Best Buy on Glenwood has a demo for the difference in setting up a HDTV yourself and having Geek Squad set it up...Two HDTVs next to each other showing the same channel.

The Pro Bowl was on when I was in there. THEY WERE SHOWING THE STANDARD DEFINITION CHANNEL STRETCHED TO 16:9.

I talked shit about it loudly...pretty sure they heard me but ignored it. Oh well. I hope no one here would ever actually consider using them...I always thought you would be paying a bunch of money for something you could easily do yourself, but apparently you get a large dose of incompetence as well.

2/8/2009 8:42:55 PM

Quote :

"I always thought you would be paying a bunch of money for something you could easily do yourself, but apparently you get a large dose of incompetence as well."

While most likely unethical, is dishonesty and trickery to be considered incompetence?

They set it up like that on purpose and rely on people not knowing any better. Geek Squad in home installs are almost 100% profit for best buy (they have to pay some guy 10-12 bucks an hour and pay for his gas). That's why they push the installs so hard.

2/8/2009 8:51:50 PM

a few years ago when i was living in wilmington, I was the subcontractor that got the plasma tv installs for that best buy. I think they charged around $400 for an install, best buy would keep half of that and pass the job to me. So for doing nothing, they got $200.

2/8/2009 8:58:21 PM

Quote :

"The Pro Bowl was on when I was in there. THEY WERE SHOWING THE STANDARD DEFINITION CHANNEL STRETCHED TO 16:9. "

you mean on both TVs?

wouldn't it make sense to show real HD on one TV and SD on another, to show people the difference?

2/8/2009 10:20:10 PM

I'm pretty sure the TV they were using to promote their service was showing the HD channel.

2/8/2009 10:24:26 PM

its possible with the incompetence at best buy that both TVs were stretched

2/8/2009 10:25:04 PM

to be honest, it's not targeted to you

it's targeted to people like my mom.

over christmas, she was complaining that "hd didnt really make that much of a difference and i shouldn't have bought this new tv"

when it took a while to grasp the concept that there are different channels on her cable box for the hd channels than the ones she was used to.


sure it's pretty unethical

but what would you expect?

2/8/2009 10:34:22 PM

Quote :

"sure it's pretty unethical but what would you expect? from Best Buy"

it's the same as stuff like HDMI cables or really any cables they sell. Ignorance allows people to charge 400% more than what stuff is worth because people are too lazy to learn things on their own that are actually really simple

2/8/2009 11:14:51 PM

so if i want to watch my free hd and never switch display i should just keep in on normal instead of zoom and stretch? that is what i've noticed through experimentation. the zoom looks nice on regular tv but fucks up hd and i don't have the patience to keep switching....sound about right?

2/9/2009 12:22:26 AM

Yeah I wouldn't use zoom or stretch. I like to see the signal as it's intended, and so far my new TV seems to know when to switch aspect ratios. The only exception was my DVD player, which was showing 4:3 in a weird, thin, almost square picture (I think because both the DVD player and the TV were trying to adjust the signal). After I fixed that in the settings though, it seemed to remember what to do with the signal from the DVD player, without further adjustments.

2/9/2009 8:05:47 AM

Smart Stretch on the Sharp Aquos TVs almost always precisely and proportionally stretch any non-16:9 images.

2/9/2009 8:25:45 AM

Who the hell listens to the "highly trained" sales reps at Best Buy anyways.

How far are you running that video cable? 2 feet? Well you definitely need MONSTER CABLE@!!!!

2/9/2009 11:03:05 AM

Quote :

"to be honest, it's not targeted to you it's targeted to people like my mom. over christmas, she was complaining that "hd didnt really make that much of a difference and i shouldn't have bought this new tv" when it took a while to grasp the concept that there are different channels on her cable box for the hd channels than the ones she was used to."

Pretty much.

There was a study a while back that showed a very significant amount of people with HDTVs didn't have HD but thought they did. This is likely what they were going for.

2/9/2009 12:15:59 PM

An old article about said deception:
http://consumerist.com/5074930/best-buy-uses-tricks-to-sell-calibration-service-espn-and-espn-hd-on-same-models-tvs-hides-that-one-is-just-regular-espn

[Edited on February 9, 2009 at 12:18 PM. Reason : ]

2/9/2009 12:17:46 PM

^ When I use to work at Best Buy, our store actually had an HDMI splitter to 2 identical TVs, one with calibration, one without. I'm not sure why that store did what they did.

But, the calibration though is pretty sweet if you have $300 to blow. It's a hardware calibrator, you can't do the same thing by eyeballing it.

