Why Home Theater Magazine is worthless drivel (1 Viewer)

[Jack Briggs]

Oh, Chris, you're being a little harsh there. Widescreen Review and The Perfect Vision are seriously edifying reads. WSR is almost a magazine "of, for, and by" the home-theater enthusiast, while TPV melds home theater-related reviews and articles with serious writing about film; no other publication in the field comes close to TPV in that regard.

What truly irked me about Mike Woods's dismissal of the Internet "home theater forums" is that he blithely overlooked the fact that this "home theater forum" has, among its membership, numerous professionals in the world of Hollywood and the studio system, home-theater installation and calibration, film restorers such as Robert A. Harris, and so much more. In addition, this "Internet home theater forum" has played a direct role in influencing the studios to commit certain titles to DVD (Zardoz, Say Anything, etc.).

As a result, Mr. Wood is oblivious to how offensive his comments were--and how offbase he was. Not nice.

And I agree: Home Theater magazine simply hasn't been as good (nowhere near as good, in fact) since the departure of Brent Butterworth.

 

[Bob_L]

Under Brent -- who I had the GREAT pleasure of meeting when I was interviewing for an editorial job at CurtCo -- Home Theater was my favorite magazine of all time. (And I mean FAVORITE MAGAZINE, not just favorite HT magazine. Second in line would be Esquire in the 1970s -- it's a piece of smelly crap these days. Literally smelly, in fact, because of all the stinkovision cologne ads in there.)

The Butterworth-edited Home Theater was insightful in its observations, yet still managed to capture the enthusiasm and the energy that goes with a fanatic attachment to HT as a hobby. That balance between authoritative opinion and goofball fun is a hard one to maintain in a magazine and Brent was a master of it.

 

[Rutledge]

Speaking of WSR. Just got my March edition. All 90 pages of it. Last month's was 98 pages and january's was 130!!!

I didn't pay $35 for that.

I am not happy. It is my most expensive subscription by over $20. Stereophile only cost $12.

Also I think WSR is elitist. They never test any lower priced equipment. It is always highe end stuff especially when they go to the manufacturer's and interview them.

Back to HTM. I bought a HTIB for our beachhouse a year ago on their recommendation. It was the SONY and it sounded awful. Boomy and no highs. It didn't even have any tweeters. Just full range cones.

I haven't bought the mag since.

 

[Lewis Besze]

I emailed Mike Wood once a while ago, complaining about his review of the DVD quality of THE MATRIX where he said something like "the picture has a green hue, so it is not demo-worthy"

That's not exactly what he said!

He refered those scences "while in the Matrix",and said[paraphrasing] "if you just bought and calibrated a TV you won't be able to use this disc to demo it",because of the green bias of some scenes.

I also dropped this mag after Brent left.[He's with dolby now,and posts here sometimes too].

I met him and Mike Wood as well.

Mike is very knowledgeable on video,and I think he picked up the bad attitude from that other guy[can't remember his name now,wore glasses,originally from Canada,but knew half the people in LA].

I must disagree with people[who likes] about WSR,which I'm dropping right now,I think it's the second worst HT related mag behind HTM IMO.

Yes the content is getting lean,and very predictable as well.

I dissagreed with R.Hardesty on quiet few things,but now that he's gone I realise that he was their best audio writer,compare to P.Sun and the now departed S. Buettner.

I'm trying out Perfect Vision,and SGHT soon.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Remember, when WSR went from bimonthly to monthly it by default ended up with a leaner per-issue page count. That's unavoidable. Page count for a newsstand- and subscription-based magazine is driven by advertising, which is an economic fact of life. Overall, however, readers are getting more editorial content.

As for the equipment that is reviewed, the magazine is aimed at the advanced home-theater enthusiast. There have been numerous reviews of "affordable" RPTVs, however. And in regard to Perry Sun, check out his home-theater system in the magazine's front pages. His display is a Sony KV-36XBR400, which is a popular set with the HTF crowd.

BTW, I just read that ten-RPTV faceoff in Home Theater. It was a chore to get through Mr. Wood's unprofessional comments about "witty" writing styles. (Chatty copy like that is not considered professional journalism.) So I ended up scanning the copy just to get to the "meat" of the comparo reviews. In the end, I felt as if I had wasted my time.

