Can someone please give me a couple of models of sonys tv's hdtv that are great like the kd-34xbr960. I'm searching craiglist and found other models like this one:

Model: KD-34XBR970
Built-in HDTV Tuner
HDMI input
FD Trinitron flat picture tube
16:9 widescreen aspet ratio
1080i
component video
V-chip, energy star

I want to get something for my ps3...

heres another model: KD-34XBR2

Here's a list for ye!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FD_Trinitron/WEGA

Notice the 900's listed all have the Super Fine Pitch tube. That 970 you are considering does not have the SFP tube [ it is not on that list of Sony Trinitrons at all for some reason] but from what I have read it is very close in picture quality to those sets that do.

I picked up a 900 for a gaming display just last week off craigslist, I got the KV-34XBR910 and I tell you it is a sweet TV for HD gaming! I dunno, you might want to hold out for one of the 900s with the SFP tube instead of jumping on that 970. But if you do snag it I am sure you will be pleased with it.

See how far down the list that : KD-34XBR2 is? You don't want that. You really want one of the 900's especially one with a Super Fine Pitch tube.

If I were you I'd just stay away from CRTs. People bitch about the blacks of LCDs but that situation is getting much better. CRT HDTVs aren't really even HD most of the time. The actual resolution is only a little better than 480p. That isn't really the case with the ones that have the SFPT, those have 1440 X 1080 interlaced resolution, but most of them have only 800-900 X 1080 interlaced resolution. Look at this way: With a 480p EDTV 345,600 pixels get displayed every 1/60th of a second. With your typical CRT HDTV, let's use the Sony 34XBR970 for this example, 460,620 pixels get displayed per 1/60th of a second. Yes, that's better than 480p but not nearly as much as it should be considering that a 720p flat-panel displays 921,600 pixels per 1/60th of a second and a 1080p model displays 2,073,600 pixels per 1/60th of a second! In my opinion these alleged CRT HDTVs are barely HD at all and they have all sorts of problems that flat-panels don't like almost always shipping with horrible overscan and geometry problems ( And if you take the time to fix them never move the damned thing or you'll have to do it all over again! ). I bought a Sony 34XBR970 CRT a little over a year ago and ever since then I've been wishing I hadn't. It's been one headache after another trying to get the problems fixed ( A professional calibration would cost damned near what the TV does so that is out of the question. ) and it drives me nuts seeing that the flat-panels my friends have look MUCH more sharp and don't have nearly as bad of problems with blacks as people on the net led me to believe when I first started researching this stuff. Yeah, mine does have better contrast but theirs are better in every other way! And they don't have to keep screwing with theirs. They haven't had all the overscan and geometry problems I have and to make matters worse my set is starting to develop a purple spot in the middle of the far right part of the screen. Whew, had I known then what I know now I never would have bought this thing. I wish there was a way I could get out of it, like get Sony to give me my money back, but I know that is impossible.

If I were you I'd just stay away from CRTs. People bitch about the blacks of LCDs but that situation is getting much better. CRT HDTVs aren't really even HD most of the time. The actual resolution is only a little better than 480p. That isn't really the case with the ones that have the SFPT, those have 1440 X 1080 interlaced resolution, but most of them have only 800-900 X 1080 interlaced resolution. Look at this way: With a 480p EDTV 345,600 pixels get displayed every 1/60th of a second. With your typical CRT HDTV, let's use the Sony 34XBR970 for this example, 460,620 pixels get displayed per 1/60th of a second. Yes, that's better than 480p but not nearly as much as it should be considering that a 720p flat-panel displays 921,600 pixels per 1/60th of a second and a 1080p model displays 2,073,600 pixels per 1/60th of a second! In my opinion these alleged CRT HDTVs are barely HD at all and they have all sorts of problems that flat-panels don't like almost always shipping with horrible overscan and geometry problems ( And if you take the time to fix them never move the damned thing or you'll have to do it all over again! ). I bought a Sony 34XBR970 CRT a little over a year ago and ever since then I've been wishing I hadn't. It's been one headache after another trying to get the problems fixed ( A professional calibration would cost damned near what the TV does so that is out of the question. ) and it drives me nuts seeing that the flat-panels my friends have look MUCH more sharp and don't have nearly as bad of problems with blacks as people on the net led me to believe when I first started researching this stuff. Yeah, mine does have better contrast but theirs are better in every other way! And they don't have to keep screwing with theirs. They haven't had all the overscan and geometry problems I have and to make matters worse my set is starting to develop a purple spot in the middle of the far right part of the screen. Whew, had I known then what I know now I never would have bought this thing. I wish there was a way I could get out of it, like get Sony to give me my money back, but I know that is impossible.


