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View Full Version : Surprise, Best Buy Calibration Service is a Crock

Chris Gohlke
01-08-2009, 05:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://gizmodo.com/5119861/best-buy-turns-to-component-cable-deception-to-sell-hdtv-calibration-service' target='_blank'>http://gizmodo.com/5119861/best-buy...bration-service</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"A Consumerist tipster caught his local Best Buy running a display highlighting the difference between a calibrated and an un-calibrated HDTV. After further examination, the tipster noticed that the un-calibrated TV was hooked up with component cable while the calibrated TV had HDMI. As many of you know, component cable is output at analog, and some devices won't do 1080p without HDMI cables because of copy protection policies." </em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//dht/auto/1231401833.usr1.png" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p><em>"At a demo for their $300 Geek Squad calibration service in an NC store, they have two identical HDTVs showing ESPN&mdash;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."</em></p><p>Two separate incidents start to make me think this could be intentional rather than a fluke.&nbsp; But either way, this is bothersome.&nbsp; If the people that are supposed to be giving advice don't know the difference, that is bad.&nbsp; If they do know the difference are are intentionally trying to trick the customer, that is even worse.&nbsp; From the wider perspective, these are fairly obvious examples which point to how hard it is to comparison shop TVs.&nbsp; Given the above, I pretty much expect that when I go to any big box store and look at the wall of TVs that the ones with higher margins for the store, may very well have been given some extra TLC during setup and calibrated to best show off their value, whereas the cheaper models were at best just plugged in and at worst deliberately sabotaged.&nbsp; Any tips for the best way to comparison shop TVs short of bringing in your own calibration disk and spending hours recalibrating the displays?&nbsp;<em> </em></p><p>&nbsp;</p>
djdj
01-08-2009, 08:15 PM
If a TV has a decent component input, virtually nobody would be able to tell the difference between it and HDMI, assuming the TV will accept the type of component signal being fed into it. I can't say how many TVs have decent component inputs, though. I just know on my high-end Sony that it really makes no difference.

With that being said, the factory settings for the vast majority of HDTVs are pathetic. In most cases the sharpness needs to be turned down all the way, and any dynamic picture controls should be turned off. This includes noise reduction features. Basically anything that is supposed to "enhance" the picture actually makes it worse, so it should be turned off.
Pony99CA
01-09-2009, 02:23 AM
If the people that are supposed to be giving advice don't know the difference, that is bad.&nbsp; If they do know the difference are are intentionally trying to trick the customer, that is even worse.
Or maybe it's just meant to be an example of the differences you could get. If they wanted to trick the customer, they could intentionally de-optimize the settings and use the HDMI or component cables on both sets.

If they are trying to trick the customer, of course, some attorneys general will probably be having fun with them in the near future.

From the wider perspective, these are fairly obvious examples which point to how hard it is to comparison shop TVs.
It's not just TV. Audio (and now home theater) probably has the same issues. I remember buying my first good stereo in the 70s, and the store said you should make sure you listened to both units at the same actual volume (not the same volume settings) because louder units sound "better". They could also de-tune the units, use thinner speaker wire and so on.

Even the computer industry isn't immune to this. Wasn't there a stink raised about one of the graphics card makers tuning their cards to the benchmarks a few years back, allowing them to claim the fastest card even if it wasn't in real-world usage?

Steve