first hand experience - bad retailers

[admin_exported]

I was lucky enough to actually see some of the sets i'm considering hooked up to a blueray source yesterday (which is a rarety with no specialist retailers in my area) Unfortunately despite seeing that the bluray player was running i'm really 'hoping' that I wasn't seeing two of the sets in their full glory.

They had the 40" w400 Sony as well as the 46" x3500 sony, the 3500 picture was much, much better than the 4000 and i was hoping that maybe it wasn't running a full source (they were both showing the exact same trailers at the exact same time) the RV trailer looked quite good but the 'click' trailer than followed it was awful, lots of noise, artifacts (either from sharpeing or processing) I tried to get some info from the people that worked in the store but that proved fruitless.

On both these sets there were some fast pans and movement and that seemed to handle ok but the noise was terrible. I then say some panasonics and pioneers running what I presume was BBC HD (from a quality standpoint anyway) and although immediately not as sharp as the Sonys the picture was alot more watchable and immersive.

The final store I visited had a band of 46" and 50" tvs all running the same set of trailers (including the new mummy trailer) even standing abot 4+ metres away all 12 of them looked awful (sony, lg, panasonic, samsung) I can only presume that they were running a low quality sourse.

Its proving VERY difficult and frustrating to actually see any of these sets running some decent source material Can anyone recommedn somewhere on the south coast, (between brighton and southampton) where there is a decent retailer that has HD TVs linked up to some decent HD source material?

thanks

 

[Anonymous]

It's really hard to believe isn't it. You go into a store to buy a TV and the stores are too stupid to optimise the picture you are seeing on the screen to show the TV off in it's best light. The big chains are by far the worst for this. I was in Tesco this morning and their video feed to the TV's was broken so all the TV's were showing a nice mid-blue screen!

 

[Anonymous]

the sad thing is that it obviously doesn't matter to 90% of the customers who buy on price and/or brand only, or just whatever the sales person tells them is 'the one they have at home!'

people who care about what we get have to buy online for the best prices and rely almost entirely on reviews

three cheers for what hi fi...hip hip hoorah....

 

[Anonymous]

I think this is a bigger issue and needs prompt attention from the manufactures and the retailers. ÿ

Over and over again we're choosing television's based upon reviews we read in magazines like What HiFi.

We're choosing our TVs based on the best and highest specs.

We're choosing a TV based on the best price

And we're choosing a TV based upon how it looks.

But how many of us, hand on heart, are choosing a tv based on how happy we are with the picture and the sound?ÿÿI've got three sets that I'm trying to decide between right now; a Panasonic, a Samsung and a Sony. ÿHave I found any store that is able to let me watch the HD picture and the Standard picture in a setting which doesn't involve standing inside a brightly lit shop surrounded by 30 other tvs all showing the same channel?

And this is certainly not a dig at chain stores like Curry's or Comet because I've been into some of the more exclusiveÿshops and they don't even have any of the televisions out for you to watch. ÿApparently you just order what you want and eh, hope for the best.

There really is such a gap in the market for a decent chain ofÿelectricalÿstores which allow customers to immerse themselves in the buying experience and actually allow them to see first hand, what they're buying and how it might look in their living room.ÿ

Of course, if anyone knows of any stores like this, do let me know

ÿ

 

[professorhat]

I would have thought most small dealerships who sell televisions will be able to arrange a viewing in their demo room if you phone in advance and book it.

 

[Anonymous]

professorhat:I would have thought most small dealerships who sell televisions will be able to arrange a viewing in their demo room if you phone in advance and book it.

Our local Audio Excellence will do this. Sadly they can't seem to complete on price anywhere below 40 inch so only the bigger TV's are available in their demo room.

 

[Anonymous]

The small dealers seemed worse then the large chain store. A certain dealer I visited beginning with 'S' had two televisions on display. One of them was turned off. When I asked him if I could view said set I was interested in I was told that they don't have them in stock and if I wanted to buy one then they'd get one in for me.

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