2/9/2009 12:27:54 PM

^ For that price you could buy the equipment to do it yourself and not be beholden to Best Buy.

2/9/2009 12:39:20 PM

Quote :

"But, the calibration though is pretty sweet if you have $300 to blow. It's a hardware calibrator, you can't do the same thing by eyeballing it."

or you could just go over to avsforum and find the thread regarding your tv - read the post by someone else that has either been dumb enough to pay for this service or has their own calibration tool for free...

2/9/2009 12:42:53 PM

^on top of that, I personally don't care what all the calibration hardware/software says. I only care how it looks to me. Those settings will get you in the same ballpark (infield) and from there you tweak it to your liking.

Kind of like the Panasonic plasmas with "red push," people on avsforum love to bitch about it, but panasonic found that the average consumer prefers the red push.

[Edited on February 9, 2009 at 12:48 PM. Reason : ]

2/9/2009 12:47:18 PM

If you can see the picture clearly that's all you need.

2/9/2009 1:12:48 PM

Quote :

"But, the calibration though is pretty sweet if you have $300 to blow. It's a hardware calibrator, you can't do the same thing by eyeballing it."

If you can't eyeball it, then how are you going to tell the difference when it's done? Man that HD smells great. Did you have it hardware calibrated?

2/9/2009 1:21:48 PM

^ Have you ever tried to correct a gamma and response curves manually? It's pretty difficult, even if you know what's off.

Quote :

"or you could just go over to avsforum and find the thread regarding your tv - read the post by someone else that has either been dumb enough to pay for this service or has their own calibration tool for free..."

That's a great option if you can find someone that got it done with a HW device for your model of TV.

But it still doesn't compensate for the ambient lighting in your room like having your own HW calibration done.

Quote :

"^on top of that, I personally don't care what all the calibration hardware/software says. I only care how it looks to me. Those settings will get you in the same ballpark (infield) and from there you tweak it to your liking. Kind of like the Panasonic plasmas with "red push," people on avsforum love to bitch about it, but panasonic found that the average consumer prefers the red push."

Also true, not everyone cares to have highly accurate color reproduction.

[Edited on February 9, 2009 at 1:34 PM. Reason : ]

2/9/2009 1:32:37 PM

my dad had a HW calibration done after a month or so of "burn in" time or whatever its called for new HDTVs. It made a world of difference.


Geek Squad did his initial install and the HW calibration. He had a full entertainment system put in, with wall mounted swivel brackets and universal remote programming and all the glitter. Yeah him and I both could have done the entire thing ourselves in a weekend, but he's at the point in his life where he'd rather have it done correctly by a professional as he just sits back and enjoys a beer. Can't say i blame him.

2/9/2009 2:33:40 PM

Quote :

"I'm pretty sure the TV they were using to promote their service was showing the HD channel."

It may have been the HD channel...but it was definitely stretched. And yes, it was on both TVs.

I realize they arent marketing it to you and me. Doesnt give them a pass for doing something halfass.

Ive read some good stories on the lack of knowledge about HD by most consumers. My favorite was the woman who saw "Available in HD" come up at the beginning of all her favorite CBS shows, so she just assumed she had HD on her standard analog TV.

2/9/2009 8:14:28 PM

Quote :

"Geek Squad did his initial install and the HW calibration. He had a full entertainment system put in, with wall mounted swivel brackets and universal remote programming and all the glitter. Yeah him and I both could have done the entire thing ourselves in a weekend, but he's at the point in his life where he'd rather have it done correctly by a professional as he just sits back and enjoys a beer. Can't say i blame him."

Best Buy actually has a specific name for this demographic they call the "Empty Nesters" made of of "Charlie" (or possible "Barry" if you dad buys more top shelf type of things) and "Helen" (the "lifestyle group" and "customer segments"). If your parents regularly shop at best buy and use a credit card or have a reward zone card, their purchase history is tracked, and a computer program can determine what demographic they fall in. Sometimes (if there's enough time...) managers use this information to decide what to do if your parents ever try and haggle about something, or have a customer service issue.


[Edited on February 9, 2009 at 9:36 PM. Reason : ]

2/9/2009 9:33:42 PM

Best Buy is basically the Wal-Mart of consumer electronics. What did you expect? Maybe Monster's sales have been down.

2/10/2009 1:02:39 AM

^how can you say that? walmart is one of the biggest consumer advocates in america. best buy doesn't fight for your business by shafting manufacturers and offering you cut throat deals, they just shit on you with terrible return policies and pushing garbage on old/ignorant people.

2/10/2009 8:44:45 AM

^^^i guess my dad is a Barry.

2/10/2009 8:49:58 AM