Best Buy HD-Ready LCD scam?
By Barb Dybwad 
posted Jun 13th 2005 6:30AM
posted Jun 13th 2005 6:30AM
Reader Chris wrote in to report a recent experience at Best Buy purchasing a $479 "HD-Ready" flat-panel LCD that turned out to be not so HD-Ready at all. Magnavox customer support informed Chris that the model he'd bought, the Magnavox 17MF200V/1, is definitely not HD-Ready. The display has no component inputs, nor does its DSUB PC input take an HDTV signal via adapter. Best Buy is marketing this unit heavily, and it looks like their cheapest "HD-Ready" set, so just consider this a bit of caveat emptor on that, mmmkay?
15:9 viewing ratio ?!?! >_<
The Unit has VGA Input and supports 720P thats all you need to be able to say it is HD"READY" and it does say you need a set top box, DVI To VGA,, But mostly the reason why lots more tv's are going to be called HD Ready is becuase 1. They have at least 720P and 2. VGA .... Take a guess why, Windows Media Center 2005. All the new media center pc's have VGA out and the best way to watch the "HD " windows media files is well vga out, becuase it sees it as a monitor not a tv... when i first saw the unit i called up Magnavox and asked them if they had tested it with the new media center pc's becuase well thats what screen im looking for for the best results and they told me " well to be honest im not sure if we did or not but it is HD ready and can support up to such and such screen res"
so if you go out and buy somthing thats under 500 bucks just becuase it's hd ready and you dont check the back to see if what you have will work for it thats your own fault.
HDREADY never ment that it had all the inputs in fact hdready never really ment much anyway
you get what you pay for is my comment lets try to stick with gadgets and not with an unhappy person about there product because if thats the case we are going to have alot to read!
~MF
Looks more like a printing error to me. How much of a moron do you have to be though, to need to call up Magnavox to see if this thing supports HD or not when you've got it home? Plus, did he read the box? If it said the unit was HD ready on the box, then Magnavox is the one scamming, not Best Buy. If he didn't read the box, then that's another strike for him. He didn't even bother to do research before buying the unit either, I guess that 500 bucks was just burning a hole in his pocket. That would also be strike three.
The only thing best buy is good for is goofing off in their stores and not buying anything. The mail in rebates are a scam too. Basically, go there to look and play, and buy your shit from somewhere else. And if you have to think a bout it, you probably dont need it bad enough! :)
The only thing best buy is good for is goofing off in their stores and not buying anything. The mail in rebates are a scam too. Basically, go there to look and play, and buy your shit from somewhere else. And if you have to think a bout it, you probably dont need it bad enough! :)
Oh waah, cry me a river.
As Right said. Find out who was lying and if it really gets your panties in a twist sue them for false advertising.
In the meantime, why the hell buy a TV from MAGNAVOX?! Sony, anyone?
A friend bought the Westinghouse LVM-37W1 from Best Buy. It's a nice monitor, but Best Buy sells it as a TV. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6998378&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat31800050024&id=1110265591243
It seems to me that a TV should have a tuner, while a Monitor does not need a tuner. The Web Site used to list this as having a TV Tuner, even though the Westinghouse website didn't sho w a model with a tuner.
The funny thing was when the delivery/installer guys showed up, and couldn't find the cable connector they were looking for on the back of the display. We signed the paperwork, and I hooked it up to the TiVo and DVD Player. It's a nice monitor, but I've yet had an opportunity to connect a computer to either the VGA or DVI inputs and see it run at full resolution.
If Best Buy made the mistake then they should take it back and give the customer a break on one that IS HD-Ready.
Sony isn't all that they are cracked up to be. They're pretty nice, but I prefer some other brands after working at Circuit City and Best Buy for years.
After checking out the Magnavox site (which is BASIC research that any consumer should do before dropping any significant sum of money!) it is NOT listed with their HDTV nor does it even say that it IS HD Ready!
http://www.magnavox.com/index.cfm?event=main&cat_id=1&subcat_id=3&product=68
Seriously... if it doesn't have component, DVI, or HDMI how can people not realize it's not worth purchasing as a TV. I looked at this thing when shopping for a small bedroom HDTV/Computer Monitor and as soon as I looked at the view from the back, I realized it was basically BS and not worth the money. If you are ONLY going to use it as a computer monitor, or if you don't care about HDTV, okay... otherwise it's just not a good use of your money. You can spend some more and get a true HDTV. They should be marketing this thing as a computer monitor with HD resolution as well as TV capabilities, but instead it's marketed (falsely) as a flat-panel tv that's HD Ready.
I just wonder if this would technically be considered false advertising, and who it would fall on. I guess it depends on what it says on the box versus what Best Buy is advertising it as. I always wonder if things like this are the work of stupid people, or the work of people who think consumers are stupid. Unfortunately some consumers allow the latter to continue to be a possibility.
Let's examine the FCC's definition (from dtv.gov): "HDTV Monitor (sometimes called HDTV Ready): A set that can display HDTV programming if you have a separate HDTV tuner, HD Cable Set-Top Box or HD Satellite Set-Top-Box Receiver."
