I have yet to see the Peterson CD, but I have the Audubon. I think if you
like Audubon Field Guide text and pictures over Petersons then you might
like Audubons CD better. It has text from both basic and master birding
guides, range map, etc. The life-list could get pretty cumbersome for
experienced birders, taking too much disk space. I haven't had any
trouble with sound distortion but some of the songs are weak, but it is
hard to coax a house finch into the studio. It's pretty memory intensive,
so if you're running a PC with only 4Meg for example, you could have a
problem. Audubon also has a finder using location, season, habitat, color
size and shape. And some bird ID quizzes. It's also about $20 cheaper
than Petersons. I like it, I'm glad I have it and I may get Petersons for
xmas but it will never replace a field guide. (Ever try to fit a 486DX
Tower case PC with 14" Monitor into a fanny pack?)
=================
Cliff Drake
Ballard, WA
Birder at Juno.com


On Wed, 4 Dec 1996 09:27:18 -0800 Charles Kahle <charlesk at seanet.com>
writes:
>I have been using the Peterson Multimedia Guide to North American
>Birds. =
> Over all the quality of the drawings (very similar to field guide), =
>photos and sound seem very good. The user interface to get to the =
>information takes some getting used to, it is not as quick as just =
>flipping through the field guide. But, it does bring all the =
>information available together in one place and there is more than in
>=
>the field guide: range, habitat, feeding, nesting, status, field
>marks, =
>similar, voice, field view.
>
>It does have an interesting feature "Bird Finder" where you can use =
>different criteria (e.g. habitat, bird size, etc.) to narrow down the
>=
>list of possible birds.
>
>The life list feature is OK. I was recently sent (totally out of the
>=
>blue) an update to the program which I bought this summer. It has an
>=
>improved list feature, mainly that you can now have multiple lists. =
>Printing out the list is still poor, just one style of report with all
>=
>the information; comments, dates, etc. printed out so that you can
>only =
>get 6 or birds listed on a page. They need a version of the list
>report =
>that is just one line/bird so that it is more condensed.
>
>The data is stored in a Microsoft Access Database. I have been able
>to =
>use Access to look at the data but I have not had a chance to see if I
>=
>could set up more customized reports using Access directly on the =
>database. That is on my (long) to-do list...
>
>The one last thing I would like to mention is that I have had
>excellent =
>support. The 2-3 times I have called I reached some one who could
>help. =
> Most recently I have gotten support via email. This has been helpful
>=
>as I am running Windows NT 4.0 which is not a supported platform, only
>=
>Win 3.1 and Win 95 are officially supported. They also seem
>responsive =
>to user suggestions for changes, witness the update they sent me.
>
>Charlie Kahle
>charlesk at seanet.com
>Seattle, WA
>
>----------
>From: Grant Hendrickson[SMTP:grant at brigadoon.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 1996 7:41 PM
>To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>Subject: Re: bird cd roms
>
>The National Audubon CD on North American Birds is excellent in
>most=20
>parts. I have been extremely disappointed in the bird songs,
>however.=20
>Many are so distorted as to be useless. I sent one back and the=20
>replacement is just as bad. I tried it on three different
>platforms;=20
>the problem persists. Check out the House Finch and Golden Crowned=20
>Sparrow for examples of this.
>
>Contact with Random House, the publisher, gave me a "we're sorry"=20
>response but nothing else.
>
>