When Purchasing A HD TV, Your Eyes Can Trick You In Stores
- Date: 2007-05-30 - Word Count: 511
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As more people buy on the web, most people contemplating buying a high definition TV would rather go to a high street retailer than buy it through an online retailer. This is perfectly understandable, because you get the opportunity of seeing the high definition TV yourself, or getting advice from a customer representative before paying.
But be careful... here I'll give you a few reasons why your assessment of a high definition TV in showrooms may be flawed.
Firstly, most HDTVs that are sent directly from factories to retailers are set in what is labeled in the AV industry as "dynamic mode". This means that contrast is artificially boosted and the colors are deliberately over-saturated on the high definition TV, as these has been shown in research to boost sales.
A high definition TV that is outputting in "dynamic mode" gives an impression of "brightness" and "colorfulness", wrongly perceived as the signs of a good TV although the picture is - in actual fact - incorrect. Usually it's only when you transport the TV back home that you find out that every object has a blue hue and the skin tone is not realistic .
Furthermore, in a typical shop with quite a few high definition televisions on show, the signal is distributed among all these televisions. As a consequence each high definition TV receives a weaker signal, which will contribute to a lot of artifacts like sparkles and horizontal lines, and perhaps ghosting and loss of detail.
To aggravate the issue, most stores will very likely use inferior connecting cables (because these are less expensive, and the stores likely have more than their fair share lying around over the years) to send the signal. In an ideal situation one should use a HDMI, VGA, component or DVI connection because these suffer from the least signal degradation, and can realize all the promise of the high definition TV for you to make a proper decision... yet you rarely see these used in demonstrations unless you specifically ask for them.
Another problem with your average high street store is the excessive amount of surrounding lighting, not only from internal fluorescent lamps and probably the sun, but also from competing high definition TV unitson display. This will cause glare (especially on plasma televisions) and degrade the picture contrast on the HDTV you're watching, contributing to a dull picture. Most HDTVs fare better at home where there's stricter ambient lighting control.
In conclusion, there are certain shortfalls when assessing high definition TV in a shop - you're watching uncalibrated display units with less than pristine feeds in an environment that is too bright. For correct judgment of a high definition TV's true potential, you can either go to a dedicated shop with the proper setup designed to eliminate these problems, listen to the views of those who own the TV on public forums, or read reviews that are conducted professionally in a controlled environment.
Vince Teoh writes for HDTVTest, an online magazine which carries out comprehensive HDTV reviews. For more information you can go to his web page on high definition TV in-store demonstration shortcomings.
But be careful... here I'll give you a few reasons why your assessment of a high definition TV in showrooms may be flawed.
Firstly, most HDTVs that are sent directly from factories to retailers are set in what is labeled in the AV industry as "dynamic mode". This means that contrast is artificially boosted and the colors are deliberately over-saturated on the high definition TV, as these has been shown in research to boost sales.
A high definition TV that is outputting in "dynamic mode" gives an impression of "brightness" and "colorfulness", wrongly perceived as the signs of a good TV although the picture is - in actual fact - incorrect. Usually it's only when you transport the TV back home that you find out that every object has a blue hue and the skin tone is not realistic .
Furthermore, in a typical shop with quite a few high definition televisions on show, the signal is distributed among all these televisions. As a consequence each high definition TV receives a weaker signal, which will contribute to a lot of artifacts like sparkles and horizontal lines, and perhaps ghosting and loss of detail.
To aggravate the issue, most stores will very likely use inferior connecting cables (because these are less expensive, and the stores likely have more than their fair share lying around over the years) to send the signal. In an ideal situation one should use a HDMI, VGA, component or DVI connection because these suffer from the least signal degradation, and can realize all the promise of the high definition TV for you to make a proper decision... yet you rarely see these used in demonstrations unless you specifically ask for them.
Another problem with your average high street store is the excessive amount of surrounding lighting, not only from internal fluorescent lamps and probably the sun, but also from competing high definition TV unitson display. This will cause glare (especially on plasma televisions) and degrade the picture contrast on the HDTV you're watching, contributing to a dull picture. Most HDTVs fare better at home where there's stricter ambient lighting control.
In conclusion, there are certain shortfalls when assessing high definition TV in a shop - you're watching uncalibrated display units with less than pristine feeds in an environment that is too bright. For correct judgment of a high definition TV's true potential, you can either go to a dedicated shop with the proper setup designed to eliminate these problems, listen to the views of those who own the TV on public forums, or read reviews that are conducted professionally in a controlled environment.
Vince Teoh writes for HDTVTest, an online magazine which carries out comprehensive HDTV reviews. For more information you can go to his web page on high definition TV in-store demonstration shortcomings.
Related Tags: hdtv, purchase, buy, store, high definition tv, hd tv, demo, showroom, demonstration
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