Linus takes the final step in abandoning his original audience.

[Vitalius]

-snip-

 

Now that's a video I'm interested in watching because it's relatively unique (AFAIK). All my yes to doing videos on your equipment.

-snip-

This. I mean, it wasn't just his personality. Adding his opinion to why we should even care about the product compared to all the other similar products was also the reason his unboxings were good and unique. Personality + Industry insight = What the old shows had that I feel the new shows miss. Mostly. 

[Joey2Sites]

I really like that Linus takes constructive criticism well.  Even tweeted it out, attracting a lot of attention to a thread that wasn't shining a very positive light on recent events.  

 

We should make a straw poll..  hmmmm....

[Mooshi]

Now that's a video I'm interested in watching because it's relatively unique (AFAIK). All my yes to doing videos on your equipment.

This. I mean, it wasn't just his personality. Adding his opinion to why we should even care about the product compared to all the other similar products was also the reason his unboxings were good and unique. Personality + Industry insight = What the old shows had that I feel the new shows miss. Mostly. 

 

I am a fan of Linus' older videos as well because it was a mix of insight and personality. Unboxings themselves, they are not really video types I actively look for. In fact, I only stumble upon them when interested in a product and the dry personality with no conceivable insight...simply dry narration of reading product blurbs off the box. Those videos are really boring. With Linus, he adds his own touches, opinions ect ect. This is why the newer transition doesn't bother me as much. The concept hasn't changed, only the video type.

 

I'm more than ok if he adds some unboxings here and there for stuff like his equipment, that'd be p. nice.

[TheProfosist]

This is a great point. We do cover our filming gear occasionally, but not some of the "geekier" stuff that we're super excited about.

 

Part of the reason is that while I'm excited about the results, I'm not (well at least I didn't used to be) as well versed in the technology there and how it all works, so they are much more difficult for me to do well.

 

Another part of the reason is that I didn't stop to consider that the folks simply watching for entertainment might be interested in that kind of stuff. Generally when I evaluate whether or not to make a video about a product its based on "how many people are likely to care about this or want to use it" and then I go from there. Thanks for the wake up call.

 

We should have definitely shown you guys the Odyssey 7Q when we got it, but one OTHER challenge with that one is that the firmware was in a completely unusable state when it arrived, so we actually didn't even use it for a couple of months. It's only in the last month or two that we've switched to filming everything on it... Maybe when it gets the 4K prores upgrade we'll cover it

 

Linus

sounds interesting!

also linus if you get a chance to shoot a quick and dirty video just do it im sure someone will be interested. When your in this sort of business you really cant have too much content in my opinion. If you want to keep LTT channel all professional put those up on another one kinda like some others do.

[Misanthrope]

I liked it back when it was "here is Linus showing a product, filmed with a hand held camera outdoors because it has better light than being indoors".

 

Have you ever been to Vancouver? First is quite up north so for the better half of the year you get like 6 hours of sunlight per day. And second, it's almost as rainy as Seattle or London so even with longer days you'd be hard pressed to find a sunny day anyways. So yeah buying lights might be ok, I still agree with the rest of the point though (handheld guerilla style filming I would prefer over downsampled 4k glory shots in a pro-level studio)

[TheProfosist]

I am a fan of Linus' older videos as well because it was a mix of insight and personality. Unboxings themselves, they are not really video types I actively look for. In fact, I only stumble upon them when interested in a product and the dry personality with no conceivable insight...simply dry narration of reading product blurbs off the box. Those videos are really boring. With Linus, he adds his own touches, opinions ect ect. This is why the newer transition doesn't bother me as much. The concept hasn't changed, only the video type.

 

I'm more than ok if he adds some unboxings here and there for stuff like his equipment, that'd be p. nice.

so your really looking for a first look and impression which came with his later unboxings and later the unboxing bit was dropped.

I think there are likely a number of products that would suffice with this and he could get more videos out this way but I believe a while back he said he would be covering less stuff more thoroughly. From what it sounds hes already super busy so I dont know if that sort of thing could be worked in from him additionally. What possibly if someone else did those on LLT channel?

