This does not suprise me at all.

Besides being an obvious scam, it just shows how un-sophisicated they are. Why not use the same identical channel but go into the setup sub menues of the “un-calibrated” set and screw it up a bit!

I’m not condoning this at all but it’s funny how that can’t even do a scam properly!

While monkeying with the picture settings to make whichever brand of TV is on promotion that week look best is as old as the CE biz, what’s surprising and newsworthy is that there are Best Buy drones who even know how to adjust a TV’s picture!

I own an a/v integration company in Dallas.  We received a call from a consumer on Friday asking if we did calibrations.  I asked him to elaborate on his expectations and he proceeded to tell me that he wanted something similar to what Best Buy was offering to decrease power consumption and heat output.  (heat output is a very significant thing in Texas...) After listening to him describe the exact same thing I’m reading here now… well, it looks like Best Buy’s getting desperate to keep their installers busy.  Is this why things don’t seem so bad (economically) for those of us that know an F-Pin from a BNC??

I used to work for Best Buy, and this is not only NOT a mistake, it is “Best Practice.” I have not worked for them in around 7 years, but we used to do the same demo for a certain cable company showing the benefits of the cable, when in fact we were actually showing the difference between composite and component or interlaced and progressive technology, and then claiming you would only see that benefit if you bought the certain manufactures cables.

Dear Joel Silver -

Please strongly consider revoking the ISF calibrator certifications for any installer who is employed by Best Buy (or anyone else who uses this type of deceptive practice). And make a big splash about it.

These kinds of deceptive practices hurt all of us engaged in calibrations, and in particular hurt the ISF’s reputation. Even if the retailer or integrator doesn’t mention ISF, the ISF is (or should be) almost synonymous with video calibration. This type of deception actively hurts the ISF’s reputation, as well as the reputations of all of us who have invested time and money in ourselves and our installers to attain certification in video calibration.

Dear Gerry Lemay -

I urge you to follow the same guidelines for HAA certification. Even if they’re “only” being deceptive in the video calibration realm, calibration cuts across both audio and video. And consumers don’t always know the difference, especially when deceptive practices deliberately blur the line.

As someone who has spent time and money on my techs (I employ one of just a handful of people in the state of Illinois certified for both Audio and Video calibration), I very much have a stake in ensuring the value of my investment.

Rob Schultz
Inspired Electronics, Inc.
http://www.inspired-electronics.com

I’m pretty certain that Joel Silver and ISF don’t have the resources necessary to “police” each and every BB location that offers calibration services. However, I do feel that incidents such as this damage all of us who strive to provide the best possible video to our customers and clients and that Joel could (and should) have some serious conversations with his contacts at BB to develop a zero tolerance policy regarding misleading customers in this way.

As a freelance ISF-certified calibrator I find both good and bad in having Best Buy as a “competitor”. On the good side, they are helping to spread the word that display calibration is both available and necessary if consumers want to experience all of the video performance that they’re paying for. On the bad side, their personnel (both calibrators and floor sales people) aren’t all of the caliber that most of us would consider appropriate and necessary. Not to mention the fact that their employee turnover rate is higher than many retailers’ inventory turns and it’s pretty much a given that their best calibrators will not hang around for more than a year or two.

I’ve invested a lot of time, energy and money in becoming an ISF-certified calibrator and am hopeful that this was a somewhat isolated incident and is not indicative of what customers are experiencing at the average BB location.

Rob Robinson
AccuColorHD
http://www.AccuColorHD.com

I remember the days when I would walk into Best Buy and see a display that showed how great Monster Cables were and how much better the picture would look if you simply bought their $149 component video cable.  Same TV’s, Same DVD Player, Same DVD. but one was connected with composit and the other component.  Of course you’d have to be a complete geek to crawl behind the display and look at the actual connections to find out about this scam.  To answer the question about whether or not this is a scam: ABSOLUTELY.  It is false advertising in its most complete form.  If this was Enzyte, they’d be in jail for 25 years & a $500 mil. fine.

I was in a Circuit City and saw the exact same scam Michael noticed at BB.  After seeing a Monster Cable “comparison” display with identical monitors and DVD players connected showing the same Ice Age DVD, and noting the massive image quality difference I immediately looked at the back of both units.  Surprise, surprise, the Monster display had component cables connected and the non-Monster set had the cheap composite video cable connected.  I then questioned the sales “kid” working that department as to why they were running an unfair comparison and he told me that is how they were told it was to be set up and that is how they showcase the Monster product!  I gave him and the other sales person a piece of my mind about blatant fraud, but they didn’t care and I eventually left.  Now I understand why consumers shopping for electronics feel the same why I do when looking at a used car!

