When is HD not HD? In Tesco!
01/05/09 15:06 Filed in: Ramblings
When a really good HDTV display is given an inferior analogue signal you're not seeing HD. And who's the biggest culprit when it comes to displaying high-quality HDTVs with low quality distributed analogue TV signals? Tesco, that's who.
Although my main focus is digital video of the sort that's created by camcorders, I'm naturally interested in the stuff that helps us to share and view the clips we shoot with such devices.
With the current rush to buy HD television displays - the bigger the better - it's no surprise that there are lots of opportunities for retailers to pull the wool over people's eyes when they should be making it easy for them to make informed choices.
The one thing, above all others in this respect, that I find astounding is the way retailers display their HDTV models. If you're set on buying a new HD television and you're casting your eyes over a bewildering array of screens - how are you meant to decide which is best for you if the screens aren't displaying true high definition signals?
Perhaps certain high street retailers would rather you didn't see them in their best light? You have to wonder, don't you!
With the current rush to buy HD television displays - the bigger the better - it's no surprise that there are lots of opportunities for retailers to pull the wool over people's eyes when they should be making it easy for them to make informed choices.
The one thing, above all others in this respect, that I find astounding is the way retailers display their HDTV models. If you're set on buying a new HD television and you're casting your eyes over a bewildering array of screens - how are you meant to decide which is best for you if the screens aren't displaying true high definition signals?
Perhaps certain high street retailers would rather you didn't see them in their best light? You have to wonder, don't you!
Decidedly Low Definition
Earlier, I was in my local branch of Tesco - the large flagship store at Kingston in Milton Keynes (UK) - and I was looking around the very large and varied collection of HDTVs on display. I was particularly interested in checking out the LG32PG6000 for my son who was looking for a reasonable-sized display at a good price. The LG offers very good value for money and produces very good 1080P pictures when fed a decent input via HDMI. You wouldn't know that from the way it's displayed in Tesco, though.
The pictures being fed to some very good displays was (and still is) absolutely dire. So how can consumers make proper choices if the HD screens aren't showing HD video but some truly dreadful, noisy, snowy analogue TV instead? Does Tesco actually care that their TVs look so awful? Does it think that a meaningless HD Ready (which usually means 720p) sticker is sufficient?
None of the displays were being given a proper HDMI or even Component Digital input. How do I know? Because I had a look around the back of several and saw that they were being given a rubbishy distributed analogue RF signal. Perhaps Tesco just doesn't care.
So, if you're in the running for an HDTV display and you want to see a range of models being properly represented, then do what we did - go elsewhere to a retailer that is displaying proper HDTV inputs on their monitors. (We got a great deal at Curry's where they were prepared to display a run-out line LG32LG5700 32" HDTV working properly, in case you're interested).
And the Moral of the Story is...
If you're considering any consumer electronics product, make sure you're able to evaluate it properly to the point where you're happy that it will suit your needs. If the reseller can't be bothered to invest a fraction of its huge profits on a better HDTV distribution system then take your business to another retailer that is!
Every little helps, eh?