CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

KEEP TRYING · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 10

I am a bestbuy employee in the day( I work at one of their magnolia stores). I thought it was interseting that we are now offering calibration. We use the some of the same equipment as ISF the sencore stuff. But bestbuy did not want to pay for the ISF certification. I met the first two guys ( I am at the main store next to corperate headquarters) and they went through alot of training and they did a good job with some plasma's (pioneer and hitachi). Just thought it was interesting as it might bring down the price of calibration. I am also not sure how they are with CRT.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Stick to your moniker as only idiots and ignorant folks are going to go for the BB version of calibration. BTW, ISF certification isn't required. I know several excellent people with no paper credentials that could run circles around night & day maryjanes with ISF papers.

Now let me go clean my whip off. Very Happy

Moose · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 788 Location: Minnesota

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 1:11 pm Post subject:

What are they charging?

They won't be able to do CRT, I've had at least two 'PRO ISF' guys completely screw up CRTs that I've sold when they never told the customer that they'd never even seen a CRT. Both charged upwards of $800 and in both cases Chuck WIlliams 'fixed' the sets. I never heard whether the customer got a refund from the two 'certified' morons.

Funny, you'd think BB would be all over the $750 certification fee. Even if they tacked $50 to each calibration, they should recoup their money fairly quickly.

Then again, at a $200 or so charge, how many people are really going to buy this from BB?

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Curt, they can't be all over a $750 calibration fee. How can they pass that off as a 'best' buy?

aspec2 · Joined: 10 Apr 2006 Posts: 549

I would imagine there would be a lot of people taking the offer if the price was right. Hell, all they need to do is adjust the brightness and contrast and most people who buy at BB would say WOW.

Btw..BB sold a lot of RP CRTs and if their "calibrators" just do proper geometry, turn off scan velocity modulation and fix convergence they will improve PQ a bunch.

Walt

Brian Hampton · Joined: 22 Apr 2006 Posts: 1173

Me thinks,

Best Buy Calibration would be fantastic for lots of the stuff they sell.

A friend of mine bought a 3 LCD 720p Sony and he would benifit. (I loaned him DVE but he just couldn't get into the spirit of it.)

There is no way I would consider them for my stuff.

They install car stereos too and that's great for quite a bit of people. I think actually they get pretty good at it. But, not like going to a boutique type place that hires enthusiasts that take the time to get it just right.

-Brian

Clarence · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 2:41 pm Post subject:

I think it's better than nothing, but I can see a typical customer going into Magnolia and dropping $10K on a new system, scheduling the delivery and installation, but balking at $200-$300 for their basic sencore calibration. Yet at the same time, they won't think twice about dropping $500 for Best Buy Monster Cables between all of their new components. But I'm sure they'll insist on the most expensive s-video cables to hook up their HD stuff. Razz

Even the ones that spring for the BB calibration, I bet 15 minutes after the guy leaves, they'll grab the remote and crank up Briteness and Contrast. And then their neighbor buddy will come over and be clicking through the settings and say, "Hey Bob... while you were getting me a beer, I found this button called 'Vivid'... check out how much better I made your colors!" Rolling Eyes

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

They aren't ever going to pay for certification so don't hold your breath waiting. There isn't a snowballs chance in a blast furnace they're going to help you leave the company with a "degree". Hell.. I would, and who wouldn't? Can you say "Who gave the baby the gun?"

Just look at all the Geek Squad advertising...it HAS to be ubber profitable and I'm guessing they aren't paying for MCSE certs for those people...maybe A++...but not training you can convert into a $45K-$60K+ a year career.

Corporate America employee rule #1....Pay them enough to keep them coming in, but never so little they quit.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

People don't go to best buy looking to pay a premium, and someone suggesting that their best buy is lacking in performance and needs an enhancement just can't be sold to best buyers. Just offering it is like saying, "we are selling sh!t, today, but we could sell you our services that will t-p it for you."

If you are going to spend $200-300 then go to Fry's and buy the Spyder.

emdawgz1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 7949

BB is what it is. A big box Discount mart. Anybody who goes to BB and drops 10k on a ht system deserves what he gets for STUPIDITY!

most bb in this area cant even get half of their display items to look decent. And now these same numbnuts wanna calibrate my ht??? Shocked

umm no thanks

i'll break , i mean calibrate it myself. Very Happy

Clarence · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:05 pm Post subject:

if they spin it right, they should describe their calibration as a value-add that isn't available if the customer shops for the lowest online price or buys a similar plasma or projector from costco.

Joe 6-pack doesn't know that they're already paying a premium by going to BB. Despite their name and marketing, it's not really a discount store. Unless it's on sale that week, everything is usually close to MSRP. So the average customer thinks they're buying a top-quality system. And those that are going to the special "Magnolia" corner think they're buying into being a videophile. So if they suck up to the customer enough, they should be able to tack on another $500 for a calibration. And IMHO, even a BB sencore calibration is capable of providing a better improvement on their system than any other $500 upgrade in any individual component or cable...

Let's say you're standing next to a guy in BB that says for Father's Day his wife just gave him the green light to blow their $6500 tax refund for a new HDTV setup. He's picked out a $3500 plasma or dPJ, a $500 HD-DVD player, a $1000 A/V receiver, and a $1000 set of speakers. With the amount left on his gift card, his friendly BB salesguy says he has exactly enough to either upgrade the standard provided cables with Monster cables or get a BB/Magnolia sencore calibration. He looks to you for help. Which would you recommend?

IMHO, if the BB techs received adequate training (and retain that training), then the PQ improvement from even a basic sencore calibration will provide 10x more improvement than any Monster cable.

A true ISF calibration from somebody who really is passionate about the image and someone who really knows their equipment and your projector... that'll give 100x more improvement than the same amount invested in Monster cable upgrades.

