Are cheaper TVs deliberately displayed incorrectly in electronics stores?

December 7, 2004 7:46 AM

Last night the Spousal Unit and I went to a large electronics store in an abortive attempt to buy a television. In looking at the walls of monitors, it seemed like the sets were not adjusted to display optimally--or even adequately. In fact, it seemed there was a subtle (or not so) rigging of set adjustment to favor more expensive sets. This question is to someone who has worked at one of these shops or their ilk: is it carelessness, or is it marketeering?

For the record, once we had a sense of what we wanted, I just went online, read some reviews and made some comparisons, and bought from the manufacturer. But now I'm feeling like I never want to set foot in a Circuit City, or anywhere else like it, again. Not that I didn't more or less feel that way before last night.

(Also, yeesh, two questions in as many days? I gotta lay off the askme...)

posted by frykitty to shopping (23 comments total)

At Best Buy, most sets are connected with coax cable to a signal that has been split many times. The higher-end displays (Plasma, LCD, some of the ProJos) are connected to a cleaner signal with better cables.
This is mostly a cost-cutting measure, because coax is cheap and other cables are more expensive. It is also a result of inertia - if the shelves are already wired with coax, it would take a lot of time and money to convert them to a better signal. People are already buying the TVs, so why change it?
posted by Coffeemate at 7:50 AM on December 7, 2004

Marketeering. You always make the most profitable items the most attractive.
posted by cheaily at 7:52 AM on December 7, 2004

What Coffeemate said. I'm always suprised by how shitty BestBuy lets the signal get on even the expensive TVs.
posted by yerfatma at 7:59 AM on December 7, 2004

IMO, if you're going to get a non-HDTV, you might as well just get the biggest size that fits into the space at the cheapest price; I bought my 25" at Best Buy for around $150, which just seems silly cheap; it works fine. I think that 'normal' CRT TVs are pretty much fungible goods nowadays.
posted by norm at 8:10 AM on December 7, 2004

I'd be surprised if it's routinely rigged to favor the higher-margin items, just because that implies a level of planning and consistency on the floor that you don't see in other ways.

That's not to say it can't happen, but I'm routinely surprised in most of those place how bad the good units look--they'll have a $4,000 set hooked up to a snowy, grainy signal, with a placard saying "Experience the glory of HDTV!"
posted by LairBob at 8:20 AM on December 7, 2004

norm: I strongly disagree. Many manufacturers, particularly no-name or low-name brand, have terrible picture quality. Some name brand ones do too, I'm often shocked at how bad some look. I spent quite a bit on a good tv about 5 years ago and I *still* get comments on how nice the picture looks on mine. YMMV... I am a bit pickier than most people. For example I did and still do think digital cable and satellite cable look like crap, most people don't see it, unless I point it out and ruin it for them. But yet I still have it and have gotten used to it.
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:21 AM on December 7, 2004

I've walked into electronics stores and been amazed that they ever sell televisions. Fuzzy pictures, colours adjusted poorly etc. At least with the electronic tuning the vertical and horizontal hold is adjusted :P
posted by substrate at 8:24 AM on December 7, 2004

I just bought a new Samsung last month...and then I found out it was made in Tennessee. Of course I found little video artifacts to complain about afterwards! Watch out for LG products, by the way. I guess some apple displays are LG and people have been complaining about them.They used to be Goldstar, some of the poorest quality sets back in the day.
posted by pepcorn at 8:42 AM on December 7, 2004

If possible, take something of your own into the store - camcorder, portable DVD player, whatever - and hook it up to the TVs in which you're interested. That way, you know it's the same feed going in to the TVs and you can get a much better comparison. Usually, the a/v plugs are on the front of TVs and if no, any sensible sales assistant is going to recognise that you're serious customers and are looking to buy, not waste his time and will help you.
posted by humuhumu at 8:58 AM on December 7, 2004

Wow, that's an excellent idea, humuhumu...never thought of that!
posted by rushmc at 9:22 AM on December 7, 2004

Also be aware that most stores have the contrast turned up to 100% on RPTVs because it makes them look better in all the harsh store lighting. And many are actually shipped from the factory like that. I found out the hard way when I got burn-in on my 57" Toshiba only 2 months after buying it from not stretching the standard picture to 16:9 format. I now have thin vertical lines on both ends of the picture about 3 inches from each edge. Very noticeable when watching HD channels and wide screen DVDs.
posted by white_devil at 10:01 AM on December 7, 2004

Also keep in mind that stores tend to play things that look particularly good on TV, esp. LCD/Plasma TV's- nature programs, CG cartoons, things with lots of bright colors. What's just as important, if not more, is how the blacks look. If you can, bring your own DVD to play.
posted by mkultra at 10:13 AM on December 7, 2004

I'm constantly amazed at how many electronics stores have widescreen TVs displaying non-widescreen images, so that the images look stretched out and strange. This is so prevalent that I had a hard time convincing my wife that we should get a wide-screen TV because all the ones she had seen in electronics stores had distorted images.

