Adam Tyner

One idea that's been batted around by us moderator-types recently is combining "DVD Talk" and "HD Talk" into a single forum. The idea is that a consolidated forum might spark more posts than we're seeing with things separated, and threads created in recent months seem like they'd play nicely enough together. This is obviously a very significant change that deserves plenty of discussion with you beforehand, so we'd like to know what you think.

Does a merged forum make sense? Does it make your face turn beet red and steam come out of your ears, Yosemite Sam-style? Are there alternative ideas you'd like to suggest instead? (For instance, we could keep the forums separate but re-order them, update titles/descriptions, etc.)

fumanstan

I voted separate, largely because I haven't even clicked on the DVD Talk section for years now and have zero interest in DVD specific discussion and only want to read about UHD or Blu-ray information about a specific release.

But I don't know how much traffic there is, so in the end I don't think i'd care that much if they are merged.

Trevor

Maybe this could be a time to re-think everything.

On media releases, it makes sense to me to keep everything in one sub-forum. Many releases are still DVD only, and I’d rather see news and threads on actual media releases in one place.

But maybe the DVDTalk sub-forum can be for threads sort of about or related to the actual forum or for the posters without necessarily being topic specific. Challenge threads, sheep games, all those “what have you watched/bought” threads, etc.

DJariya

Most here are simply not looking for DVD information on their own.

But many releases are still dvd only, especially tv shows. If some people want to post about a long lost tv show that is finally getting a media release after many years and it gets dumped into a dvd talk only section, it will most likely get ignored. I say merge the two sections.

I think assuming that everyone here doesn’t care is unfair. There are many worthwhile releases still comimg out that are still being released on DVD even if most here are simply not looking for it alone. Whether or not it gets any kind of talk here is another story.

milo bloom

Merge. Should have been done years ago. A unified media forum would create far more opportunities for discussion.

Sonic

Don't merge. Make HD the main and DVD the sub. Keep it organized.

TomOpus

Interesting idea to keep 'em separately. Very rarely do I venture to the DVD side.

Sonic

Same. I rarely go in there. The other day I saw a blu ray discussion topic there. Found it strange.

To be honest I can go either way on this I don't care, I just think that thousands and thousands of DVD topics should belong in their own section. To me merging with blu and 4K talk topics will add clutter and confusion. The way I see it is like walking into a video aisle and seeing all the titles batched together. No way in hell you'r gonna find the title you're looking for.

milo bloom

My personal collection is mixed since I have them in alphabetical order. And I find it annoying looking through stores that are separated.

We need traffic here, and combining the two areas could give it more momentum.

rbrown498

I haven't quite been able to mix my Blu-rays in with my DVDs yet. Maybe it's my background as a librarian, or perhaps it's just the non-uniformity of the cases, but I can't bring myself to do it. So I've got shelves for three different types of media in my house: the DVD shelves, the TV-on-DVD shelves, and the Blu-ray shelves.

However, I don't see a real problem combining the two sub-forums--just call it "Disc Talk." Like in any other forum, you're not going to read every single thread that's created, so I don't see the big deal. Just skip the threads that don't interest you, even though there may be a few more of them after the merge.

Sonic

I like "Disc Talk"

Alan Smithee

Voting for combining them, mainly because we've got THREE levels of quality now (DVD, BD and UHD) with DVD being mainly obsolete but people still buy them and studios insist on releasing some titles only on it. When I'm low on time I usually just check HD Talk but the DVD section still occasionally gets some interesting posts, and then there's posts that aren't exclusively related to one or the other.

I keep my 'formats' separated by VCD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and UHD, with the highest format taking precedence so sets with both Blu-Ray and DVD are in the Blu-Ray section for example- since the DVD will play on a Blu-Ray player but the Blu-Ray won't play on a DVD player. I usually use the same player for everything except HD-DVD, but it's still more orderly that way.

