Was just wondering if people knew of good quality layout programs that I could show others in order to help inspire them to take up the hobby......I am thinking of well shot footage with tips on scenery, weathering etc.
Also, any highly detailed real-life DVDs/videos of steam? Ideally that include shunting, station activity and lineside details. Finally, if anyone knows of good footage of Pullmans, that would be brilliant.
CineRail (from Bradford) produce Videos and DVD featuring those two well know layouts 'Tebay' and 'Biggleswade'.
Peco have also featured layouts on a CD-ROM produced each year and usually given away free with the December issues of 'Railway Modeller' and 'Continental Modeller'. Think they've done this for the last three years.
Yes... They also released a compilation DVD of layouts only, which featured all the layouts shown in their first 6 or so issues... Have it in the depths of a tea chest, somewhere :)
About the only thing I think you have to worry about is the "regional code" embedded in most commercial movie DVDs and in DVD player software, so that a DVD bought eg in N America won't play on a player sold in Australia or Europe. There's no such restriction on tapes. Keller sells tapes as well as DVDs.
It's specific to each brand/model so that would be no good unless you know you have the same as Jane.
Just Google the make/model number of your player and if it can be set to all region you'll almost certainly find it. For example Google "dvd610 all region" came up with
It is one real benefit of being an Aussie - region restrictions were deemed prejudicially restrictive here in 1980...... put simply, the Australian courts agreed that legitimately purchased products that were not illegal should be allowed to play on Australian players, therefore all DVD players here either come region free or have the mod instructions clearly outlined.
Not that it made much difference to me before that as I worked out how to mod my first 6 players anyway
Thanks, googled, found out my machine can't be reprogrammed this way, but found a nice long lists of a) machines that can be reprogrammed; and b) all-region machines for sale.
As I understand it, a machine that can be set for "all regions" can be set for any region. There are also machines that ignore the region code, and will play any DVD from anywhere.
You can also get software that will ignore or bypass the region and anti-copy codes so that you can play the DVDs on your computer (and make copies of them, too; you can even change encoding format if you like.) Prices are reasonable: the machines cost from around $80US on up, and the software costs from $10 per download on up, depending on what all it can do. Anyhow, I will revisit and restudy several sites, and buy both a new machine and some software in the next few days.
The following is not strictly on topic, but may be of interest.
There are six regions. The aim was and is to prevent people in high-income areas (N. America, Europe) from buying and playing DVDs sold in low-income areas (Asia, Africa.) The entertainment companies price their product as high they think they can get away with. But they have IMO both miscalculated people's willingness to pay, and the value of their product. There is simply too much entertainment product out there. The market is oversaturated. Hence:
a) the proliferation of copying and code-breaking software, which is legal in many jurisdictions, and can be easily downloaded;
b) the developing buyer resistance: for the fourth or fifth year in a row, sales of music are down in Canada and the USA, but this past year there's an interesting twist: the sales of individual tracks via the 'net has not compensated for the drop in sales of CDs: the _overall_ sale of music is down. And no wonder: IMO 99 cents is way too much to pay for a single track of music. Most music isn't worth a nickel IMO. (And I like all kinds of music, I have no favourite style or genre.)
c) a steady drop in DVD prices (20-50% in the last year here), another sign of buyer resistance. Eg, a two-disc set of Les Triplettes de Belleville was priced at $34.95 last year, I go it for $21.95 less 20% the other day. I think that's still on the high side, but I wanted the movie for a Christmas gift. There are also more bare-bones DVDs available: many people have had enough of paying exorbitant prices for "extras" like interviews with stars and directors, etc, which you only watch once, if that.
BTW, I notice that many railroad themed DVDs are priced in the $30-40 range. Way, way too high. I'll keep looking at the VHS tapes for a while longer.
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