Look, If the employee did not know how to use the display, I cannot defend that. On this demo you speak of, there is a bluray player that is hooked up to both tv sets, playing the same dvd to the tv’s (it is going through an amplified HDMI splitter). If the employee worked in that department, they should have been able to change the input on the tv sets to show you a difference using the same source (not an HD/SD sportcenter picture). Now, before you knock the ISF calibration services, you need to speak to somebody that is familiar with the demo at a store, whether it be Best Buy or anywhere else. You can get excellent information at cnet.com or the imaging science foundations website.

Hi.

As an ISF certified calibrator, I would like to comment on this.

I will agree that having a SD signal on one TV and a HD signal on the other is a little misleading.  However, the calibration is about achieving realistic looking COLOR, not so much image sharpness/clarity. Sometimes more detail is realized after a calibration, but not always (a lot depends on the TV) and I never promise that. 

Many stores DO have an HD vs HD comparison and I suppose the demo in question is to be a two-fold comparison: the benefits of HD, AND the benefits of calibration.  Obviously I cannot speak directly to what any particular salesperson may or may not have said.

To address the heat and power consumption issue… It CAN make a difference.  Compared to out of the box settings (which tend to be very bright and vibrant), a calibrated TV does usually use less power and generate less heat.  Largely due to the lower amount of blue in the white after calibration.  Blue is a rather hot, harsh color contrary to popular belief.  Most people think blue is cool and red is warm.  These are subjective terms.  In reality it is the exact opposite (think of a flame… red hot, white hot, blue hot).  When there is less blue in the picture (by way of the white), the TV does not work as hard, therefore lowering power consumption and heat.  Think of driving a car in the red all day (like a TV with a bunch of extra blue)… it will run hot, guzzle gas, and not last as long as it could.  Same with a TV.  Tone it down a notch and run it “correctly” (and by that I mean TECHNICALLY correct), and it lowers the energy (fuel) use, runs cooler, and lasts longer.  The difference in that analogy (before someone comments on it) is that it is not blatantly bad for a TV to run with extra blue (as it would be for a car to be driven in the red), but it is better for it to not.

The important thing to keep in mind is that these gains in performance are very relative to where you are starting from… ie. a Sony or a Toshiba tend to be further off and hotter out of the box than a Samsung or a Panasonic.

As for doing it yourself… yes, there are DVD’s that will help you set the contrast, brightness, etc… and some will even help you select the color temperature setting that is CLOSEST to correct, but it is very rare that a TV will turn out “correct”.  In many cases, it will turn out wrong in the opposite direction and not be as colorful as it should be(not enough blue). 

A certified ISF technician will enter the service menu (on most TVs… something you should NOT do, as you can break your TV and void your warranty) and actually adjust the color of white to be the correct, industry standard color of white.  The same color of white that cameras should be set to when filming.  White is used as the reference point for the entire color scheme in the TV and when it is wrong, everything else is too.  This is the bulk of the service.

They also use a very sophisticated, expensive colorimeter set that precisesly measures that color and displays it’s coordinate on the CIE color graph, which is the goal… not neccesarily the 6500K you often hear about.  It is very near 6500K, but what many people don’t understand is that multiple points on the graph can have the same color temperature.

Can any TV benefit from a calibration?  Yes.  Is it for everyone?  No.  I would say that 98-99% of the time, when I am done calibrating a TV, people see exactly what I am talking about and enjoy thier picture.  Every now and then I run into someone who does prefer the picture to be more on the bright and vibrant side.  That is their opinion and they are certainly entitled to that.  To each his/her own.

To be fair, there are legitimate reasons to run demos from multiple video outputs.  Back in the day in my old store we demo’ed the benefits of the then-new component video by running composite, S-video, and Component to three different 32-inch CRT sets from the same DVD player.

However, we were absolutely crystal clear about what we were doing and why, and communicated that to customers.  This doesn’t appear to be the case in this particular story.

The SCAM TEST!
Are these people really that dumb or that smart?
I say if your in business you tend to know what your doing…

I went to my local Best Buy last week looking to purchase Video Essentials or similar BluRay calibration disc.  Unfortunately, they had none in stock.  But they wanted to sell me an ISF calibration.  My recollection is that two years ago BB had all kinds of video calibration discs.  Not any more!

