This Blu-Ray Forum is not as active as it used to be.....

The volume of traffic has certainly died down since the days of the format wars. There is increased competition in the Blu-ray space, as there are seemingly more and more forums devoted to HD that pop up each year. There are only so many consumers willing to discuss Blu-ray issues and that pie is being cut pretty thin by a proliferation of sites. I would also say last year's change in the forum's software platform, with a moderately steep learning curve, drove some people away.

The Blu-ray market is more mature now, its days of wild growth among consumers are over. I saw the same thing happen to forums dedicated to DVD, as that format peaked and had established itself.

No doubt things have settled down since the format war and then when the changeover happen on the site. Lots of old posters I have not seen in a long time. Hope all is well with everyone that have walked these halls over the years. My guess is rboster will be along shortly and lock this thread. It is nice to chat about such things here and there and maybe he will allow this one to stay.

I've noticed that too. Seems like the forums over at blu-ray.com are more active.

One poster I've noticed that hasn't been active here lately is dvdmike007.

bluray is dead...

As much as I love the site, it seems that there are very......very few people here actually interested in discs that look like film anymore, and there are too few times where adults are left to talk, as it were. At the same time, there are too few discs that I can get excited about anymore. As KBMAN said as well, there are just too few reference discs. Now, I'm on here to see how badly the disc is messed up and how tealified a disc is.

Me personally, I care less and less about picture and sound ratings. The picture is a 4 no it's a 4.25 Wow the bass in that train scene was unreal. The best yet.

Blu-ray is awesome. Been around long enough don't need to analyze every scene and sound anymore.

Spent years building a dream system and ready just to enjoy the movies again. Bored with the rest. Would rather see the emphasis on movie quality, story, acting over a two second bass blast. You are most likely going to get a decent production at a minimum on Blu and top-notch is there as well. Now enjoy the movie!

We can revisit at red ray/4k

Rick
Edited by Mr.SoftDome - 3/4/13 at 8:53pm

I'll be honest with you, I think the traffic drop-off largely coincided with a format change here on the forum. I don't think it has anything to do with Blu-ray. I see it on all kinds of other forums

In my rather lengthy experience with internet discussion forums, changes don't go over well. I'm not different than other people in that regard...I'm not a fan of change. When the format here changed, it didn't seem like "home" anymore. The nature of a forum is that any drop in posting has a multiplier effect....a few less new threads means hundreds of fewer replies. And people start to check out the board two or three times per day instead of ten times per day.

The forums at Blu-ray.com have been the same for as long as I can remember. "Sameness" makes people comfortable. People post where they feel comfortable.

Have noticed this too and as others have suggested, think it is primarily a result of a dearth in release of truly blockbuster discussion-worthy movies/transfers. There just hasn't been anything spectacular enough released to carry conversation since Prometheus IMO.

I also think many in the Forum are suffering "revisionist overload" (including Teal/Orange effect) and "studio cheapskate effort" which has disappointed to the point of depression and tarnished our hobby: we were enthusiastic about the potential of Bluray, only to have it squashed so many times with mediocre releases. It's not surprising we are feeling jaded and withdrawn.

I am not looking forward to "Cloud Atlas" because of the low bitrates being used to fit it on a disc and I fear for "The Hobbit" as well. Notwithstanding any compatibility issues introduced by tricky disc authoring or encoding merely to give the studios a 2 week window before the pirates crack it anyway.

That old adage "If you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all" comes to mind about why the Forum is slowing down.
Edited by IanD - 3/5/13 at 4:43am

Some reasons for the slower activity:
1. The format war is done...the right team won.
2. Most everyone has figured out by now disagreements over AV quality of various releases is about as rewarding as pi$$ing up wind.
3. BD is clearly superior to any other home format, only trolls are willing to debate this.
4. Debates over transfers, masters, encoding are frustrating circle jerks.

There are, of course, other reasons....

I think it's a process of people naturally drafting towards the most active forums on the topic. Not much sense in having a bunch of parallel discussions on different boards.

I believe that it isn't just this forum but AVScience forum in general is way way down. This is in addition to things already mentioned including new films all look and sound pretty spectacular,catalog is starting to funnel down to third tier titles (not bad for folks like me but perhaps not as interesting to some others). I posted my comparison of a 70mm presentation to the BD of 2001 and it was taken out (probably after a complaint) in the old days I'd have gotten a PM from the mod telling my why my thread was removed.

Anyway, the whole tone has changed. I also believe that the home theater hobby is dying out.

Art

Saved me the typing. Or in forum vernacular...

+1

Once Lawrence finally came to Blu, all anticipation for its release was gone. My primary reason for visiting this corner of AVS was gone with it. I like the discussion of titles, etc., but frankly I don't miss the inane posting and dissecting of screen shots -- mf ing screen shots! -- on this forum.

What could there have been to complain about in a thread comparing 70mm to BD?!


I don't think Home Theatre is dying out, but perhaps that is just because I'm only just getting into it and am excited to learn more IMHO I think watching films at home is much more preferable to going to the cinema because I know that at home I can watch a film in whatever I want to wear (pyjamas and slippers ) while sitting next to the kitchen and fridge, and controlling the volume and bass to my taste, without having to pay over £10 at peak times for a ticket alone (never mind snacks!) and there are no annoying kids talking all the way through the bl**dy film!!