[crappydog1050]

I think he is still good really I been watching ltt for about 6 months and really he is really good at what he is doing teachquike I came cause of what you say he  is NOT DOING

[Mooshi]

so your really looking for a first look and impression which came with his later unboxings and later the unboxing bit was dropped.

I think there are likely a number of products that would suffice with this and he could get more videos out this way but I believe a while back he said he would be covering less stuff more thoroughly. From what it sounds hes already super busy so I dont know if that sort of thing could be worked in from him additionally. What possibly if someone else did those on LLT channel?

 

Something. First look and impressions are more important than the unboxings themselves as this is what consumers will be focused on. I mean, the only vital thing you really get from the unboxing segment is A) The packaging and B ) the contents.

 

Let's say there is a new monitor out and Linus covers it. I don't really care if you films the unboxing portion of it..I mean, it's a screen and a stand + cables, nothing really exciting. What I would like for him to cover is what types of cables the monitor came with, the panel tech, color gamut, viewing angles, response time, side by side against a high end pro monitor to get an idea of performance. Those types of coverage is far more insightful than a simple unboxing video. In fact, that's what bothered me about his older vids. You get in depth coverage of the packaging and hardly anything on the actual product in use.

 

Let's now bring graphics cards into this. Linus being goofy and unboxing a graphics card, yeah, that's quick and easy for a video to throw onto Youtube. But that's not that interesting. When Luke tried various combos of CPUs/APus/GPUs and measured the frame rate, THAT is the type of content I'm more into. Real world analysis.

[Imabigmac]

Reading through the pages it's interesting to see what how our (we the viewers) opinions differ and what is considered good content and bad content. Its kinda funny to think that despite all the complaints most of us still watch and enjoy the videos. Also interesting that no major all cap/strongly worded arguments haven't happened from what I can tell. 

 

I'm really sorry I have to do this, because everything is opinion based

 

Let's now bring graphics cards into this. Linus being goofy and unboxing a graphics card, yeah, that's quick and easy for a video to throw onto Youtube. But that's not that interesting. When Luke tried various combos of CPUs/APus/GPUs and measured the frame rate, THAT is the type of content I'm more into. Real world analysis.

 

While I agree unboxings aren't very useful.

I can go to 10 different websites or channels and get a review and benchmarks "Real world analysis" but there aren't many channels or websites I can go to laugh at bad joke or funny action about technology or has a tech theme to it. I believe this is what SOME of LTT content has lost. 

[Mooshi]

I will add this. I would gladly wait a week for a really good WAN show, than get 2-3 videos a day of quick and easy unboxing videos.

[amintha1992]

i dont think he has changed his core values. i see this as evolution and not change. change is inevitable but we become better by iteration and taking out the kinks in our lives. this goes the same for anything. we find better ways of doing things. and getting things done.

 

i appreciate the new format of videos where all the important information is consolidated in to a nice video rather than doing it on the spot. 

 

but i miss the niche products that he used to unbox. wish he would do at least something wired once in a while. some product that only 2 people are going to care about.

 

im not going to bash on the product that LMG showcases, because i understand that they have to reach a wider audience and grow. other wise they will not be able to sustain the business and continue to make awesome videos.

 

i think what the old school LTT had that LMG seems to be missing is the magic of freshness and the excitement. on a scripted video its hard to get that across. i think its a balance of both that has be kept to impress potential sponsors and to keep the audience educated.

 

one more thing that i understand is that @LinusTech personally thinks that the audiance is here because of the shared love for tech and the gadgets and not for linus him self. that is true to a certain point but not the whole truth. 

 

i wish there were more Behind the scenes videos preferably on a hand held cam, this might help to close the gap between professional and the hardcore fans.

 

i dont have a problem with frequency of the videos. perfection takes time. and pumping out more videos does no good if they are poop.

 

anyway this is his content and his business. we do have the right to raise our concerns but its entirely up to them how to respond to it, but knowing how LMG works and how much they appreciate feed back good or bad. i think it helps them do better. 

 

lastly about the WAN show.. i like having guests but only the ones that can keep up with a live audience for example MKBHD, john from technobuffolo and many other) but please no more Mr.nurdgasem. he is annoying and a douche. 

[MPX309]

I think as you learn more about hardware, computers then they come across as less informative. . . alot of Linus' most informative videos for me were actually on the NCIX channel to be frank.