Having read the letter I would tend to agree that the BB store in Charlotte is not giving the customer an accurate example of what calibration can actually do.  I also do not know how long ago this letter was written because we were told in my store (I work in the Home Theater dept in a BB store south of Indianapolis) that we cannot give reduced power consumption or heat as a benefit of ISF Calibration, only improved detail.  This is also not the same display in all stores.  My store has a similar set up but instead of advertising calibration we are advertising the difference between standard and hi-def.  If a customer wants to see the difference between factory settings and calibration we have a blu-ray player with an hdmi splitter and play them a clip of a movie.  Same source, same connection.  I just didn’t want every reader on here to assume that every BB store in the country is trying to mislead customers.  We try very hard to educate the best we can and give people an experience they will enjoy.  Thanks

BEST BUY IS ALWAY BEEN A BIG LEADER IN FALSE INFORMATION OR JUST PLAIN MISLEADING THE PUBLIC.wHY BECAUSE THEY KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT WHO COMES AFTER THEN THE ELECTRONICS POLICE...i WAS IN A BEST BUY AND THEY HAD A SAMSUN PLASMA WITH A SIGN SAYING IT WAS 18 BIT PROCESSING AND A 18 BIT PANEL .WHO MAKES A 18 BIT PANEL.i ASKED THE MANAGER IF THEY DIDNT MAKE A MISTAKE HE SAID NO ALL INFO COMES FROM SAMSUNG,,EVEN THOUGH WE COULDNT FIND ANYTHING TO BACK IT UP FROM THE SAMSUNG WEB PAGE.MORE FALSE ADVERTISING.

Blu in the picture making heat?
Somebody needs to review the way LCD displays work.  Plasma maybe, but they don’t count much anymore...(the should start the flame-wars).
In an LCD, ALL the pixels share the same backlight, and that lighting system is the primary power draw in the display.  Dropping it from the factory default of (usually) maximum will reduce power consumption.
I DO have question for all you calibrators out there.... what’s the point? I own a nice top-shelf LCD, fed by some really nice sources, and I find that almost all source material needs a little touch-up to be “right”.  We used to say that NTSC stood for “never the same color”.  If one were to calibrate a set to a particular reference, then the display would only be right if the source material was also correctly “calibrated”.  The whole thing comes down to only 4 adjustments on most sets anyway.  To me it seems like having someone come and set the tone controls on your stereo.  They might be able to get it “flat” but that may not be where you want to listen anyway.  If I were working in a studio or a post production facility, cal would make sense, but I just don’t get it for the home user.  It seems that most of the time, it would just show you how far off some source material is, then you’d just fiddle with the knobs until its right, or at least better...and there goes that fancy calibration (I know, it’s safely tucked away in a preset memory)
As to the slimy practices at these big-box retailers, dont believe anything you see or hear!
They have an agenda, and you only figure into it as a source of cash.

Two things:

1.  To Stan Gordon, I just bought a JKP blu-ray two days ago at my local bestbuy.

2.  All of the BestBuy stores here in Dallas have two demos.  One on the main floor showing calibrated vs. uncalibrated along with HD vs SD.  In the Magnolia rooms they have two televisions side by side both in HD, but one is calibrated and one is not.  They also have watt minders and temp sensing on each of the sets.  It was extremely apparent that the calibrated set was not only running cooler, but also using less power.

I work at a Best Buy and I have to admit that was rather lame of this particular location to try and pull a stunt like this. As was stated above it hurts the consumer as well as both Best Buy and other independent ISF calibrators out there who are legitimate.

Sales reps that do not understand the intricacies should not be pitching it to a customer and I know from personal experience and deep research once presented properly there is no need to scam as the calibration literally sell and pays for itself. I’ve not had one complaint from any customer that took me up on it and have had plenty of referrals afterward as a result.

That display is certainly the SD vs HD demo and should only be used as such so a customer doesn’t go home with surprises of what happens if they don’t upgrade their service. There should be a second set of displays for calibration and a proper demo set up to show the difference visually as well as economically (wattage) and thermally (temperature).

The benefit is there but when one goes through deception to convey the information they hurt the cause in the end, and for all of us and I am ashamed that such an attempt was made to do so. My compliments to the customer for seeing through it however words could have been chosen more carefully if not of heated mind, and the idea behind a calibration is fortunately not a scam.

This two TV setup serves the function of TWO distinct demos.  The first is an SD versus HD comparison (you would be surprised to see how many people think their new TV is going to make SD look good...) and as a calibrated versus non-calibrated TV demo. Some locations have two separate demos, some have one serving both functions.  Unfortunately, this customer spoke to someone who didn’t know what they were doing.  By simply changing inputs, you can switch to the BD demo or to a camcorder demo (which really spells out the difference in color and accuracy).

So many people are too quick to blame the company, when it is as simple as one employee not knowing what they are doing.

Why am I not surprised?