Don't be stupid. You are judging by numbers but in fact that XBR970 beats
every LCD that priced $1,000 when you can get XBR970 for as low as $500
or less. LCD looks like crap compare to XBR970 unless you buy a high-end
models like the Sony LCD line series. Just because you have a defective
TV doesn't mean every TV is. I have my XBR970 and XBR960 and the fact
that is up par with the quality of my Sony SXRD 1080p or Sony BRAVIA 1080p
makes a good first HDTV purchase for the money. So stop complaining about
little details about overscan and geometry when you can fix it through service
menu. Also stop complaining about the numbers, you sound so uneducated
when you complain about it.

Don't be stupid. You are judging by numbers but in fact that XBR970 beats
every LCD that priced $1,000 when you can get XBR970 for as low as $500
or less. LCD looks like crap compare to XBR970 unless you buy a high-end
models like the Sony LCD line series. Just because you have a defective
TV doesn't mean every TV is. I have my XBR970 and XBR960 and the fact
that is up par with the quality of my Sony SXRD 1080p or Sony BRAVIA 1080p
makes a good first HDTV purchase for the money. So stop complaining about
little details about overscan and geometry when you can fix it through service
menu. Also stop complaining about the numbers, you sound so uneducated
when you complain about it.

Whatever. If I was stupid I would have made spelling errors all over the place. You're saying that solely because I don't agree with you. And obviously I wasn't judging it on numbers or I wouldn't have bought this in the first place. At the time nobody I knew had HDTVs. After I got this one they all started getting them. The difference is theirs look HD. Mine simply looks...better than SD. I'll give props to these CRTs for one thing: Film based material. Because of the deep blacks movies do look better on this than a 720p LCD a lot of times. But when it comes to what I really care about, what I bought a HDTV for to begin with, that being gaming, a decent 720p LCD is most certainly better.

And yeah, you can improve things in the service menu if you want to first dedicate tons of time researching what to do in there and then more tons of time doing it. Most people who buy a TV aren't interested in studying to be a television technician in the process, they just want to buy a TV. And then after doing all kinds of tweaking God forbid you move the thing. I recently did and in doing so it threw everything out of whack and I had to do it all over again but this second time I wasn't very careful so it still needs tons of tweaking. And what did you mean about having a defective one? That little bit of purple I was talking about on the right edge started just recently and I've felt this way for well over 6 months now. And for all I know that could have been caused by the recent messing around I did and might be fixable. The first time I messed around in the service menu I was extremely careful and did it over a course of a few days. This last time I was pissed and just made some quick adjustments. That job is far from done.

The actual resolution is only a little better than 480p. That isn't really the case with the ones that have the SFPT, those have 1440 X 1080 interlaced resolution, but most of them have only 800-900 X 1080 interlaced resolution. Look at this way: With a 480p EDTV 345,600 pixels get displayed every 1/60th of a second. With your typical CRT HDTV, let's use the Sony 34XBR970 for this example, 460,620 pixels get displayed per 1/60th of a second. Yes, that's better than 480p but not nearly as much as it should be considering that a 720p flat-panel displays 921,600 pixels per 1/60th of a second and a 1080p model displays 2,073,600 pixels per 1/60th of a second!

And obviously I wasn't judging it on numbers

Not judging by numbers? Have you actually owned a high-end LCD or 1080p
for that matter? Have you actually done side-by-side comparison? Well I did,
and the way you say it don't buy CRT HD because they have lower resolution
compare to LCD. LCD have a resolution of 1366×768p. You can buy a lower
end LCD that has that resolution but the picture quality of 853x1080i beats
the hell out of it. Saying that you have to be a technician to know service
menu is a complete utter crap. It's as easy as user-menu on a TV but you
have to know what name you have to change which is easy if you look.

