How to Judge an HDTV's Picture Quality in a Store

By eHow Electronics Editor

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Judging an HDTV's picture quality in the store is tough. Glaring lights, noisy customers and pushy salespeople make an already difficult task even harder. This plays to the salespeople's strengths, however, as it gives them the perfect opportunity to jump in and recommend a model for you. Unfortunately, these suggestions often come with hefty price tags. Avoid this pitfall by following these steps to judge the picture quality yourself.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step1

Bring your own DVD to the store. Since most HDTVs don't actually have access to high definition programming in the store, bringing a DVD gives you the next-best picture quality you can get. Make sure it's a movie you're familiar with, too, so you know how it should look.

Step2

Ask the salesperson to turn down the TV's brightness and contrast settings. Salespeople often pump these up to make the picture look "sharper," but the end results are distorted colors and harsh shapes.

Step3

Turn down the lights in the test room, if you can. Most stores have their high-end models in isolated viewing rooms with dimmed lighting, but the rest of the TVs are covered with glare from the building's bright lights.

Step4

Switch through the HDTV's different picture modes to get a feel for its capabilities. There are often preprogrammed settings for sports, movies, TV and video games.

Step5

Keep an eye on how natural the picture quality looks. The picture should never look cartoonish or extreme, but should rather be crisp, clear and realistic.