Tired of tv reviews!! Love the mag!! Some ideas!!

[john1000000boy]

Hi there,

Love the mag and been a long term reader for the past 10 years!!

My wife gets very annoyed about the vast pile of back copies all taking up shelf space in our house!!

Just a small gripe there seems to be a vast amount of pages every month dedicated to tvs of all sizes, budgets, and varying technologies. While i appreciate that tvs are a constantly evolving technology they do seem to eat up pages in each issue.

Example the last 2 issues there were 2 supertests!!

My favourite features are the columns that enable the reader to optomise or perhaps improve their systems by upgrading components such as adding dacs or setting up the components that they already own.

How about a feature on installing home cinema discretely in your home eg hiding cable away. Features on a fast paced technology- wifi setup eg connecting your pc to your amp for best stereo sound and accessing the pcs content on your setup- connecting wirelessly or what connections to use between macbook/laptop and amp/home cinema amp. With the recent foray of blu ray players able to access online content, lots of people have laptops and i am sure that they would benefit from a how to.....??

It takes me back to the days when what hifi? was strictly a hifi mag and did not feature tvs or home cinema equipment!! I may as well take a look in front of me now as i love my home cinema. All of it based upon your reviews!! I appreciate that home cinema is now a huge technology.

TOO MANY TV'S!!

Great mag and keep up the great work

John.

ps i am sure this will be open to lots of varying opinions!!

 

[JoelSim]

 

[john1000000boy]

Does this mean you agree Joel

 

[JoelSim]

john1000000boy:Does this mean you agree Joel

Couldn't agree more John. If I had my way it would be 95% hifi, and then the odd special on Home Cinema.

 

[bigboss]

Unfortunately, TVs are replaced faster than any other AV or Hi-Fi product. Also, every manufacturer has more TV models than any other AV product. For example, how many blu-ray players have Panasonic & Sony launched this year, & how many TVs? Is there any Hi-Fi product you know of, which is replacing its models at the same rate, or even half the rate as TVs?

 

[Clare Newsome]

JoelSim:
john1000000boy:Does this mean you agree Joel

Couldn't agree more John. If I had my way it would be 95% hifi, and then the odd special on Home Cinema.

We've been through this before, Joel. It's simple economics (as BB alludes to above) involving customer demand. There are magazines with that mix of content: they sell less globally in total than we have UK subscribers every month.

Just in the last week another major UK publisher has been rumoured to be selling off its hi-fi specific title.

We'll continue to feature core hi-fi prominently both in-mag and online - plus all the emerging technogles - and bring you as many reviews as possible. And we host these Forums for you all, too

 

[Clare Newsome]

john1000000boy:
Hi there,

Love the mag and been a long term reader for the past 10 years!!

My wife gets very annoyed about the vast pile of back copies all taking up shelf space in our house!!

Just a small gripe there seems to be a vast amount of pages every month dedicated to tvs of all sizes, budgets, and varying technologies. While i appreciate that tvs are a constantly evolving technology they do seem to eat up pages in each issue.

Example the last 2 issues there were 2 supertests!!

My favourite features are the columns that enable the reader to optomise or perhaps improve their systems by upgrading components such as adding dacs or setting up the components that they already own.

How about a feature on installing home cinema discretely in your home eg hiding cable away. Features on a fast paced technology- wifi setup eg connecting your pc to your amp for best stereo sound and accessing the pcs content on your setup- connecting wirelessly or what connections to use between macbook/laptop and amp/home cinema amp. With the recent foray of blu ray players able to access online content, lots of people have laptops and i am sure that they would benefit from a how to.....??

It takes me back to the days when what hifi? was strictly a hifi mag and did not feature tvs or home cinema equipment!! I may as well take a look in front of me now as i love my home cinema. All of it based upon your reviews!! I appreciate that home cinema is now a huge technology.

TOO MANY TV'S!!

Great mag and keep up the great work

John.

ps i am sure this will be open to lots of varying opinions!!

Thanks John - some good ideas on 'How To' features there I will discuss with team

 

[JoelSim]

Clare Newsome:JoelSim:
john1000000boy:Does this mean you agree Joel

Couldn't agree more John. If I had my way it would be 95% hifi, and then the odd special on Home Cinema.

We've been through this before, Joel. It's simple economics (as BB alludes to above) involving customer demand. There are magazines with that mix of content: they sell less globally in total than we have UK subscribers every month.

Just in the last week another major UK publisher has been rumoured to be selling off its hi-fi specific title.

We'll continue to feature core hi-fi prominently both in-mag and online - plus all the emerging technogles - and bring you as many reviews as possible. And we host these Forums for you all, too

Blimey boss, I'm entitled to an opinion, even if it isn't based on market dynamics as I've been told.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Of course you're entitled to an opinion

Just getting the OP up to speed with previous discussions....

