HDTV Reviews

HDTV reviews are a great way of researching which HDTV tuner, receiver, or television to buy. But as with reviews of any other electronics products, you should be careful not to see HDTV reviews as the last word in a product’s suitability for your needs.

Before deciding how much faith to put in the opinion of a reviewer, you should check the source of the review. If it’s from a well-known online or offline magazine or newspaper, you can be confident that the product has been thoroughly tested and the conclusions reached are based on solid evidence and the experience of an expert reviewer. Unfortunately, this cannot always be said of HDTV reviews in less reputable publications, and particularly websites.

Too many websites claim to have reviews of products despite never having seen them. Many of these so-called reviews are nothing more than descriptions and lists of features of the product in question, with a bit of hype added for good measure. Be wary of any review that doesn’t describe how the reviewer tested the equipment. All reputable publications will explain their tests thoroughly, so you can judge whether they’re relevant to your situation.

A good source of reviews is the relevant product page on Amazon, like this Phillips HDTV. If you scroll down to the reviews written by people who have bought and used the HDTV you are thinking of buying, you’ll find reports of the experiences of people in real-life situations. These reviews also benefit from the long-term nature of the real-life ‘tests.’ Even in the most reputable publications, testing is conducted over a relatively short space of time - press deadlines and manufacturer’s loan periods wait for no reviewer. Real-life reports from customers give you an idea of how the HDTV or tuner will perform over the medium to long term.

The other positive aspect of these types of reviews is that owners have nothing to gain by being positive about the product - something that cannot always be said of website ‘reviews’. Remember, however, that customers are always more likely to complain than they are to express satisfaction, so there may be a disproportionate number of negative reports in this type of review.

The most important thing when reading any HDTV review is to read it in context and be aware of the source of the information and its veracity. The HDTV Tuner doesn’t review products because we don’t have the time to conduct proper tests. We do provide overviews of products, such as this Panasonic plasma HDTV, but they are for information only and not intended as any guide to the suitability of equipment for your needs.

Send us your HDTV reviews by clicking here.