PC System Requirements :
- Windows 95/98/NT 4.0
- Pentium PC 133 Mhz
- 32Mb RAM
- DVD-ROM Drive
- 150Mb free hard disk space
- SVGA monitor, display card 800*600, 16-bit colour
- Mouse
- Sound card and speakers
- Printer recommended
Britannica DVD 2000
is as the title would suggest, the Encyclopaedia Britannica for the year 2000
and this time on DVD-ROM. In short, it contains all the usual information you'd
expect but this time it offers an interactive edge, the extent of which hasn't
seen before. The package is also available in a CD-ROM (standard or deluxe)
version, but only the DVD-ROM edition contains the most amount of information
and all on a single-sided single-layer (DVD 5) disc, so just imagine what
a dual-sided dual-layered (DVD 18) disc could comprise of...
The package is divided up into six main categories, each of which can help
you find what you're looking for in different and clever ways :
Ask Britannica :
In similar fashion to the
Ask Jeeves website,
you can type in a simple question, thanks to the "Natural-language search"
ability, or just type in the word of choice.
There's everything from Baseball to Chernobyl included, the latter
I took an interest in having spent a week in Russia as part of a school trip
in April 1986, leaving just under two weeks before the tragic incident in
question. Something else that gets a mention here which I took an interest in,
but around ten years later, was the
Spice Girls.
The only tragic incident to detail there is the release of their records.
Compass :
Take a different view of the world by selecting your place of choice from a
world map and work your way down the countries and continents, or take it from
the "Place Finder", an alphabetical drop-down list. Articles provide information
on the continent or region and the 'at-a-glance' section gives you a view of
the nation's flag and a summary of national facts.
Analyst :
Get into the nitty-gritty with the set of statistics to end all statistics
once and for ever. Compare data between countries and nations, then create
graphs to go with it which can be exported for use in other packages.
When I went interrailing in 1992, I could see from my travels in Prague that
the we have twice the purchasing power than the Czech Republic since
everything's so cheap over there in comparison. I wasn't to know that the
death rate was marginally higher there though, so it was probably a good thing
that I stayed no longer than three days.
Timelines :
Specify a date anywhere from 100,000 B.C. to 2,000 A.D. and if Britannica has
something to say, you're sure to know about it. As you'd expect, there's more
information present as time gets more recent. I took a look at the inception
of CDs in 1980 and DVD in 1995, but there are plenty of topics to choose from
including Music, Science, Religion and Art.
Not every last piece of information is clickable-upon to find out more, but
there must be extra information for over 90% of them.
Spotlights :
The Multimedia section. The box is right when it says this brings knowledge
to life and makes learning fun. Video and animation can be viewed time and
time again and the DVD-ROM version contains five hours of it, compared to the
single hour that the CD-ROM Deluxe gets to see.
Britannica.com :
As the heading suggests, this is the official website for Britannica.
From here you can link to over 125,000 Internet websites, get a free email
address, create your own homepage hosted by Britannica, get technical support
advice and obtain advance notice on upgrades and get savings on Britannica
products.
As if that wasn't enough, the package also contains the New Oxford Dictionary
of English for when u justt can't spel a wurd; Bookmarks allow you
to save your latest discoveries and go back to them whenever you like, while
the Notes and Research Assistant options are more instrumental
in helping you piece together all that information you need for your essay
at a moment's notice.
The following table gives a complete breakdown of what you can expect from
all three versions available for Britannica 2000 :
|
Feature
|
Britannica
CD 2000
|
Britannica
CD 2000
Deluxe
|
Britannica
DVD 2000
|
Articles
Photos & Illustrations
Maps
Video & Animation
Entire text of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Natural-language search
Links to 125,000+ websites
User-generated charts, tables and graphs
New Research Assistant
Multimedia Presentations
Sound & Music
Interactive Timeline
360o Views
New Oxford dictionary of English
|
83,000+
3,500+
1,500+
-
Yes
Yes
Yes
-
Yes
-
-
-
-
Yes
|
83,000+
6,500+
1,500+
1 hour
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
-
Yes
|
83,000+
15,000+
1,600+
5 hours
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
|
Click on image for fullscreen version.
Graphics, Sound and Ease of Use
The graphics are crisp and clear with colour just right when it's needed,
with easy-to-read text. Obviously I haven't been able to get through the entire
Britannica yet, but what I have seen provides fluid animation and I can find
no fault with it.
The sound is also very good and what's here suits the package well, but it's
not the latest aurally-powerful first-person-shooter, so don't expect your
speakers to be blown apart.
In the main, Encyclopaedia Britannica DVD 2000 is very easy to use.
However, when I installed it I hit a few snags. After it rebooted the machine
and began to "adjust system settings", which strikes fear into my heart at the
best of times, it reported some files (mainly driver .dll's) as "missing or
corrupted". Presumably that was the reason behind IE 5.0 (Internet Explorer
Version 5.0) not working the way that it should, resulting in me not being
able to copy and paste text when I should, or accessing some of the highlighted
links within the text.
One thing that was a pain was having to install IE 5.0 in the first place.
Even if it's 100% necessary, I wanted to install it to a different drive but
it went ahead without asking and dumped it on the C: drive where I've precious
little space as it is, but I have stacks of space on the D: and E: drives.
As a result it refuses to uninstall IE 5.0 and return to the previous version
because it's missing the setup.stf file it needs.
Click on image for fullscreen version.
Overall
A very comprehensive package as you'd expect and it's the best source of
information you're likely to come across, short of taking a ride through
the circuits of history with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,
but it's not without its faults as described above.
If you're after some more info on Britannica, you can check
out their official Website at
Britannica.com
and enter the competition online from the left-hand menu.
CONTENT
GRAPHICS
SOUND AND MUSIC
EASE OF USE
ENJOYMENT
|
|
|
OVERALL
|
|
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
[Up to the top of this page]
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