There's nothing in there about connections, component or otherwise. The product description says 1280x768*, which is entirely capable of reproducing 720p. Now, if even using a STB with either VGA out or a DVI->VGA adapter doesn't work, then that's false advertising. But until someone's actually shown that it's impossible, and not depended on a phone call to some poor schmoe at Magnavox customer service, it's not a scam. Incredibly inconvenient and frustrating for your average consumer, yes. But hey, it's an LCD for $500, so BB will just try to get you to buy the incredibly worthless Monster Cables--which are worse than my custom cables that cost 1/5th as much--to get it to work.
* A lot of the under-32" LCD panels are 15:9 (or 5:3, same thing) because they're 1280x768. All it means is there's some black bars for widescreen content, or extra space for wide aspect ratios. Hell, I'm a huge home theater geek, and I could care less. Black bars mean much less to me than preserving the original aspect ratio and/or seeing the whole image.
How is it false advertising? It has VGA inputs and can display HD resolutions. I could set this thing up with my HD STB and have it displaying HD in about 12 seconds.
Oh wait, it's Best Buy. Quick attack them so everyone will think you're cool!
HD ready just means it has the inputs available for content from an HD source (Cable box, etc). It also means that it can display that HD content.
$479 seems about right for that, but I bet they just put the wrong model number in. There are, however, many HDTVs that are cheaper than that, and probably a much better picture. The 30" HDTV CRTs only run around $350 now and offer amazing quality. They just weigh close to 150 pounds.
Wim Bonner: That Westinghouse is actually more advanced than 99% of the TVs BB sells. It's 1080p-capable, a fact that a lot of HT folks are salivating over, but yet BB doesn't hype it up. As of now, it's one of only a few 1080p models actually on sale. It's also really low-priced, especially for an LCD ($2200 for 37"!). If I had an extra thou, I would've gone with it instead of it's 30" baby brother. I'd kill to use the full 1920x1080 rez for DVD post-processing. Plus, you'll get the most out of the PS3, if you care about such things.
And guys, if you're already digital cable customers, sack up and pay the extra $10/month for HD. Hell, an extra $5 should get you an HD-DVR.
Best Buy dishonest? That's unpossible.
Extra $10/month for HD? I don't pay anything extra for HD. I would have to pay extra for DVR, but HD comes along with my digital cable. They just had to give me an HD STB, but it doesn't cost any more than the standard one. Who's charging $10/month for HD? And I'm seriously asking... not being facetious... because I didn't even realize people were being charged for it.
BTW I have Comcast and I live in New Jersey (Monmouth County to be specific).
zombie...just because a monitor/tv is 1080p capable, doesn't mean it's displaying it at 1080p. It's scaling the picture to the panels native resolution. On westinghouse's site, nowhere do they list a 1080p panel, they're all 768/720 native. The only two companies that I believe offer a 1080 panel are Sharp (they're 45") and LG (they're 46")
Alot of people are asking why I thought it was an HD set. It was because it had a DSUB connector. I have two other HD sets which *will* process HD signals through DSUB.
In order to call it HD-Ready, it needs to be able to *process and incoming HD signal* - this one cannot, period, which was confirmed by Magnavox.
I called customer support after my component->DSUB connector didnt work.
Why would you even buy a 17" TV/Monitor for that price when you can pick up a 20" Dell widescreen flatpanel for less, its 3" larger, and has every input you would need?
I'm confused?
WOW..and I thought my co-workers were morons..the people who do the write up for the bestbuy.com site suck too. I work at best buy (blah) and I have to explain so much about tv's and HD to my co-workers and I don't even work in the home theater dept. I have the Sharp Aquos 45" LCD and they didn't even know what the tv was capable of until I showed them. Best Buy never lets you down lol, 15:9 ratio is the best!!
Zerokills: Either you're confusing the model I was talking about with the model in the main story, or you missed the part on the LVM37W1's official webpage where it says "Native/Optimum Resolution 1920 x 1080." Also, there is plenty of first-hand discussion with people running it at 1080p over at AVSForum.com, some of whom put all of us here to shame in obsessing over this stuff. The LVM37W1 is definitely, without a doubt, 1080p native.
anthony girardi: I don't disagree that BB is mostly run by and staffed with morons, but the 15:9 isn't a misprint or stupidity, it's the ratio of 1280 to 768.
whatever. crt projector, anyone?
Do you know where I can get a cheap washing machine ???
Do you know where I can get a cheap washing machine ???
UPDATE: Success! Best Buy has removed the copy from its online listing of this item which refers to is as 'HD-Ready'!
Well, its a partial success anyway - when you search for it it still says 'HD-Ready' in the search results.
However it still states "Progressive scanning maximizes the picture quality of progressive-scan DVD players, set-top boxes and digital video recorders"
Although this probably does perform progressive scanning internally, it cannot accept a progressive scan signal from a progresssive scan DVD player.
Sigh.
Kinda funny. I sent this link to a friend of mine who happens to work at said company, albeit not in a store... I like to rib him with anti BB slander and varioius articles I think are amusing. Although I did this specifically to amuse myself, he forwarded it his boss, and for some reason went up the chain. Theyll supposedly post a commnet here (but you never know). They are alos supposed to be "reorganizing" the items in the store and doing a HD verification on their products. We'll C.