videohelp.com backstory. What do you remember?

[tgpo]

Add your history here. Fill in the backstory that makes this place great.

• When I joined the website was vcdhelp.com
• When I joined major was the only mod in the mac forum
• When I joined there was only 1 guide for conversion from DVD to VCD on the mac, and it was for OS 9
• Back then Off Topic was open to guests
• The polls started with me posting regular polls in the Off Topic forum and it got moved to the homepage
• Back then you had to ask people what their system stats were, so I suggested that we add System Info to the profiles
• At my peak here I posted over 100 posts per day
• Naked Geek hated us
• King John was a mod here....twice
• kwag followers don't like it when you tell them kvcd is an (x)vcd specification
• Tommyknocker freaked out one day and got banned...it was weird

[lordsmurf]

When I saw the site in 2001, it was all about copying DVD to VCD. Didn't help me much, didn't do VCD.

Defense. Bit of a nutjob. He rambled a lot about DVD media, and some of it was not accurate. I swear he worked for somebody, a shill.

shop4tech shills. Not the greatest store, especially back then. They don't do that anymore, but they do still sell a lot of crap (Matrix, house brands, etc).

NakedGeek. Another nutjob, trying to pass off crap media as good. Hong Kong media, at that, AN32 uncoded discs.

King John made a few visits, he was mostly gone.

Kwag was actually still a member, passing off his non-standard VCD as a special "format". That always was, and still is, one of the dumbest things to ever come out of this site.

This crazy whacked bitch name Gina. I don't know if I just saw her slightly older posts, or if I was here.

We had a lot of nasty "red wing" stuff in off-topic.

Northcat8 was funny, as was Indolikaa. Indo still exists online, just not here. Cap, too.

There were like 50 guides at most. At most.

The "tools" was a single page of software.

"DVD media" had almost nothing listed in it. This was when I just viewed it. I think it was just called "Blank Media" or something too.

There were no DVD recorders to speak of (a few crappy Panasonic, and nother else).

Somebody found a Canopus ADVC-100 and word of its "quality" (mostly hype from newbies) really carried strong for a good year or more.

The site was dvdrhelp.com for a while.

Sefy was a mod and active.

The front page was a LOT smaller.

It was still ugly deep-burnt orange.

People who insisted a DVD burner was just a CD burner with "special firmware".

Princo lovers. Ritek lovers. Ritek vs Princo arguments. Ironic that both discs were crap.

$1 per disc was a great sale.

[Supreme2k]

Princo lovers. Ritek lovers. Ritek vs Princo arguments. Ironic that both discs were crap.

You forgot + vs. -




=======================
People posted about overnight re-encodes

"No one will ever switch to DVD when VCD is so much cheaper and just as good in quality."

DVD copying was a 57 step process.

Anyone remember SpuceUp? ReMPEG? there was virtually no free software for doing any of this stuff? (encoding, authoring, effects)

"No one will ever switch to DVD when SVCD is so much cheaper and just as good in quality."

Politics became a no-no.

[yoda313]

I officially joined in 2004. Best tech site out there - still is

I was actually here before my first dvd burner. That was ripping dvds on an old p3 hp I had with only a dvd rom/cd burner. VCD's were the trick. Then I upgraded to dvd and never looked back.


And yes its always the which is better - or + debate that sprang up once a month or more.

[vhelp]

Ok. Very briefly, the 2001 ERA, as seen the way I recall them, went something like this..

** I joined in March 2001, though I browsed around since 2000 .. found vcdhelp thanks to
some popular sites like digital-digest (where I used to reguarly look for updates on DVD Genie)
and i think it used to mention vcdhelp in various passings. And after that short lived session,
I put that behind me, and moved into an new ERA with vcdhelp.