Not judging by numbers? Have you actually owned a high-end LCD or 1080p
for that matter? Have you actually done side-by-side comparison? Well I did,
and the way you say it don't buy CRT HD because they have lower resolution
compare to LCD. LCD have a resolution of 1366×768p. You can buy a lower
end LCD that has that resolution but the picture quality of 853x1080i beats
the hell out of it. Saying that you have to be a technician to know service
menu is a complete utter crap. It's as easy as user-menu on a TV but you
have to know what name you have to change which is easy if you look.

Why do I get the impression that if I told you I like one football team more than another I wouldn't be getting this emotional response from you? I have my opinion, you have yours. Why debate it? And I already told you I have seen what these games look like on LCDs because my friends have those. It isn't just that the numbers are higher. When I see Gears of War, Bioshock, Halo 3, etc. running on their TVs as opposed to mine the difference in clarity screams at me.

And I personally don't consider messing with the service menu to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. The way things are setup is the most complicated way it possibly could be. Everything is split up by resolution, then making something right for one resolution screws up another, and doing something on one input can screw up another, then they make it even more maddening by basically having two layers to it with one adjusted in the MID settings and the other in the 2170D settings. Sure, it ain't hard to simply adjust it so that you bring in all the overhang but doing it so that circle in the middle stays perfectly round, and everything matches up on every resolution and every input, and without messing up how the lines are being drawn on the screen because of the MID settings all amounts to a royal bitch imo. Too bad I don't know you personally because since you think it is so easy I'd buy you a case of beer and fix you dinner if you came over and took care of it for me because I'm to the point where I'm about to throw the damned thing out the window.

If pctek wants to drop a grand or more on a high end plasma or LCD then go for it, but I picked up my 910 with the stand for $300 off craigslist and I guarantee it will blow away any comparably priced flat panel for picture quality. It makes for a stunning gaming display, no two ways about it.

If you like HD CRT displays these Sony 900's with the SFP tube are the best ever made and they are going for pennies on the dollar used on craigslist. As long as you find one cheap you can't go wrong, they are the best value for the money out there today. I love mine.

If pctek wants to drop a grand or more on a high end plasma or LCD then go for it, but I picked up my 910 with the stand for $300 off craigslist and I guarantee it will blow away any comparably priced flat panel for picture quality. It makes for a stunning gaming display, no two ways about it.

If you like HD CRT displays these Sony 900's with the SFP tube are the best ever made and they are going for pennies on the dollar used on craigslist. As long as you find one cheap you can't go wrong, they are the best value for the money out there today. I love mine.

Yeah, the SFPT models are sweet but I wasn't fortunate enough to end up with one of those. :( With those you get the best of both worlds, excellent contrast and a very sharp picture.

Btw, I just found out I was losing my mind over nothing when it came to the overscan. I've been pulling my hair out the last few days since I saw this:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/assets/images/calibration/sharpness.jpg

When I saw that the first thing that came to my mind was, "That circle wasn't round when I was messing with it." So I put DVE back in and confirmed that mine definitely wasn't round, it was oval. So I thought I had everything screwed up and way out of proportion and I've been losing my mind the last few days over it. And I was trying in vein to adjust it so that the circle would be round and everything else would be in the picture as well but I just couldn't do it, hence all the talk about this being so hard. But then just a few minutes ago I saw this:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/assets/images/calibration/overscan-percent.jpg

That is actually my pattern! And it's what mine looks like. I wasn't paying enough attention, didn't notice that one said 1.78.1 and the other said 2.39:1, etc. They look so damned similar that I thought it was the same thing when I stumbled onto it and then freaked out. So no wonder its been so hard. I've been trying to do something that is impossible. I definitely do feel a lot better now. There are still plenty of tweaks that my TV needs but at least it isn't in horribly bad shape like I had started thinking.

Ahh, the old which display is better for gaming argument.

I will tell you why I like CRT. Because CRT is the best all the way around the board. Will your games look good? Yes. Will your standard def TV look good? Yes. Will your DVD's still look good? Of course.

I don't like LCD and I despise DLP because they only look good with an HD Source, and even then, they don't look as good. That is not opinion, that is just fact. It's not just about black levels or resolution, it's about detail and pixels.

You can see the pixels in LCD and the little mirrors in DLP. CRT gives a consistent picture. If you can stomach watching standard cable or DirecTV or a DVD on a DLP or LCD, then more power to ya. I sure can't.


