How Best Buy Sells Its Pricey HDTV Calibration Service: Deception
Yeah, Best Buy is known for using less-than-kosher tactics to pull in extra loot, but this is pretty despicable, even for them, since it manipulates the
fact that most people have heard you need to a calibrate an HDTV for the best picture. At a demo for their $300 Geek Squad calibration service in an
NC store, they have two identical HDTVs showing ESPN one calibrated, which looks fantastic, and one that's supposedly not, which looks like total ass.
That would be because
it's showing standard def ESPN next to the "calibrated" set's ESPN HD. But it's even worse than that.
Home Entertainment mag has a great guide on how to shop for an HDTV at a big box store to make sure you don't get screwed when
looking for a killer deal amidst the smoldering ashes of the financiapocalypse. You can also check out how the pros evaluate HDTVs, so you know what
to look for in a set's picture.
Besides using a promotional sign to cover up the standard ESPN's logo (which would make it obvious it's not ESPN HD),
an employee actually told Consumerist reader that "the difference was strictly because of their color calibration." When pressed further,
he admitted that they even made the standard def picture look even crappier by stretching it out. Really, really abhorrent.
How to pick a HDTV?
Resolution: 720p 1080i 1080p? Where to start and what does it mean? Lets face it, all these resolutions look great, but where it
really starts to make a difference is when the size of the screen gets above 40?. Still the difference is negligible most of the time. 720p and 1080p are
progressive scan formats. The picture should look smoother during action and you’ll probably not notice any jagged edges in shots of the sky.
1080i is not progressive but it does have more lines than 720p which should make up for jagged edges or blurry action shots. 1080p has the same
amount of lines and pixels as 1080i put gets the bonus of progressive format. For large HDTVs, over 40?,
1080p is the ideal resolution.
Black-level: Black level is the measurement of how deep a “black” a screen can produce. The deeper the black, or
the blacker the black, typically means higher contrast, which helps a screen look more alive. It is almost more important than resolution. Some jagged
edges is nothing compared to a screen that looks lifeless.
Once you know your source resolution, match a HDTV to that and decide if the black level of the set you want is to your liking and
you are set. HDTVs, nothing to’em. Experts may all agree on the advantages or shortcomings of any product they review but, at
AudioReview.com, we believe that the average consumer can best summarize all the details a product has to offer
