No HD at BB

[Rafiki]

Yesterday, I helped a neighbor shop for hdtv.  Our first stop was Best Buy at Northridge.  We were looking at the tvs and a girl asked if we needed some help and I said we were looking for hi def.  She showed us the tvs. I noticed that the tvs were not showing a hd picture.  When I asked her to turn on the hd, she said "we don't have the hook up." Goodbye.

We went down the street to American and my friend bought an RCA 61" widescreen with a 5.1 DD system and a progressive scan DVD.

How can people ever learn the quality of HD if thay can't see it?

Owner of a 57" Sony 16:9

[Gregg Lengling]

I can't handle the noise and lack of service at Best Buy.  The last thing I bought there was a DD5.1 receiver and that was only because I had gotten $500.00 of gift certificates from a promotion at work.  Let me know how your friend likes his tv...sounds like he bought the P63130 which is the unit I have.  I got mine in Mid-November....only thing I don't like is that the cooling fan stays on all the time.  And yes I called RCA/Thomson and it is supposed to do that.  I'd put a power switch in line but then each time I turn it on the Satellite has to reacquire and get all the program listings...so I just put up with the small background noise.  Otherwise it's been a great unit...got it at Circuit City (it was cheaper than the price that American is selling it at now....so I saved a couple hundred bucks.).


------------------
Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
gregg@camelcomm.com

[Kevin Arnold]

After watching the fabulous HD travel shows WHA DT channel 20 runs our of Madison for the last week if I were selling HD's and could get the signal (might actually have to hook up a rooftop antenna! Imagine that) I would run this from opening to closing. This really is a showcase of HD programming that could sell a lot of sets.

[DLLarson]

 

This really is a showcase of HD programming that could sell a lot of sets.

I agree! I get WHA DT but it generally loses sync for me (I'm also in Hartland...east end). I'm going to put my antenna on the roof (rather than the attic) in the hope I can get a solid signal. It's a fantastic way to show off HD! One night it was working well for me and I sat in awe of it's clarity.

Dale

[stoffelwha]

Originally posted by kjarnold:
After watching the fabulous HD travel shows WHA DT channel 20 runs our of Madison for the last week if I were selling HD's and could get the signal (might actually have to hook up a rooftop antenna! Imagine that) I would run this from opening to closing. This really is a showcase of HD programming that could sell a lot of sets.

  Now that WHA-DT has been on for a couple of weeks, I took a quick walk-through of some of the electronic stores located on the east side of Madison to see their DTV/HDTV displays.
  American had half of their HDTV TVs tuned to WHA-DT.  The other half was tuned to a feed coming from an in-house Sencore server.  The salesperson I talked to said he was happy to see an over-the-air (OTA) HDTV signal during the daytime hours. (Don't forget about "Young and the Restless" at 11:00am on WISC-DT.) AmericanTV in Madison is very knowledgeable about OTA DTV, especially the westside store.
  Best Buy has a few HDTV TVs tuned to their "BestBuy network" feed.  Their was no OTA available.  They have no antenna mounted inside or outside the building.  The salesperson was unsure about how many stations were broadcasting DTV in Madison.  The salesperson said he would check with his boss about an OTA hockup.
  Circuit City's HDTV/DTV display was showing an in-house loop.  Some of the widescreen TVs were showing DVDs.  There was one HDTV TV hooked to a set-top OTA antenna.  I asked to see WHA-DT.  Once the salesperson was able to work his way through the truly complex remote control, we were able to see the Madison DTV stations.  The salesperson said he didn't know that so many DTV stations were on-the-air in Madison.  Their display signage talked about HDTV being available from DirecTV, but the sign said nothing about OTA availability.  The manager at Circuit City thought WHA-DT was on 19-1 (actually it's WMTV-DT).
  Sorry, Main Appliance and Sears, I'll get to you soon.
  Except for American TV, stores seem to be pushing DTV/HDTV diplays to watch only DVDs and satellite HDTV.  The Madison
broadcasters need to help educate the retail stores about the Madison TV market having four DTV stations broadcasting
SDTV/HDTV content.  The retail stores can then better communicate OTA DTV to the public.  As the salesperson said at
American, "It's important to show HD content to sell the widescreen TVs."
  Currently WHA-DT is "passing through" HD and widescreen SD content (loop and special programs) from PBS, changing only the static PSIP to give you 21-1.  Local HD and SD encoding capabilities will be added this summer.

[Matt Heebner]

I have to give it to American. Every time I am in a store, they almost always have HDNet playing. The salesguys also tell me that they put OTA HD when it's on.
The last few times I've shopped there, most of the sales guys seem pretty knowledgable about HD.
Best Buy though....I would be amazed if they sold HD TV's based on what they show on their Sensicore loop.

Matt