|
That's an unfortunate situation. Hopefully my country will not make such a silly decision, but I won't hold my breathe. We did pass PATRIOT and DMCA, after all -- something that doesn't seem to really help most people (or rather, is used in a way that wasn't necessarily intended when it was written). Anyway, I digress...
The MediaRange award is part of a larger conversation about marketing, lies, and idiotic reviewers --- my writing on this often resemble rants because of it.
Not living in Belgium, I'm at a slight disadvantage on knowing what's what -- but I can give you some anecdotal information that can help you make a good decision.
PC World and About.com are two well-known "magazines" here in the USA. PC World is available in print and online, and then About.com is an online-only pub owned by The New York Times. Sometimes the "awards" that are given, or the article/reviews that are written, are very questionable.
A few years ago, some giblet-head writer in Germany wrote up this big scary anti-DVD piece that made its way in PC World. It was all fluff, the research was unfounded garbage, and the source of the information was heavily biased against DVD tech. Nonetheless, the piece ran, scaring people needlessly, and the myth that a DVD will die in 2-5 years lives on to this day. (A well-stored DVD should last 25-50 years, easy.)
The writer guidelines at About.com pretty much state that you're not allowed to leave a bad review -- it sort of pleads with you to find something positive to say (as many good as bad), and to first converse with the maker/seller of the product. This would explain so many of those silly review you see, where "nice remote" and "pretty color" are noted. (Who cares about the color if it doesn't work right? Seriously?)
A lot of magazines are afraid of saying anything bad. They don't want to lose an advertiser. This is a pure breach of journalistic ethics, although this gets downplayed a lot by non-journalist publishers and owners. (Anti-media zealots then chime in with their "all news is biased" garbage.)
A lot of writers are afraid, too. They don't want to anger a publication in a day where writing/media jobs have shrunk. I can't blame them. (On the other hand, I feel ethically obligated to point out all the blaoney that goes on. The "Fox News" affect hasn't gotten to me, where you only report on things that play to your favor.) I've watched fellow writers buck the system, only to adapt slowly, watering down their writing year by year. Others chose to leave the field, rather than become something they couldn't respect when they looked in a mirror. (A friend at the Dallas Morning News did this last year, after it was announced that the advertising department would oversee and "help align" news to marketing interests. That was apparently the last straw for her.)
So when you think about a "Computer Bild" review, examine how often (never?) that they leave a negative comment. Find out what makes a product deserve an award. Sometimes it's nothing more than being cheapest. If that magazine is Belgium-only, then maybe they can't afford to anger the only Belgium DVD brand? Some magazines here still give the Memorex brand of blank disc 4 out of 5 stars when it's a infamous among consumers for being unreliable or crappy.
What I love most is a trend in recent years, where a product (usually some scammy-type junk off TV), says that their item was "featured in Consumer Reports" or some other pub. I actually followed up on this last month, finally tracking down the year-old issue of CR, only to find that the "featured" product was something CR said not to buy! SERIOUSLY! How funny is that?
Few people would check up as I did, so they take awards, testimonials, and related schlock at face value. "It won an award, it must be good!"
Judging from the many, many comments I've read online about MediaRange (including some from very knowledgeable folks at myce/cdfreaks), consumers dislike this brand about as much as folks in the USA dislike Memorex branded CD-R and DVD-R. "Sucks" is a common descriptor.
I'd love to see the "tests" made by the magazine, if an issue is available online, or if you can scan a print copy.
In the end, the only way to know for sure, is to buy some, burn them, test them, and then monitor them over a long period of time. Not everybody wants to do that, however -- it's one reason so many folks come to this site.
Hope that helps.
|