why not to always trust futureshop/bestbuy workers

[FishySaysSpoon]

I went into the store (futurshop [canada - owned by best buy]) a few weeks to buy some new cables for my sat receiver. I was just browsing the cable section and one of the workers asked if I needed help. I didnt but though hey what the hell I will let him do this job. I told him I was looking for an s-video cable to hook up my sat receiver to my new HDTV. He told me to stay away from s-video. He proceded to tell me that s-video gave the worst quality video and recommended A/V cables. They were over $100 tripple shielded monster brand cables. For the record Futureshop nor bestbuy workers get commission. I told him I was goin to browse around first. I ended up buying a shielded s-video cable from another store. I dont mind shopping there but do give a second thought to any advice they give.

For those that dont know RGB is best followed by Color Difference then S-Video, then Video (the now standard game system connection), and lastly RF. Thanks to http://www.gamesx.com/rgbadd/caveatrgb.htm for this info.

[Vicman]

Dude, seriously, it goes without saying. And it's not just Bestbuy, but any retail employee. If you're gonna spend your hard-earned money then you need to educate yourself. Don't expect those who are trying to sell you something to be well educated or to have your best interest in mind.

Perfect example: A couple of years ago Bestbuy was selling analog projection TV's and advertising, instore and online, the fact that the were bundling progressive scan DVD players with the analog TV's to entice you to buy the TV's. Does that make ANY sense to you? It shouldn't since an analog TV can't display a progressive scan signal. I.E. display a picture in 480p.

[StRiDA CoL]

yeah screw BestBuy, I was ripped off with a return there one time.

heres the story,
for my b-day I got Star wars Republic commando(awesome FPS) for my PC, but it didnt work, so I returned it there and the guy wouldn't let me.So in the end i sold it to my friend

[Drixxel]

As long as you have the receipt and original packaging, the store at least has to replace for you the nonworking product, if not give you a cash refund. If you couldn't return the game because the Best Buy employee you were dealing with simply wouldn't allow you to, then that guy is full of shit, OR you're leaving out some important details. ..and just one thing, you said the game didn't work, but you sold it to your friend anyway? Haha, how can anyone expect to get an honest deal from a faceless retail giant when we still rip each other off on a person-to-person level?

[David J.]

I just go in stores knowing what I want, locate it, buy it, then get the fuck out.

I hate the college bookstore, because there will be people all over you. Yet I love it, because it's full of cute chicks. ;)

[StRiDA CoL]

It worked on his PC

[David J.]

Always read the system specs before you buy a PC game, the last time I didn't was back in '97, when I was 10, and it was a bad experence...

[FishySaysSpoon]

yah, my friend bought ff11 for her comp full price when it first came out without knowing that it wouldnt run on her computer because of the stupid specific brand of video card the game requires to run. It installed perfectly and she went to play it registered it then it tells her she needs a new videocard. So shes never played it. Not only that but she cant sell it to a friend because it was registered to her.

[David J.]

I went in to a best buy today, and they didn't even greet me. That's a good thing for me, but aren't they kind of required by corprate for security reasons??

[lordofduct]

Perfect example: A couple of years ago Bestbuy was selling analog projection TV's and advertising, instore and online, the fact that the were bundling progressive scan DVD players with the analog TV's to entice you to buy the TV's. Does that make ANY sense to you? It shouldn't since an analog TV can't display a progressive scan signal. I.E. display a picture in 480p.

ermmm, when you say analog television... do you mean a standard NTSC television OR were they advertising an analog HDTV? Analog signals can still put out progressive scan. your CRT computer monitor for instance excepts only VGA signals... which are both progressive AND analog. To tell you the truth any CRT monitor/tv can only except analog signals. If it happens to have a digital input on it that means it has an digital -> analog converter inside of it. Plasma and LCD are the only display types that except true digital inputs.

Analog is not inferior neither. I prefer CRT monitors over LCD or Plasma for many reasons.

True Black: CRT/analog monitors create color by one of two ways... projecting light onto a surface or projecting a ray onto a phosphour which creates light. The light you see is the original light created. So when Black is created it is truly the absence of light. In a Plasma or LCD screen you have crystals that can be altered by an electrical pulse to change colour. The crystals are translucent so it allows a light source from behind to pass through and brighten the image so it is viewable. To create Black the crystals must become opaque, as it is a crystal this can not be fully obtained and a small amount of light can still pass through. Thus black seems rather like a really dark purple or brown when you look at it closely.

