Electronics

[Just Bling]

Just thinking about this, how can one see the great resolution of a new TV from your current TV set?

The host can tell you how great it is, but in reality, you can't see it for yourself if you don't have one exactly like what they are selling.

[Q4u]

You can't!  You think about things like I do.... 

[GCR18]

I've been in stores like best buy where they have a section with 80 tv's on and they all look the same.  Buying a tv can be like buying a car.

[hckynut]

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@Just Bling wrote:

Just thinking about this, how can one see the great resolution of a new TV from your current TV set?

The host can tell you how great it is, but in reality, you can't see it for yourself if you don't have one exactly like what they are selling.

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@Just Bling

I know other shopping networks mention that in most of their presentations. Bose sells audio and most listen to it through, at best, 10 watt speakers. Does a person hear the real Bose sound? 

Could go through dozens of items saying the same thing. Feels good? To whom? What feels good on him means it will feel good on me?

I think you get my point, and I suspect you knew what I might say before even reading my post.

hckynut(john)

[glb613]

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@Just Bling wrote:

Just thinking about this, how can one see the great resolution of a new TV from your current TV set?

The host can tell you how great it is, but in reality, you can't see it for yourself if you don't have one exactly like what they are selling.

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I bought a new 4K Ultra HD TV a month ago.  I went to Best Buy and to me, they all look good.  I decided to buy a Sony and I'm very pleased.  I think if it's a known brand, you can be assured it will look good. 

[Just Bling]

You can tell the difference in a store.

Costco had a wonderful, crystal clear, vibrant color TV for sale over the Holiday season and compared to the others, it was one that I went back several times to look at.

You can't do that through the TV that you are watching.  That's why I asked, it's impossible to do a comparison of pictures buying on TV.

[gardenman]

You also have to be careful buying based on what you see as stores can, and do, tweak the sets to optimize the images on the sets they want to sell over other sets. Just the inputs they choose to use to deliver the feed to the set can have a dramatic impact on the image quality. If one set is getting the image through an all digital HDMI cable and the other set is getting it through the RF input, you'd likely notice a difference in image quality. Adjusting the picture settings so one set is just slightly less bright, or has slightly less contrast can influence buyers.

When the 4k sets first came out, many stores were feeding them from a digital hard drive that contained massive image files designed to show off the full potential of the sets. Buyers didn't necessarily see that image quality in the real world until more full 4k streaming came along. You can't always trust your eyes and ears while shopping for electronics, as merchants know how to influence shoppers to buy what they most want to sell.

[hckynut]

To get the most out buying any type of audio or video equipment, a person has to first gain a bit of knowledge about what the specs are which are a very important part of any component in these fields. 

As gardenman mentioned, sales managers and their employees will take advantage of their tricks to tweak video and audio which best suits the products they most want to sell. To me video is much easier to alter one brand to look better than another. There are tons of little tricks that are very simple to incorporate to make video look better, and it has little to nothing to do with the brand name.

Of course "seeing a tv picture in front of you is better than watching it through any tv set. Audio is the same, but to this audiophile, much harder to identify, even when going to a stereo studio, to purchase equipment. I believe people's hearing is more individual than their vision. How well one can hear is just a basic start.

From there it can come down to personal tastes and/or preferences in sound, such as bass/treble or midrange, and the capabilities of a component, and it's speakers to reproduce what sounds best to each individual. Sounds great to you? Not so much to your friend that came along with you. Factor in acoustic of your listening area to that of where you are testing the sound of different music or voice.

So many things books can be written, and still fall short. Just take into consideration what "gardenman" said, and what I added, when you go watching or listening, to buy an audio or video component.

hckynut(john)

[Katcat1]

@Just Bling,   However, some brands are known for the clarity like Samsung.  If you are not familiar with the brand and its performance, you would be taking a chance.  

[gardenman]

@hckynut Buying speakers can drive you a bit nuts. There have been a number of studies done where two sets of speakers were set up and identically calibrated and ten out of ten listeners would prefer speaker "A ."  The testers would then increase the volume level of speaker  "B" by a very small margin and all ten would then prefer speaker "B."

It's called a psycho-acoustic effect. Very small changes in volume can result in a vastly different perception of the sound quality. We're genetically programmed to prefer a louder speaker when we hear it. The same is true somewhat of TV's. A brighter, sharper image is perceived as being better and those are easy factors to adjust for a sales staff. Stock on one TV is getting low, you dim the picture a bit and no one will want it. When the HDTV's are back in stock you set the picture back to brighter picture and they'll sell again.

Stores play the same game with computers. It's easy to adjust a monitor or display on one computer to make it look better than an adjacent computer. You really can't completely trust your eyes or ears when shopping for electronics. You're better off relying on trusted reviews.