Originally Posted by Ian
We must put the Which? Consumers Association findings into perspective.

They are a consumers association who deal with consumer matters and their reviews are performed in a controlled environment using equipment which would be typical of UK consumers setup, ie size and viewing distance. Many people on this forum are not using typical consumers equipment.
Accepted, but I don't have an outrageous viewing system -not very different from their test system except my panel is a bit bigger (46" v 40") and I have never (that's right - never) viewed a Blu-ray disc on it that I could remotely confuse with standard DVD, and in every case when I have done a DVD - BD comparison the difference has been obvious. My guess is that many people (including possibly this panel of "experts") use a viewing distance that is too great to discern the difference. (Afaik they did not state their viewing distance to the screen which for 1080p and 40" screen and should be less than eight feet and preferably six feet). None of which is to deny the proposition that some Blu-ray transfers could be better.


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Which is exactly the findings that will benefit us the most as Which? are one of the few establishments who can fire with big guns and actually shame companies or champion legislation changes to make companies improve their products.
I'm all for that, but I have to say that I think Which sells reports because people expect them to report that the �50 plastic fantastic is just as good as the �500 properly designed and manufactured product, so that they can buy the �50 piece of junk and believe that they have saved �450 and got something that's just as good. I know a little bit about cameras and you'd be bonkers to rely on Which for a recommendation rather than a dedicated website like dpreview (quite apart from the fact that you have to pay to subscribe to Which and dpreview is free). If the testers are incapable of telling the difference between good, mediocre and bad, then they are just pandering to the lowest common denominator. Which is just about as far from the values of Meridian and the subscribers to this forum as you can get.

MC200, Twinstore, 808v6/ID41 -> DSP8000SE (+ SB Touch, Sony BDP-3300, SKYHD, legacy cassette player)
2nd system: MC200 analogue out, Linn LP12, SB3 -> Quad 34 -> M60 rosewood
F80 (Rubino Micallizzato)
F80 (Rosso Corsa)