Of the major home-theater magazines, this one is the only one that makes feel that way. Even Sound & Vision offers some worthwhile prose, and its DVD reviews are among the best.

Maybe I'm being harsh on that whipping boy of a magazine from Primedia. But, so it help me, it always reads like the minutes of a frat-house meeting; the staff seems to be having a monthly party that we've somehow been allowed to crash.

 

[Colin Dunn]

I don't even bother with the print magazines anymore for my A/V news & reviews. Why, when you can get more information from the HTF and a few other home-theater-related forums on the net?

Even Audio Review, often criticized for allowing troll/flame posts, has more information in its reviews than most magazines (just as long as you skip over the junk).

Stereophile doesn't print any really bad reviews anymore. Even they are subject to advertiser pressure - publish a bad review, and manufacturers pull their ads (major source of revenue). Isn't that why Stereo Review never panned anything???

Since all print magazines are vulnerable to this threat, it is NOT economically feasible to offer objective equipment reviews in this medium. Internet-based message boards and forums may not have talented paid writers, but I get more information reading 50 amateur reviews than one "professional" review that's been compromised by business concerns.

Back in the '80s, those magazines were the only game in town. But now things have changed, and they don't serve a purpose anymore...

 

[Terrell]

I've seen numerous bad reviews in HT Magazine. But when it comes to magazines, Widescreen Review is the cream of the crop.

 

[Alistair Paterson]

I also think that the majority of HT and Hi-Fi magazines arnt worthy of even being used as toilette paper. However over here in the UK I reguarly read "What Hi-Fi". This magazine whilst not being a dedicated HT magazine does reguarly cover HT equipment.

This magazine does not mind calling an egg a egg and does give out honest reviews, from informing of equipment not worth the postage to equipment that is better than anything you will find at twice its price.

A previous post talked anout how manafacturers should learn from bad reviews and produce better products. This does happen and about two years ago "What Hi-Fi" reviewed Missions new speakers the 773 floor standers. The review reported that while the speakers were not poor they werent anything special and so probably werent worth the asking price. Mission responded by going back to the drawing boards re-desighning them and releasing them again as the 773e's. These speakers where then reviewed again by "What Hi-fi" which gave them 5 Stars and later that year won product of the year in their respective catagory.

Honest informative reviews, breaking news, tips and bringing the consumer closer to the manafacturer is what I think these type of magazines should be about.

 

[Brian Perry]

Regarding pandering to the super-rich, I think that's a fact of life for these types of magazines and I don't mind it at all. I compare it to Motor Trend or Car & Driver reviewing Ferraris and Lamborghinis. They sell more magazines by giving people a taste of other-worldy gear, playing on the dream factor. If these magazines focused exclusively on Saturn cars and Kenwood receivers (no offense to owners of those brands), they wouldn't survive.

 

[RicP]

I've seen numerous bad reviews in HT Magazine

Terrell, please point out the issue #'s and the equipment in question.

I'd like to look and see if it actually fits the criteria of "bad review".

Thank you

 

[Mark Booth]

I am embarrassed for this forum that this topic has been allowed to stand.

Mark

 

[Eujin]

Actually, I don't think that print is dead--yet. However, I do agree that HTM is garbage, a conclusion that was cemented for me recently when they did a cover feature on a remote control face-off and did not include the Pronto! I put S&V pretty much in the same category too. Right now, I don't have a subscription to any of the HT-related rags as I find their content too inconsistent to justify a commitment. Of the ones that I do make a point to look out for are:

The Perfect Vision: as many have observed, this is far and away the best HT rag out there. Even when they don't have any reviews that I'd be interested in, their feature articles and other little pieces still manage to provide interesting reading fodder.

The Absolute Sound: TPV's sister publication is always an interesting read--even if I'll never be able to afford 90% of the stuff they review. It's always got very well written articles which are pretty substantial.

Stereophile: I'll pick up the odd copy every now and then. I think it's a decent magazine and I'm glad that they've put their archived articles online (free access!). At the very least, I feel that they're trying to do as good a job as they can.

The thing is, we all have to take everything said in magazine reviews with a grain of salt. If you begin to consider magazine equipment reviews as something akin to a glorified press release, which they often are with the crappier rags, you can use these reviews as a starting point for research online at this and other forums--if you've never heard of a Krell, you can't very well ask intelligent questions about it, no?

