Best Buy misinformation  

Not sure, but didn't I read a recent quote from a FOX exec who said their football games WERE in Hi Def as far as FOX as concerned.

http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

After all, that's as good as it will ever get on FOX. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek of course!)



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jm in Boulder

The clueless salespeople at BestBuy make me want to puke sometimes. ralphing as I type...

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Kipp

IS THAT A REMOTE CONTROL IN YOUR POCKET OR ARE YOU JUST HAPPY TO SEE HDTV?

I'm sure you are absolutely right about that guy at Best Buy. He was out of line, and misassuming an awfully lot. By the way, what is the last time any place like BB or CC ever mentioned that dirty "A" word?...(antenna). Joe Six Pack has little idea about the STB, much less that OTA has a lot of the "existing" programming.
Having said that, I suggest we not be too rough on the BB guys--BB management gets exactly what they want...very young (ever noticed the avg. age in there?), ill-trained folks who receive LOW pay. BB mngmnt gets what they pay and train for. Actually I like BB blueshirts a lot more than the red-jacket (old) CC pushy commission guys- either ignor you or hang on you. I find BB generally pleasant, IMHO.

I was at BB last week and ran into a similar situation. All the DirecTV dishes and STB's were in one area and all the HDTV ready (etc) TV were in another. The HDTV area sets all had the infamous demo loop playing. The salesperson was eager to spread his misiformation to anyone who would listen. When I asked where the HD STB's were, I was escorted to the DTv section. The salesperson had the nerve to show me HBOHD on an analog 19 inch set!!! I asked them why the STB was not hooked direrctly up to an HDTV set. After about 6 seconds, he stated "I guess the cable wouldn't reach!! Enough said.

I agree, with the previous posts. The average person will not realize that a regular over the antenna is the starting point for HDTV OTA reception. I have been to RS and other stores that advertise "digital ready" VHF antenna's when MOST HDTV is in the UHF band.

This is exactly why I've told my family, friends, and anyone who will listen, to do the homework first. Find out exactly what you want before you ever set foot in one of these places and only go there to buy it. Too many people buy televisions because of the way they look on the showroom floor (I used to do it, too!) And people like my father, God love him, will tend to believe the blue shirts (or red shirts) just because he doesn't know any better.

The best thing we can do is spread the word far and wide, to anyone who'll listen, that these guys don't know what they're talking about. They just want to sell you something before you leave and will make up stuff on the spot (I recall looking at HDTV's at Best Buy and asked the guy to show me an anamorphic dvd so I could see what it looked it. He basically looked at me with a dumb stare and went, "huh?")

If anything is going to hurt the digital transition, it's going to be these type of CE outlets that make it so confusing, complicated, and expensive for the average consumer that they won't ever want anything to do with it.

We fear what we do not understand.

Things aren't necessarily any better in the high-end stores either. I stopped into one recently that was listed at the local Dish Networks dealer.

I guess the dealer listing was a bit out of date because they not only didnt sell any E* equipment but they tried to convince me that E* was going out of business any day now and that DirectTV was going to buy them.

Then they told me that DirecTV was the one I wanted for HDTV programming because E* doesn't offer any HD channels.

When I pointed out to them that the in-house HD loop they were showing was the E* demo channel, they had no response.

This was a respected dealer who's salespeople should have known better but, heck, you gotta sell what's in stock, right?

I don't think I will be spending any money in that shop any time soon. At least with Best Buy and Circuit City one expects the staff to be poorly trained.

Sunday Ticket will probably be all HD in about 2006. Until then, I'll go to the sports bar down the street and save myself the $150 or whatever it is.

BB is one of the better stores IMHO.

I must say that things are complicated. I have been doing this for a long time and have difficulty keeping track of all of the issues and details. And explaining it to folks is really hard.

That's quite humorous, re: Sunday Ticket. I recently had to call DTV to reverse this summer's ST charge, having cancelled service 8 months ago. They referred me to a retention rep, who was very nice. She asked what she could do to get me to come back to DirecTV and Sunday Ticket. I told her, "Make Sunday Ticket all HD." She told me that that probably wouldn't happen anytime soon. I told her she could keep my name on file and call me if anything changed :-)