HDMI/Component trickery at Best Buy

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Biggs is the editor of TechCrunch Gadgets. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at john@techcrunch.com. → Learn More

hdtv-best-buy-deception1

As I recall we had an issue a few months back with another big box store but someone just caught Best Buy also using HDMI cables and comparing them to component cables. Consumerist just found another example. While this is obviously a massive fraud it might have been the only way the Best Buy folks could think to stream the same signal from the Blu-Ray player to both TVs – besides, obviously, using two Blu-Ray players.

What is this mysterious calibration? The tipster asked and discovered:

I called over one of their oh-so-helpful employees and asked them to describe what calibration meant. His explanation involved someone who has some certifications messing with the color combo’s till they feel that the TV “looks good”.

Stay classy, Best Buy.

Sponsored Ads

blog comments powered by Disqus

Sponsored Ads

Sponsored Ads