I will say that @ my local BB, the calibration display has always had the same image on both screens (most often, it’s the constant repeating menu screen of some BluRay disc - seems the TVs there are being fed from the same source).

That said, this reminds me of the “unscrupulous” practices I used to see years back in Guitar Center stores. Marshall guitar amps were, back then, big profit machines for GC (not so now in the time of eBay & mail order/online stores). The problem is that, at least back then, the expected Marshall “sound” is not really what would come out of the amp when someone plugged a guitar in. The “sound” people heard on records or live involved studio processing, recording techniques, usage of FX, etc. Or you simply cranked the amp all the way up to really appreciate it. Not always (but occasionally, if the player does not suck)OK in a large retail environment when a 50-100 tube driven beast in involved. The trick to make those amps sound “killer” at all volumes with any level player plugged in? A simple one - and one NEVER told to the customer.

Floor model Marshalls often had inexpensive Boss GE-7 Graphic EQ pedals running thru the amp’s FX loop (and hidden from view). By completely cutting the 800hz frequency out of the sound via the GE-7, that desired “scooped” rock/metal tone was magiaclly there. SOLD!!!

Of course, once the buyer got home & fired up the same model (but almost never the FLOOR model) amp sans Boss pedal? NOt the same sound he heard in the store!!

No surprises here.  Best Buy violates the False Advertising clause of the Federal Trade Act on a daily basis by placing on sales placards and newpaper ads, as the primary selling feature on a flat panel TV, a verifiably false contrast ratio claim.  Recent tests on plasma sets by Samsung and Panasonic in Home Theater Magazine report actual measured contrast ratio capabilities at or less than 1% of the claimed 1,000,000:1 specification given by the manufacturer and supported by this and many other retailers.  The same is true whenever they print a 1200 watt power claim as the primary feature on a Home Theater in a box system that features an amplifier with a 90 watt power supply.  The act of printing false information specifically intended to induce a buyer to make a purchase… Want to know

This is a mistake, the display in question until recently was a DirecTV display with ESPN displayed in stretch mode on the SD side and ESPN HD on the HD side.  These new signs came out and they were supposed to take HD out to both TV’s and the Geek Squad Install Team was supposed to calibrate only one of the tv’s. 

Our location opted to ignore the instructions and hold off on the sign change until the necessary calibration and re-wiring could occur.  Too bad others didn’t pay that much attention.

These scams are not made for persons who are technically inclined but say the average joe, who walks into the store and wants to buy an HD TV. Believing that the people on the floor are there to help them.....which clearly they are only there to make the sale.

It’s a nice spin attempt but Best Buy’s failure/inability to properly calibrate a TV is not the issue at hand, as far as I’m concerned. 

For example, on 10/18/08, Best Buy featured on their web site, a Panasonic TH-50PZ85U.  Best Buy is complicit with displaying Panasonic’s claim that this model TV has a dynamic contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1.  In October of 2008, Home Theater Magazine measured the full on / full off contrast ratio of the set to be 3390:1 which is 1.3% of the claimed “native” contrast ratio and .3% of the claimed “dynamic” contrast ratio. 

As Best Buy uses the fraudulent 1,000,000:1 claim as the lead differentiating feature on the TV, they are in violation of Federal Trade Laws regarding misleading or false advertising.  Although Panasonic, the manufacturer, is responsible for the claim, Best Buy willingly publishes it despite the fact that, as “experts”, they should be well aware of Panasonic’s indiscretion.

I’ve collected over two dozen corroborating test results on TV’s from a wide variety of manufacturers via various publications that contradict performance claims in advertising that has been produced by Best Buy and other “big box” retailers for their in-store, on-line, and newspaper advertising.  My data shows a consistent and deliberate pattern of fraudulent advertising practices by these companies which include HH Gregg, Circuit City, Sam’s Club, Wal Mart, and Costco. 

Recent FTC rulings against Airborne, the cold remedy, in Wilson v Airborne, Inc. et al, and 3M Corp in The People of the State of California v 3M Company, provide a precedent whereby Best Buy and others could and should be taken to task at a class action level for these FTC violations. 

It has become clear to me after 9 months of research, filing complaints, and writing letters, that the CEA and it’s small business divisions along with related industry publications have no intention of “biting the hand that feeds them”, despite the fact that publications like CE Pro and Custom Retailer claim to represent the best interests of the independent A/V specialist. 

Instead of calling out the obvious and holding liars to task, they print articles telling the independent specialist why and how to change their business model.  It’s nothing but pure cowardice.  I guess the check for the double-truck in last months issue is more important than standing up for the ones responsible for building the industry in the first place. 

I could go on for two or three more pages but I’m out of time.

John Price