ConsumerReports BD Player Ratings

by masonaries Sep 27, 2008 5:42AM PDT

ConsumerReports has a new review of BD players. I don't know what to make of them.

Sylvania NB500SL9 is rated 1st rating 88

Magnavox NB500MG9 is rated 3rd rating 87

Sony BDPS350 is rated 6th rating 84

Samsung BDP1500 is rated 10th (last) rating 75

(I owe justenmeat an apology for recommending the Magnavox and thinking he was playing with me.)

What do you all think of CR reviews

Discussion is locked

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CR ratings aren't worth much

by Dan Filice Sep 27, 2008 5:52AM PDT

Sylvania and Magnovox?? Please. What ever happened to their quality for making TVs? They are some of the worst TVs right along GE, RCA and some of the Philips. I personally trust the reviews done here on CNET, the AV Forum and HomeTheaterSpot.com and a few others.

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by jonnybones Sep 28, 2008 3:40PM PDT

What has happened lately (the last 15 years) is that people have given way to price over performance. It slowly kills me inside when people buy the Vizio over the Samsung, because

"its 1080p just like the Samsung and Sony, and it has 3 HDMI inputs, must be the same TV but half the price"

I pretty much wish those customers would lose their jobs so they couldn't come into my store anymore. It is especially bad in the audio department. I can't even type all that I have to say about that tonight; I have to get to bed sometime.

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I trust Consumer Reports but..............

by kcfvegas Sep 27, 2008 4:23PM PDT

I have long trusted consumer reports as they are pretty objective and do a lot of testing of both performance and durability. But I do have to admit that I am very surprised by the ratings that you are showing. Sylvania and Magnavox rated numbers one and two, has me scratching my head though. I would like to know what issue you are looking at, as I subscribe to C.R. and I don't recall ever seeing the review that you are writing about.

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I'm shocked too

by masonaries Sep 27, 2008 10:06PM PDT

Yes I'm shocked also. But they do say they have no info on reliabily.
Most telling is the comparison of the s350 and 1500 which CNET confirms. The 1500 does a poor job of upconverting DVD compared to the s350 which I'm going to buy.

They also do not take into account ports for receivers. These are basic BD players.

Most telling is there report on upconverting DVD players in which OPPO is not even ranked eventho OPPO is the best DVD player on the market IMO.

The ratings are on their web site which you have to be a member to access.

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Consumer Reports

by bevillan Sep 29, 2008 3:02AM PDT

I subscribe to Consumer Reports, but you have to realize that they are not the best reviewers for certain types of products. They are great for appliances where there isn't much depth to the products (i.e. vacuums, fridges, toasters). They also are good with their car reviews since it is their flagship subject and their testing seems to be pretty scientifically standardized.

With computers, TVs, Blu-ray players though they don't go deep enough into the performance of the products and weigh price into the equation too much. The problem is that they will judge a Panasonic/Pioneer plasma up against a Vizio in the same category. This gives the Vizio 'bonus' points for being ALOT cheaper to make up for its real lack of performance compared to the Panny/Pioneer models.

Same goes for Blu-ray players. The Magnavox gets bonus points for its price point which skews its performance ratings compared to the better models.

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(NT) Yuo can add speakers to the list. John

by jcrobso Oct 2, 2008 12:54AM PDT

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The last time I took a glance at their speaker ratings, I

by NM_Bill Oct 2, 2008 1:58AM PDT

was amused that they used one criterium - accuracy. Certainly accuracy is of concern with speakers, but that one factor does not define a speaker sounding pleasant.

Read CR ratings when you need to buy a car or washer & dryer- their stock in trade type items. Some other areas, such as this, are not the center of their universe.

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Consumer Reports is NOT biased, but over the years they

by NM_Bill Sep 28, 2008 10:38AM PDT

have progressively discontinued any thorough explanation of exactly what factors they considered most important in evaluating any product.

That lowers their ratings value to us, the public.

We cannot be left to make correct assumptions of how they proceeded.

Their performance comments are usually completely independent of the comments they may make regarding reliability or rate of repair.

We can only decipher a token of their assumptions. For instance, they consider automobiles to have to be for families, therefore all 2 door coupes lose one point relative to a 4 door.

Consumer Reports does not attempt to cover the entire waterfront of consumer products, but this is just one example of a ratings article which have no particular value to us.

Value CR for what they are most famous for with regular recurring reviews of certain mainline things.

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