Local Sears AV review

[Reorx]

I live in Phoenix, AZ.
Last weekend, while going to the local mall to let the kid play in the kiddie playground, I decided to stop in the Sears and check out their 1080i/p TV's.

I had the best laugh I've had in a while. My 32" Tube, RF input only TV looked better then every single one of their's.

1. A 42" 1080i/720p flatscreen, had a midrange DVD player hooked up to it. It confused me, because the movie playing didnt even fill up the entire screen, and it looked like I was watching it through a screen door. I looked in the back, and saw the DVD player using RCA's. I traced them to a 1x6 splitter box, then back to the TV. Ouch. The DVD player and TV both supported HDMI.

2. I looked at a bunch of 50" - 60" 1080p and 1080i TV's (10 or so). They looked better but not by much. The images were fuzzy, as if I had dirty glasses. I looked in the back...1 source, using Component, 2 1x6 splitter boxes, daisy chained together. The 1080p TV's were at the end of the chain.

I grabbed a sales person to inquire. He told me his manager (who set everything up) didnt want to use HDMI / DVI cables because they cost to much, nor did he want to use a dedicated DVD player per TV.

On my way out, I found the manager, and told him that because of the poor image quality of the TV's because of obviously poor cabling, he just lost a few sales.

4 black friday's ago (day after Thanksgiving), I stopped at a Best Buy in Wisconsin. Every TV that was on display (about 50), had a dedicated DVD player, using the highest video connection that specific TV supported. It was a beautiful thing.

Anyways, just thought I'd share that little story.

Reorx

 

[Thunder18]

I'm sure Sears would rather sell you a Kenmore something or other rather than a nice state of the art TV.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Yeah, the SEARS here has some pretty weak displays too. And they use standard cable stretched on everything.

 

[Audioholics]

Honestly, most of thise displays use a single source component (DVD player, satellite, etc) that is fed into a splitter which feeds to the RF input via channel 3/4. It is expensive to do component or HDMI to 30 displays...

 

[Reorx]

6' HDMI cables - $2.99 buy it now, $5.99 s/h - ebay.
So to high ball it, lets say, $10/ea x 30 = $300. (buying in bulk would cut the cost for s/h).
They were selling HDMI DVD players for $49. So their cost is probably around $39. Unless they used the open shelf units that just sit there looking pretty.
$39 x 30 = $1170.

So at most, It'd cost Sears $1500 to properly setup 30 displays. Most of which they'd make back in <1 day of sales.

I think Thunder18 summed it up best though.

I'm sure Sears would rather sell you a Kenmore something or other rather than a nice state of the art TV.

The TV's were good brands. So they werent crap, just poorly setup.

 

[billy p]

6' HDMI cables - $2.99 buy it now, $5.99 s/h - ebay.
So to high ball it, lets say, $10/ea x 30 = $300. (buying in bulk would cut the cost for s/h).
They were selling HDMI DVD players for $49. So their cost is probably around $39. Unless they used the open shelf units that just sit there looking pretty.
$39 x 30 = $1170.

So at most, It'd cost Sears $1500 to properly setup 30 displays. Most of which they'd make back in <1 day of sales.

I think Thunder18 summed it up best though.

The TV's were good brands. So they werent crap, just poorly setup.

Well said but Sears expertise is in Houseware and Home appliances as well as clothing. That said would you buy your A/C or Washer & Dryer at a corner dealer.
Most people into audio and video go to specialty shops anyhow?

 

[Audioholics]

So at most, It'd cost Sears $1500 to properly setup 30 displays. Most of which they'd make back in <1 day of sales.

Yeah, to be fair though you'd have to add in the discs, the extra power, and the fact that they would not all play at the same time (which is disconcerting for the consumer). I think the last one is the core reason they do it the way they do.

Hey, I'm not defending it as the best way, but I certainly understand it from a CFO bottom-line standpoint. Now if they ever claim to do a mini-store high-end section then they need to set that area up correctly.

 

[Nick250]

I like to buy from Sears. It's certainly not the place to be educated or see which screen looks best. But if you know what you want, it's good place to buy. Why you ask? After sale service. If you have a problem with a product from them, and it can not be resolved quickly, they usually just give you a new one, you don't get jerked around. In any case that's been my experience with them. And of course they will price match.

Nick

 

[Thunder18]

Well said but Sears expertise is in Houseware and Home appliances as well as clothing. That said would you buy your A/C or Washer & Dryer at a corner dealer.
Most people into audio and video go to specialty shops anyhow?

No, but I did buy my washer and dryer pair at Best Buy as well as my Pioneer Elite receiver and PS2

 

[billy p]

No, but I did buy my washer and dryer pair at Best Buy as well as my Pioneer Elite receiver and PS2

Even though most people on this forum would hate by admission say BB or CC and up here Future shop are experts, they are still a better choice then Sears. They are in fact a speciality shop which cater mostly to electronics crowd, albeit not very informed.

 

[ragged]

But Sears sells CHEAPER some of the same items that BB and CC sell. So go to BB and CC look at how pretty the picture is and then go buy it at Sears.

 

[hemiram]

But Sears sells CHEAPER some of the same items that BB and CC sell. So go to BB and CC look at how pretty the picture is and then go buy it at Sears.

Ooops! I guess I'm guilty of this. I looked and looked around, narrowed it down to two sets, Sharp LC37D40 or Samsung LN-S4092D. I looked at them for a long time at one place. I would have bought it there, but the salesguy bugged me and I walked. I went to another place that had them both hooked up to a high end component splitter, and they were side by side. I tweaked them and the Sharp just looked better, greens on the Samsung were "off", it looked like plastic. The only thing the Samsung did better was it had a wider viewing angle. Not a concern to me at all. That place was insanely high price wise on both of them, and they didn't have anything close to the "18 months no interest" that Sears had.

The set up at Sears wasn't really that bad, The TVs were hooked up to a component splitter and the demo running looked good, except for pixilated scenes in a few places.

I wanted to hook a DVD to them both, and they wouldn't let me, but I had pretty much made up my mind anyway, so I came back the next morning and went for it. The price was less than other any local place had it by 50 bucks.



I got the Sharp two months ago, and am very happy with it.

 

[billnchristy]

Well, I guess I have been to some "decent" Sears. They all had Dish network HD set up and on the same channel. Looked as good or nearly as good as the Bestbuy setups.