While business on the internet continues to boom, many people who are thinking about buying a HDTV would rather visit a showroom than purchase it through an online retailer. This is very understandable, as you have the opportunity of seeing the high definition TV in person, or getting help from an ‘expert’ before buying.

But as you well know, things are not always as they seem... What you are seeing in these shops is not always what you are purchasing.

First of all, most high definition TVs that are sent directly from factories to stores are configured in what is termed in the industry as ‘dynamic mode’. This means that contrast is artificially boosted and the colors are intentionally oversaturated on the high definition television, as this has been shown to increase sales & looks better in the larger open spaces of the showroom.

A high definition TV that’s outputting in ‘dynamic mode’ gives an impression of brightness and vividness, usually mistaken as the telltale signs of a good TV even though the image is inaccurate. Unfortunately it’s only when you take the TV back home that you realize the image looks nothing like you just saw.

In addition, in most stores with many HDTV’s on display, the video signal is divided among all of these televisions. As a result each high definition television gets a weaker video signal, which will contribute to a lot of picture artifacts like sparkles and scanning lines, and perhaps blurring and loss of fine detail.

To make matters worse, most stores will very likely use low quality connection cables (as these are much cheaper, and they likely have a bunch of old ones stored in the back) to distribute the video signal. In an ideal situation one should use a VGA, component, DVI or HDMI connection as these suffer from the least signal loss, and can fulfill all the promise of the high definition television for you to make an accurate judgment... yet you rarely see these used in normal demos unless you specifically request them.

Another issue with the usual high street showroom is too much surrounding lighting, not only from in-store fluorescent lamps and probably the sun, but also from other high definition television units on show. This will lead to glare (especially on plasma televisions) and drastically reduce the image contrast on the HD TV you're looking at, resulting in a dull picture. Most HD TVs fare better in the home environment where there’s better ambient light control.

There are certain shortfalls when judging high definition TV in a shop. You're looking at uncalibrated display units with less than optimal cable feeds, in an overly large & bright environment. To assess the full potential of a high definition television, you can either visit a dedicated shop with the proper setup designed to eliminate these problems, read the experience of existing owners on public forums, or read reviews that are conducted properly under strict conditions.