[kbayer]

Why must it be so difficult to go to a so-called electronic "specialty store" and see an actual TV that is set up at it's optimum potential?


How can a salesman repeatedly just walk passed a hi-tech unit and ignore that the picture is distorted?


Can they invest a few extra dollars and have HD content playing on these things, rather that the pitiful SD content?


Even the ones that are hooked up to Blu-ray -- is it just my luck that I always get there just when the disc is on the menu-part of the movie, and no remote or salesman nearby to get someone to "push play"?


We are soooooooo close to buying one. Took the wife in to get the final co-agreement and to make a decision between Sammy and Sony... but both looked like crap. I know (hope) home viewing will be another experience, but why do I have to purchase on "hope and faith"????


If I ran a TV store, I'd have every set tweaked to perfection ( yeah... blah, blah)....

Sorry for the rant. But dammmm.... CC, BB, and Costco make it difficult when your trying to convince someone that the 2.5 grand investment will be worthwhile.


Maybe we'll just use it for a down payment on a new BMW. At least the dealer keeps the birdcrap off the hood of the showroom models.

 

[mcpryon]

Well, this is very general, and probably something you already know, but look who works in these places. It's hard enough to hire some kid to sell popcorn without them complaining about how "hard" the job is. Even in the last five years I've noticed a drastic change in work ethic.


Bah, I could go on all day about this, so I won't.


But in Costco's defense, they're a warehouse, not an electronics store.

 

[ramazur]

As a rule, stores default their sets. Some sets are changed from the factory reset by the browsers who were given remotes to "play". I agree that feeding an HD set with a low-res jerky and grainy crap is off-the-chart stupid. Same for that 60-120Hz split-screen comparison: a 6-year old kid could propose a better presentation to induce me into parting with my three grand. How about showing two balls - one 60Hz ball and 120Hz ball - rolling on the floor at the optimum speed to show the superiority of the 120Hz and the interpolation. Instead, some moron decided to show very slow and very fast pans of the same scene that is split in the middle. How in the world is that supposed to be helpful as a side-by-side comparison?


In defense of the BB and CC kids, the mature and knowledgeable personel at the local Sony Store turned out to be neither: When asked to demo this marvel called the 120Hz plus interpolation on their W4100, the "mature and knowledgeable" guy I spoke to said he wasn't able to. I rest my case.

 

[icebergshorty]

I feel you on that.


With me, whenever I go into a retailer to look at a specific lcd I come to find that it is often either turned off or on stand by. Then when I come to find that one retail store that actually has the lcd turned on the picture settings are crap.


I went into BB the other day to look at the Samsung LN40A450 and it was on standby, so I had to look at the Samsung LN37A450. The picture wasn't calibrated right and they had the damn lcd mounted next to a crappy 37" Insignia lcd and a 40" 1080p Sony xbr. WTF? Why can't they ever place a lcd next to other lcd's within their specification range and quality. Why put the Samsung's and Sony's with the Insigna's and Vizio's? Why put the 32" 720p next to the 50" 1080p?


Retailers suck!!!!!!!!

 

[westa6969]



Quote:
Originally Posted by icebergshorty /forum/post/14179085


I feel you on that.


With me, whenever I go into a retailer to look at a specific lcd I come to find that it is often either turned off or on stand by. Then when I come to find that one retail store that actually has the lcd turned on the picture settings are crap.


I went into BB the other day to look at the Samsung LN40A450 and it was on standby, so I had to look at the Samsung LN37A450. The picture wasn't calibrated right and they had the damn lcd mounted next to a crappy 37" Insignia lcd and a 40" 1080p Sony xbr. WTF? Why can't they ever place a lcd next to other lcd's within their specification range and quality. Why put the Samsung's and Sony's with the Insigna's and Vizio's? Why put the 32" 720p next to the 50" 1080p?


Retailers suck!!!!!!!!

One of the reasons you place the cream of the crop next to the POS is to make it obvious what your paying for vs. the POS Insignia's, Olevia, Westy and Magnavomit. Look at a 650/750 and any of those rebadgers and it's very obvious unless you have a white cane.


Also, put 100+ panels in your house and then split the feed and see the quality you get.


No Commission = less than professional incentive to demo calibrated panels and most these folks are in-between careers with zilch experience in calibrating anything. A true ISF calibration is going to run $300-$400 or higher on each panel and no quality ISF'r is going to be working for those crappy wages at the B&M's.


Make them earn your money and make a few demands to demo BR on them or else leave the store and take your business elsewhere. If you get the results you desire then you can buy it anywhere since they are mere clones of one another.

 

[ramazur]

Why don't the TV manufacturers calibrate their products in the factory? An auto-calibration rig on the production line should be able to do it in a minute or less AUTOMATICALLY. Calibrating a TV set should not be an art comparable to tuning a classical piano. Nobody ever heard of calibrating a Yamaha keyboard because the computer inside makes it unnecessary. Or am I wrong?

