Returning HDTV's question

Good questions.

You could call a store that's on the other side of town or out-of-town and talk with them about it without mentioning personal information. I imagine they'll try to discourage too many returns for obvious reasons, but, it may be interesting to get their take on it.

what TVs did you try and what specific issues did you have? a little bit of context is necessary to fully answer your question

You wouldn't need to take so many TVs home if Best Buy had them all set up in the store so you could check them out there! They don't even have the remotes out, and last time I asked someone to get one out they couldn't FIND it! And they wonder why their company is dying?

Im right there with you bud. Ive had 4 of the same model samsung 55" and i think im finally writing them off and switching to LG or Sony. If i get a tv I like im not going to ever get back on here haha. Ignorance is bliss.

Take it back and get a tv from costco walmart or sams club. Best buy is full of annoying ignorant trash. They chite you hard for returns and sams club doesnt say anything! I hope we both find a happy ending! Im looking at the sony ex620 or the 640. The NX720 is best but not in a lot of stores. Hx929 is way overpriced

What's the "ABL bug?"

not a bug, an inherent flaw in plasma technology

all plasmas have it

Ah, thank you Is it plasma-only? Or LCD/LED are affected as well?

unless the LED or LCD has some dynamic contrast or backlight feature on (especially energy saving or eco settings/modes), no

if such a feature is active, all you need to do is turn it off


in general plasmas can show very bright whites on a small portion of the screen but much dimmer whites full-screen

LED/LCD shows full brightness regardless of how much of the screen area is very bright white

Right, so I'm guessing plasmas are undesirable for sporting event viewing then, damn. Didn't mean to derail thread at all if I've done so, sorry OP, was just curious on those matters. Thanks

all depends on the manager. if you're afraid they might refuse your return, go in a different day/time of day when the people you normally see aren't there. If not you can always call best buy corporate support, they will resolve your issue.

And as far as i'm concerned, Amazon has the best return policy, i literally never have to lug giant TVs out of my house, into my car and drive them to a retail store. They just send out UPS to come pick up my TV. My ups guy is super nice and even helps me take it off the wall. And when they send a TV out, it's usually with "white glove" which usually means 1-2 shmucks help you take it out of the box and set it up on the stand, which is better then doing it by yourself.

good luck

/done pulling Amazon's pecker, i swear.

only if you watch a lot of very bright full-screen content like hockey

I dont think they will refuse a return. Their big marketing push right now is find the best fit tv for your liking. Wont they even come and get it for you? I would suggest trying another Sony like the hx750. You probably wont get a set with 0 flashlights but one with minimal. When I had the NX720 there was practically 0 flashlighting because of the local dimming. Too bad they no longer carry it at BB

It's been years since I returned a TV...maybe 2005 or so...once when I decided to try a DLP due to all the rave reviews and ended up hating it, and a second time in the same 'buying round' when another TV had bad pixels (7-10 clustered in a 2-3 inch area that was visable from a normal viewing distance).

Honestly I've never felt the need to try out multiple TVs in my home since (having learned my lesson on that DLP) I research the hell out of my purchases including reviews by professionals I trust and 'man in the street type opinions' found on Amazon etc.

I've also learned not to be too picky. Unfortunately there is no perfect TV right now. Some of the sets you've returned are considered quality TV's by a lot of people. And the faults you mentioned for each are routinely mentioned in the reviews.

I very much dislike returning things, but I did return two TVs to Best Buy.

The first TV had a loud buzzing noise whenever the backlight was turned down from 100%, so we had to use full torch mode all the time. Also it had flashlighting in the corners that was beyond anything I had seen on other TVs, bad enough to wash out some of the color in two corners after the screen heated up. Finally, the PC RGB port failed to handle full 1080 res, something I only learned after trying it out. I explained all the issues to the manager, and he was fine with me returning it.

The second TV I purchased because it had a particular matte screen I wanted. I had researched this a lot. My brother-in-law had the same TV with the matte screen and I was familiar with it. The store display model had the same matte screen. I even told the sales rep I was purchasing the TV because of the matte screen, and we discussed how it looked different than the other display models on the Best Buy wall. Well, I got it home and the screen was semi-gloss - seems the manufacturer changed the screen type mid-production run. I felt bad returning a second TV, but I did all the homework, how was I to know about the manufacturing change.

The TV I have now is a baseline model 47" LCD that I got for under $600. While it won't win an award for best picture, it has no flashlighting, buzzing or other weird issues. Especially if you are needing to finance, I would recommend going with a lower cost TV. Then do what I did and put some of the saved cash into a budget HTPC that in combo with the TV will give you more functionality than the expensive internet TVs. Everything you own - in a way owns you. Pay thousands for a TV and then maybe you are crying over any little thing that happens or any perceived defect. Especially with kids in the house and errant footballs, my cheap TV was the way to go, lol. Good luck.

I returned 2 tvs to future shop recently.Very easy to deal with,no problems.i asked how many I could return and he said I was still ok,so I assume I had at least another 1 or 2.

I bought some clearance/discounted plants from Garden Shop all which died or nearly.They wouldn't give me any money back because didn't bring dead plants back(??????).

Only buy from a place with good return policy!