, there is a significant difference between an amateur and a commercial product - that said, I think the OH search facility is the basic Adobe search product - but without using it, we can't comment on it's functionality.

Perhaps WFA branches might buy copies and rent them out to members - you could do a lot of research in a couple of weeks and then pass it on to the next user. Though of course, this sort of use might be prohibited.

[dfaulder]

David,

Yes, there is a significant difference between an amateur and a commercial product - that said, I think the OH search facility is the basic Adobe search product - but without using it, we can't comment on it's functionality.

>><<

Although there is some indication that the DVD offers the ability to search across volumes (i.e. across multiple pdf files) - see example of searching for "gas".

David

[Guest]

Also

" Re Searching the Official Histories. Acrobat reader is an advanced and robust piece of software, it has a basic “find” but also has a powerful “search” function. We have created a master index of every single word in all 20 volumes, these combined enable superfast searches through all of the volumes.

Take a look at the video demonstration on our website to see it in action. "

http://www.official-history-ww1.com/demo.html

Mike

[pelle]

I wonder how much money are spent/wasted on paying license costs for the copy protection, and how big part of their already presumably small number of potential customers are not going to buy this because of that copyright protection (compared to how many of us that would have used a pirated copy instead if there was no protection). From reading this thread it sounds as if the methods used are totally unacceptable to me.

To solve this in a way I would be very happy with would be to do what has been tried for other niche products: Sell without copyright protection, but give something special to those that buy. For instance they could include a few large printed maps or something, and maybe access to some bonus contenst on a website for only registered users. I wouldn't hesitate then, even at a lot more than £175 actually (and they would get to keep more of the money without having to waste whatever they are now having to spend on the protection).

[ianw]

Pelle,

I don't undersatnd the logic of your suggestions. Firstly you assume that copy protecting the discs involves a large cost that N&M could avoid by issuing the discs without it in place. I doubt that the protection costs much at all on a per disc basis and if they took the route you suggest, they would probbably sell about 4 copies!

You also suggest that buyers would give £175 for an unprotected disc if a free gift of maps and access to a website were offered - one appealing feature of the disc is that all the maps are conveniently included on it. As regards the website, what content would have to be on it to make it attractive? How much would setting up the website cost N&M - more than the copy protection savings, I would wager.

[pelle]

My main point is that removing the protection would not remove many sales, if any. Or are everyone here just waiting for a chance to rip them off? I know I'm not.

[ianw]

My main point is that removing the protection would not remove many sales, if any.

Not sure how you work that one out.

Simply untrue, in my opinion. Why do you think they call this sort of thing "protection"? If the disc can be copied sales will suffer.

[pelle]

Not sure how you work that one out.

Simply untrue, in my opinion. Why do you think they call this sort of thing "protection"? If the disc can be copied sales will suffer.

I'm just looking at a number of examples from other niche industries, such as from small computer game publishers and small music record labels (and those operate in business where I am certain that a much larger number of people are happy to rip off the publisher than here). BTW I wouldn't even know where to go to find illegal copies of NMP books. I would be surprised if mainstream pirate sites would have them.

It's NMP's decision though (no doubt heavily influenced by some clever sales people at Adobe, that btw are most likely getting paid per unit produced, not a fixed price). The only thing I can do is try to make up my mind if I am going to buy a defective product or not.

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/

[pelle]

 Obviously some people that would have bought the discs will opt to copy instead. But some people that would not buy because of the copyright protectoin will buy if it is removed. I know that these protections has made me stay away from buying the previous NMP discs like the trench maps. This new one with official histories though might be too tempting for me to be able to avoid, but that is very much an exception. I do not enjoy buying crippled goods, and I think that more consumers are becoming aware of this (as they have been for drm-protected music etc) and that protected ebooks will soon be gone. 

[Len Trim]

Hi all,

nearly a month since I ordered the DVD. No sign of it so phoned Naval and Military Press. Apparently it has just gone to the printer/publisher so at least another two weeks before I get my hands on it

Len

[Len Trim]

Just received an email to say that the DVD has gone off for pressing. Another couple of weeks to wait yet.

Len