As more people buy on the web, most people contemplating purchasing a high definition TV would rather visit a brick-and-mortar retailer than buy it through a web merchant. This is very understandable, because you have the luxury of seeing the high definition TV yourself, or receiving advice from a customer representative before paying.

But be careful... here I'm going to let you know why your judgment of a HDTV in shops may be incorrect.

Firstly, most high definition TVs on display are configured in what is known in the AV industry as "dynamic mode". This means that contrast is artificially boosted and the colors are deliberately oversaturated on the high definition television, as these has been shown in research to generate sales.

A HDTV that is outputting in "dynamic mode" gives an impression of "brightness" and "vividness", wrongly perceived as the telltale signs of a good TV although the picture is — in actual fact — incorrect. Usually it's only when you bring the TV back home that you find out the picture is wrong.

Also, in a usual showroom with quite a few high definition televisions on show, the video signal is shared among all these televisions. As a result each high definition television gets a weaker video signal, resulting in a lot of picture artifacts like lines and sparkles, and perhaps blurriness and detail loss.

To make matters worse, most shops will probably use low quality connection cables (because these are cheaper, and the shops likely have quite a few lying around over the years) to send the video signal. Ideally you should use a component, VGA, DVI or HDMI connection because these offer the best quality, and can unleash the full promise of the high definition television for you to make a proper assessment... yet you rarely see these employed in normal demonstrations unless specifically requested.

Another issue with the normal brick-and-mortar store is too much surrounding light, not only from in-store lights and the sun, but also from other HDTV sets. This will cause reflection (especially on reflective televisions) and drastically reduce the picture contrast on the high definition TV you're looking at, contributing to a washed out picture. Most high definition TVs fare better at home where there's stricter ambient light control.

In conclusion, there are some shortfalls when judging HD TVs in a showroom — you're looking at uncalibrated display sets with less than pristine signals in an overly bright environment. To judge the full capabilities of a high definition TV, you can either visit a dedicated showroom properly set up to eliminate these problems, listen to the opinion of owners on forums, or read reviews that are carried out properly in a controlled environment.