 

[chebby]

The problem with TVs is that they all look the same. Identical black rectangles with pictures from some film photoshopped into them.

Hardly a visual feast even with a high standard of product photography. The TV reviews turn my mind to mush. Not the reviewer's fault (and I am sure telly fans love it all.) I just cannot engage with 10 pages of seemingly identical black rectangles.

The AV receivers and DVD/BD players and recorders are more interesting (just a bit).

However I do appreciate that the mag can't sell without the telly fans so I just try and think of them as more adverts between the interesting bits.

That buyers guide really, really has to go though. Total and utter waste of space and really depressing looking. Haymarket could get far more ads in there and we could get more articles and reviews and features.

Having said all that, the last two issues have been better and I am buying more issues now.

Did I mention that I hate the buyers guide?

 

[John Duncan]

Strangely enough, I love the buyer's guide. It's like the Airfix Catalogue of my youth - "ooo what can I get?"

And without it, I'd have never found a pair of 17cm wide floorstanders...

 

[JoelSim]

chebby:
The problem with TVs is that they all look the same. Identical black rectangles with pictures from some film photoshopped into them.

Hardly a visual feast even with a high standard of product photography. The TV reviews turn my mind to mush. Not the reviewer's fault (and I am sure telly fans love it all.) I just cannot engage with 10 pages of seemingly identical black rectangles.

The AV receivers and DVD/BD players and recorders are more interesting (just a bit).

However I do appreciate that the mag can't sell without the telly fans so I just try and think of them as more adverts between the interesting bits.

That buyers guide really, really has to go though. Total and utter waste of space and really depressing looking. Haymarket could get far more ads in there and we could get more articles and reviews and features.

Having said all that, the last two issues have been better and I am buying more issues now.

Did I mention that I hate the buyers guide?

They have to appeal to the transients, hence the TV supertest and piccy on the cover every month. I would be very very interested to see some research on who buys for what reason, subscriber base vs 2 copy brigade.

 

[john1000000boy]

I quite like the buyers guide but as Claire says she the mag hosts this forum so could the buyers guide not be"moved" as a more website based feature?? These pages at the back are useful and i am sure that they are the basis for many an av purchase!!

Chebby is right. They all look the same and usually make the front cover of the mag!! Any chance of making the pictures of the screens smaller so they take up less page space?

Looking back on this thread i think that the team have to be careful as this is a magazine and not a reference website!!

John

 

[john1000000boy]

Just realised that i spelt Clare wrong!!

My apologies!!

 

[Andrew Everard]

Most of this ground was covered in this thread a few weeks back - and in many others before that...

 

[Anonymous]

If you could please feature more TVs that actually make your brain bigger rather than the reverse, that would be great.

 

[laserman16]

bennyboy71:

If you could please feature more TVs that actually make your brain bigger rather than the reverse, that would be great.

 

[Anonymous]

laserman16:bennyboy71:

If you could please feature more TVs that actually make your brain bigger rather than the reverse, that would be great.

What does that smiley mean and why did you use it? I made a fair point. TVs are pretty bad for you, even if they look nice, lets face it.

 

[bigboss]

bennyboy71:

If you could please feature more TVs that actually make your brain bigger rather than the reverse, that would be great.

As far as I know, absolutely nothing in the world can make your brain bigger!

 

[chebby]

bigboss:As far as I know, absolutely nothing in the world can make your brain bigger!

Adequate nutrition from birth until maturity does the trick. After that it's all downhill.

 

[professorhat]

bennyboy71:laserman16:bennyboy71:

If you could please feature more TVs that actually make your brain bigger rather than the reverse, that would be great.

What does that smiley mean and why did you use it? I made a fair point. TVs are pretty bad for you, even if they look nice, lets face it.

Like all things, it depends how you use them. If you spend all day in front of them, doing nothing else, then yes, you're probably not going to be maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

However, there are a lot of educational programmes available on TV if you choose to look for them.

 

[laserman16]

bennyboy71:laserman16:bennyboy71:

If you could please feature more TVs that actually make your brain bigger rather than the reverse, that would be great.

What does that smiley mean and why did you use it? I made a fair point. TVs are pretty bad for you, even if they look nice, lets face it.

Not really a smiley, but these are.

 

[The_Lhc]

bigboss:As far as I know, absolutely nothing in the world can make your brain bigger!

Encephalitis?

 

[Andrew Everard]

Mars Attacks?

 

[John Duncan]

Andrew Everard:Mars Attacks?

No, but they do help you work, rest and play.