Though HD games like on XBOX 360 look pretty amazing on LCD, if I were paying that much money, I would go with a bigger model or a rear projection LCD to game on, before I would pay the same price for a 1080p model. And there is no way I would trade a CRT Tube HD widescreen for one of those cheapo $500-600 LCD flat panels like the Sanyo or the Vizio.

The lowest I would go on a budget LCD is the Magnavox 1080 ones that look pretty nice.

Ahh, the old which display is better for gaming argument.

I will tell you why I like CRT. Because CRT is the best all the way around the board. Will your games look good? Yes. Will your standard def TV look good? Yes. Will your DVD's still look good? Of course.

I don't like LCD and I despise DLP because they only look good with an HD Source, and even then, they don't look as good. That is not opinion, that is just fact. It's not just about black levels or resolution, it's about detail and pixels.

You can see the pixels in LCD and the little mirrors in DLP. CRT gives a consistent picture. If you can stomach watching standard cable or DirecTV or a DVD on a DLP or LCD, then more power to ya. I sure can't.


Though HD games like on XBOX 360 look pretty amazing on LCD, if I were paying that much money, I would go with a bigger model or a rear projection LCD to game on, before I would pay the same price for a 1080p model. And there is no way I would trade a CRT Tube HD widescreen for one of those cheapo $500-600 LCD flat panels like the Sanyo or the Vizio.

The lowest I would go on a budget LCD is the Magnavox 1080 ones that look pretty nice.

If I was to by an LCD I'd probably spend around $1,500-$2,000 because I know a lot of the cheap ones suck. I wasn't trying to pretend that a several hundred dollar LCD would cut the mustard. But anymore I do find myself wishing that I had saved up twice as much and gone LCD instead. The thing I've been trying to convey to the other guy is that I'm looking at this from a gaming perspective more than anything else. I don't know what it is about games, maybe because they are animated the resolution becomes more important than great blacks. Whatever it is when I see 360 games on my buddies' TVs it drops my jaw. After seeing that and going back to mine I'm like, "Wtf?" But when watching film on their TVs I thought something didn't quite look right, it didn't have that in-the-theater look like mine does, looked kinda' artificial in a way. But personally I'd rather have the advantage with games looking great like they have because I don't watch many movies anyway. If this damned thing was just sharper it would be perfect ( Aside from all the screwing around in the SM that seems to be necessary when owning a CRT. ). It pisses me off to no end that I didn't get into this market until after Sony discontinued the SFPTs.

Yeah, the SFPT models are sweet but I wasn't fortunate enough to end up with one of those. :( With those you get the best of both worlds, excellent contrast and a very sharp picture.

Btw, I just found out I was losing my mind over nothing when it came to the overscan. I've been pulling my hair out the last few days since I saw this:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/assets/images/calibration/sharpness.jpg

When I saw that the first thing that came to my mind was, "That circle wasn't round when I was messing with it." So I put DVE back in and confirmed that mine definitely wasn't round, it was oval. So I thought I had everything screwed up and way out of proportion and I've been losing my mind the last few days over it. And I was trying in vein to adjust it so that the circle would be round and everything else would be in the picture as well but I just couldn't do it, hence all the talk about this being so hard. But then just a few minutes ago I saw this:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/assets/images/calibration/overscan-percent.jpg

That is actually my pattern! And it's what mine looks like. I wasn't paying enough attention, didn't notice that one said 1.78.1 and the other said 2.39:1, etc. They look so damned similar that I thought it was the same thing when I stumbled onto it and then freaked out. So no wonder its been so hard. I've been trying to do something that is impossible. I definitely do feel a lot better now. There are still plenty of tweaks that my TV needs but at least it isn't in horribly bad shape like I had started thinking.

It all comes down to how does the picture look when the TV is displaying your favorite game? Right now my two favorite games are Gears of War and Ninja Gaiden and my 910 displays both those games in grand style!

I never messed with the geometry on my 910, just got it home and plugged in in. It probably doesn't have perfect geometry but any problem it does have is so minor I don't notice when the game is running. What I do notice are the deep colors and the overall richness of the display. There is a subtle appeal about the CRT display that I really like.