BD has lost its luster, been there, done that, no more early adaptor glee. The malaise is actually fairly spread across all hardware & software platforms.

These days there is little excitement by AV enthusiasts in general and from J6P by in large Everyone has a flat panel, surround system Hi Def DVR and a bluray player or game consol (with BD functionality). The HT differences vary in relative degrees (depending on disposable income) but the enthusiasm for the Hi Def world (from CRT/DVD 480i/p to 1080i/p) has abated. Even my barber now has two 32" flat screens on the wal showing ESPNHD all the time:eek:

Not sure what is the next major thing on the content and content delivery side of things that will make all giddy again and I agree with an above poster that the market is feels mature.

Gman

ps, oink, at the time HDDVD was better

Edit: Art, +1
Edited by GmanAVS - 3/5/13 at 7:48am

Agreed.

I don't believe 4K will unleash a tide of interest in AV.
The only thing that MIGHT generate much excitement for J6P would be cheap glasses-free 3D displays.
Other than that, I'm not seeing it.

LOL, I'm not biting.

Actually, it was moved, not removed.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1458885/2001-a-space-odyssey-in-70mm

The format war days were the best of times here! IT was better than a soap opera and the mods were completely overwhelmed. Hilarious attacks, crazy posts and thread topics. It was the wild, wild west! I miss it.

I agree for the most part. It really seems high end home theater is becoming even more of a shrinking niche market than ever before. The general public seems more demanding and satisfied with portability, ease of access and of course, cost over a/v fidelity and (current) incremental innovation. Couple that with the music industry basically hitting an artistic brick wall the last decade and the movie industry churning out cookie cutter junk like never before and you have the perfect storm of little new artistic/entertainment content work owning (certainly not worth repeated viewing/listens) and a/v hardware manufacturers cutting back on quality both in build and a/v presentation quality. People have grown tired of studios churning out endless remastered, re-imagined, re-re-releases of classic films and music in ever dwindling time-spans.

This.

A lot of the people who care about discussing this stuff have simply moved to other sites, and I believe it has far more to do with what you posted above than it does with enthusiasts' apathy. Inconsistent, heavy-handed control/censorship is not usually what people are looking for in a discussion forum.

I've never been incredibly prolific here, but as I'm finding with the internet in general, I'm bored.

Bored of the same old arguments, the same old forum 'celebrities', (weirdos), the same posters, who I'm convinced have mental problems, the same need to try and find bad in everything. It grinds you down after a while, to the point where I will murder the next person that asks me if something comes with a slipcase.
Edited by raoul_duke - 3/5/13 at 11:03am

And what censorship-free forums would these be that everyone has migrated over to?

That's not what I said at all. What I said was in the post you quoted. I never once said anything about any sort of "censorship-free forum."

And before you ask again, no I'm not going to start listing the other forums here, for obvious reasons.

THIS! Well, except for the 'murder' part.

BTW, I bought Wreck It Ralph this morning....it comes with a slipcase.

I agree. But I also believe that the lack of any more major catalogue releases has done for this forum. Most of the big guns are out on blu-ray (for better or worse) and everything that needs to be said about them from a 'science' POV has been said. Other places are populated with a vaster range of idiots (myself included) because you can jabber on about any old bollocks.

Things just ebb and flow for many reasons. I joined AVS many years ago because of DVD vs Divx DVD and 8VSB vs COFDM and the video projector forum. DVD vs Divx DVD and 8VSB vs COFDM died and went away. The HDTV Software Media Discussion became very lively with ATSC tuners and D-VHS D-Theater, they too all but disappeared then the HD media thread that was in the projectors section was moved and then the HD disc format war commenced.

Before AVS and others we had CompuServe in the 80's and 90's (it became quite large). The action on there was similar to what we have now on AVS and others except: friendly, usable BBS messaging software. CompuServe Navigator with its threading features made/makes AVS and most other BBS look like something out of the stone age. Alas, like many others CompuServe was consumed by AOL and finally disappeared.

The one AVS forum that has remained pretty active is the high end video projector forum.

I like the new format. The reason it still feels like "home" for me is very simple: there are quite a few members here that I like, regardless if we agree on movies or not, and I always enjoy reading their posts.

I don't know the statistics but if the forum isn't as active as it used to be, as many have already mentioned, it may just be because the format has matured, it's been accepted, it is (I think) relatively successful commerically. We're not in an "early adoption" phase anymore, we know what to expect. Once it's been stated that there's too much this and not enough that on a particular release, there's not much left to say. I buy Blu-rays because I love movies, and I love watching them in the comfort of my modest setup.

When Blu-ray was a new format, a lot of the troubleshooting had to do with discs being not compatible with all players, glitches everywhere for everyone. Now things are different, nobody has playback issues anymore (or in rare occasions), so we're left with "faulty" transfers from the "lazy" studios that don't respect their customers etc...

A forum is usually to report problems. Today Blu-ray doesn't have that much of them. The movie discussion forum is quite active, and frankly, I prefer discussing movies than trying to figure out a proper level of white in Photoshop. Doing custom covers for my Blu-ray collection is a better hobby

There are numerous other places indeed, but I like AVS, and I like its community. So I'm stuck here

Hard to disagree.

If I comment, I'll be banned.

LOL.