Best Buy Retail Store Qustion... (1 Viewer)

[Mark Giles]

Does anyone know if Best Buy connects their HDTV's to a HD source to show the full potential of their TVs? We have a Best Buy opening up soon in my town and I courious to see if they do this or just hook up a DVD movie.

Also, does the floor salesmen work off commission? Most of the time this makes a huge difference in what type of service you get....

 

[MickeS]

The local Best Buys here have their HDTVF's hooked up to a HD-feed, I believe it's a server of some kind, because it's a loop with various musical performances, movie trailers, football and so on.
They don't work off commission, which means that they don't give a rat's ass about you. I happen to like that though, because most of the salespeople don't know anything about the stuff they're selling anyway. They will try and sell you Monster cables though!
/Mike

 

[Mark Giles]

OK, Thx Mike, that helps a lot. Glad to see at least it's HD fed. Theyre push Monster cables where your from huh? Funny, sounds like a Cable Cult or something....

 

[TimG]

Well, your store is one up on the ones around here then. They have the HD tvs hooked up to the same crappy cable feed as the rest of them. Not one single tv even hooked up to a dvd player. Well I take that back, they do have the $7000 plasma hooked up to a dvd player. (Of course last time I was in there they had it playing in 4x3 mode on the plasma.)
TimG

 

[jeff lam]

The use an HD feed but I highly doubt its through component cables.

 

[Mark Giles]

Component cables? Does this mean it creates a bad image? or is it just a little worse than thru c. cables?

 

[jeff lam]

I don't believe you can get true HD on a shared signal feed not running direct via component cables, my guess is it's more like a perfect satellite signal being displayed in 480p due to the TV's line doubler. I'll have to check next time I go to BB if the TV's are using Component or not. I could be wrong but my guess is it will look at least twice as good in your own home as it does at BB.

 

[MickeS]

No, the stores here use component cables (I've checked what input they're using in the TV menus), and I'm pretty sure it's a true Hi-Def signal. At least to me it looks as good as the Hi-Def stuff I've seen in other stores.

 

[KirkA]

We just had a Best Buy open up and the salesman are not on commission. I bought a DVD player a few weeks ago. I was having a hard time deciding and talked to 2 or 3 different salespeople all of whom seemed to know what they were talking about. They were all very helpful.
My first stop was Circuit City Obviously on commission. I asked about "Brand P" DVD player... ..."oh that's my favorite one, you should get it" asked about the features... ..."it plays MP3s, all kinds of stuff, it's great". Well the guy was a doofus so I said I'd think about it. He gave me his card an told me to find him if I decided to get it. No thanks. I almost bought it anyway but I'm glad I decided to check at best buy first.

 

[James Bednark]

I used to work for Best Buy, and the whole store is wired using monster cable for better or worse. As for the HD signal is is mostly interlaced stuff bumped to 480p. I think that some of the CBS promo stuff maybe 1080i but then that might be dropped down to 480p. In short the signal is HD but pretty crappy compared to what HD can really do. I know they just picked up a Digital-VHS plyaer, so they may have have that running one of the new mitusbishi RPTVs.

 

[James Bednark]

Oh yeah. They do use Component cables to run the RPTVs (Monster video 2)

 

[Jim FC]

Since none of the TVs BB offers (that I know of) have an internal HDTV decoder, if they are showing an HD signal it must be coming through component video cables.
As an aside, the negative attitude toward commissioned salepeople baffles me. First of all, everybody needs to put food on the table... do you distrust your banker because he/she makes money off of you? How about your doctor or your dentist?
Second, if I'm about to buy something super-expensive that I'm going to want to keep for a number of years, I'm going to put more weight into the opinion of a person who NEEDS to earn and keep my business rather than the person who gets paid the same amount whether you buy the top-of-the-line unit in the store or the crappiest piece of crap there is. You may think of it as an unbiased opinion, but it's just as likely to be an uninformed or uncaring one.
It's not as if BB is running a charity, you know... they make money off you when you buy there, just as a commission-based store does. The good, knowledgeable salespeople that work at BB don't stay long... they quickly move to a store where their skill and expertise is better rewarded. Or they go back to school in the fall.
I'm not saying you should buy from an idiot just because he gets paid on a commission -- in fact, I have often refused to buy from a salesperson who hasn't proved his worth -- but the help of a good, knowledgeable salesperson, in any field, is well worth the effort to find him or her.

 

[KirkA]

Jim,
You make some good points. I've worked on commission so I know what it's like. In this particular example the CC guy wasn't interested in meeting my needs. He wanted me to buy A DVD player so the one I mentioned I had seen in the ad was immediately the shit. After looking at it I decided against a carousel (size) and I didn't like the remote. He gave me a card but he might as well have branded his initials on my forehead as "spoken for". I didn't like him and I didn't like not being able to have someone else help me without it being a big issue. Commissioned salesman are why I hate buying cars.
The BB guys (and girl) may not have cared if I got the most expensive model but they did know their stuff. So what if they're still in school, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to sell DVD players.