A/V Enthusiasts
Dear Gary:
When I was reading your reply to Jay in Issue 139, March/April, I was dismayed at your characterization of enthusiasts who “definitely do not read Widescreen Review.” Two of my friends and I fit your description to a “T,” and we most certainly do enjoy the informative articles in your magazine, but we do not have the budget to build out a home theatre. I will continue my subscription in spite of your cavalier dismissal of me, as well as, I am sure, many others in the same situation. You need to reconsider your attitude towards less-affluent readers if you want to keep WSR afloat.
My friends and I (one of whom does not have a computer) were equally unaware of the DVD survey until after it was completed, or we would have voted for the parallel reviews.
The present Blu-ray® economics (player and disc prices) will prevent me from joining that club until prices drop considerably. By then it will be inconsequential anyway, since my HDTV does not have HDMI inputs and Blu-ray Disc® players are beginning to restrict component outputs to 480i (see your Denon DVD-1800BD review in Issue 139). That has pretty well damped my enthusiasm for any eventual conversion to Blu-ray. I will stick with my excellent DVD player for the foreseeable future. The “special features” available on BD players aren’t of any interest to me, and now the picture is being dumbed down to DVD quality so I see no Blu-ray in my future.
Tom Clark
editorgary@widescreenreview.com
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments:
I did not intend to slight anyone. According to our surveys, the majority of our readers are enthusiasts with a passion for optimizing their home theatre systems to realize “the best that it can be in” in picture and sound performance. WSR is certainly open to everyone and we invite everyone to subscribe. WSR has always served as an educational resource for people who are constantly affirming for upgrading the performance of their home theatre systems. I fully realize that not everyone has the budget for new equipment, much of which in the early stages of introduction and market growth are expensive.
We have always been against any attempt to down-rez HD quality, recognizing that many of our readers bought HDTV displays with component video-only inputs. Down-rezing is not right.
We announced our survey in the print magazine and on-line, and ran it on-line as that is the most economically feasible way to survey our readership. We simply do not have the resources to do reviews of both Blu-ray Disc and DVD releases in the print edition, though, we do continue to do so limitedly on our Webzine. As noted previously, as for picture and sound scores, you can reference the Blu-ray Disc scores to DVD, and also the release dates, as the studios release Blu-ray Disc editions of titles mostly day-and-date with the DVD edition.
As a leading-edge technology publication, it is our duty to explore the latest technologies and the best performance possible through a home theatre experience. DVD, while certainly good quality, just cannot compare in picture and sound quality to Blu-ray Disc. Nor can a component HDTV display compare to a Full HD 1080p HDMI-configured display in terms of picture quality.
Special features have never been a focus of Widescreen Review, though I do applaud many features for their filmmaking educational value. Our focus has always been on the picture and sound experience of the movie or music video.
At some point, as with all previous technologies, the prices will become more affordable and at that time I hope that you will reconsider Blu-ray Disc and HDMI HDTV. You won’t be disappointed.
Thank you for your continued support.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ editorgary@widescreenreview.com