[Atlas Sneezed]

Whenever I check out the HDTVs at Circuit City or Best Buy, I am always stunned at how random the picture quality is from one model to the next. And there is little correlation between price/brand name and picture quality.

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Calibration and settings can be very important, and even in the unlikely event the set was set up competently, shoppers like play with them.

You don't have the same problem in a high-end shop.

If I were a manufacturer, I would have a "sales" mode in which the set returned to established defaults automatically, until purchased and the setting changed. (I would also be tempted to make those defaults excessively bright and sharp, to help the side-by-side comparisons, even though home viewing would prefer more moderate settings.)

[goldstategop]

Most people will pay extra for white glove service. A technician will set it up at home to the customer's preferences. After that, its human nature to get used to the way it looks once its tuned to one's liking. Once flat-screen prices drop to rock bottom, its listed premium services like this that the stores will look to make up the difference.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)