I'd vote also for adding an analog format forum (VHS, Laserdisc and the rest) but I'd probably be the only one posting in it Occasionally posts about VHS end up in the DVD forum or sometimes in Movies.

milo bloom

I think that last bit is a good argument for an all-encompassing "software" type forum, to cover the collectors of all the formats.

Music

Maybe just move the DVD Discussion section into the Entertainment Discussion section (and move it to the top).

Cardsfan111

There's always talk about some changes being impossible or creating havoc with forum software and the like. Are there similar repercussions to merging forums?

Josh-da-man

This.

I think that most people with enough interest in home theater to frequentl a forum like this have already upgraded to blu-ray, so there's little interest in DVD unless it's something specific to the format or a release that isn't on an HD format.

Maybe do a "Blu-ray and DVD" main forum and a UHD/4K subforum.

I would also suggest combing the blu-ray and DVD bargain forums. Considering how scarce bargains are on any format and the shrinking number of retailers, both forums are low in traffic. Might as well just have a single forum for DVD, BR, and UHD, with single threads for the weekly BB and Target sales. Just request that the format be mentioned with the title to avoid confusion.

Adam Tyner

There's a poll for that too.

Music

Josh-da-man

I'm doing this on my iPad and I suck at virtual keyboards.

Sonic

Problem is that 4K is blu-ray. In my opinion 4K is the new leader, the rest follows. I'm talking about in terms of technology and not sales. So, it should be 4K/UHD as main and blu-ray 1080p topics are allowed. DVD should be subforum. When DVD completely dies, merge it with 4K forum.

Capiche?

Music

Keep the standard definition stuff out of my HD!

story

I almost always browse "New Posts" and tap what looks interesting as opposed to going into specific forums. However, if the site was very, very active that solution simply wouldn't work. In fact, it wasn't that many years ago that I did go to specific forums, so that says something.

I think merge them. If physical media is going away as we go further and further down the road, both SD and HD are in the same boat. Not all movies are released on both formats. Some switch, like the recent deal with The Simpsons. Ultimately, it all has to do with good movies at good deals on a good disc. Whether it's HD or SD is a piece of that, but not as defining a piece as the notion it's actually on disc.

One idea to help the merger is to have a new standard expected of the OP for thread titles. For example, most people who start a thread about a movie have the year, director, and star(s) in parenthesis after the title. Perhaps, if we had a new Physical Film Media Talk (or Disc Talk, good idea, rbrown498), thread starters would have to do something like this to denote release date and the type of release by media and/or combo:

Blade Runner 2049 (1/16/18, BD/DVD/UV, DVD)
Big Top Pee-Wee (7/6/04, DVD)
Dark Crystal (9/29/09, BD)
Dark Crystal: Anniversary Edition (3/6/18, 4K/BD/UV, BD)

PhantomStranger

Combining them is the only thing that makes sense with the declining interest in media. It probably should have been done 3 or 4 years ago.

Sites with hundreds and hundreds of active users can afford splitting up their forums into dozens of sub-categories, but it only stops casual interest as readership and participation decline.

I'd actually merge more of the various DVD forums together for greater visibility by the remaining users.

kd5

I, for one, still frequent the DVD Talk forum as well as HD Talk, my only concern would be that stuff gets lost in the merging. Don't really have a problem with merging other than that. There are still alot of people here who are interested in DVDs as much as people around here would like everyone to believe otherwise. I just don't want anything to get lost...

Adam Tyner

Nothing would be lost. Basically, every thread that's in DVD Talk and every thread that's in HD Talk would be in one place. Individual discussions wouldn't be merged.

If there's a thread about, say, The Dark Knight coming to DVD in DVD Talk and a thread about The Dark Knight coming to Blu-ray in HD Talk, the combined forum would have both discussions as separate threads. There is, however, the possibility of confusion when you're doing searches since the subject lines probably wouldn't indicate which format is being discussed. (DVD Talk threads typically don't shout "DVD" in the titles, and HD Talk threads typically don't specify "Blu-ray".)