Motion Blur: Again as CRT/other analog devices use light the change from frame to frame is at the speed of light and is only bottlenecked by the frequency at which you set it at. (i.e. 60hz is the general frequency) Plasma and LCD is a chemical change and doesn't have the pleasure of being altered as rapidly as light can be. This is not a problem in most cases, but can be seen in during fast motion. For a higher cost the product can be made so that its not as noticeable to the naked eye... but check out a video game the next time your on your LCD flat panel, don't you notice the blurring when you move quickly in circles... thats not your computer causing that!

Stability: (this is more for only CRT of the analog displays, but now adays CRT is the only analog display really available on the consumer level) A CRT display lasts quite awhile with minor defects ever. LCD on the otherhand is plagued with dead pixels that usually are only covered by limited warranties AND Plasma is known to last for a very short period of time (in comparison to other display types).

Resolution: for TVs Plasma and LCD don't have problems... what is our highest HDTV res right now? 1080i... thats a 1920X1080 resolution in interlaced format (thats a fifty fifty cut per frame). But when implemented on a computer which usually supports much higher progressive scan resolutions you don't get the output you hope for. When you buy a CRT monitor now adays it is a given it most likely puts out upto 1600X1400 prog scan, and you can easily find some that go upto 2400X2080. What is the average Res on a LCD screen? On average I see 250 dollar 17 inch displays being sold with the crap tastic resolution of 1024X768; you could possibly get it upto 1280X1024 at this supposedly "affordable" price. If you want higher resolutions expect to spend a pretty freaking penny. Which leads me to

Affordability: CRT is cheap... LCD and Plasma are expensive, enough said there.


But then this is all my opinion of why I love my CRT and put up with its large backs. And I also very much agree that you should NEVER trust any salesman when it comes to electronics... shit to anything. No longer do they take the honor or pride in their job to actually learn what they are selling. Especially when it comes to TVs as a LOT of people really don't understand them as is... how many people out there know why the NTSC standard uses a 59.97 frequency? Shit, the common person doesn't even know that it is an odd frequency like that, or even know the rounded 60hz, NOR do they even know what the hell the frequency means.

I apologize for the long rant. And I am not accusing you of anything Vicman, it's just that you probably meant to say a standard NTSC television.

[lordofduct]

yeah screw BestBuy, I was ripped off with a return there one time.

heres the story,
for my b-day I got Star wars Republic commando(awesome FPS) for my PC, but it didnt work, so I returned it there and the guy wouldn't let me.So in the end i sold it to my friend

That is general practice. The game was not defective, it was your hardware's problem. You opened the software which still works and usually no companies will except it back as you could have stole the CD key number and made a copy of the disc. It's not like console video games now adays which have lots of hardware specific copyright protections... PCs don't have the pleasure of that.

[Vicman]

I was speaking about an analog rear projection big screen tv, not an HDTV, I used the wrong terminology. The TV in question could not project anything above 480i.

I'm just gonna touch on a few things you mentioned but I'm not really interested in getting into a big tech argument: Price differences aside analog tv's are indeed inferior purely because you get a loss of signal since digital signals do not degrade, but analog signals do, in transmission. 1080p TV's are already out on the market, by Sony and others, and the PS3 will support that resolution. And lastly if you really want to get the best tech at what looks like an affordable price you should check out the up and coming SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) which will be coming out in the next year or so from Canon/Toshiba: http://reseller.co.nz/news.nsf/0/8E0B770A73B72B8BCC257067000FA1A5?OpenDocument

"SED technology has been under development for more than 20 years and is being positioned by Canon and Toshiba as a better option for large-screen TVs than PDP (plasma display panel) technology. SED panels can produce pictures that are as bright as CRTs (cathode ray tubes), use up to one-third less power than equivalent size PDPs and don't have the slight time delay sometimes seen with some other flat-panel displays, according to the companies."

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http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/6775/fed0125bt.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[lordofduct]

I must quickly say that yes digital signals do degrade... just differently then analog signals in that their are distance requirement for any cable connecting the receiver and transmitter. Because bandwidth loss rises the further you get away from the device sending the digital information.