jaymer
12-31-2003, 09:42 PM
Well, the season will probably bring out a lot of these stories over time.
Turns out that a friend of mine back in Sept. went to a local retailer for a Hitachi F57S500. The leading "F" means that it does NOT come with an integrated tuner... a fact somehow "overlooked" during the purchase.
He didn't ask me about the purtchase and only after the fact did I find out that he got a big new TV - strange I thought, because certainly I should have been consulted. :roll: But he only thought I was into computers and since I had a projector, well, didn't really give it a second thought that I'd know anything about these big screens. But when I found out, I did ask him if it had an integarted tuner for HD and he said yes, but due to some travel, I never got to see it until a week ago.
He had a nifty set-top antenna and I thought it might have been the Jensen, having never seen one. As I asked him about it, he said "Oh, that gives us a crappy picture, we get the locals from Satellite." Hmmm.... so I asked him to show me what he watched on the local channels. "Not much at all" was the answer... maybe Star Trek Enterprise. So I asked him to show me EXACTLY HOW he tunes in to watch Star Trek on UPN 44.
... my friend now tunes into the DirectTV "local" channel, via a compsite video cable. Me starts to wonder.....
After getting the manual, and then the receipt, it appears that no "integrated" tuner is involved. I call the salesman and he says the "F" series does not have integrated tuner... period.
I lent my friend a tuner and my Radio Shack DBT this week... just in time for Las Vegas (oh how sweet that is... even the reruns). They are stunned and getting spoiled. :lol:
The thing is that he was over at my house the night of the 1st Bucs game in HD. He went home at halftime to check it out on his new TV and it was a great picture... so he thought all was in order, he MUST have HDTV and never worried about it again.
RETAILER NOTE: I want to point out that the retailer still has to face this guy's "wrath". Yes, as Max-Gator pointed out in another thread, the buyer should take some responsibility to know what he's buying, but even on that very afternoon, he THOUGHT he had purchased a unit that would give him HD at home. When I called and talked to the sales rep, he was VERY helpful, apologetic and optimistic that they could work with my friend to reach a positive solution. When I hung up, I was very impressed. Will post the solution to this if/when it happens.
Turns out that a friend of mine back in Sept. went to a local retailer for a Hitachi F57S500. The leading "F" means that it does NOT come with an integrated tuner... a fact somehow "overlooked" during the purchase.
He didn't ask me about the purtchase and only after the fact did I find out that he got a big new TV - strange I thought, because certainly I should have been consulted. :roll: But he only thought I was into computers and since I had a projector, well, didn't really give it a second thought that I'd know anything about these big screens. But when I found out, I did ask him if it had an integarted tuner for HD and he said yes, but due to some travel, I never got to see it until a week ago.
He had a nifty set-top antenna and I thought it might have been the Jensen, having never seen one. As I asked him about it, he said "Oh, that gives us a crappy picture, we get the locals from Satellite." Hmmm.... so I asked him to show me what he watched on the local channels. "Not much at all" was the answer... maybe Star Trek Enterprise. So I asked him to show me EXACTLY HOW he tunes in to watch Star Trek on UPN 44.
... my friend now tunes into the DirectTV "local" channel, via a compsite video cable. Me starts to wonder.....
After getting the manual, and then the receipt, it appears that no "integrated" tuner is involved. I call the salesman and he says the "F" series does not have integrated tuner... period.
I lent my friend a tuner and my Radio Shack DBT this week... just in time for Las Vegas (oh how sweet that is... even the reruns). They are stunned and getting spoiled. :lol:
The thing is that he was over at my house the night of the 1st Bucs game in HD. He went home at halftime to check it out on his new TV and it was a great picture... so he thought all was in order, he MUST have HDTV and never worried about it again.
RETAILER NOTE: I want to point out that the retailer still has to face this guy's "wrath". Yes, as Max-Gator pointed out in another thread, the buyer should take some responsibility to know what he's buying, but even on that very afternoon, he THOUGHT he had purchased a unit that would give him HD at home. When I called and talked to the sales rep, he was VERY helpful, apologetic and optimistic that they could work with my friend to reach a positive solution. When I hung up, I was very impressed. Will post the solution to this if/when it happens.