How to judge HDTV picture quality in a store

Most electronics stores show their televisions on a big wall, fed by
the same video signal split a hundred times. Here are a few suggestions
for judging HDTV picture quality in a store:

• Don’t fall for brightness.
  Almost every television on the sales floor is set to the brightest
  picture settings, so try to get the salesperson to reduce the controls
  of the TVs you’re comparing. You want the pictures — not necessarily
  the controls — to be roughly equal in brightness, contrast, and color.
  

• Dim the lights.
  Few living rooms are as well lit as the sales floor, so see if the
  salesperson can reduce the amount of light shining on the picture. If
  nothing else, try to shade the screen if light is shining directly on
  it.
  

• BringYourOwn DVD. If you have a DVD that
  you’re familiar with, see if you can use it instead of the TV signal
  that’s normally shown. Aside from HDTV, which isn’t very portable at
  the moment, DVD provides the best picture a television can display, so
  it makes for a good reference from which to judge.
  

• Try different picture modes.
  Many sets come with numerous picture presets, such as Movie and Sports,
  that radically affect how the image appears. After you peruse the
  manually adjusted pictures, try the different presets and modes to see
  which ones look best.