Lead-in photo ...

... looks like Joe wants to throttle Barry!  lol

I didn't take the time to read the 'Q&A dialog'; but think it would have been fitting to have put it all on video and I would certainly have watched and listened to it.  

I agree

I always find interview style articles "jarring" to read. Too many speed bumps.
Interviews are best done on video

Ironic that an interview about a video site is not on video.

Barry - run away!......run away!!!

Yes, ironic that the interview wasn't done as a video.

But I still took the time to read it.  And when I was done, I purchased a 1 year membership to TMTV!  I've been a modeler of some form or fashion for more than 35 years, but I haven't had a train set since I was a kid, and that wasn't a permanent layout.  So now I'm coming into this hobby with very little knowledge beyond the basics and I'm eager to learn as much as I can.  I think TMTV will enable me to do exactly that.

Interview format

Ironic indeed IMHO

I don't mind the interview style at all, and for layout articles it works well. In this case having the interview as a video could have highlighted this new "service" and the quality it brings. I think this is a missed advertising opportunity to bond the magazine readers by offering this as a TMTV free "preview". Especially since this is the cover story intended to introduce the service to the readership at large, not just the forum members.

Regardless, the magazine and TMTV are a great service to us modelers.

Unfortunately...

...if I am in front of the camera being interviewed, then there's no one behind the camera.

Barry said,

"...if I am in front of the camera being interviewed, then there's no one behind the camera."

Yeah, I have a face for radio too .  

Of course I did read it...

I did read the article, and I even gave it 4 stars.

I liked the article, but I have never much liked the interview format for articles, although it does accomplish what you set out to do in the layout articles etc. More personal. and I have no complaints about that.

I just find them "jerky" to read... Barry: Joe: Barry Joe...

Since I have no better suggestion for the format, what's to say?

But in video... the jerkyness goes away and it becomes a conversation. Smooth and flowing.

I agree with Yaron, Would have made a great video intro to TMTV

1 point lost cause it should have been a video. No points lost for interview style.

Cheers!

Come to Springfield in Jan

Come to the Amherst Springfield show in January - Barry and the TMTV crew will be there and you can get your live interview in the Meet the TrainMasters TV crew session we're doing.

The text interview has all our ums and ahs cut out, as well as the dozen of little rabbit trails we went down in the actual conversation removed.

I doubt people would watch an hour plus video of just talking heads (which is how long this would run), which is what this would have been. People might watch 10 minutes of talking head video, but that's pushing it and we could not have covered everything like the text article has done.

You can read this article in about 10-15 minutes - sitting through it on video would have been pure torture. Some things just work better in text if you're in a hurry.

I don't see a video no one would watch as being a missed opportunity ...

Just to be contrary...

I did not get the impression that Joe was about to do violence to Barry.

I also do not mind the interview in print.  Seems logical to introduce it this way in the magazine.  If the interview were on TMTV, video would be the only thing that made sense, IMO.

Great reading!

LOL ...

... a few caught the irony of introducing a video service using an interview style article that must be read -- I would not want to watch the raw video anymore than I would want to read it.  And using raw video to introduce TMTV would have been a (huge) step in the wrong direction.  But to have used an edited interview (with the scripted portions that you used in the article), would have been very fitting for introducing the new service in my opinion ... and I would have watched it.   As another put it; I think it may have been a missed opportunity.  

Now then, if Barry is the only one who can operate the camera ... you'd have to use mirrors ...

Talking Heads

Question about TMTV

If I subscribed at a later date, would previous shows be available for purchase like downloading back issues of the magazine?

Everything always available

Everything will always remain available unless the video becomes so out of date that it's irrelevant.

For example, if we did a video on how to add keep-alive to a particular brand of decoder and that decoder was no longer available, we'd probably pull the video. The most likely area where something will become obsolete is in the DCC area.

But that will be rare. The intent is to keep adding to the library of videos weekly so it gets ever larger.

Since we're only talking $5.99 to try it out for a month, it's not like you're risking a lot.

Ken wrote:  You do however

Ken wrote:  You do however have to watch yourself on camera, while editing.

Absolutely you get it, Ken.  I find it to be torture to have to watch and listen to myself.  Some people are just not suited to be in front of a camera.  I am one of them.

I think is the perfect opportunity to let everyone know that I will not be one of the TrainMasters TV personalities.  If you watch the credits in the first episode you will see that I already wear many hats as cameraman, editor and producer.  And those are just the hats that are listed.  Getting in front of the camera is just not possible, nor is it something I aspire to.  There are others here who do it much better than I do, and I prefer to put my efforts where my strengths are.

So please enjoy all our entertaining hosts, and know that I'm somewhere backstage moving set pieces around behind them.

unable to sign up

Joe   I'm a frustrated reader.  I can't sign up for TMTV without going straight to the paypal page. I don't wish to use paypal. I just wish to use my bank debit card to sign up. I saw something a couple of days ago on doing that but was in a rush and didn't save it to a file to keep handy.  Could you please tell me how to go about doing that again. I'm working 12 hr days the next 3 days in a row so I won't be able to get this info until Sunday my next day off. Thank you for your help and Merry Christmas.  Andrew.

PayPal pay without a PayPal account

Andrew, just follow the TMTV link to the PayPal site and use the credit/debit card option.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/mer/WAX_landing-outside

Wait I Though TMTV Was not taking away from MRH

This issue looks like one big add from TMTV. C on Joe.

Yes ...

... but I think we all saw it coming ... (money talks).

TMTV

The way I read it, cash could flow from TMTV to the magazine.  Sure a lot of people here tonight with their cranky pants on.

Looks like one big ad for TMTV?

Huh. Really?

Fortunately it's not - out of the 14 articles, columns, editorials, news and photo essays, 12 of them aren't about TMTV.

Moderator note - the facts: 87% of the December issue has nothing to do with TMTV.

That means ...

That 13% of the December issued WAS related to TMTV ... a pretty big chunk for something that is not 'taking away' from the ezine ....

Dec issue

Dec issue was one of the largest issues ever this year, at 153 spreads. Many of the issues this year were in the 140s, with the April issue being the smallest at 133 spreads. The TMTV article is a one-time situation of spelling out for people what it's all about and what our vision is for it and we fattened up the issue to include it.

Make all the accusations you want - the truth is MRH has never been in the black and eventually something would need to be done if it was to ever have a chance of a future. You can only keep bleeding so long.

This will be the one big announcement of what TMTV is all about - we don't expect to ever devote this many pages to TMTV in one issue again. And signing up for TMTV is entirely voluntary, no one is making anybody sign up.

We have given you over 6000 pages of free model railroading content and now you want to begrudge us 20 pages of announcement in that time for the one thing that could help secure the next 6000 free pages for you?

My how petty we can become.