** vcdhelp had many issues/problems with hackers and spamers and other website glitches,
and many black-outs, where you coudn't log into vcdhelp because the admin took it off line
in order to fix the problems. You had to (informerly) go on to doom9 (and other forums) in
hopes that one of the vcdhelp MOD's would pop in and give us a heads-up. Adam usually
played in this roll. (of course, doom9 members did the same thing when they were down, also)

** very short-lived series: dial-up modem -- huge burst of speed for downloading movies

** most popular items: Dazzle DVC 1/ DVC 2, WinTV-GO, DC10plus ...

** popular brands: ATI, Dazzle, Hauppauge, Pinnacle, Apex

** most people considered: small frame drops in a single capture session was ok/normal

** many could only capture in 320/352 x 240

** capturing as deinterlace was regularly practiced as: 'the way to go'

** 352x480, and 480x480 was seen as: 'the way to go'

** CVD became a new popular alternative format, but was not strong-lived, though can still
be seen around, vaguely.

** MJPEG was: the most popular/talked about codec.. ie, was viewed as: 'best quality' @ 18-19

** HUFFY was: new and becomming popular, fast

** AVIsynth: -- AVIsynth v1.0 beta5 -- I started using around that time.. and .zip had 5 files
(my earliest avisynth was dated 10/25/2001 and was the only single .dll needed to frameserve)

** King John was an Audio enthusiest, and seem to know a lot about that area. But, I never
had any negative moments with him, though others, did, I guess.

** MPEG 1/2 were highly talked about topics, and in some, had arguments or wars on
various fronts.

** There were times when a topic were made, and an argument was stiring up, certain
(regular) members of that ERA would pop out and boast as if they knew it all. Some
topics weren't arguments, but such members would still like to pop in and make like
they were know-it-all's. You couldn't help but notice that

** TMPGenc was FREE and went through various BETA versions, v12, 12a, 12b ... v12i,
(although I have seen at least two reference to a v11 mentioned, but never seen an actual
working version), and then finally becoming an official $ay-ware mpeg encoder.

** TMPGenc templates were very popular.

** The revelation or secret to how to produce near excellent quality from a dvd rip
was revealed in greater detail and understanding (the missing link many never realzed)
later on in 2001 and got more popular as 2002 moved in. Since then, everyone acts
like they all knew how it was supose to be done, as if they were doing it all right, all
along. Yeah.., the secret was in the IVTC method, a step many did not realize of its
benefits, though prob mainly because it was not fully understood -- Interlace vs. Film
vs. Video vs. Progressive vs. edited 3:2 Telecine, etc.., and still is missunderstood
to this day.

** Panasoic MPEG 1 encoder was also very popular.

** DV-cams were becoming a popular addition/alternative to capturing video
(I even refered to one of my short-lived, Canon ZR-10 as a mini-tivo, back then)

** Macrovision Hacks were popular in those days for DVD Players, and mainly required
a .DAT file to download and burn to a CD-R and run inside your player to either turn it
off or revise the firmware. There were even a short period of Apex players that were
very popular because they mostly ignored macrovision.

** a short-lived ERA with remotes, where you punch in a few key strokes or unique pattern,
and it would either turn of macrovision or unlock special features of a given dvd player.

** 2002 ----- Laserdisc: Post Processing and Restoration
** 2002 ----- September/2002, my first Canopus ADVC-100 dv capture device !!
** 2003 ----- wars and departures, from a few forum boards
** 2003 ----- haters and bashers of the DV format, still living to this day, i think
** 2004 ----- DVD Recorders: beta testing and some shoot-out, .. went into 2005, onward
** 2005/06 -- vairous interesting Discussions / Theory and Testing of equipments -- fun stuff !!
** 2006/07 -- DVD Recorder's: went dead silent, prob waiting on next wave of OTA recorders
** 2007 ----- OTA/HD capture cards: the new norm on the block
** (Fusion, MyHD, Hauppauge hvr-1600, Pinnacle PCTV Pro/Ultima, etc)
** 2008 ----- ???

There may be some fuzzyness to the date, but for the most part, they are pretty accurate
in my opinion .. and still even so many more vcdhelp shanannigans over the years.

That's the way I remember them, so far.

-vhelp 4454

[The village idiot]

- Once upon a time, the darker side was tolerated.
- There used to be constant references to Usenet (newsgroups) and the other way round.
- Some of the movers and shakers were making leaps and bounds in technological programming and defeating technology. All of this software was freely available.
- Tmpeg was free and just starting out, was still refered to as "new" software.
- The King John guides were really very helpfull.


-There was no "Sneeches Syndrome" back then.


