Do stores make tube HDTVs look bad on purpose?

I have an odd question...do stores like Best Buy and Ultimate Electronics purposely make the HD tube TVs look terrible in an effort to get you to spend more money on a plasma or LCD?

I'm asking because I'm looking to get a 26-30 inch widescreen HD tube TV and they look absolutely terrible on the showroom floor. Every HD TV in the store has that INHD channel on with really great nature scenes that really showcase the quality of picture you get with HD. I look at the plasmas and LCDs and I can see that it's a good HD picture. And then I look over at the CRT/tube HDTVs and they look terrible. The picture on them doesn't look HD at all, it looks like a 10 year old Zenith...on every brand of every HD tube TV in both stores.

So my question again is whether these stores purposely make the picture look bad on the cheaper HDTVs to try and get you to spend more money, or do the HD tube TVs actually look that bad? Again, this is on every brand including Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba.

I have an odd question...do stores like Best Buy and Ultimate Electronics purposely make the HD tube TVs look terrible in an effort to get you to spend more money on a plasma or LCD?

I'm asking because I'm looking to get a 26-30 inch widescreen HD tube TV and they look absolutely terrible on the showroom floor. Every HD TV in the store has that INHD channel on with really great nature scenes that really showcase the quality of picture you get with HD. I look at the plasmas and LCDs and I can see that it's a good HD picture. And then I look over at the CRT/tube HDTVs and they look terrible. The picture on them doesn't look HD at all, it looks like a 10 year old Zenith...on every brand of every HD tube TV in both stores.

So my question again is whether these stores purposely make the picture look bad on the cheaper HDTVs to try and get you to spend more money, or do the HD tube TVs actually look that bad? Again, this is on every brand including Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba.That's an interesting conspiracy theory; it's possible. I know for a fact that my 34" HD CRT looks a lot better in my living room than it did on the showroom floor. But I've also seen a lot of plasmas and LCD's that were very poorly adjusted. So it's not just CRT's. Personally, I think the Samsung tubes are the worst, followed by Philips. But that's just IMHO ....

I agree with Cat...most stores don't do any calibration on all of their sets. Most TVs on display tend to look bad.

Here's a conspiracy for you.....

I truly 100% beleive that Time Warner Cable over the past several years has made there standard and basic cable look consistently worse and worse in order to get people to buy digital cable and HDTV.

Basic cable has never looked as bad as it does now. I think they make it look shitty just so people will see digital cable and say "wow, I better spend more money and get digital." Obviously digital is better, but that still doesn't excuse basic for looking as bad as it does, almost unacceptable. Maybe the lines in my area are getting old, who knows.

I was in Best Buy the other night, and the tube HDTV's DID look alot worse than the plasmas and LCD... they did not have them adjusted properly at all... but about a week before, I went into Circuit City and looked around, and it was just the opppostie, the CRT's blew everything else in the store AWAY... especially the Sony 34".

Here's a conspiracy for you.....

I truly 100% beleive that Time Warner Cable over the past several years has made there standard and basic cable look consistently worse and worse in order to get people to buy digital cable and HDTV.

Basic cable has never looked as bad as it does now. I think they make it look shitty just so people will see digital cable and say "wow, I better spend more money and get digital." Obviously digital is better, but that still doesn't excuse basic for looking as bad as it does, almost unacceptable. Maybe the lines in my area are getting old, who knows.Two comments and a question:

First, maybe standard and basic look bad because TWC is packing more and more channels into the same space as before. I don't know all the technical stuff behind bandwidth and all that crap, but it's possible something like that is going on. I hear you can put something like 6 digital channels in the space of one analog channel, or else put 2 HD channels in the same space. So maybe when they finally get rid of analog altogether, even our SD and HD will improve if that's possible. Not sure, just sort of guessing here.

Second, perhaps now that we see just how good TV can really be with HD, our expectations have changed (i.e., the bar has been raised --- REALLY raised). We might be more discriminating now.

Now a question: Are you referring to standard and basic on an old analog set or on your HD set? Personally, I think analog looks a TON better on the sets for which it was made. When I see analog on even average CRT's it looks better than on my 34" HD W/S CRT. And if you see analog on an old top of the line Sony, I think it really looks great. Not nearly as good as HD on a Sony W/S 960XBR, but still I'm impressed with how good analog can be in the right conditions.

Please keep in mind that I'm just posing suggestions, because I have Comcast, not Time Warner. Maybe my comments are not applicable since you mention TWC specifically.

Yea absolutely I know some stores do indeed do such. My brother-in-law works at BB and has shown me on some weeks the sets that are on sale have the brightness boosted WAY up and they will place it near other sets and turn the brightness down on them.Also models that are older will adjusted to try to move them while other sets right next to them will purposely have the sharpness all outta whack to distort them.I cant speak for all BB but I know for a fact this one does indeed do it.I would absolutely NEVER buy a tv based on the PQ in-store.Know what you want,do the research and purchase only from somewhere the return policy is good.Ironically BB's return policy is VERY good,perhaps cause they know that thery're not always in the interest of selling you the best set for your money.