September digital issue?

[Charlie Jefferson]

Just wondered when the September digital issue was available. Can anyone enlighten me? Previous months seemed to be simultaneously available when the printed one went on sale.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I believe it's imminent, but we're rather in the hands of Zinio on this one: files were supplied last week.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yep, should be any time now - it's just taken them a little longer due to the extra 52-page supplement on the end of the issue! We'll let you know when it goes live.

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

Okay, thanks for the information.

 

[Andy Clough]

We're chasing Zinio this morning, so shouldn't be long now

 

[davidrust]

Afternoon Andy, was there any feedback from Zinio? My September issue hasn't come through yet.

 

[Andrew Everard]

We have this afternoon OK'd the digital edition with Zinio, so it should now be up in however long it takes Zinio to put it live.

 

[Andy Clough]

I'll let everyone now as soon as it's been uploaded to the Zinio site. We have no direct control over that, so we're in their hands.

 

[Andy Clough]

Good news! The digital edition of our September 2011 edition – complete with 52-page Ultimate Guide to High End – is now available for download on Zinio. You'll find the extra Ultimate Guide magazine follows on immediately from the last page of the main issue. Go to the 'science & tech section' to get your digital copy. Clickety.

 

[Andy Clough]

Good news! The digital edition of our September 2011 edition – complete with 52-page Ultimate Guide to High End – is now available for download on Zinio. You'll find the extra Ultimate Guide magazine follows on immediately from the last page of the main issue. Click here to get your digital copy.

 

[kevinJ]

Thank you!

Just one remark, is it possible to make the image quality better? When you click on an article, the pictures are pixelated.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Thank you!

Just one remark, is it possible to make the image quality better? When you click on an article, the pictures are pixelated.

Have you downloaded the file completely? We've just checked on several displays and computers, and they look fine to us.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Indeed. All 200+ pages looking mighty fine on my iPad

Please let us know if you continue to have problems (and references to specific pages, and how you're viewing the issue, would be useful).

 

[kevinJ]

Yes, I downloaded it completely.

But it's not that the images are completely pixelated, but for example, if you take a look at the back panel of the yamaha receiver on page 8, I can't even read the HDMI1-... prints. Same with the text at the speakercable connectors. If you know what is normally printed there, you can make something of it, but if you don't you'll never know what is written there. It's just blurry. The impedance ratings on the back of the amp are also unreadable, and since that is something that is seldomly refered to in a test, should be visible (imo).

btw, I use Zinio Reader 4 on my laptop and I store the magazines on my laptop (so no online reading)

 

[Andrew Everard]

But you can't read all that in the print magazine either. Yes, it's possible to read all this information on the original picture taken by our photographer, but given that one is a 6144x4096 300dpi file running to 3.5MB, it's obviously not possible to show every picture at that resolution in the Zinio digital edition, as it would take forever to download the magazine!

The Zinio edition is based on the files used for the print magazine, so we're limited to that resolution.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yep, the digital edition is currently an exact copy of the printed magazine, with pictures of the same size and resolution. (Though with benefits of active hyperlinks in text/ads).

We would like to move towards offering options of image zooming (both here on the website and in digital edtiions), not least to showcase the fact that we shoot all our product pictures at high resolutions! However, that's for the future....

 

[kevinJ]

But you can't read all that in the print magazine either!

No, not everything. The real small text is impossible to read, but the HDMI and speaker impedance rating etc can be read in the magazine. I have it right next to me. The printed images are sharper than those in the digital version.

I guess that's a compromise between image quality and download size?

Clare, I think it's great that there are alot of links available. But I do believe the magazine is still lacking a bit in the image quality department.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Well yes, there may have to be some slight compromises due to download sizes, screen resolutons etc etc. Sure it will improve as digital magazines (still in their infancy) evolve.

But at the moment, the analogue (paper) experience remains superior in many ways

 

[Andrew Everard]

The real small text is impossible to read, but the HDMI and speaker impedance rating etc can be read in the magazine. I have it right next to me. The printed images are sharper than those in the digital version.

I guess that's a compromise between image quality and download size?

Clare, I think it's great that there are alot of links available. But I do believe the magazine is still lacking a bit in the image quality department.

You clearly have better eyesight than me, then. But yes, I am sure there are some compromises involved in making the magazine an acceptable size for download.

 

[kevinJ]

Digital magazines have been around for some time already, Clare. I have been subscribed to a motorcycle magazine for 4years or so, and they really use all the benefits a digital magazine can offer.

But I can see how difficult it is to jump on that wagon and get everything right the first time.
But don't worry, I really like the digital magazine!

 

[Andrew Everard]

We'll strive to do better, kevinJ.

 

[DandyCobalt]

Does anyone actually prefer the digital edition to the good ol' paper version?

Nice sunny Sunday morning - cup of coffee and sitting outside with iPad and downloaded WHFSV..... gave up.. couldn't read in the sunlight and have to zoom in every time to read anything. So I grabbed my paper notcut music mag which I could actually read.

It's not a WHFSV problem - it's the technology...but I'm going to be buying the paper edition again of WHFSV from now on.

Old tech definitely better than new tech. And you can't bend back the corner of the ipad page to mark what you might buy in the future (wife permitting).