This was all pre 2000 stuff, which was when I started coming here, think I finally registered sometime around 1999. Then the server crashed and everyone had to start from scratch.

Then the Sneeches Syndrome began, and there was little going on except people asking about ripping this or ripping that disk. It really started to get stagnant.

[thecoalman]

Looking back I got here when it was dvdrhelp.com when DVD first started becoming popular.

Promptly got in a flame war with lordsmurf.

Seen the good, the bad and the ugly in between.

The good: seen Yoda become a mod.

The Bad: Seen a lot of regulars leave.

The Ugly: No need to go there.

One incident that stands out is the search for teegee when he disappeared, including the call from Cap to one deceased dudes relatives.

Been a good ride overall, nothing more to say besides what has already been said.

[thecoalman]

edit

[Forum Troll]

I joined when it was vcdhelp.com
converting to SVCD was the big thing..
The big thing was the Star Wars conversion thread talking about all the various sets people had made from their laserdisc sets

and whatever happened to the guy who posted here, whose big thing was never editing his footage? He would run around in the woods, and just let his camcorder capture everything?

Here it is:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic291143.html

I got great laughs from that thread.

[tgpo]

One incident that stands out is the search for teegee when he disappeared, including the call from Cap to one deceased dudes relatives.

I forgot about that! What was the outcome of it?

[stiltman]

Was here a long time before signing up but finally did.

Liked the old wild west version of OT
Made cyber friends here
learned how to make VCDs (best one was xXx triple X)
Remember Phunkie Munky?
At one time I had 4 sign-ons
At one time I was tgpo's evil twin
I've made several avatars here (some are still being used by others)
I've never played Leisure Suit Larry
Like giving yado crap
I suggested the DV forum
Anyone remember the quote thread...see how far the [ quote ] would work


Last but not least

IBTL

[yoda313]

One incident that stands out is the search for teegee when he disappeared, including the call from Cap to one deceased dudes relatives.

I forgot about that! What was the outcome of it?

can't say but I do remember that as well. probably a locked thread nowadays.

The good: seen Yoda become a mod

Wow thanks!

[offline]

A couple of classic threads:

URGENT HELP NEEDED!

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic227589.html


People...if you are gonna post obsceneties...please do it WITH RESPECT!

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic170048.html


Im very mad

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic166363.html


would you bone tgpo's girlfriend/fiance ?

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic204121.html


How do you remove censors from censored videos.

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic222572.html


Quotes:

(swearing) - I personally see a need for it. . But not in the ******* subjects.

Now, it's time for an Indolikaa Special.

........

Listen up, *******! realmad.gif

..........
PISS OFF!!!

Can you guys update me on the latest please.

What's the best OS to use?
What's the best DVD Ripping program?
What's the best prog to encode AVI to VCD?
What's the best Anti Virus?
What's the best Spyware remover?
What's the best Defragmenter, is it disk keeper?

I forsee some ugly posts...

[tgpo]

I forgot all about jeex. He hated me, but in a fun way.

would you bone tgpo's girlfriend/fiance ?

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic204121.html

ha ha ha! Classic one.

[thecoalman]

(swearing) - I personally see a need for it. . But not in the ******* subjects.

I'm still cleaning coffe out of my keyboard from that post, wasn''t that a thread in feed back where someone was complaining about the profanity?

[makntraks]

I forgot all about jeex. He hated me, but in a fun way.

would you bone tgpo's girlfriend/fiance ?

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic204121.html

ha ha ha! Classic one.

Jeex... WTF! Hahahahahaha.... One of the reasons I got involved here... maybe too involved

makntraks

[chesterfield]

i may not have many posts, and there is a reason for that, but have been around here for a long time. i originally joined in mid 2003. i learned all that i know from this site, thank you everyone who has taught me something.

unfortunately i got caught up in all that crap at the end of 2004. everyone was fighting, there were groups of people flaming other groups, etc....and i got banned---and i am here admitting it. whatever i did wrong i am sorry for. it also probably wasn't a good idea to "hang" with the pub members. needless to say, i rejoined using a different screen name.

if a mod is looking at this, i would be most grateful if you could PM me and maybe restore my original screen name???

i miss JIMALENKO's rants!!!!

i have fought and learned from lordsmurf!!!!!!

will hay was funny.

enough said for now.....hope all is well with everyone and hope everyone has a happy holiday!!!!!!!

