How much do stores jack up ambient lighting to sell you HDTVs?

Posted by Sean Portnoy

Along with selling unknowing consumers $80 HDMI cables that they could buy online for a few bucks, HDTV retailers other longtime scam is to boost the brightness in their stores (including on the sets themselves) to entice buyers. Why? In part because bright screens can mask poor black-level performance on cheaper sets. But then some buyers are then surprised when sets that “pop” in a store appear far more muted when they are hooked up in the living room.

Adding a little bit of empirical evidence to back up this claim, HDGuru recently visited major retailers with an illuminance meter in hand to see just how much brighter their showrooms are compared to the average living room. While he measured 10 homes with light levels that ranged from 1.2 to 110.1 lux, the stores he visited measured: Best Buy, 180.3; Sears, 236.58; Target, 371.38; Walmart, 411.66; BJs, 412.13, and Costco, 742.77. You’ll notice that the stores that have sales people who specialize in home theater equipment (Best Buy and Sears) register far lower readings than the big-box and warehouse stores that don’t offer dedicated TV help. HDGuru theorizes that the amped-up levels at Target and Costco help the cheaper sets they sell look a lot better than their performance will be once you bring them home.

Of course, all stores will be more brightly lit than a typical home, but that doesn’t mean the TV department has to be as bright as the rest of the store. In fact, HDGuru’s measurement of the Magnolia Home Theater section of the Best Buy found a far more muted reading of 34.7 lux, like in a typical living room. Why the difference? The more expensive sets sold in the Magnolia showroom have superior black-level performance that can’t be properly displayed with the cheaper sets radiating in the other part of the store.

The morale: Don’t expect the HDTV you buy from a bricks-and-mortar retailer to have the same picture as it displayed in the store—and that’s necessarily a bad thing. Have you been disappointed with a new set after you’ve brought it home from a store? Let us know about your experience in the TalkBack section.