If I were you I'd just stay away from CRTs...CRT HDTVs aren't really even HD most of the time. The actual resolution is only a little better than 480p.

I'll stay out of the CRT vs. LCD war, but...

Why do you continue to propagate that lie, Wickerman? After so many people have called you on it, why continue? For those that are truly interested in HD CRT resolutions Google the topic, or read previous threads on AVS about this. Don't listen to Wickerman; he has a beef with HD CRTs and misrepresents actual specs to suit his opinions.

Stop being dishonest Wickerman.

I'll stay out of the CRT vs. LCD war, but...

Why do you continue to propagate that lie, Wickerman? After so many people have called you on it, why continue? For those that are truly interested in HD CRT resolutions Google the topic, or read previous threads on AVS about this. Don't listen to Wickerman; he has a beef with HD CRTs and misrepresents actual specs to suit his opinions.

Stop being dishonest Wickerman.

Yeah, it's just my imagination that the picture looks nearly the same when I set my DVR to output my HD channels in 480p as it does when it is outputting in 1080i or 720p. Also, when playing a standard DVD in 480p it looks almost the same as my HD-DVDs do in 1080i. I can at least tell some difference but when I ask other people who are over they say they can't see any difference at all! But I'm just imagining all of it. :)

Anyone who doesn't believe that do the test yourselves. There is a bit of a difference but nothing like you'd expect. It certainly isn't the same type of difference you get when doing the same thing on a TV that truly is HD.

Yeah, it's just my imagination that the picture looks nearly the same when I set my DVR to output my HD channels in 480p as it does when it is outputting in 1080i or 720p.......
Maybe the Sony DRC and MID processors just do a great job at upconverting back to 1080i for display.;) You're starting with a high quality downconvert from your DVR and are surprised that the Sony produces a high quality upconvert. I don't get it?:confused:

....Also, when playing a standard DVD in 480p it looks almost the same as my HD-DVDs do in 1080i. I can at least tell some difference but when I ask other people who are over they say they can't see any difference at all! But I'm just imagining all of it. :)......I would expect a discernable difference in this case. Again, a quaility upconvert is being performed by the set.

.....Anyone who doesn't believe that do the test yourselves. There is a bit of a difference but nothing like you'd expect. It certainly isn't the same type of difference you get when doing the same thing on a TV that truly is HD.Or maybe the Sony's video processing and relatively small size shows the differences less than larger "truly" HD sets.

Maybe the Sony DRC and MID processors just do a great job at upconverting back to 1080i for display.;) You're starting with a high quality downconvert from your DVR and are surprised that the Sony produces a high quality upconvert. I don't get it?:confused:

I would expect a discernable difference in this case. Again, a quaility upconvert is being performed by the set.

Or maybe the Sony's video processing and relatively small size shows the differences less than larger "truly" HD sets.

It's funny to me that EVERYONE I know in the flesh who has seen it agrees with me that it doesn't look HD but on this forum I'm told I should ignore my eyes and go by what I read here instead. I and people I know agree that it looks better than SD but not as good as HD. It's somewhere in between. It's lower resolution is most noticeable with games since LCDs do much better with games than they do film and video.

So is this model good still for my ps3? KV-34XBR800

Wickerman1972 I don't care if you prefer LCD over CRT, just don't feed people this about
numbers and how hard it is for you to go through service menu to adjust minor things. I
really don't care if you prefer LCD. The way I see coming from someone who owns both
and actually comparing them side-by-side is very more reliable than saying numbers and
saying that my friends LCD look better when I came over their house (maybe you are
comparing HD cable to Xbox360). But other than that CRT are the best for gaming,
monitoring, watching movies, and your first HD purchase. If you want to be in the more
big boys side go with a BRAVIA 1080p and you'll see that the difference between CRT
1080i and a high-end 1080p is just a step better. 1080i has the interlacing effect on
still images while 1080p is just still as a picture but of course BRAVIA 1080p will look
better.

So is this model good still for my ps3? KV-34XBR800

It will look good, but some things you should consider are:

A) The Price. Again, it's up to how bad you want it but considering how old that tv is, I would think $500 would be the ceiling, and even then you might be able to get a newer model at that price.

