We home theater enthusiasts read a lot of magazines, web sites, and message boards about home theater. I was dismayed while reading some of the industry leading magazines as they were ripping the truthfulness of online content about home theater.

Worse yet, they weren’t ripping just the content, but rather the authors of online content by stating something along the lines of “there’s a lot of free home theater advice online that cannot be trusted”.  Multiple authors within multiple magazines revealed this bias over the last few months. In one case, it was even mentioned in the editor’s letter and the closing article in the same issue.

That statement alone raises my ire a notch or two, not only because it presumes that the magazine format instantly equates to a trusted source, but also because it presumes that people that read online advice web sites such as this one shouldn’t trust them at all.

People are smart and can easily realize when someone has a certain bias, is leading them a certain direction, is actually trying to help them out, or doing both. Imagine a world where readers may actually want both sides of an opinion instead of someone pretending to be objective and non-judgemental.  With how subjective audio and video can be, an informed written opinion is often of greater use to the reader than the mush of supposed objectivity out there.

One can presume from the anti-Internet message being delivered from big name magazines that they’re feeling some of the pain of the new media on their bottom line. Their message is valid in that there is a lot of mis-information out there, but it comes from all over and is not just relegated to one medium.

As readers search for information they are more than capable of cross checking information to see if it’s correct. There is not one source, online or print, that offers everything one needs to know about home theater, or has what any given reader is looking for at that time – not this site nor any other can claim that­. The abundance of information should be encouraged, and not looked upon with spite.

Case in Point
This web site exists due to the long noticed issue that review magazines such as Home Theater Magazine and The Perfect Vision are great review magazines, but when it comes to educating the reader on how to look for the right product without reading a review, they simply don’t provide all the information completely.

If they did, it could be perceived as suicide by empowering individuals to be able to ascertain themselves what is good or bad without the need for product reviews.

What I don’t think they realize is that regardless of giving people the complete knowledge of how to evaluate products themselves, people would still read the magazines for the reviews and in-depth articles because of the valued opinion of the authors and interest in home theater.

Paid magazines aren’t presumptively the bastions of trust. The reader doesn’t pay for the content, but rather the print and delivery of the content (in many cases just the delivery). Advertisers pay the bills for the magazines, and seeing a positive review for a product followed by an advertisement by the manufacturer of that product on the next page doesn’t exactly instill a lot of trust.  Anyone linked that close to the industry manufacturers will obviously contain their industry bias and push the products and technologies regardless of consumer benefit.

Plasma Example
Take Plasma display technology as an example. Four years ago HTadvice was railing against the technology as it wasn’t displaying a better picture than CRT, in fact many Plasma TVs offered just downright horrible picture quality. Back then, industry magazines were adrift with complements and platitudes of this sub par performing technology.

Now that manufacturers have fixed many of the image issues with Plasma technology, many Plasma TVs now offer great video quality and the technology is now highly recommended by this web site.

In cases like this, it may be best to not be linked so closely to the industry’s advertising dollars so you can put a true opinion of how a certain technology is currently performing instead of being a shill for advertising revenue.

Digital Elitism
Many of these “self-appointed to be superior” magazines are now suffering from a great deal of “digital elitism”. Unless it’s a digital display driven by a digital video connection via a receiver that handles all these digital connection inputs, it’s not worth looking at according to them.

Nevermind that all these digital connections really only came in to being over the last few years, and that people who’ve been reading their magazines for years that have non-digital technology (that still outperforms much of the very digital technologies they’re touting) can feel left out in the cold.

Have these magazines forgotten that the lifespan for components and TVs is 10 years, and speakers can last up to 20 years. These magazines are getting sucked into the computer industry’s constant 3 year upgrade cycle that is now bleeding into the home theater and consumer electronics industry.

Forgive us, if we are practical enough to realize that the CRT HD RPTV purchases made merely 3-5 years ago still have 6-7 years of life in them. Just because it’s digital doesn’t make it better. Ask any audiophile and videophile that.

The iPod Proves All
In 2003 Apple came out with the 3rd generation iPod, the MP4 format, and the iTunes Music Store. Many magazines obviously pulled from the rank and file audio snobs and PC users, and either bashed the iPod entirely, completely ignored it, or recommended PC MP3 players of which offered considerably less sound quality and usability.

Now that the iPod revolution is finishing out it’s third year*, those very magazines that ignored it now tout it and openly recommend it and it’s accessories (one magazine even padded some 10 pages of content with a iPod accessory catalog… ahem… “Accessory Guide”).

What changed in sound quality in during those 2.75 years? Absolutely nothing! HTadvice, on the other hand, recognized the amazing sound quality and file size of the MP4 format event before it was integrated into the iPod. Once the iPod did incorporate the format, HTadvice whole-heartedly recommended that people give the format a try (for free using iTunes), and if they liked it, then obviously the iPod could be considered a great piece of home theater equipment for them.

So instead of embracing new technology that improved that way that one listens, manages, and takes their music with them, they attempted to bash it into the ground. There’s some of that trustworthy behavior they tout having over the online community.

*(the iPod initially came out two years earlier, but didn’t reach it’s full potential until the 3rd generation came out)

Summary
Yes, there’s a lot of great misinformation out there, but it is not relegated to any single medium. There are many great magazine articles and reviews, and many bad ones. There are many great web sites as well as bad ones.

From magazines, web sites, message boards, salespeople, and informed/semi-informed friends, there is abundance of great, good, and bad information out there. 

We should be cheering that there’s so much interest in our great home theater hobby.  When those magazines printed that “free home theater advice online should not be trusted” the misinformation about home theater advice wasn’t online the months those magazines were published… it was in those exact magazines. Go figure.