Letters Page
Striding forward into a new volume...it's the RISCWorld letters page...
Let's kick off the first letters page of RISCWorld volume 8 with...
Dear Editor,
I recently purchased the above DVD Disc from RISCWorld but am unable to use it. On placing the disc into my Philips DVD Player/Recorder model number DVDR3305, loading takes place, and a list of contents appears on the TV Screen. However if I attempt to select an item in the list followed by pressing "play" nothing happens. If I use a disc preloaded with JPEGS, again a list appears and on selection of one of these items and then pressing "play" the Jpeg appears on screen as expected.
Can you advise me on this problem please?
Regards
Dr. F.W.Wilburn
Sorry, but when I initially received this letter I decided it must be a windup. So I wrote a silly answer. Then I had another think and decided the letter might be genuine, so I wrote a sensible answer. I was going to pick which one to use at the final round of editing, but still can't make my mind up. So I will answer this firstly by being silly and secondly by being sensible...
Having had a carefully look at this I think it's probably an incompatibility between your DVD payer and television. You haven't said if you are using a CRT or LCD/Plasma television but I would guess that it's a older style CRT television and will need to be upgraded to work with the RISCWorld DVD. You will need a high definition flat screen television connected to your DVD player via an HDMI cable. The TV will need to suport 1080 line, as you can see most RISCWorld articles have less than 1080 lines in them so these should display correctly. For longer articles you will need a Type B connector as this can carry more data. You may also need to update the DVD player to one that has an HDMI interface as most older DVD players....(Ok that's enough - DH).Sorry, here is the sensible answer. The RISCWorld DVD is a Data DVD, it doesn't contain video in the format that a DVD player would expect. It's not designed for use in a stand alone DVD player, but to be used on a RISC OS computer with a DVD Drive. In effect it's simply a very large CD (actually about 5 times the size of a normal CD). In order to use the RISCWorld DVD you will need RISC OS 4.39 or later (including RISC OS 5) and a DVD drive. Just pop the disc in (label side upwards for anyone having a C.R.A.F.T. moment) and click on the RISC OS CD icon on the icon bar. The disc will spin up and open a RISC OS filer window with a normal RISC OS application on it.
It's also worth pointing out that even if your RISC OS machine does not have a DVD drive you can still read all the RISCWorld articles on a PC or Mac, with a DVD drive, as everything is in HTML format.
Now lets move forward in a not going backwards direction...
Hi Aaron,
I've replied to Hugh's caption competition in the latest RISCWorld but knowing that he's always moaning that no-one bothers to respond & that his e-address sometimes proves to be dodgy, I'd be grateful if you would pass this on to him as a 'belt & braces' backup.
Also, I remember you said, several issues ago, that you'd be explaining how to safely clear unwanted stuff from !Scrap. Have I miss this somehow or is it yet to transpire?
Great mag as usual. Keep up the good work.
Many thanks,
Chris Newman
I wasn't aware I was doing any good work, but thanks. I have forwarded the e-mail on to Hugh and having a quick look at the first (only - DH) draft of his column it seems like he got it. I don't recall the idea of an article about clearing !Scrap (nice way of saying that I had forgotten about it), but it's very easy to do so I have written a short article in this issue about how to do it, hopefully this will help.
Finally here is a letter from one of our two regular readers who isn't Vince Hudd...
Hi,
Very rapid turnaround this time, with the final two of the volume delivered the day after getting the CD.
Matt
Thanks very much. I have put the inlays zip file in the software directory of this issue. So that means the inlays are up to date for the first 7 volumes of RISCWorld which is brilliant.
So that's it for the new slimline letters page. If you would like to contact the RISCWorld letters page please use the normal editorial e-mail address.
Aaron Timbrell