About AVForums

The history of AVForums and our mission statement

AVForums.com is both an internet community where people discuss Audio Visual home consumer electronics (and a huge variety of other topics) and a resource of news, reviews and articles covering home entertainment, hi-fi, technology, movies, TV shows, music, video gaming and more.

We started as a UK home cinema community way back in 2000. We now encompass all aspects of home entertainment and technology and serve people in over 240 countries across the world.

We continue grow a friendly, helpful community who feel comfortable and confident asking questions and sharing their knowledge and experiences.
To achieve this, we put special emphasis on making new people feel welcome, we do not tolerate cyber-bullying and we insist that members are respectful to others.

At AVForums you can get totally free advice from other people on all subjects relating to AV. People often come to find what products to buy, where to buy them from, and how to get the most out of them after they get them home.

There is an ever growing membership getting satisfaction from helping others achieve the best from their home entertainment and technology experiences, whether by answering questions aired or passing on their wisdom.

In addition to the community, we have an editorial team whose remit is to publish independent, impartial, expert reviews, news and articles which are technically accurate but written in plain English. We aim to represent our community by pushing the manufacturers for ever better products and we’re proud that our editorial opinions are respected by the AV industry.

How do people use the forums?
It's easy. You don't need to be a member to read our forums, but if you wish to post a message, the first thing you need to to is register, which you can do by clicking here (it's free and takes just a few minutes). Then you can post a message, either by replying to an existing discussion thread, or creating a new thread of your own. If you are not familiar with how to use forums, we ask that you read our Frequently Asked Questions in order to appreciate how things are done.

The AVForums icon

icon1.jpg

Our icon looks, at first glance, like a play button with some extra lines in it, but in fact, it's the A, V and F of AVForums put together.

The A
icon_a.jpg
The V
icon_v.jpg
The F
icon_f.jpg

Which forum is most relevant?
Since our website covers quite a broad spectrum of topics, we have a lot of forums. For convenience the forums are grouped into categories including TVs, Home Audio Video, Hi-Fi, Movies, Tech, Classifieds and Lifestyle.
Our best advice if you are new to our forum is to take your time browsing the categories and forums before choosing the one which is most suitable for your new message. Don't be intimidated by the amount of information. Just focus on what interests you.

I feel reluctant to join in because I'm new to the subject
We're all new to the subject to begin with. We pride ourselves on nurturing a welcoming, friendly, inclusive community since 2000. Please don't feel intimidated by our veteran members, as they are, for the most part, extremely friendly, and you are very welcome here.

What else do I need to know?
If you need any other information about how to use the forums, you should access our FAQ here.

Please enjoy visiting the AVForums.com. We're here to help you.

History

AV Forums Launch and relationship with Highbury House (2000-2005)

In 2000, Stuart and Vicki Wright incorporated M2N Limited [1] (Magazine 2 ‘Net) and entered into a contract with Highbury House’s WV Interactive Publications (WVIP) to create and manage the Home Cinema Choice website for their magazine of the same name, publishing magazine content online. Later, more websites were added to the portfolio including Total DVD and What Video & TV.

To complement the websites, in 2000, Stuart Wright separately created a home cinema forum to cultivate a community and feed traffic back to the websites.

The forum was branded AV Forums [2] after M2N acquired the avforums.com domain in July 2000.  AV standing for ‘Audio Visual’ and representing the core theme of audio visual home electronics.

In 2005, Highbury House was purchased by Future Publishing [3], who terminated the contract with M2N later in the year, at which point AV Forums removed its association with the print magazines.

AVForums editorial (2005-present)

Following the split from Highbury House, AVForums launched its own editorial content, starting with DVD and Blu-ray reviews and later expanding to various home entertainment technology, but focussing heavily on televisions, home cinema and hi-fi products.

In 2007, the website was renamed to AVForums (without the space).

In 2012 AVForums launched their Picture Perfect campaign to encourage TV owners to more correctly set up their televisions following the commission of an Ipsos survey on television picture quality [4] which revealed that half (51%) of Britain’s television owners don’t make any adjustments to their television picture after purchasing their set.

In 2013, AVForums switched from the vBulletin forum platform to Xenforo with a major redesign and improvement in forum functionality.  An in-house content management and editorial system was created to work with the Xenforo platform.

References:

Notable milestones

February 2000 Launch of AVForums.com AVForums logo 2000
August 2001 Our 4,000+ members were drawing too much resource from our shared server, so we transferred to our own dedicated server
October 2001 Installed vBulletin software to satisfy our members' demands for more features
January 2003 New logo AVForums logo 2003
Jauary 2005 New logo
March 2006 Launch of our audio Podcast
October 2006 Launch of Blu-ray & HD DVD reviews
March 2007 Launch of our hardware reviews
March 2008 Launch of video productions on YouTube
March 2012 Gaming reviews section launched
April 2012 New design launched and our appearance at Gadget Show Live AVForums logo 2012
June 2012 Launched the Picture Perfect camapign to encourange and help people to correctly set up their TVs
October 2013 Launch of all new editorial system, switched from vBulletin to the Xenforo forum platform and implementation of an all new design
November 2013 Launch of our monthly newsletter
July 2016 New logo with the an AVF icon AVForums logo
November 2019 Upgraded our core forum software from Xenforo version 1 to 2 which brought many new features
May 2020 Launched our livestream podcast
February 2022 Received our silver YouTube plaque for passing 100,000 subscribers

For press releases

"Launched in 2000, AVForums.com is the busiest website dedicated to Audio Visual discussion in the UK.
It is free to use, independently run and has grown through word of mouth and, in recent years, organically via Google.
Readers of AVForums.com are usually looking for information about how to improve their home entertainment experience.
While the core focus is Home Entertaiment, their coverage also encompasses video gaming, computers, photography, mobile phones, sat nav, in-car entertainment and more.
They promote dedicated, in-depth and detailed discussion, and provide a user-friendly, enjoyable way to interact with the forums.
As well as being a vibrant and exciting community, AVForums also has its own in house editorial team producing original content including news, reviews, articles, videos and podcasts which aim to be educational as well as entertaining.
"

Branding

The AVForums name and logo is trademarked.

When written, our name is AVForums. Capital A, V and F, all one word.

Our logo is available to download here:

Type PNG 2230x500 PDF EPS
Original
On white
On dark

Link to us

We are always grateful for links to us. The url to use is with descriptive text:
AVForums.com - The No.1 Home Entertainment Tech Resource.

Future

We thank all our moderators, registered members and regular visitors for their support and enthusiasm. The world of AV seems to get more exciting each year, and as we see the number of users continue to rise, we look forward to sharing an exciting future with you at AVForums.com.

Thanks,

Stuart Wright, M2N.

AVForums is owned and operated by M2N Limited, company number 03997482, registered in England and Wales.
M2N Limited, 26 The Green, Kings Norton, Birmingham. B38 8SD. United Kingdom

Note: our office is not open to the public and we do not receive post at this address. Please use the Contact page to contact us.

  • Published
    Oct 9, 2013
  • Page views
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