 

[studdad]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ramazur /forum/post/14179333


Why don't the TV manufacturers calibrate their products in the factory? An auto-calibration rig on the production line should be able to do it in a minute or less AUTOMATICALLY. Calibrating a TV set should not be an art comparable to tuning a classical piano. Nobody ever heard of calibrating a Yamaha keyboard because the computer inside makes it unnecessary. Or am I wrong?

Remember, you have issues with different viewing conditions. What might look good in one room might not look so good in another. However, I have found that the Samsung 750 comes about as close as possible to a calibrated picture as any other tv. Yes, a calibration to take in room conditions is still necessary, and you can fine tune it within the SM to make it even better, but I would guess that your average joe is probably turning it on, going to standard mode (or even dynamic for cryin out loud) and pretty much leaving it alone. In fact, that may be the case with other tvs as well, which means there are a lot of ugly tvs being watched out there right now, lol.

 

[DrMark]

When I was shopping for my front projector, I went to a so-called specialty TV store here in town. They had a $10,000 Sharp projector set up so poorly that it only had two colors: blue and white, and the contrast was set so high that it was down to maybe 2 or 3 bit color. I brought my AVIA disk and asked if I could calibrate it, but the sales-droid said that he didn't have a remote for the projector. Needless to say, I left and bought my projector over the internet based on AVS forum reviews. I always sigh when I hear people complain that nobody buys locally anymore.

--Mark

 

[1080z]

Most of us are aware that showroom floors are not really designed or wired for ACCURATE comparisons. I would like to see stores take the set you are interested in off the wall, set it up and let the customer watch it for a while sitting down with a perfect non-split feed. I believe this would actually save the sales staff time because generally they bs with the customer until they move them to the TV the salesman wants them to purchase.


I think a decent feed to the TV the customer wants to buy will always sell that set faster than if they try to justify their purchase looking at a wall of TVs with inconsistent signal quality.


In other words the picture will speak for itself, but evidently the B&M people think they need to keep talking until you decide on the set acceptable to the manager who is trying to push specific models and brands.

 

[MrEastSide]

Best Buy, Circuit City, Costco, Wal-mart all in general pay crap. And anyone you get to work there isn't going to go to TV or audio school to learn how to calibrate or care about any of the products they sell for that $8.00 dollar an hour wage. I work at Circuit City and know quite a bit. There are also a couple other guys there that know more than you could ever imagine. Other than them it's kids working there and that's all those kinds of stores will ever get to work there. I can't really remember a time when it was different. Unless you go to a smaller chain.

 

[Mikewarrior]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MrEastSide /forum/post/14180141


Best Buy, Circuit City, Costco, Wal-mart all in general pay crap. And anyone you get to work there isn't going to go to TV or audio school to learn how to calibrate or care about any of the products they sell for that $8.00 dollar an hour wage. I work at Circuit City and know quite a bit.

A generalizing fool I see... Just because YOU work at ONE Circuit City doesn't mean you know JACK about any other places. I for one work at Costco, I know they pay more than the crap you get at Circiut City ($11 an hour to START!) & I topped out in less than 4 years (Counting bonus/Sunday time & a half, I make around $20 an hour)... So please don't talk out of your ass = Generalizing pisses people off & is clearly ignorant.


Also, The type of people you get to work in Majors (Costco electronics) varies from store to store... It's not the same everywhere Mr. Know It All

 

[reallynotnick]

I work at BB and get a quarter more then MrEastSide and I just started out.


While I will admit the displays not being calibrated is a shame but think of it this way, that's what it is going to look like when Joe Shmo get's it home. I blame it more on the TV manufactures for not calibrating them correctly in the factory. The amount of time it would take to calibrate all those would be ridiculous and anyone could just come in and change them and we have like 60+ screens which we turn over all the time.

BB now does now offer ISF calibration ($200, take or leave it I am here to sell it to you) and we have a demo of 2 screens side by side being fed blu-ray.

Also all of the screens are being fed either 720p or 1080i feeds with coax from a server inside the store with a few on display that have a BD movie and the player is right in front of you so you can hit play on it.


Yeah, it's far from perfect but if manufactures would stop screwing with the calibration by boosting the colors, pushing the blues to give a brighter white and destroying the contrast we would not have this problem.


Sorry about your poor shopping experience, but that is what I use this site for, to find the best set and then just looking for the best price.

 

[8IronBob]

Well, I dunno, at BB this afternoon, even tho the TVs along the wall display were running the cable feed, the Samsung LN46A750 display, which was at, well, not a kiosk, but a display at an end of one of the shelves, was running the Samsung ToC Demo on it for Series 7, and to me, that actually did look like a nice, crisp demo disc that they were running. To me, now THAT was a picture, nothing like what they were running on the back wall.