So, what Coffeemate and Yerfatma said.
posted by yankeefog at 10:31 AM on December 7, 2004

I worked at Circuit City, though not in the television department. I do, however, know that what Coffeemate said is usually true, because they're trying to sell you the $50 cables along with the television.

Beyond that, I don't think there's enough collective brain power in one Circuit City to do that. If it's not dictated by Corporate (and I don't think they would put something so obviously unethical into writing), there's no damn way that the managers and employees are going to be smart enough to pull it off.
posted by borkingchikapa at 10:54 AM on December 7, 2004

I know that over the years many in people's houses that I have visited they have the colors on the tv adjusted really strangely (often making skin tones look a bit like boiled lobster), so, while I wouldn't put purposely maladjusting the cheaper sets past the stores, it may well just be random people screwing with the settings. I know that last time I bought a tv I adjusted color/brightness/contrast to my preferences on the boxes I was interested in before comparing the picture quality -- all the boiled lobster preferrers probably thought I had done it just to make those ones look shitty.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 10:59 AM on December 7, 2004

Whatever you get, also buy a copy of Digital Video Essentials. It helps explain and properly adjust contrast, brightness, sharpness, focus, and color for just about any TV set. As mentioned before, you'd be REALLY suprrised at how out-of-whack settings are in the showroom or even out-of-the-box. It even made a difference on the $150 27" set I got at Wal-Mart a month ago.

I used DVE when I bought my Hitachi 51G500 51" RPTV HDTV a year and a half ago. With proper picture adjustments, despite running it almost 24/7, its now passed on to its second owner with no picture burn-in at all.
posted by mrbill at 11:27 AM on December 7, 2004

The widescreen TV's in showrooms showing distorted images has always bothered me. How is that convincing me that it's a good purchase?
posted by raedyn at 11:37 AM on December 7, 2004

Well "always bothered me" might be a bit of a stretch considering I've only seen them commonly in stores in the last decade or less.
posted by raedyn at 11:39 AM on December 7, 2004

Slate has a pretty good article on HD tvs right now.
posted by maudlin at 12:44 PM on December 7, 2004

I worked at a Best Buy store for several years, several years ago. There was never any configuring of any display monitors or televisions. That was awhile ago, but if these days they do try and make some look good then there is no guarantee that someone else hasn't come along and changed them. In addition to the other good suggestions offered here, feel free to make some adjustments yourself.
posted by J-Garr at 12:49 PM on December 7, 2004

My husband worked in the tv section of bestbuy. He just said they never change the factory settings, if anything after people have played with the settings they reset them to the factory default. Good cables have everything to do with a great picture.
posted by sadie01221975 at 12:49 PM on December 7, 2004

I've noticed this in the past and I apply my general rule towards it: Never assume malice where mere incompetence will suffice.

I can't give a definitive answer, but I would be very surprised if Giant Electronics Store, Inc. had even one person on the sales floor who knew how to correctly adjust a TV set. And even if they did, it would hardly matter given the dirt poor signal, split 80 ways, that most retailers run through their display models.

A few other factors I'd consider before chalking it up to marketeering: Customers may be monkeying with the controls. Even in places where customers aren't fooling with the TVs, some units have "nicer looking" defaults than others.

One thing you can be sure of: All demo televisions in the store -- even those fresh out of the box -- are improperly installed and calibrated.
posted by majick at 1:55 PM on December 7, 2004

The same thing as Coffeemate describes happens with computer monitors. Often they'll often use a VGA splitter and send the same image to multiple screens, even if they're LCDs and would look much more appealing at their native resolution. Even the ones that have dedicated computers, like the high-res widescreens will be using VGA instead of DVI.
posted by maledictory at 2:27 PM on December 7, 2004