Be it because SVCD is a dying thing, or because all the good men have left the forum. The fact is that for a long long time, there hadn't been any decent post.

I absolutely agree.
And the search has not been working for months...

I remember reading that the forum has a ridiculous number of pop-up ads now. I have a pop-up blocker so it's not a problem for me, but I think that has driven some of the regulars away.

SVCD is a dying format, in my opinion. DVD is superior in every respect. I have hundreds of SVCDs I made back when DVD players cost a small fortune. In a few more years whenever EVERYBODY, at least in the developed world, has a DVD burner, SVCD will be dead.

As a long time forum regular and contributor, I can tell you that sometimes guys just get overwhelmed with calls for help. That's why I stopped putting my email address in my posts a long time ago. I was getting 5 or more emails a day from people asking for help. I never minded helping the people who just needed some pointers, but it gets REALLY frustrating to get the emails that go like this - "I downloaded document X from web site .... and I don't understand any of it. Tell me step by step exactly how to make a SVCD." There are just too many people out there who are too lazy or too stupid to read a manual and it gets really old having to read those emails. Then you have the guys who are too lazy to do a web search on anything. I think a lot of guys who tried to help, like Rich A., just found out that it took too much time to help the lazy and stupid. Nobody has ever minded helping the people who tried to learn, but unless you've been on the receiving end of some of emails from the people who don't try, it gets really frustrating. Rich said he was averaging over 60 emails a day and eventually everyone gets tired of dealing with the idiots. I've seen it time and time again. I also help out on another forum, but under an assumed name and a phony email address because I just don't want to deal with the idiots any more. Maybe this explains why the forum is not what it once was.

I think indeed that SVCD is a passed station since DVD burners are very cheap now (below 100 euro)
if you understand the SVCD basics then DVD is not much of trouble. Programs become better PC's faster so probably less need for help/discussion
Anyway does anyone have suggestions for dvd forums?

Too many popups and no working search function is the main problem with this forum. The forum is not for SVCD only, it does also discuss DVD but it's not as interesting as it was two years ago when we could read the long postings from Rich. However the forum is not better than what you people make it.

Personally I spend more time on http://www.dvdrhelp.com and doom9.net nowadays. I still think it is fun making SVCD now and then but it's so much easier making a DVD with good quality. And I agree that you should never tell your e-mail adress on internet because then you'll just get a lot of spam and stupid e-mails...

I haven't used the forums at http://www.dvdrhelp.com. The forums at http://www.doom9.net can be good, BUT there is a ridiculous amount of b.s. in them. Doom9's forums have some of the strongest technical people on the planet on them and they also have more people who deliberately don't want to help than any forum I have ever seen. Many of the Doom9 regulars like to post about their experiences with beta testing software that is not available to the public yet and they spend a lot of time telling each other how cool they are that they got to test the software. It's a lot like a private little boys club where all they do is say how cool they are and how much everyone else who's not in the club sucks. However, Doom9's forums can be useful. I strongly advise newcomers to search the forum prior to posting. If you dare to ask a question that has already been answered, you WILL be flamed for it.

Yep - for me the stoopid Network54 popup (which eludes my popup stopper) was the camel-back-breaking straw and I've moved on.

Plus of course I just do DVD now.

But I learned a heck of a lot while I was here over the past 3 years - thanks to all the (previous) regulars!

I can really recommend the forums at http://www.dvdrhelp.com if you don't like doom9 forums. The attitude is nicer and they are more geared towards capturing and conversion to DVD, VCD and SVCD. They also have a lot of nice and easy guides on the main page.

And the founder is Swedish...

all the good men have not left. as you leave, do not turn out the lights. there are still good men here asking and answering questions. it may not be as glamorous and techie as you would have it but it is very much alive and functioning. the name is svcd forum, not svcd forum exclusively for big headed techies with extremely technical questions and answers. In other words the forum may have turned in another direction and you're going the wrong way, not the forum.

The administrator of this forum has long ago included the subject of DVD along with SVCD and VCD.

Oddly enough, I still find VCD more valuable than SVCD because with a simple adjustment of the audio I can burn them onto DVD-R's and get an amazing amount onto a single DVD-R that is watcheable. So VCD format still has use for me as an archive tool to save TV programs that may not be worth 8Mbps, but worth a second look sometime.

In the case of SVCD tho, I find it much more useful to use 1/2 D1 VBR for DVD instead. Same quality, and better compatibility.

As for helping out here. I get frustrated when somebody asks the same simple question without bothering to use faq/search at the top of the page.

Just as frustrating is when somebody writes a message asking for help, and they give you...nothing. There is so little information, that you have to start a conversation of 20 questions to pull the information out of them.

Jason has made most of these points, so I'll just close by saying that I still frequent this place, just not very often.

mark

The forum lost good members that could contribute anything. Now is mostly some uninteresting stuff, to the point that I am taking if of my Favourites

End of the road it is

Seb

All you malcontents please hit the road so you don't scare OFF, not OF, any newbies that have real questions.

totally wrong. i don't know when this was originally posted but svcd still serves its purpose. if you don't realize this, most files dled are avis, mpgs, whatever, and are not huge dvd quality files. cdrs are cheap to buy and the quality of an svcd is decent enough. dvdrs are expensive.

I also agree with the thread starter. This forum is no more the nr. one when it comes to Videocapturing.

This was a really nice place some years ago with Rich A. as the number one guy on ATI capture cards.
I also remember Seb, Nap Casidy, Jason and some other

I nowdays use to capture at 1/2 DVD with 48khz sound on stuff that just needs descent Q. Easy to burn a lot of stuff on a DVD.

Doom9 and dvdhelp is tha places to go.


Cheers// Radioman

I still find a few gems on this forum but my "know how" is too dated to contribute. Ahhhhh... had I the time and money to take it to the next level.... 3CCD pro-cam onto progressive HDTV on DVD disc....

But I'm lazy now and the darn dvds look great, well, good enough, its hard to justify that next move!