I couldn't help it

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by TUD1

I turned everything down to a reasonable level, and it makes a stellar picture.

I wish I knew why stores almost always turn all controls to maximum on their flat screen TVs. The resulting picture looks terrible (to say nothing of the strain this puts on the TV's power supply and other circuitry, including the display panel itself), nothing like what the set will show in someone's home, with the controls set to produce a good picture. If this is someone's idea of a sales point, I don't know what they are thinking. IMO, it is a miracle they sell as many flat screens as they do with the picture looking so awful (oversaturated colors, raster far too bright, contrast set to maximum...)

I don't know if this ploy was used as a sales point for b&w NTSC TVs, but I would guess it was, for whatever crazy reason the stores may have had at the time (maybe they thought they would sell more sets that way, as flawed as this line of reasoning seems). Flat TVs being the kind of sets they are (take it out of the box, put in on a stand or in a cabinet, hook up antenna or cable/satellite, turn it on, and watch, with little or no regard for the default control settings), this trend will likely continue indefinitely.

Sheeesh.