Best Buy scams HDTV customers into paying for calibration with stretched-out standard def feed
Utterly shameful. According to a Consumerist reader, Best Buy sells its already sketchy $300 HDTV calibration service by putting two HDTVs next to one another: a "calibrated" HDTV and a "non-calibrated" one, both showing ESPN. The scam? The non-calibrated HDTV is actually just pumping out standard-def ESPN, which had also been set to stretch the picture out. The Consumerist' comments is filled with other gems of Best Buy deception, including the fact that cheaper televisions are set up for display with RCA cables, while the more expensive televisions are fitted with HDMI.
This is just outright deception. There's certainly some calibration fiddling that can go down when you buy a new HDTV, but for 99% of all people, it will display just fine out of the box, with the pre-programmed picture settings being perfectly sufficient for most people (including me). If not, a $10 calibration DVD will do you. Granted, there's a certain sort of person who gives their money to Geek Squad — I will charitably call them "idiots" — and I sometimes wonder when the U.N. is going to confiscate Antarctica from the King Penguins and gift it back to them as their Holy Land. But this still makes my blood boil.
How can Best Buy possibly think this is going to fly? If it really took $300 to make your expensive new television not look like smegma-smeared pixel ass, you wouldn't be worrying about calibration... you'd be worrying about filing a class-action lawsuit.
Best Buy uses tricks to sell calibration services [Consumerist]
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Best Buy? I love the place. Where else can I actually see the products I buy on Amazon before I have them delivered?
While Best Buy has clearly crossed an ethical line with their advertising of their calibration service, it is a difficult concept to present to their shoppers. Most calibrated sets will look "worse" on the storeroom floor, as shoppers respond positively to sets with brightness and contrast cranked to unreasonably high levels. If it looks brighter, it looks subjectively better.
The original post notes that sets are good-to-go out of the box; I disagree. I would take the time to go through all the settings and disable the various features like "edge enhancement" or "detail enhancement" at a minimum, and avoid the custom settings called "vivid" or "sports" or "blinding." A calibration disc is an easy investment and it will greatly improve the quality of the picture you are viewing. When you're done you'll probably find it not to "pop" as much as it did before, but it will be more realistic, particularly for movies.
I hate to say it, but I set foot in a Best Buy this last weekend. We had guests coming, and I wanted to get this digital set-top box thing out of the way while I had time (and the coupon). Our guest room has an ancient tube TV in it with no cable or satellite feed.
Anyway, while browsing the differences between the two boxes offered (who really cares?), a worker bee approached and asked if I had any questions. Normally in a store, I would ask the pros and cons of the two boxes I was comparing, but knew this dolt had nothing to offer. Instead, I pointed to the various $30-and-up glorified rabbit ears conveniently displayed above the boxes.
"What are these here for?" I asked, planning to follow up with a comment about not needing them if you already get decent reception for analog signals - especially in a metro area. Heck, even if I had some problems, if I can offer my visitors a choice between at least 2 channels in digital, who cares?
The drone then said: "Oh, you NEED one of these for the box to work." My eyebrows went up. "Oh, really??" I said, and he firmly nodded. "Rabbit ears won't work?" I asked, and he said something like, "apples to oranges."
So even if we give this guy credit that his training brought him to his blatant attempt to squeeze another $30 (or more) from my pocket, it's hard to deny how evil this company is. Obviously, 95% of the people buying a digital set-top box are idiots when it comes to technology (I would bet a good number of them don't even NEED the boxes) and I have to wonder how many antennas BB manages to sell. It's an Enron-level of evil that I hope comes back around.
What happened to Circuit City is a promising sign.
TV retailers have always played games with picture settings. This is just the latest iteration. A smart consumer should have the sales drone show them the settings on a unit they're interested in. If they don't cooperate, that's what teh Amazon is for.
First off all I am a firm believer in Calibrations. Any real consumer purchasing a HDTV should research facts on calibrations before purchasing one. A full service menu calibration is a steal at $300. Most " High End' Home Theater Companys charge much much more using the same or even older equipment to do the same thing. Those companys charge more due to much less volume, and to offset the cost of the very expensive equip. Not to mention the cost of training to get certified by ISF. I know for certian that the largest electronics retailer in the world "BEST BUY" has there techs certified by ISF. People on blogs reading these lies make calibrations out to be a scam and not showing the benefits of what a calibration can do. A TV out of the box is so out of wack its crazy. The only advice I can give someone looking for a calibration look at the FACTS not BLOGS!
From Bill Greenberg - Good Computer Guy:
I bought a 50" plasma TV from Circuit City last month. They had a crazy deal where if I paid $150 for their calibration they'd give me $200 off the TV. Uh, OK. The guy came to the house and was very excited about how much better the TV was going to look after he was done. Well, other than the smudge on the screen from where his suction cup was, I didn't see much difference. I'm sure a true videophile would notice, but who the heck cares? Looks fine to me.
There is only one way to buy electronics: do your homework ahead of time, go to the retail outlet buy it. Refuse all extended warranties and additional services. They are ALWAYS scams.
I'm curious to know which store that picture is from. They are using the new signage that is supposed to show one calibrated TV on the right and a non-calibrated tv on the left hooked to the same Bluray source using an HDMI splitter in order to show the difference between the pictures.
They have up their old displays in which the signage indicated the difference between an HD signal and a non-HD signal.
I won't speculate whether they are trying to be deceptive or they are just behind in getting the right displays there but it doesn't matter because the perception is that they are being deceptive.
"...Obviously, 95% of the people buying a digital set-top box are idiots when it comes to technology (I would bet a good number of them don't even NEED the boxes) and I have to wonder how many antennas BB manages to sell. It's an Enron-level of evil that I hope comes back around."
Brad S., you are correct. ESPECIALLY since the U.S. Government is subsidizing the purchase of the digital set-top boxes, there should be a level of accountability. This matter should be scrutinized.
Ultimately, it'd be nice if consumer organizations and/or government agencies would step in and clean up the sales tactics of the big box stores.