[RainColt]

I know this will draw hate as is common on criticism, keep in mind this is my opinion and I'm sure Linus will do fine when shifting his content on to a different demographic altogether. Afterall, smartphones and general consumer gadgets are popular watching and I'm sure many of Linus' new audience is here and ready to defend him. But this is constructive criticism, so I would appreciate the same gesture in return.

 

 

Having been watching LTT for a long time, it has gone increasingly downhill over a long period of time for me:

 

• Linus prioritizing boutique video quality sacrificing all quantity and depth of insight. We're down to less than a video a day, and the ones we get are usually shorter and less opinionated/ insightful.
• Forgetting who the audience is with an increasing number of consumer gadgets, (seriously, a wi-fi plant humidifier??) mobile phones, and other borderline tech of fringe interest to PC enthusiasts, even further lowering the quantity of content desired.
• Getting on the same release bandwagon as all. the. other. tech. channels. Every video with a product I want to watch either doesn't exist at all or is covered by OC3D, Linus, TekSyndicate, TastyPC, SWEclockers and HardwareCanucks ALL AT ONCE.
• Random WAN show guests that I very often find to be irrelevant and annoying. Getting that weird uncomfortable YouTube "buddy club" vibe that just kind of smells bad to me. Josh from Fractal being an exception.
• Why go to PAX? There are hundreds of YouTube channels doing PAX. Just why?
• Where are all the hidden gems in PC hardware? Have Linus completely abandoned reaching out to manufacturers for samples of interesting new coolers, cases, NAS boxes, you name it? It just seems Linus is more interested in autonomy, getting all the same stuff as everyone else, and losing touch with the market. It used to be about consumer enlightenment, showcasing stuff you might not have heard of. Remember the Thermaltake Tt eSports BAG? That kind of thing. I bought one because of Linus. What has Linus shown me in the past 6 months that I wanted to buy afterwards? Absolutely nothing, I'm afraid.

 

But the final step that is probably going to make me unsubscribe, is not going to Computex. Seriously, that is gutting. That is a stone-cold knife in the back to the original audience of the channel, to whom Computex is probably the highlight of the entire year, after the huge thrill of covering it last year. I could forgive anything from Linus but not that.

 

It makes me sad, as Linus Tech Tips has been my very favourite channel for years, but now it is my least favourite of all my subscriptions.

 

My 2 rubel, anyway.

I bought the Parrot Flower Power for my mother, I bought a few of them. I wouldn't have known about it if Linus hadn't made a video about it.

[Mooshi]

While I agree unboxings aren't very useful.

I can go to 10 different websites or channels and get a review and benchmarks "Real world analysis" but there aren't many channels or websites I can go to laugh at bad joke or funny action about technology or has a tech theme to it. I believe this is what SOME of LTT content has lost. 

 

Some, not all.

 

Also not so sure about the other sources, those tend to rely more on synthetic benchmarking while Luke's benchmarks feel more genuine/real world. The value guide, I don't recall other sites making similar articles or videos about the value price point of a given combo of CPUs/APUs and graphics. Because of Luke, I discovered an Athlon 760K + GTX 750 Ti was one hell of a price to performance combo. Most other tech sites wouldn't even bother going the extra distance and just push the same old crap "Go Intel if you want high performance!" / "Go AMD if you're on a budget!"

[codytappen]

As long as I can hear Linus' sweet voice and catch one or two of his shitty jokes, I will continue to watch all of LTT's content as I have since the begining of LTT. I am a Linus fanboy for better or for worse.

[Imabigmac]

Some, not all.

 

Also not so sure about the other sources, those tend to rely more on synthetic benchmarking while Luke's benchmarks feel more genuine/real world. The value guide, I don't recall other sites making similar articles or videos about the value price point of a given combo of CPUs/APUs and graphics. Because of Luke, I discovered an Athlon 760K + GTX 750 Ti was one hell of a price to performance combo. Most other tech sites wouldn't even bother going the extra distance and just push the same old crap "Go Intel if you want high performance!" / "Go AMD if you're on a budget!"

That is more of a specific video example which is different and very useful content. I was more referring to "Let's now bring graphics cards into this. Linus being goofy and unboxing a graphics card, yeah, that's quick and easy for a video to throw onto Youtube. But that's not that interesting." 

