What is this thread all about?
Just a place for general discussion. A place to unload whats on your mind and talk about anything - personal, health, help needed, achievements, daily highs and daily lows, theories, predictions and what have you.
Does not need to be Q related.
You answered your own question - it's torrents. Torrents can come in convenient bulk packages, and you can bulk download in the background with basically no input from you (unlike the hurry up and wait of physical media ripping).
The speed of ripping the disc is not based on your cards or processor, but on the speed of your optical drive itself. If you want to increase ripping speeds, you'd need a better disc drive - another reason why these people mainly deal in torrents. Maybe a few of them were diligently digitizing throughout the 2010s, but most of them are coming in late and just scooping up the premade torrents.
Of course, all this assumes that HDMI itself will never become obsolete or be replaced. It is important to remember that all castles are sand castles.