B) It doesn't have HDMI, so you will have to run it through component. You probably won't notice a difference, but if you upgrade to a receiver later on that has HDMI out, it would be very nice to be able to run all HDMI cables (the HDMI has digital video and audio, so you have one cable for all. As it is now, you will be running seperate audio and video. I don't even know if you are into Dolby or DTS, but again consider this in the price).

It's funny to me that EVERYONE I know in the flesh who has seen it agrees with me that it doesn't look HD but on this forum I'm told I should ignore my eyes and go by what I read here instead. I and people I know agree that it looks better than SD but not as good as HD. It's somewhere in between. It's lower resolution is most noticeable with games since LCDs do much better with games than they do film and video.


It could be your personal preference, or it could be that your DVR is outputting differently than you expect it to. Actually most models of cable receivers will display 480 at 4:3, so if you are still getting that signal in 16:9, then you are probably bypassing that resolution change. If you are using HDMI or DVI, it probably is completely bypassing it and still outputting in full HD.

Also, you won't see a big difference between standard DVD's and HD-DVD's on a CRT such as this. This is why I mentioned that I like them for movies over LCD and DLP. The difference between DLP/LCD and CRT is this:

The CRT can handle multiple resolutions, so an analog DVD which is 480, is displayed at 480. LCD/DLP have fixed resolutions, usually 720 or now 1080 and will upconvert any source to that resolution. I have seen it with every source imaginable and it's never ever a good idea to upconvert a lower resolution signal. Basically, all it does is create a more softer image.

Your current DVD collection will look good to great on a CRT Tube, while they will look pretty bad on any DLP/LCD. HD-DVD will look great on both and this is really the shortcoming of the LCD/DLP, which can't handle multiple resolutions.



Also, you can turn the DRC off on the Sony, which will probably look better, and if I remember correctly, isn't even used for component or HDMI sources (you can double check me on that).

So is this model good still for my ps3? KV-34XBR800


I have that very TV pctek. It is a nice HDTV with a BIG 4:3 screen. Got it off craigslist last month with the stand for $450. When the PS3 displays the TV goes into 16:9 mode and uses only part of the 4:3 screen, with black bars above and below the 16:9 image. When you play an older PS2 game it fills the entire 4:3 screen and looks great! So you have the best of both worlds, a nice size 16:9 display when playing HD games and a fantastic 4:3 display when playing the last gen games. I really like that about the 800 because I play older games and the big 4:3 screen is the bomb!

However, it does not have the Super Fine Pitch tube and this does make a difference in picture quality when comparing to the 900's that do. That is the only thing about the set I think is less than ideal. So keep that in mind. Not to say the HD display is not great because it is, just not as high a resolution as the 900's.

Also the 4:3 800 is big and heavy, heavier than the 16:9 900's.

OOps sorry you're looking at the 34 800, that is a 16:9 tube. I have the 36 800 which is 4:3. If I was getting a 16:9 tube I would get one of the 900's with the SFP tube rather than the 800.

Don't be stupid. You are judging by numbers but in fact that XBR970 beats
every LCD that priced $1,000 when you can get XBR970 for as low as $500
or less. LCD looks like crap compare to XBR970 unless you buy a high-end
models like the Sony LCD line series. Just because you have a defective
TV doesn't mean every TV is. I have my XBR970 and XBR960 and the fact
that is up par with the quality of my Sony SXRD 1080p or Sony BRAVIA 1080p
makes a good first HDTV purchase for the money. So stop complaining about
little details about overscan and geometry when you can fix it through service
menu. Also stop complaining about the numbers, you sound so uneducated
when you complain about it.

Dude, I own an XBR970 and let me tell ya, it ain't been no picnic. Don't get me wrong I love my set now, but I was able to fix or tame the problems I had with this set. The technicians did nothing. They know absolutely nothing and don't care if you see that. I was able to adjust my geometry to a likable standard while the technician just fumbled around the service mode that I knew more about desperately trying to find a quick adjustment to get him out of there and then told me that it's within spec. At the end I made it easy for them to leave because I was so disgusted with their lack of knowledge I wanted them out of my house. Warning to all who buy CRT: If it's broke, YOU fix it. Techs are so lazy because LCD inherently has perfect geometry. At least when you buy an LCD, you don't have to worry about that being a problem, but your overall picture may look like sh!t due to being totally out of adjustment.....and then you need to call the stupid tech in again that knows nothing about that TV either. If your reds look like purples, blues look green, and blacks are a light shade of gray, then the tech will tell you it's in spec. I'm not saying LCD is better, far from it. I just don't think anyone would be stupid for wanting to avoid all the issues I had with my XBR970.

