Okay, what follows is My Adventure at the Big Box Store. The store will remain nameless, but you’ve probably been in it when you were shopping for a TV. We were looking for a panel to put in our office conference room, so I was wandering up and down the aisles to see if I could find a deal.
And, while I was doing so, I happened to run into a HD sales pitch by a Big Box Store Employee.
Let’s set the scene: the Big Box employee was standing next to a very expensive, big name panel, and comparing it to a less expensive panel of the same size for the benefit of a very confused-looking man. Confused Man was doing the nod-I-have-no-idea-nod-what-you’re-talking-nod-about thing that people do when they are, say, introduced to a nanotechnology Ph.D at a cocktail party and they start talking about picoforce measurement while unfolding protein molecules using an atomic force microscope.
But Big Box Employee was certain, though: “You want the Big Name one, dood, ’cause it’s 1080.”
“Well, I don’t know, it’s a lot more,” Confused Man said.
“But it’s 1080! The other’s only 720!”
“I think the other one looks better,” Confused Man said.
“But it’s 720!”
The funny thing was, Confused Man was right. The colors were a lot better on the 720 set, and the picture looked quite a bit sharper. Not surprising, since we were looking at 37″ panels. Not the largest thing on the planet.
Now, in a perfect world, I would have stepped in, said, “Man, use your eyes. Buy what looks good.” And Confused Man would have said, “Wow, you know, you’re right–I’m gonna buy the cheaper set that looks better.”
But this ain’t a perfect world, and I had shopping to do, and I knew that if I stepped in, it would turn into the game of the Video Blowhard (me) versus the Big Box Employee. No thanks. I wandered down the aisle, found they had nothing in the size I wanted for a good price, and left.
I was, just for a second, tempted to stay and see if Confused Man wheeled out the more expensive set, or if he went with the evidence of his eyes and bought what looked better.
But I didn’t want to ruin my day.
