Psychotourist
15th February 2003, 18:32
Part One - Users
Disclaimer!!!: Excuse me if I offend anyone, it REALLY isn't my intent. And pardon me again please if I come off as a preachy windbag pinhead newbie stating the obvious in offering my 2 cents worth...lol.
After trolling this and similar boards for many months, I see common trends with both user response to new software offerings and author response to user feedback.
Firstly, there seem to be 2 camps in the DVD Backup world (as evidenced by the diversity of guides and utilities available): Movie Only at top quality on one hand and 1:1 Copy with everything reproduced as faithfully as possible on the other hand. I happen to be a Movie Only person while a close friend of mine is a 1:1 Copy buff so I get to see both "sides" of the issue constantly. lol. I'm not saying that either is "correct" just acknowledging the 2 very different perspectives. This seems to immediately come to the fore whenever a new tool is offered or when an old tool is updated/upgraded/bugfixed.
The author may have a particular feature development plan in mind when offering the tool but representatives from the two camps immediately begin to clamor for, or decry the lack of, features and/or changes that benefit their particular style of making back ups. What is particularly troubling to me is when user feedback APPEARS to be either "do this NOW!" or "dumb*ss, you're not doing it right" with sometimes even "or you won't get MY money" or "I paid for it so make all the changes I want RIGHT NOW" side dishes. Authors appear to be trying to offer tools that we want/need and to bugfix/improve/add requested features as they go. Yes, the DVD Backup scene IS a fast moving one, BUT it doesn't move THAT fast. A quality tool WILL be used and around for a while and we users should perhaps be a bit more PATIENT with authors and provide constructive feedback to help the authors evolve their tools in the right direction for the WHOLE community. This "race" to fast transcoding "heaven" is a good example with DVD2One, Pinnacle InstantCopy, CloneDVD(?) and other offerings entering the competition to fill the needs that ReMPEG no longer appears satisfy. We shouldn't fall into the trap of unduly pressuring authors because another tool may be coming out that will be in "competition" with their's and may provide an alternative to that author's tool.
For example, Pinnacle InstantCopy...with my experience with nearly EVERY one of Pinnacle's DVD and video tools over the years, past history has shown that MULTIPLE patches will be necessary before a significant number of purchasers will even be able to successfully use the product let alone successfully use all the advertised features. Their demos seem to work better than their full blown products at times. lol. Pinnacle is a leading company in its niche and it still takes them TIME to bugfix/improve their products. So perhaps we should be sensitive to that when dealing with authors with MUCH lesser available resources?
Unfortunately, sometimes when our responses seem to sound like this it drowns out the objective analyses of new tools provided by people like MB1 and others.
I'm not saying that anyone in particular is "guilty" of anything or start a row with anyone (in a battle of wits, I'd be bringing a knife to a gunfight - lol)...just providing food for thought...
Disclaimer!!!: Excuse me if I offend anyone, it REALLY isn't my intent. And pardon me again please if I come off as a preachy windbag pinhead newbie stating the obvious in offering my 2 cents worth...lol.
After trolling this and similar boards for many months, I see common trends with both user response to new software offerings and author response to user feedback.
Firstly, there seem to be 2 camps in the DVD Backup world (as evidenced by the diversity of guides and utilities available): Movie Only at top quality on one hand and 1:1 Copy with everything reproduced as faithfully as possible on the other hand. I happen to be a Movie Only person while a close friend of mine is a 1:1 Copy buff so I get to see both "sides" of the issue constantly. lol. I'm not saying that either is "correct" just acknowledging the 2 very different perspectives. This seems to immediately come to the fore whenever a new tool is offered or when an old tool is updated/upgraded/bugfixed.
The author may have a particular feature development plan in mind when offering the tool but representatives from the two camps immediately begin to clamor for, or decry the lack of, features and/or changes that benefit their particular style of making back ups. What is particularly troubling to me is when user feedback APPEARS to be either "do this NOW!" or "dumb*ss, you're not doing it right" with sometimes even "or you won't get MY money" or "I paid for it so make all the changes I want RIGHT NOW" side dishes. Authors appear to be trying to offer tools that we want/need and to bugfix/improve/add requested features as they go. Yes, the DVD Backup scene IS a fast moving one, BUT it doesn't move THAT fast. A quality tool WILL be used and around for a while and we users should perhaps be a bit more PATIENT with authors and provide constructive feedback to help the authors evolve their tools in the right direction for the WHOLE community. This "race" to fast transcoding "heaven" is a good example with DVD2One, Pinnacle InstantCopy, CloneDVD(?) and other offerings entering the competition to fill the needs that ReMPEG no longer appears satisfy. We shouldn't fall into the trap of unduly pressuring authors because another tool may be coming out that will be in "competition" with their's and may provide an alternative to that author's tool.
For example, Pinnacle InstantCopy...with my experience with nearly EVERY one of Pinnacle's DVD and video tools over the years, past history has shown that MULTIPLE patches will be necessary before a significant number of purchasers will even be able to successfully use the product let alone successfully use all the advertised features. Their demos seem to work better than their full blown products at times. lol. Pinnacle is a leading company in its niche and it still takes them TIME to bugfix/improve their products. So perhaps we should be sensitive to that when dealing with authors with MUCH lesser available resources?
Unfortunately, sometimes when our responses seem to sound like this it drowns out the objective analyses of new tools provided by people like MB1 and others.
I'm not saying that anyone in particular is "guilty" of anything or start a row with anyone (in a battle of wits, I'd be bringing a knife to a gunfight - lol)...just providing food for thought...