It has been a few years since I bought my Philips 34" widescreen HD tube TV. I recently had some extra $, and went to look at LCD and plasma. The tube still looks significantly better. A bigger screen would be nice, but they have a long way to go before those other technologies catch up in terms of picture quality. :cool:

It has been a few years since I bought my Philips 34" widescreen HD tube TV. I recently had some extra $, and went to look at LCD and plasma. The tube still looks significantly better. A bigger screen would be nice, but they have a long way to go before those other technologies catch up in terms of picture quality. :cool:
Probably true, but at least the newer tech is far less likely to bestow you with a hernia. ;)

Or an extremely painful compressed disc (Doh!)

:(

Probably true, but at least the newer tech is far less likely to bestow you with a hernia. ;)
My TV hasn't been moved so much as in inch since I bought it. It will be a challenge if and when I either replace it or move out of my current apartment, but not before.

I've never got hurt moving a tube. Must be lifting improperly.

I've never got hurt moving a tube. Must be lifting improperly.
Mine weighs 200 lb, and most of it is concentrated in the front. It requires two people (in good shape) to move.

"Best" is subjective. I am still flip-flopping between getting a $200-$300 used Sony HD CRT or putting that money into a low-budget 37" LCD at the end of the year for around $550 (prediction). Yes, I like certain aspects of the CRT picture - they are vibrant and smooth.

HOWEVER - as my use will include Xbox 360 at 720p the detail/resolution of even cheapo LCDs becomes an advantage for them (especially splitting the screen 4 ways for 4 players...) I love a good CRT picture, but I like small text to be CRISP! And I like my straight lines straight! AND I like ALL the picture there! (Booo overscan.... Boooo!)

I have seen the (probably awesome) Sony 32HS500/510 sets selling for under $300 and the older KV30HSXXX wide screens for around $300. Now, I have yet to see these in person, but I even can enjoy the crappy MGA 19" CRT I have over COMPOSITE!! (Yikes!) So, I'm pretty sure these will look phenominal to me. I think of these as awesome, bulky plasmas, with geometry errors...;)

Anyway - just what I've been kicking over in my mind lately...

There are four areas where the LCD and plasma sets I looked at fell short of CRT. These are black level, macroblocking, false contouring, and a lack of smooth motion (motion can be jittery, or leave "tracers".)

And don't forget that any material not displayed in the LCD monitor's native resolution will look very bad.

Also, the under $1000 LCD I looked at last weekend at Best Buy looked awful, even in their native resolution, so be ready to spend much more than that for anything decent that's also an acceptable size.

Unfortunately size is limited to 34". CRT are almost extinct and flat panels are here to stay.
They are getting better and our CRT sets will be missed.