Why You Should Not Base Your HDTV Purchase On Showroom Demos

By: Vincent Teoh


While business on the internet continue to boom, most people contemplating buying a high definition TV (HDTV) would rather visit a brick-and-mortar shop than purchase it through a web merchant. This is perfectly understandable, because you get the chance of seeing the HDTV with your own eyes, or receiving advice from a salesperson before parting with your money.

But things may not be what they seem... here I'm going to give you a few reasons why your assessment of a HDTV in store may be inaccurate.

Firstly, most HDTVs that are shipped directly from manufacturers to retailers are configured in what is known in the industry as "dynamic mode". By this I mean that contrast is artificially inflated and the colors are purposely oversaturated on the HDTV, as these manipulations have been proven to boost sales.

A HDTV that is operating in "dynamic mode" gives the impression of "brightness" and "vividness", wrongly perceived as the signs of a good TV even though the picture is — in actual fact — wildly inaccurate. Unfortunately it is only when you bring the TV back home that you realize that everything looks too blue and the skin tone doesn't look realistic at all.

Also, in a typical shop with quite a few HDTVs on display, the video signal is shared among all these TVs. As a result each HDTV receives a weakened video signal, which will cause a lot of artifacts like lines and sparkles, and perhaps ghosting and loss of detail.

To compound the issue, most shops will probably use low quality connection cables (because these are much cheaper, and the shops probably have quite a few lying around over the years) to send the video signal. Ideally one should use a component, VGA, DVI or HDMI connection because these give the best quality, and can unleash the full potential of the HDTV for you to make a proper assessment... but we rarely see these used in normal demos unless requested.

Another problem with your average brick-and-mortar store is the excessive amount of ambient light, not only from in-store fluorescent lamps and possibly the sun, but also from competing HDTV sets. This will cause glare (especially on plasma TVs) and reduce the picture contrast on the HDTV you're looking at, contributing to a washed out image. Most HDTVs perform better in the home environment where you can control the ambient lighting.

All I'm saying is there are certain limitations when assessing HDTVs in a shop — you're looking at uncalibrated display units with poor feeds in an overly bright environment. For accurate judgment of a HDTV's capabilities, you can either visit a specialist shop with the proper setup designed to tackle these problems, listen to the opinion of existing owners on forums, or read reviews that are conducted professionally in a controlled environment.


Vincent Teoh is the chief editor of HDTVTest, an online magazine which conducts comprehensive HDTV reviews. For more info you can visit his page on HDTV showroom pitfalls.