 

[RobertR]

I agree with the points made by Brian Wiklem and Colin Dunn. The days of the print medium as a useful guide to A/V are gone, as far as Im concerned. The Internet gives me access to reviews that are not only high quality, but reviews from actual USERS who are NOT given samples by the manufacturers, but who instead buy the gear themselves, and have NO interest in advertising revenues. This is going to result in much greater objectivity. Not only that, but the kind of detailed specs that used to be provided by print magazines can now be obtained over the Net DIRECTLY from the manufacturers. I can even download the USER manual before I buy the thing! With that kind of information available, who needs print?

 

[Brian Perry]

Plus the time factor -- print reviews seem to be awfully dated when you're used to getting info from the internet.

 

[RicP]

I am embarrassed for this forum that this topic has been allowed to stand.

Why? Are you a HTM employee? A HTM apologist? Please expound on your embarassment.

I'm embarassed that there are people that would stifle free speech and opinions contrary to their own.

 

[Brian-W]

Oh, update, I also kept my subscription to the U.K. magazine "Home Cinema Magazine". One of the other magazines that actually has really good articles.
I remember they did a "DTS vs. Dolby" article and it wasn't blind listening tests as usual or even white papers from the competing companies on who was better. The article went directly to the engineers who mix the audio for the DVDs and reported their comments directly. It was refreshing take on an age old debate.
I have to highlight (what I forgot to do) RobertR's comments about actual user reports. This has been FAR more useful for me in selecting equipment than magazines. I used the magazines (in the past) as a guideline, and then weighed user reports. I rely mostly these days on user reports.
The best part about these forums by far...
-Brian

 

[Jack Briggs]

Robert, as literate as you are and as much as you read, I'm surprised you don't care for any of the magazines. I can easily envision you spending a rewarding three or four hours with the latest Perfect Vision or Widescreen Review.

A monthly publication works under a three-month lead time; it's the only way it can be done. By default, the "news" in a monthly can't help but be "old" when it reaches your mailbox.

But where I feel some of the magazines have been truly remiss in their duties is by not reporting on serious problems in the field. Remember the "lip-sync" controversy that afflicted so many first- and second-generation DVD players? It received huge play here at HTF because so many of us--me included--experienced the annoying problem.

Yet, only Sound & Vision's David Ranada mentioned the controversy in his column. Hell, if I had been editor-in-chief of Sound & Vision at the time, I would have made the controversy into a cover story ("Is DVD Not Ready For Prime Time?").

But, then, Pioneer, Sony, and Panasonic buy an awful lot of four-color, double-truck ads, don't they?

BTW, Mike Wood's "explanation" about the staff's reviewing "only the good products" is limp. Just as limp as what Julian Hirsch and Steve Simels used to say about the same subject in the old Stereo Review.

 

[Terrell]

You'll have to do that on your own Ric. The last time I've even read HT Mag was when Brent Butterworth was there. That's been quite a long time. But I saw a number of bad reviews, well if you call anywhere from 1-3 out of 5 blocks bad to average. It's been at least 3 years since I've read it, and I've never subscribed. I always bought or read at the newsstand. I did see a Bose review and a Kenwood THX system that got slammed big time in that mag. They also slammed a Samsung VCR for bad picture quality, giving it 2 out of 5 bars. They once said Pioneer's speaker terminals on their receiver sucked. They once absolutely slammed a set of Acoustic Research speakers, saying they were very bad.

Believe me, they have had their share of bad reviews, but these came from magazines when Butterworth was there more than 3-4 years ago. I don't like their writing and review style, but they do reveiw a lot of good equipment, and many of their reviews are spot on. Some aren't.

I only subscribe to Widescreen Review.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

In the "Adding Insult To Injury" department: I recently decided not to renew my HT magazine subscription. I soon received three telemarketing calls trying to get me to renew!

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

I just started reading The $ensible Sound and I am enjoying it immensely. It's equipment that I can afford, and I seem to agree with what a lot of the writers have to say. Also, if you are into classical music reviews, they seem to have a ton of them. I think I'm going to subscribe.

Neil - who also read Sound and Vision and Widescreen Review