 

There aren't many channels or websites that do that kind of testing which is actually useful. Generally speaking about GPU reviews they are all the same and most of time quite bland unless you have some kind of humor which Linus can add quite well, sometimes. 

[amintha1992]

@LinusTech

 

after reading through some of these comments. it seems like people associate quality and scripted contents to be and advertisement. becasue the only time we see some tech product in the same quality as your videos is on advertisements and product showcases.

 

i have no idea how to address this. i guess time and perseverance is the only way to fix peoples prescription on this. 

[Mooshi]

That is more of a specific video example which is different and very useful content. I was more referring to "Let's now bring graphics cards into this. Linus being goofy and unboxing a graphics card, yeah, that's quick and easy for a video to throw onto Youtube. But that's not that interesting." 

 

There aren't many channels or websites that do that kind of testing which is actually useful. Generally speaking about GPU reviews they are all the same and most of time quite bland unless you have some kind of humor which Linus can add quite well, sometimes. 

 

Ah, point taken.

[TheProfosist]

Something. First look and impressions are more important than the unboxings themselves as this is what consumers will be focused on. I mean, the only vital thing you really get from the unboxing segment is A) The packaging and B ) the contents.

 

Let's say there is a new monitor out and Linus covers it. I don't really care if you films the unboxing portion of it..I mean, it's a screen and a stand + cables, nothing really exciting. What I would like for him to cover is what types of cables the monitor came with, the panel tech, color gamut, viewing angles, response time, side by side against a high end pro monitor to get an idea of performance. Those types of coverage is far more insightful than a simple unboxing video. In fact, that's what bothered me about his older vids. You get in depth coverage of the packaging and hardly anything on the actual product in use.

 

Let's now bring graphics cards into this. Linus being goofy and unboxing a graphics card, yeah, that's quick and easy for a video to throw onto Youtube. But that's not that interesting. When Luke tried various combos of CPUs/APus/GPUs and measured the frame rate, THAT is the type of content I'm more into. Real world analysis.

that beyond what you described initially that is a full on review and article/comparison. Those take considerable time and to do only those would be stupid as you would loose people and viewership between videos. This same thing applies to a tech site like anand or tom's.

but yes unboxings in almost all cases are useless and perosnally I never understood why they were even the least bit popular.

I think as you learn more about hardware, computers then they come across as less informative. . . alot of Linus' most informative videos for me were actually on the NCIX channel to be frank.

ive only watch a select few of those really... what kind of info did he go over? was it more basic stuff or what?

Some, not all.

 

Also not so sure about the other sources, those tend to rely more on synthetic benchmarking while Luke's benchmarks feel more genuine/real world. The value guide, I don't recall other sites making similar articles or videos about the value price point of a given combo of CPUs/APUs and graphics. Because of Luke, I discovered an Athlon 760K + GTX 750 Ti was one hell of a price to performance combo. Most other tech sites wouldn't even bother going the extra distance and just push the same old crap "Go Intel if you want high performance!" / "Go AMD if you're on a budget!"

actually there are few good sites that cover that sort of stuff in writen form. They do this for the same reason I would. It takes way less time and you can be considerably more exact.

[Mooshi]

I'm still gladly subbed to Linus, I'll leave it at that. :3

 

Several channels got an unsub from me because of various changes over time, but Linus still amuses me. I mean, I used to watch Gamegrumps, but over time they got less fun to watch and more obnoxious. Same goes for Rich of ReviewTechUSA. He used to be a p, cool guy to follow, but then he started getting hardcore political cynical bullshit and that caused me to unsub. Thankfully Linus and crew still put out some nice content. Not everything covered is something I care about, but like I said. The WAN show is the highlight and those are always amazing.

[chessin]

watching linus's videos was fun because they were obscure and random. there are millions of YouTube tech channels that are professional and have beautiful b rolls of products. we don't need one more.

what made LTT different from other tech channels was the gratefully lack of professionalism and random projects that Linus used to do once in a while, oh and all the random unboxings of ridiculous items.

I 100% agree with the OP that LTT is no more fun to watch and it's simply becoming just another commercial channel.

