B5Books : 20th Anniversary Multimedia Edition - login

[babylonlurker]

The login data for the B5-20 Multimedia Edition has arrived in my mail.

Now for a bit of exploration to see what is new.

[Ubik]

Do report back, I wasn't really sold on this one from the promo material.

[Apsu]

Ok, here is my "review" of it.
The B5-20 Multimedia edition is absolutely great for people who couldn't have a chance to get the physical book at the time of its release.
That book is now sold at hundred of dollars on Ebay, and for newcomers to B5, it's just impossible to get.

So, back to the multimedia edition :
- absolutely all the pages of the physical book are here, that's why I put emphasis on the fact that it is a great way for people to have the content without to spend 400+ dollars on Ebay, while remaining fair to those who have purchased it.
- it is on the same platform than the B5-Encyclopedia, so you can navigate smoothly and very quickly between the 2, and they share the same internal search engine, making it very simple to find and cross-reference something on both if needed. The navigation in itself is very intuitive, making it very simple to use, even for people who are not used to web navigation standards.
- the pages of B5-20 are listed in 2 different layouts : the "print" layout, identical to the one in the book, and a web layout that let you see :
. the images separately, in higher resolution, and in an uncropped/untransformed way that is unfortunately necessary to do in a print layout creation process
. the captions in html text, which makes it more comfortable to read on a screen, with the possibility to change the font size of web browsers, and with links to the B5 Encyclopedia
- also, the multimedia edition is enriched with the presence of extract videos from the show that makes it easier to compare for example an artwork with its "real" transposition in the show

In the end, i will say that i have both (physical and digital copy) and i don't regret purchasing it (especially with their amazing debut discount). But also, I think it is something great to offer to a B5 fan. A lot of my friends are abroad, I live in France most of the time but i have friends in the USA, UK, Japan, Australia, etc... and every time I want to send them something, the shipping ends up costing a lot more than the actual present. A product like this one is perfect, as you can design a little card or something to open for Christmas or someone's birthday, and gift them the access codes to the multimedia edition, without having to bother of the cost of having to send a 12" x 12" book at the other end of the world without having it damaged.

I hope I answered all of your questions, feel free to ask me anything if you still have questions !