DL

/ PM sent

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

it also probably wasn't a good idea to "hang" with the pub members.

[chesterfield]

it also probably wasn't a good idea to "hang" with the pub members.

that hurts.....OUCH....

[g_shocker182]

I remember taking this screen pic:

It was Oct 2003, DVDrhelp.com, and limewire was the only thing out there that didnt have spyware.

[Dv8ted2]

it also probably wasn't a good idea to "hang" with the pub members.

What is the pub?

[yoda313]

macemx's old hang out.

[Supreme2k]

will hay was funny.

That must have been before my time






Maybe when it was called Flipbookhelp.com

[offline]

Videohelp in March 2000 at its new site:

[tenders]

i'm old so i can't remember much


what i do remember is TGPO and his great sense of humour

the help i recieved when i knew nothing.

some of the great mods(some) that are still here.

and of course Baldrick, is he still here




and that nightmare called king john

[Super Warrior]

Princo lovers. Ritek lovers. Ritek vs Princo arguments. Ironic that both discs were crap.

$1 per disc was a great sale.

Not true. There was a time when Ritek was a genuinely *GOOD* media, the quality of discs they were using back then were solid. I have some burnt Ritek's from that era and still they play great!

However since about 4 years ago, Ritek's got under new management or something, and now their discs are no better than Princo trash. Kinda sad.

[lordsmurf]

Ritek was never good media. It's always suffered from a sizeable % of coasters, variable production quality, and reflectivity near the bottom of acceptability.

The RITEKG03 was a fluke, with burning less problems than early or later RITEK, but the reflectivity problem was still there.

Ritek has long been making mediocre or crappy discs. You just weren't aware of it, and got caught up in the G03 hype. CD-R has always been lukewarm, and their first DVD-R was not at all impressive, it just barely worked.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it Princo-level quality, but it's surely not Mitsubishi-like quality, and it never was (not even the G03).

There was a LOT of bad G03 and G04. Not the "my data disappeared" BS (which was purely related to reflectivity), but coaster burning. I remember telling people to try out Prodisc and Taiyo Yuden, and whether or not anybody listened to me, that's where the buzz shifted. In fact, we still have TY frenzy (a little too much... as it's good, but not THAT good).

[Super Warrior]

Ritek has long been making mediocre or crappy discs. You just weren't aware of it, and got caught up in the G03 hype.

There was no hype, maybe you weren't around using them back when Ritek was a good brand, but i was.

Again, I still have some burned Ritek discs back when it was good, and unlike their current media, these have NOT degraded over time and still play great. That is not "hype", thats quality.

Ritek's more recent junk line would've degraded and become unplayable coasters long ago.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it Princo-level quality, but it's surely not Mitsubishi-like quality, and it never was (not even the G03).

Current era Ritek's are DEFINITELY Princo level quality. After you burn the damn things they have a shelf life of about 4-6 months, before degrading and becoming useless.

My sympathy's to anyone who burns a LARGE batch of them, only to have a coaster collection later. I've been there....oh man....

[lordsmurf]

I've been using Ritek for as long as they've been making optical media. It's never been anything impressive.

Current Ritek burns fine, but only under certain conditions (right firmware, etc), and there is still a % of discs lost. It's really never changed. RITEKG03 was not much different, definitely better than the average, but TY, MCC, TDK, PVC, RICOH and a couple others at the time were much better.

The whole "dead disc" thing is 99% myth, and is almost always related to poor reflectivity (which lends itself to difficulty to read a disc).

Princo had problems with disc construction, dye quality, and disc stability. None of these things are present in modern Ritek. Well, the dye quality is an issue, but it's still not sewer-slime grade stuff used by Princo.

I don't recommended Ritek, and I never have.

[Supreme2k]

I don't recommended Ritek, and I never have.

So, you're retracting what you said back in 1992?

I exclusively use Ritek. There has never been a better brand, and there never will be any better. They are so advanced that I expect we'll find out that they're time-travelers sent back to make our lives better.