Are the times a'changin'?

[Steen4]

There seems to be a sea change occuring in the forums over the last several months. The topics of conversation have overwhelmingly been concerned with issues related to DVD backup, DVD recording and ripping as opposed to capturing from analog formats and finding innovative, efficient ways to then process and convert it. Now, I'm not opposed to progress at all, but the shift in emphasis was pretty swift, IMO. Is it that most of the members who post have finished these types of projects and have moved on? Or has the advent of cheap DVD recorders and blank media made it easier to just record at the highest bitrate possible to preserve old footage, flaws be damned? Maybe there's just a surge of newer users with only these newer types of issues? I'm really curious.

[indolikaa]

The price of DVD burners has reached a point where the masses have supplanted the hobbyists on this forum. I would suspect a vast majority of DVD burner consumers are more interested in copying rental DVDs or recording their favorite TV programs rather than capturing/restoring video.

Just my opinion.

[Headbanger's Ball]

Could be the change in the weather for the Northern Hemisphere. Who really wants to spend their free time converting analog to digital this time of year. A quick dvd backup doesn't take much time.

[Cobra]

I still enjoy the satisfaction of creating a beautiful VCD or DivX file once in a while, or encoding my own stuff (eg. camcorder footage) to DVD. I take pride in producing quality stuff.

Cobra

[jimmalenko]

DVD burners and media are affordable to the commoner and I think many parallels can be drawn between now and when CD burners and media first started to become more affordable. There was an influx then of NOOBs wanting to create VCDs and SVCDs, just as there are now people wanting to "back up" any DVDs they can get their hands on. Couple this with the overall affordability and sometimes necessity of owning a PC and all of a sudden you get thousands more visitors to the site.

I think the hardcore hobbyist still exists around here - they are just not as prominent any more and don't line the last 50 topics on the front page as thickly as they used to.

I personally have an interest in video and like to experiment or "challenge" myself to explore different ways of displaying/capturing/encoding/authoring material. I think you need a certain temperament to stick around on this site these days.

[glockjs]

the video thing has been here for awhile.

as for the influx of people interested...it's just a fad. it'll fade away like that song who let the dogs out.