Quiet Forums

[IT Troll]

The forums seem to be rather quiet recently. Is everyone busy watching England win the World Cup or something?

[Woody]

I have been thinking the same.

[Oliver]

Yeah, I think the fact that VGX-XLpedia covers the most commons issues with our systems it stops a lot of repeat posts. Also this forum covers most other issues so I guess there's not much need for people to join/post, a victim of its own success
Finally the VGX-XL systems are slowly disappearing, a shame really, but I guess nothing ever late forever.
We have some great members here, I'd maybe like these forums to evolve into a general media centre forum to attract a wider range of members.
Let me know if anyone has any ideas for the forum, attracting new members or increasing activity.

[Woody]

Oliver, I think you are right about the VGX-XL's slowly disappearing, which is probably why there have been so many on eBay just lately.
Things will get even harder as the VAIO name fades into history.

The main competition comes from consoles and smart TV's which simply do much of what a HTPC can do.
I still prefer the 'configurability' of a PC for my main media content, but most people won't care about this.

As for the future of the forums I think a 'media centre' focused forum is a good idea and would appeal to a wider audience, but I hope we can keep all the VGX-XL info very much at the 'fore front' as well.

[rokinferret]

A media forum would be a logical evolution . I have been lying in the sun in Devon for the last 3 weeks, the joy of retirement .I intent to continue my upgrades when the rains return . Expect me to pleading for help if have problems.


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[Oliver]

I think I will leave these forums as VGX-XL dedicated as I wouldn't want all this information and knowledge to get lost within a sea of non specific media centre posts. There are plenty of general Media Centre forums already, but our forums are unique, they may not be the busiest but they are extremely useful to us dedicated fans

[Woody]

Hi Oliver,

I can completely understand your decision and think it is the right one.
The forums and the VGX-XLpedia are a wealth of useful info.

It would be nice to have a page on the XLpedia about what media software (Media Browser, XBMC etc.) folks use with their VGX-XL's and what the pro's and con's are.. ..happy to help with providing content for this as well.

Woody

[majmattmason]

I only came across this site a couple months ago even though I've owned my VGP-XL2a since 2005. I had only been occasionally lurking around after a failed attempt to upgrade the CPU (only after purchasing the CPU did I discover there was no BIOS support for it).

Then my MB started failing and I just by happenstance found a thread with someone here selling a MB, and so I joined.

But to put my 2 cents in for the activity drop, I would have to agree that things are so well explained here that it looks like almost everything is covered. So much so that a person doesn't need to join to get their question answered.

And yes, these systems are fading away. The XL2s are close to 10 years old. For a computer, that is ancient and it's only the die-hards that are still using them (try and get Amiga parts or a laserdisc player repaired!). And in Sony's infinite wisdom (don't get me started), they made everything proprietary and there are heavy limits to how far you can upgrade them. These are excellent HTPC cases, but the amount of work involved in crowbaring a standard motherboard into them is more than most would put up with. At some point parts are just not going to be available. I like my 3 XL1B boxes attached to my system, but even DVDs (including Blu-Ray) are going by the wayside.

On the bright side, you have a new member!