Dude, I own an XBR970 and let me tell ya, it ain't been no picnic. Don't get me wrong I love my set now, but I was able to fix or tame the problems I had with this set. The technicians did nothing. They know absolutely nothing and don't care if you see that. I was able to adjust my geometry to a likable standard while the technician just fumbled around the service mode that I knew more about desperately trying to find a quick adjustment to get him out of there and then told me that it's within spec. At the end I made it easy for them to leave because I was so disgusted with their lack of knowledge I wanted them out of my house. Warning to all who buy CRT: If it's broke, YOU fix it. Techs are so lazy because LCD inherently has perfect geometry. At least when you buy an LCD, you don't have to worry about that being a problem, but your overall picture may look like sh!t due to being totally out of adjustment.....and then you need to call the stupid tech in again that knows nothing about that TV either. If your reds look like purples, blues look green, and blacks are a light shade of gray, then the tech will tell you it's in spec. I'm not saying LCD is better, far from it. I just don't think anyone would be stupid for wanting to avoid all the issues I had with my XBR970.

I was talking about the comparison between actual picture quality to resolution.
I know geometry is a bitch when you just want a instant HD picture for beginners.

I was talking about the comparison between actual picture quality to resolution.
I know geometry is a bitch when you just want a instant HD picture for beginners.

I see your point and you're right about the picture quality vs. resolution. My 970 still makes my jaw drop sometimes when I see the incredible color, black levels, and detail that adds to the realism of the picture. However if it were picture quality that drove people to buy a new TV, then CRT's would still be king despite their drawbacks. All I'm saying is that I can definitely see where Wickerman1972 is coming from. Further more, Sony wants nothing to do with these TVs anymore so if you don't like the drawbacks too bad. I went through exactly what Wickerman is going through now. He just needs to chill and adjust it to the best it can be and live with a less than perfect picture. Once he gets past that, he may think differently. By the way, like you said....resolution numbers ain't sh!t. I would have hated myself for buying a geometry perfect 720p LCD set for around 600 to 800 to get bucks terrible color, blacks, contrast, pixel response, and a lifeless picture. Add all those against geometry, I think I would choose the one over many. For the money, there is no comparison. If I wanted to spend more like $2000, I would have not chosen the 970. PDP looks good in this price range, however I still don't think that LCD even comes close to cutting it until you're in XBR4 range. Bottom line is geometry sticks out more than mediocre colors and backs. But that high resolution man, whoa look out!:rolleyes:

Dude, I own an XBR970 and let me tell ya, it ain't been no picnic. Don't get me wrong I love my set now, but I was able to fix or tame the problems I had with this set. The technicians did nothing. They know absolutely nothing and don't care if you see that. I was able to adjust my geometry to a likable standard while the technician just fumbled around the service mode that I knew more about desperately trying to find a quick adjustment to get him out of there and then told me that it's within spec. At the end I made it easy for them to leave because I was so disgusted with their lack of knowledge I wanted them out of my house. Warning to all who buy CRT: If it's broke, YOU fix it. Techs are so lazy because LCD inherently has perfect geometry...

Yeah, I think the techs who were great at CRT calibrating probably saw the end of their era of expertise and moved on to other fields. With LCDs being easier to service and adjust, I'm sure the per-unit labor time allowed by manufacturers for field techs has dropped. Ultimately, that's good for us as we move into LCDs and plasmas and prices drop quickly. But it sucks for those (like me) clinging to our HD CRTs and hoping they don't break, due to a lack of interest by repairmen.

