I'm moving into a small apartment, and looking to upgrade my 13" tv from 1998. I got spoiled over the past year, since my roommate had a 32" HD LCD, but now I'm on my own.

I'm trying to keep the price at $300 or less, although I've seen a few tempting things for mid 300's. Originally I was shooting for a pricetag of $200 or less, but unless I find a hot deal, that sounds unrealistic.

So what would be your recommendations for the best quality crt SDTV I can get for the money? I'm undecided between a 20" or 27", so either or. My only requirement is component inputs for my Wii.

This stood out to me, as I've always been a Samsung fan, but I can't find any discussion of it anywhere. Won't let me post the url, but it's the: Samsung Ultra SlimFit 20" Flat-Tube Standard-Definition Digital TV. At BB for $249.99

Thanks
-Eric

Sony KD-27FS170 is 27" & would run you $30 more at CC (sale ends today?) than the Samsung price you list. Consumer reports rates its picture quality as excellent, but its sound quality as only fair. Guess it depends what's important to you.

Darn, unfortunately it's out of stock both online and in store.

Pity... on Black Friday of last year, BB had an Insignia 27" 4:3 HD-TV for $270 after rebate... which I got ;)

Yea, my buddy got a good deal on a 32" Westy on BF too. Speaking of the Insignia's, how are they? I've always associated "Best Buy House Brand = RUN AWAY!" But I don't have anything to really back that up.

I've had my set since BF. I'm not as hardcore about watching movies as most people here, but I've still done at least 200-300 hours. The only problem with it is that the factory calibration is terrible and DEFINETLY needs service menu adjustment to look good. (ex: the display model in my local BB has a noticable yellow cast, though running it 24/7 at full contrast no doubt helped). It did have perfect geometry out of the box so the calibration guy didn't have to make a single adjustment. It has a few quirks inherent to it's design I've listed elsewhere (search CRT forum for insignia or my username) but overall it's a good set and looks great. Granted, I don't know how it compares to a Sony XBR set (which I wasn't super-impressed with anyway, despite the tech specs, and I've seen geometry issues with a couple of floor models and Best Buy basically damaged their floor model to the point where it actually looks pretty bad and isn't worth the $800 they want for the display model itself (they stopped selling that set)). Still, the only "problem" I've had is where once it didn't turn on and I had to unplug and do it again. I've had the same issue five times with my Toshiba A-2, so so far, I've gotten more stability out of a no name brand than a major manufacturer. (The maker of my particular set is Konka).

I didn't get the extended warranty, and I'm only 6 months in. So, we'll see how it does long-term. I've heard most (not all, just most) of the time, any CE stuff that's going to break will do it within the first 100 hours, and I'm way past that, so it seems rock solid.

The guy who did my pro-calibration on it (I'm OCD when it comes to getting the most out of my set. Sue me.) said it looked better than a Sony CRT. Was he talking about an XBR? Probably not, but that's still pretty bloody good.