And damn I really want to see computex

[dushypoo]

So immature, get off here if you can't respect others.

k

[Wink]

I only read the Original Post because i do not want to colour my opinion. I feel very qualified to speak on the topic that the OP was talking about because i am only young in watching LTT but have gobbled up all the videos in this channel. so to a person like me, the change in LTT to LMG (where LMG is no longer for the original audience, per say) is very pronounced. 

 

I went on a LTT binge close to 20013 black friday when i decided to replace my old functional PC i had since i was a student. LTT videos taught me about water cooling, about overkill build, about led fans, about colour coordination, about how to overclock, about how to pick my parts, drummed in performance/value considerations and more. LTT has turned me from someone who only has built one computer ever before, to an individual who has fixed half a dozen laptops, built 3 PCs, and self-modded my own personal PC extensively, and can now overclock a pc. This is by no means me trying to blow my own horn, because it is NOTHING to be chuffed about, these skills have been graciously shared with me by far better people and i'm still learning. 

 

the point is, LTT early videos Creates and Caters to enthusiasts, while if i take a look at LMG recent videos, I doubt i would become an enthusiast. 

 

That is not to say LMG videos are bad. They help me make purchasing decisions on peripherals and the coverage at tech-cons help me get excited about stuff i want in the future, Corsair RGB keyboard with 18 G-keys, i'm looking at you. LMG covers content that is for a more mainstream audience, and lets face it, it is mainstream thus it is where the money is at. Again not bad, but it is what the OP is possibly trying to articulate. LMG videos are still vibrant and are my most trusted source of reviews on PC related gear. Are they enthusiast centred? no, they are not anymore. 

 

However, at a certain point, you exhaust the avenues to cater to enthusiasts in a realistic setting. How many watercooling videos can he do, how many case reviews can he do? how many OCing vids can he do? 

 

so have they "changed"? Frankly, YES. I think its because they have grown, and the audience has grown with them. the OP may feel abandoned because his interest growth doesn't coincide with LTT/LMGs growth. I might be on the same boat as the OP, I am still very much an enthusiast, i find LMG video catering to my needs as a consumer, while i have to go elsewhere for my enthusiast needs.

 

 

Another part of the reason is that I didn't stop to consider that the folks simply watching for entertainment might be interested in that kind of stuff. Generally when I evaluate whether or not to make a video about a product its based on "how many people are likely to care about this or want to use it" and then I go from there. Thanks for the wake up call.

 

 

@LinusTech, i think you need to know that you have the ability to make people care about stuff and want to use it. I have caught myself thinking "shit, i want that" even when i had no idea it existed before, and it realistically hold no application in my life currently. this relates to why i became an enthusiast. You will be Damned if you do, Damned if you don't, you will get people saying you are selling out when you cash in harder on this skill of yours. but, you need to make a living, so i say, go for it!

 

Anyway in regards to LTT/LMG content:

 

Tech Quickie: great stuff for anyone who needs it. the recent NAS video was informative and stayed true to being a quickie video, i know what a NAS and its main strengthens and weaknesses are, and can go find out how to make one later if i so choose. 

 

Linus Tech Tips: The main content here has seen the most change. I find more content on peripherals than any other enthusiast related stuff. I havent seen a proper enthusiast video for a while now, again this is related to what i said before about being exhaustive.

 

WAN show: Too much off tangent moments, not much focus on content. its been a rant sesh for linus for a while now. But thats what it has always been, a more impassioned delivery of LMG views.  

 

 

I hope my input has been helpful to this discussion. 

[Makkusu]

We should have definitely shown you guys the Odyssey 7Q when we got it, but one OTHER challenge with that one is that the firmware was in a completely unusable state when it arrived, so we actually didn't even use it for a couple of months. It's only in the last month or two that we've switched to filming everything on it... Maybe when it gets the 4K prores upgrade we'll cover it

 

Just share the moment with us man.  Make us feel like we are 'part of LMG' in someway.  That is also a thing that I miss about you, you always showed stuff.  If you are not well versed be honest and say it on the video.  You seem to be pretty honest about everything else.  Even if it is a short video show us the unboxing, I loved old school outside in the parking lot of ncix unboxing videos. 

[Hyp0xia]

I agree wholeheartedly with your second point.