Hey guys,

I just wanted to make a suggestion that I think would make this forum a lot better. Why doesn't every one post their HT system in their automatic signature?

For a few years now, I have been using this forum, and it is a constant problem with people posting their reviews and opinions on certain DVDs audio and video quality and never posting the system they used for the review. This is a common practice in all the forums about computers and it really proves to be useful.

I just changed mine, and I hope many of you will do the same.

Update: Aparantly, there are issues with signatures and their length. If that's the case, this information can still be put in a post whenever an audio or video review is made.

On that note, you're over the limit for the number of allowed signature lines.

Well, for one, I believe there is a line limit for signatures, and you've gone way past it there.

Secondly, while that info might be useful for this particular forum, it would get very annoying showing up in all the other forums.

What is the limit? And if there is one, why does the forum software let me enter that many?

One of the many reasons why I have signatures turned off.

It's not a software-based limitation, so technically you can enter as many as you want. However, for aesthetic's sake, as well as for page-load reasons, Geoff has set the limit at five lines.

Ok, no problem. Now mine is 5 lines. This would be sufficient as a receiver-based HT would need 4 items and a separates based system would need 5.

This info is far more useful than a cute movie quote or a link to your online DVD collection.

Good suggestion. I'm in!

If you're that into equipment, you should check out HomeTheaterForum. DVDTalk is more about DVDs (hence the name of the site). As such, I personally find it more interesting to see what DVDs people own than what equipment they're using to drive their system.

I do frequent the HT boards as well, but I think you are missing my point.

This site is about DVDs. And many of the threads revolve around people discussing (or arguing) over a certain titles audio and video quality. For over four years now, I have been drawn countless times into a heated discussion over a DVDs sound quality with another member of this forum, only to later find out that I was arguing with a 13 year old who has a HTIB system hooked up to his computer in the bedroom of his parents house. I work in the industry and consider myself a professional who knows what he is talking about. I simply would like more information from those who I am having a discussion with. I think it would eliminate a lot of the problems here.

FTR Green Jello, a person could have their player hooked up trough their TV and still be able to tell the difference between the sound quality of two different discs.

IMO anything else is you looking for a pissing contest.

Thank you for providing an example of the kind of person I am talking about.

Pissing contest? I hardly think so. I do have a very nice system, but I couldn't care less if you or anyone else thinks so. What I do care about is getting quality information from this board when I need it. If you are the kind of person who has the ridiculous notion that you can tell the difference in sound quality out of TV speakers, then I have no interest in your opinion on anything about audio.

Or is that just some childish troll?

Hardly. Despite what you may think about the quality of people's setups, the fact is that each still allows the user to tell the difference between the sound from one disc to another. Maybe not as much as you may like, but that's your problem, not theirs.

I think what we should do is create a database where everybody enters their equipment. We can then rank everybody based on how good their equipment is. This will make debating DVD's easy. If Person A is ranked #5, and Person B is ranked #173, Person A automatically wins any and all arguments.

It's not a bad idea, but since it doesn't really seem to be taking off, might I suggest an alternative approach. When these questions arise in the future, simply cut-n-paste the following line into one of your posts:

"What HT equipment are you viewing this title on?"


Seriously, Green Jello, you're a Senior Member. You should know by now that if you're interested in that level of detail, you should be at HTF. That's where I go when I want that level of detail. I come here because these yahoo's are less uptight and more fun to be around. But I certainly don't expect that level of discussion here, nor would I want it. Then I wouldn't have a "fun" site to visit.

I think you're trying to use a toaster to bake a potato.

Q for GJ:

Do you actually have a sufficient number of these conversations for it to matter? I can totally understand how this would be important to you if 100% of your posts are these sorts of conversations, are they?

But, either way, surely you can see how the vast majority of people, people who don't regularly engage in conversations where they feel required to know that sort of information, would think of it as inconvenient and unneccessary.

Yes, all audio sounds exactly the same if it comes out of TV speakers, no way to tell good from bad because it's all TV.

Maybe -- just maybe, mind you -- you've gotten so spoiled by your equipment that you don't watch enough regular TV to realize this, but yes, you can. Really. Seriously. You can't always tell fine stuff, naturally, but you can (as the poster you criticized said) tell bad from good.

First off, wouldn't a "cute movie quote" be a good way to tell what sort of person you're talking to? Second off, we're talking software, not hardware. Third off, I doubt I'm alone in finding lists of what system every user on DVDtalk is using extremely useless to 95% (or more) of the conversations I see here. Frankly, I don't care, where I might have some inclination to check out somebody's collection, and I might get a laugh out of a quote.

Wouldn't it be easier to have *your* sig that way if that's what you want, and just ask people in conversations what system they're using? Why change everybody just on the off-chance that you might one day talk to them?

Bingo. My 1st thought was how many in-depth discussions on a DVD's audio/video will I find if I look thru the first 5 pages of topics
on this forum. 1? 2? none? In essence, the original poster is barking up the wrong tree. It's like someone working at McDonalds suggesting that carrying filet mignon would be a brilliant idea.

You know, I think your right. I don't look at this forum like many / most other people do. I never participate in the countless "How many DVDs do you own", "What are you buying this Tuesday?" threads. I generally only surf this forum to get review information before buying a specific disc, and to help others who need help with equipment setups.

I've said it before in an earlier post and I'll say it again. I'm not talking about reviewing HT equipment. When I want to do that, there are many other forums I'd go to. I'm taling about DVDs, which from what I can tell, is in fact the focus of this forum.

Take this as an example:

Forum Poster: "The Dolby Digital soundtrack on DVD "X" sounds FAR better than the DTS track does"

Then I find out that this person came to this conclusion by reviewing the disc with his/her $99 Wal-Mart audio system. That person's opinion means nothing to me. I don't want to discuss the hardware, I just simply want to know what was used.

It's obvious at this point that no one is interested in the signature idea, but it would still be nice to see people include this info in their posts.

Remember when the A/V quality was all the same with VHS? 240 lines res, Hi-Fi Stereo. Man, those were the days.

Perhaps I am wrong about the people here. I simply assumed that people who spend enough time in this forum to acheive "Legend" status and who own 1000+ DVD titles would actually care about issues other than release dates and how pretty the cover art is.

We come for the DVDs, we stay for the Otter.

Exactly, and even though the same disc many sound better on my high end system than it does on a Wal-Mart speical, the truth is that Mr. Wal-Mart can still tell the difference between the DTS and the DD track.

Now you are being condescending. What people are trying to get thru to you is that this isn't a forum geared towards the technically obsessed and that there are other forums better suited for those types of discussions.

Anyway, I don't really care since I've got signatures turned off because I find them annoying so I'm out of this discussion.

You know what? I'm out of this too. Forget I ever said anything. I was hoping there were more like minded people in here, but apparantly I was wrong.

The fact that no one other than me seems to care about the technical quality of these discs saddens me, especially when the place is full of people who have more than $20,000 worth of them.

Thanks, new sig.