Concerning contrast ratios, I remember an incident about 2 years ago at a Best Buy where they had the TV's setup side by side with the contrast ratios prominently displayed. Two of the salesmen came over and was telling me that I should just ignore the contrast ratios, because they don't mean anything anyway.

I'm looking at the TV's and I see a big, big difference between the 60,000:1 vs. the 10,000:1 and I tell them so. They then just look at you like you must be stupid and not worthy of anymore of their time. Are Best Buy employees hypnotized by space aliens?