I'm thinking that BB has finally recognized that and is trying to tap into a way to get another $500 from someone that is already willing to drop $7500+ on a system. Of course, I'm guessing that a calibration will be last (fifth) on the list of high-pressure add-ons...
- first get them to buy as high on the product line as possible... instead of the $2500 TV, look at this $3500 TV
- then get them to buy in on the extended warranty
- then get them to buy the Monster cables
- then get them to buy delivery and installation
- then get them to buy calibration.

jask · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 10187 Location: kamloops BC

this begs the question.... why are the manufacturers not shipping calibrated gear!!!
I am not talking about the cheap stuff- I mean +1000$ should get you a decent out of the box picture and if I was putting +3000$ down on a display that needed major adjustment I would question the build standard.
Imagine if Road and Track had to remap the electronics of test cars to meet the advertised performance!!? If we could just get the review magazines to do out of the box/as shipped testing,(as well as fully dialed in testing) the manufacturers might spend the time to optimize the gear...
I am sure the saleskid at the local futureshop could explain this to me,with a segue into why I need monster cables but I would rather hear it from one of you.... has the 80/20 rule become a manufacturing standard??

**kal** · Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 12:47 am Post subject:

Ok, so let's assume that it may be fairly simple for BB to train one or two of their better people per city on how to do greyscale calibrations and the like. They may even get fairly good at it, despite their useless ISF training.

The hard part will be for them for train their 16-year-old sales monkeys to explain intelligently to customers *why* they need to drop another 300-500$+ on the brand new TV they just bought.

The higher end stores have the same problem, but their staff is often all specialized and will (sometimes) know what they're talking about. There's a reason why the higher end stores charge you more for stuff (usually).

Most customers won't care or know the difference and the sales people won't be able to explain it correctly.

I'm sure it'll go something like this:

Customer: "I'll take the $4000 DLP RPTV please, along with whatever cables I need, that receiver, etc...."

BB sales guy: "Sure! Do you want the extra $500 TV calibration service? We highly recommend it".

Customer: "$500?! What's this calibration? The TV's brand new! Why would I need that!"

BB sales guy: "It'll make your TV look a lot better. It rocks!"

Customer: "What, are you saying when it's brand new the TV looks like crap? I don't want it then".

BB sales guy: "No, no, it'll look really good dude, but it'll just look better after calibration. It's awesome. It makes, like all the stuff a lot clearer.".

Customer: "So what do they do".

BB sales guy: "I don't know. But it rocks! It's really kewl man! You gotta get it."

Customer: "No thanks."

Kal

**kal** · Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 12:53 am Post subject:

Moose · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 788 Location: Minnesota

It's possible that Best Buy doesn't intend to charge for this service at all but offer it as a no-cost frill for their top customers. It's part of a philosophy that a small percentage of customers account for a large percentage of sales, so do something extra to keep 'em happy and coming back. It doesn't really cost them very much and the potential return on investment could be quite high.

ChrisWiggles · Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 5:22 am Post subject:

I don't believe BB is offering at all a very thorough calibration. ISF is a BASIC way to learn about the fundamentals of calibrating, and if they're not even doing that, it's pretty lackluster. This, even if they are using a signal generator, I think is just basic setup similar or identical to what one could achieve with Avia or DVE. Unless they have a way of doing grayscale, which it seems they do not, this is NOT at all a replacement for a GOOD ISFer or other thorough calibration.

KEEP TRYING · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 10

Wow I guess I should of been more specific. It is part of best buy but the Magnolia part. If any one is in the area and wants to see they did the elite 43 in the mag room and the 57 samsung (long for crap) lcd. Now for customers who spent alot We are going to be doing free ones. Again this is for magnolia customers I am told. As far as the ISF thing goes the sencore rep ( again a rep) said it was the same equipment that ISF uses and they have the signal generator and the a number of cameras and a laptop. Now I am not saying it is the greatest but if look magnolia has a great track record in this industry and they do still call the shots at even the best buy mag stores. They will do projecotrs and rear crt units but I have not seen them do them so I am not sure of their skill level on this. If you do look over time best buy seems to do whatever they do well and they are going away from the typical big box with the magnolia pacific sales and bbfb so given there is enough of a market I think they wil do a good job or fall flat on their faces.

KEEP TRYING · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 10

You guys might be right on the average customer but magnolia does do alot of 10000 plus deals and the fee will be any easy sell in most cases and as for customers changing the setting maybe but on most of the theaters they call us for anything so I think it could go well. As far as us selling crap we do sell alot of consumer end stuff but that is what people buy look at tweeter and ultiment performance over the last year. This is why we sell alot of mid grade stuff but at mag I would hardly call our stuff mid grade. Vienna acoutics primare AQ fujitsu and thats not even the special order goods.

ChrisWiggles · Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 6:03 am Post subject:

I don't think Magnolia has any experience with CRT projection, though. I live next to the original Magnolia, and they aren't the most knowledgeable folks in the world, and the BB-Mags are worse. However, I would expect some of the custom design folks in that division to have experience with CRTs. However, as they only have one custom location (here at the original Magnolia Hifi), I hardly expect the average magnolia or Mag-inBB locations to have experience with CRT projection.

Even if I were making high end video purchases at Magnolia, I would still probably go to an outside source for video calibration, someone who is intimately involved with video for a living, rather than as just a sporadic thing every once in a while when they encounter the odd customer who really knows their stuff.

The local magnolia here has a lot of capability, but a lot of the guys here at the home store are hardly high-end guys. I was able to pick up a breakout cable from them once, but I had to go up the chain of command pretty high before I could find someone who knew what that was. The custom department knows a good bit more, but even still, not my cup of tea.