Perfect.

Buying video equipment used to be pretty straightforward but now that you can or are about to commit 4 figures or perhaps even 5 to 6 figures towards television and a video system - you will find the most unbiased and smartest answers from PERFECT VISION.

It is that simple.

First, there are lots of magazines jumping on the TV/TV technology bandwagon but frankly 99% of them are essentially re-written press releases with PR photos. To them, 45 words and 4 stars should be enough to convince you to spend $14k on a plasma screen. If that's all you need to wave your credit card at a clerk - great, you don't need PERFECT VISION.

But if you value your money a little more than that and want someone to wade through the tidal wave of jargon: HD, EDTV, plasma, LCP, LCD, HCI and a jillion more - PERFECT VISION is for you. Keep in mind that PEFFECT VISION pretty much just covers video technology and of course, high-end video equipment does tend to exite them more than cheap equipment. And frankly, do you really need to read a review on a $39 DVD player?

They are TV/video equipment geeks (and that's a great thing). They test everything from every aspect - after all, it's your hard earned money. But here's where they separate themselves from the others - not only do they test out everything in as many ways possible and against as many competitors, they explain both in technical and plain English if they liked or not and why. If you don't care what the kelvin temperature is on your plasma - just skip slightly ahead and they will tell you in plain English whether the picture quliaty of this set justifies its price.

What is also great about PERFECT VISION is that they are more than willing to rank something that's $199 as something good/great and a recommended buy as they would something that's $4k. They don't judge on price as some geek video/audio magazines tend to do.

So, how do they stack up the competition?

"Stereophile's Guide to Home Theatre" may actually be bigger geeks than PERFECT VISION but they are so caught up in the esoteric and what the lab results are - I'm not sure they actually watch TV for the sake of watching TV. They are more interested in the lab results and unlike PERFECT VISION, they don't seem to really care about real world results. They also expect that you would buy nothing less than a $11k DVD player and they dismiss you if you even consider anything less.

"Home Theater" was once a whimsical and personable competitor until it was purchased by a larger company and pretty squashed its creativity and personality. It's a solid home technology/entertainment magazine but they do not do the depth or breadth of testing as PERFECT VISION does - and the writing not nearly as knowledgable. They do cover more topics and cover more lower price equipment so if you want to read every tidbit, it's in the ballpark of PERFECT VISION and worthwhile to subscribe along PERFECT VISION, it's just a utility infielder.

"Electronic House/EGear & AV Interiors (now called CONNECTED)" cover a lot of topics that PERFECT VISION does not such as home security, home AV streaming, etc ... but the coverage is not indepth and not very knowledgeable. They do rudimentary testing but nothing that you cannot find on the internet to read for free. They also seem to view everything with breathlessness and to me - overly wild enthusiam.

So, if you appreciate a lot of info and knowledge on TV & video technology - if you want to feel totally confident before spending 4 to 6 figures on equipment - if you want knowledge from people who can move from a geek's lab to spending 10 hours in front of the tube in the fall on Sundays, PEFFECT VISION is pretty much perfect.

My favorite HT magazine

The biggest complaint I have it that it's not published every month. There are some minor mistakes in reviews and like most current audio/HT magazines (except for the hard to find Audio Critic) they follow the subjective review approach, but the reviewers are mostly very knowledgeable. The movie reviews are far and away the best of the HT magazines; you'll find reviews of lesser known gems, entire director's oeuvres, and expanded depth special articles.

TPV: Best mix of Home Theatre Equipment & Film Reviews

Our family subscribes to most of the popular home theatre publications and, though many are good, we feel The Perfect Vision (TPV, for short) is the best overall. Some publications are mostly "equipment-centered" while others are predominantly "film-centered", but TPV strikes a great balance between the two. A typical issue might feature about 10-12 in-depth home theatre product reviews (with products at varying price/performance levels), a Buyer's Guide that addresses a particular class of equipment (e.g., AV Receivers), an in-depth article highlighting a particular film maker or film (e.g., Stanley Kubrick), and about 40-45 short but very well-written film reviews. TPV also provides easy-to-understand background articles that help you keep up with new developments in home theatre technologies (and related industry politics). Finally, the TPV writing style is articulate and lively (it's just plain fun to read!).