The VT20 review was written by me. It was the first sample available in the country and as such was an exclusive review. Now as a reviewer and the Editor of this site I have a few things to weigh up. I'll come back to the VT20 in a second.
First of all we are enthusiasts at the end of the day. We have no affiliation with any manufacturers and it makes no difference to us whether we keep a manufacturer happy. However, we are more than happy to help manufacturers get the best out of their products and will work with them when they ask. I tell them this directly and they respect the fact that what we report in the reviews are what we see and that we are honest in our approach to the reviews. We have had manufacturers decline to send us TVs for review, such as Philips and at one point Samsung because they didn't understand the review process and perhaps they didn't like the fact they had no control over the review process. For whatever reason it has taken a long time for them to come around to our way of doing things and to send us review samples. On top of that we can also use retailers to get review samples, so if we annoy a manufacturer with our honest reviews, we can still source samples of the product for review so you forum members don't miss out. The other plus point of using retailers is that we can check that the review samples from Manufacturers are the same as those available to members in retail shops. We have yet to find any 'golden samples' and can safely and expertly say this is myth.
Over the years we have given presentations to manufacturers on calibration controls and their usefulness directly to their engineers and product managers and have had some success with that. Just look at some of the TVs and their calibration controls today, compared with just 4 years ago.
We can't produce the same quantity of reviews that publications and websites with multi-million pound publishing companies can produce, but again at the same time we also don't employ freelancers or journalists looking for their next pay cheque. I recruit enthusiasts who also have considerable knowledge of image science and they must pass the ISF and THX process and stay relevant with new technologies. I also work very hard to make sure that we stay independent and that our integrity is upheld and that we work for AVForums members and not anyone else. We want to see good quality equipment just like the members here and we are just as enthusiastic about AV tech than everybody else.
You'll have to forgive the long reply, but when people question our integrity I will defend that and explain why things are as they are.
Now, back to the VT20. Yes, in the initial review we didn't quite pick up on the 50Hz fully straight away. We could see something was there but had put it down to the drive of the panel and a trait of the technology. Because of this we didn't give the VT20 a reference status award. We also only had the sample for 6 days or so and as I said above we have to try and get all the testing done, along with viewing time to check everything out and also keep everyone happy here by posting the review as quickly as possible. We can only review what is in front of us at the time and we have a sample of 1 unit. We can't test lots of the same model at one time, so getting a full handle on an issue is difficult. If we find something serious in one example we will try and get a second unit to test, or ask owners to check stuff for us on their models. But again, this is a difficulty of reviewing a new model and trying to keep the readership happy with a quick turnaround.
For the 50Hz issue, some respected reviewers actually denied there was an issue and awarded the TV a reference status, so calling our review and saying we were hoodwinking the members is a bit silly. We listened to what owners had found, I went and visited some owners to see their TVs and we also got a second sample from Panasonic, the 65inch and Steve tested it fully. If you look at the review of the 65 inch you will see our results. Not long after that review I was invited to Japan where I met with the engineers and pointed out our findings to them. The original review also had a disclaimer at the bottom to point out what we had found. Again, we have a sample number of two, not hundreds of sets to test. To say we didn't do anything to bring awareness to the issue is again not true.
We have three TVs in for review at the moment that I know will be jumped on by members straight away as they are some of the most anticipated sets of the year, but we have kept it quiet so we have the time to test them fully without pressure to publish the reviews from members desperate to know what they are like.
We can only review what is in front of us. When we find things or get feedback from owners, we feed that back and try and test further to help out where we can. If that is not good enough for some members, then sorry but that's all we can do. Every review is done for the benefit of members here, not anyone else and certainly not manufacturers. We also try to cover everything about the TVs in question and not just the picture quality in isolation or just with test patterns. We also always say that reviews are for information and a guide only. Ultimately it is down to users to make their decisions on the best information they can get and hopefully part of that is honest feedback from our reviews and not misinformation from salesmen dressed up as helpful members.
The other 'issue' we find is that a small problem seen in a review can be misinterpreted and then snow ball into something that doesn't exist. Just look at things like lag time to see how things can quickly get out of hand in a forum environment. We try to be as accurate as possible in what we report back and also try to be complete in mentioning everything we can that may be an issue for certain members. It is a hard balancing act to follow, but I think we do it well.
We are also open to feedback, so thanks for taking the time to start this thread. You don't have to go for the Daily Mail headline for a title though.