# The final word about Model Railroader's DVD



## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

In case you don't feel like following the original thread about getting MR's 75 Years DVD to open, here's the last word from Kalmbach. End of story, I guess.

The images on the DVD are locked to prevent people from being able to save them off to their computers. Though we knew this would be an inconvenience to some users, we were most concerned with the possibility that people would pirate the DVD and share its contents on the Web.


As for the resolution of the images, I'm afraid this is a function of the fact that most of the issues on the DVD were scanned from hardcopies. Only in the most recent years were digital versions available for direct conversion to PDF. Making the scanned issues any higher resolution would have resulted in bigger data files, more discs needed, more space needed on your hard drive, and even longer installation and loading times. We had these issues scanned at the highest resolution we thought practical.


To print an image at a larger size, you can print it out at full size, then enlarge it on a copier — just as you'd have to do with a paper version of the magazine. The print function is part of the MR program, not Adobe Reader.


I hope you find the advantages of having 76 years of _Model Railroader_ issues indexed, searchable, and printable all in one compact package outweigh any minor difficulties you may encounter. Happy railroading!


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, you CAN save the images, although it's a bit convoluted. (But not too bad!)









When you select PRINT, you are given the option to select a printer. One of the printers available to me is "Microsoft XPS Document Writer"; this comes with Vista and Windows 7 and is available for XP SP2. 


Choosing this "printer" will create an .XPS file in a directory of your choice. 

Once you have an XPS file, you can convert it to a .jpg, or just about any other type. You can find an actual XPS to JPG file converter by Google search.


I did a quick test using the one at http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-jpg


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## bnsfconductor (Jan 3, 2008)

Bruce, 
Interesting work around! 

Craig


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

There's also a free program out there called PDF Creater (works on XP and above) that could make a new PDF document via printing. This would allow use of Adobe Acrobat Reader and it's printing features.


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Terrific ideas and worth trying, once I find the on/off switch for my computer.


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Dwight Ennis on 21 Dec 2011 01:31 PM 
There's also a free program out there called PDF Creater (works on XP and above) that could make a new PDF document via printing. This would allow use of Adobe Acrobat Reader and it's printing features. 



I tried that, but it wouldn't allow me to print to it since it was protected...


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Bruce (see my reply in the other thread). A little disappointing that Kalmbach would lock things up so tightly, but understandable as well. Besides, for as long as I've been into computers (a long time), no copy protection can defeat the truly determined. hehehe 

At any rate, and as I said before in the other thread, I suppose it's no worse than trying to enlarge plans from the magazine. I'll have to wait to get my hands on it before coming to any final conclusions.


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, you should be really pleased to have all this online. It is really nice. The search function is very quick!


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By Bruce Chandler on 21 Dec 2011 09:48 AM 
Well, you CAN save the images, although it's a bit convoluted. (But not too bad!)









When you select PRINT, you are given the option to select a printer. One of the printers available to me is "Microsoft XPS Document Writer"; this comes with Vista and Windows 7 and is available for XP SP2. 


Choosing this "printer" will create an .XPS file in a directory of your choice. 

Once you have an XPS file, you can convert it to a .jpg, or just about any other type. You can find an actual XPS to JPG file converter by Google search.


I did a quick test using the one at http://image.online-convert.com/convert-to-jpg 


If you use a Mac you can do something similar.

Any file that is printable can also be saved as a pdf file - that's built into the Mac OS. 

One just uses the normal print option and then instead of clicking on the print button, click on the "Save as pdf" button in the print dialogue.

That pdf file can then be enlarged directly or if opened in "Preview" another Mac application that comes as part of the Mac OS, one can save the pdf file as pretty much any other file including a wide variety of image files.


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## krs (Feb 29, 2008)

Posted By joe rusz on 21 Dec 2011 09:25 AM 
Here's the last word from Kalmbach.

The images on the DVD are locked to prevent people from being able to save them off to their computers. Though we knew this would be an inconvenience to some users, we were most concerned with the possibility that people would pirate the DVD and share its contents on the Web.







I think Kalmbach is dreaming in technicolor if they think "locking" images will prevent them from possibly being shared if people decide to do that.
Personally I don't condone pirating - I'm dead against that - but I also hate it when a product I bought is crippled somehow to try to prevent pirating which is an exercise in futility in any case. 

And I'm not suggesting the MR DVDs are "crippled", I don't know that since I don't have them - this was just a general statement.


Knut


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