CompuServe Messages

David, I think you are expecting too much of Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia though I admit quality can be greatly improved. The CD-ROM has a total capacity of 650 Megabytes of data or about 75 minutes of 44.1 Khz digital audio, but not both. I believe Comptons chose to use WAV format files sampled at 11 Khz for much of the audio, so they would have room for the text and pictures. They did this to maintain compatibility with low end systems. MPC compatability initially required that the software work correctly on a 16 Mhz 286. This has since been changed to a 16 Mhz 386 SX. If you read the articles on the composers you would have found a decent amount of information on each of them. No, it wouldn't have been as much as would be in a biography on the composer or even as much as is contained in the printed encyclopedia by the same company, Encyclopedia Briticannica. Multimedia is new and a lot of stuff put into Comptons is more of a sales gimic than something of practical value. Many of the pictures and animations have little value too, but they increase the picture count statistic for the sales and marketing types. Remember Microsoft dedicated an entire CD-ROM to Beethoven's 9 th Symphony. I don't work for Compton's I'm a freelance CD-ROM reviewer. It seems you want the equivilant of Street Atlas World and the Library of Congress on one CD-ROM. If you maintain those expectations you will be greatly disappointed with every CD-ROM you examine. I think CD-ROM's offer great promise and currently provide some very handy research tools plus they can be a lot of fun.