Six Common HDTV Showroom Pitfalls

HDTV buyers beware: Things that you see or hear when inspecting sets in a store can be extremely misleading.

With the long-awaited transition to digital broadcasting just around the corner (February 17), many shoppers will take the HDTV plunge during the holidays and beyond--and stores eagerly await them. Even if you plan to buy online, it's smart to eyeball sets in a local big-box store, but don't take everything you see or hear at face value. Here are some issues to be aware of.

Check the Content

In a recent visit to a Best Buy store, I noticed that the inexpensive sets were playing a recorded HDTV loop (sales reps couldn't say whether it was 720p or 1080i, the two broadcast HD formats), but the pricey units in the store's upscale Magnolia area were playing different content--some of broadcast quality, but some from media. Not surprisingly, the set playing a Blu-ray movie looked best, since Blu-ray is the only source of native 1080p content.

Best Buy wasn't systematically promoting its fancy sets, though: Next to the set with the Blu-ray hookup, another expensive HDTV was playing a standard-def DVD movie, which made it look markedly inferior to ...

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Yardena Arar