Dude, I own an XBR970 and let me tell ya, it ain't been no picnic. Don't get me wrong I love my set now, but I was able to fix or tame the problems I had with this set. The technicians did nothing. They know absolutely nothing and don't care if you see that. I was able to adjust my geometry to a likable standard while the technician just fumbled around the service mode that I knew more about desperately trying to find a quick adjustment to get him out of there and then told me that it's within spec. At the end I made it easy for them to leave because I was so disgusted with their lack of knowledge I wanted them out of my house. Warning to all who buy CRT: If it's broke, YOU fix it. Techs are so lazy because LCD inherently has perfect geometry. At least when you buy an LCD, you don't have to worry about that being a problem, but your overall picture may look like sh!t due to being totally out of adjustment.....and then you need to call the stupid tech in again that knows nothing about that TV either. If your reds look like purples, blues look green, and blacks are a light shade of gray, then the tech will tell you it's in spec. I'm not saying LCD is better, far from it. I just don't think anyone would be stupid for wanting to avoid all the issues I had with my XBR970.

I'm not by any means saying that I hate this TV. I just wish the resolution was higher or maybe even the same resolution but progressive, one of the two. Yes, I completely agree that the blacks are better than LCD. I was just at a friend's place last night playing Orange Box on 360 on his 720p LCD. His blacks were more like a very dark gray. It wasn't that noticeable when blended into everything else but when the screen became totally dark it would jump out at you. But despite that I still think the game looked better on his set because it was just sooooooooo much sharper. There was detail being displayed that isn't there on my 970. I even put my face right up to the screen and could barely see the pixels whereas on mine the pixels are obvious when I do that. However, I don't think there is any comparison when it comes to watching HD movies. I think they look better on my CRT than they do on my friends' LCDs. But for gaming I think the big sharpness boost that flat-panels have gives them the edge. On my 970 I'm guessing that I'm losing app. 25% of the detail from 720p games. It isn't numbers that is telling me that, my eyes are. I agree with you guys that many LCDs currently suck at displaying film but they really pop when it comes to HD gaming. I can't afford it right now but it is already in my plans to get a 1080p LCD eventually ( I had been waiting for SED but who knows when or if they are coming out. ). I'll probably go with Samsung because they are nearly as good as Sony and cost quite a bit less.

You might wanna consider a Samsung plasma. They have better contrast,color reproduction, and blacks. Not to mention that they are cheaper than LCD. I know you're not gonna buy it for a while but when you are ready plasma offers the best of both worlds.

Does anyone have any suggestions on hunting down a good HD CRT? I know only Samsung makes new versions, but is it worth it to get an older model? Any recommendations on models? Thanks.

You might wanna consider a Samsung plasma. They have better contrast,color reproduction, and blacks. Not to mention that they are cheaper than LCD. I know you're not gonna buy it for a while but when you are ready plasma offers the best of both worlds.

I'm kinda' scared off of Plasma displays because of the burn-in horror stories I've heard. Yeah, I know that has been improved in newer models but it still worries me. I figure that if I pick a LCD with LED backlighting that the blacks should be good enough. Sure, that'll cost more but it's worth it to me.

One thing you need to look when you buy old tube TV is that if it has the DVI with HDCP. I believe only 34XBR910 or after Sony added HDCP capability in it.

You need HDCP to work with Blu-ray on PS3, for games you probably can live without HDCP (via component).

...... I believe only 34XBR910 or after Sony added HDCP capability in it.......The owner's manual for the XBR800, which was one of the first Sony CRTs with DVI, indicates that it is HDCP compliant. I would think that all sets that came later would be as well.

If I were you I'd just stay away from CRTs. People bitch about the blacks of LCDs but that situation is getting much better. CRT HDTVs aren't really even HD most of the time. The actual resolution is only a little better than 480p. That isn't really the case with the ones that have the SFPT, those have 1440 X 1080 interlaced resolution, but most of them have only 800-900 X 1080 interlaced resolution. Look at this way: With a 480p EDTV 345,600 pixels get displayed every 1/60th of a second. With your typical CRT HDTV, let's use the Sony 34XBR970 for this example, 460,620 pixels get displayed per 1/60th of a second. Yes, that's better than 480p but not nearly as much as it should be considering that a 720p flat-panel displays 921,600 pixels per 1/60th of a second and a 1080p model displays 2,073,600 pixels per 1/60th of a second! In my opinion these alleged CRT HDTVs are barely HD at all and they have all sorts of problems that flat-panels don't like almost always shipping with horrible overscan and geometry problems ( And if you take the time to fix them never move the damned thing or you'll have to do it all over again! ). I bought a Sony 34XBR970 CRT a little over a year ago and ever since then I've been wishing I hadn't. It's been one headache after another trying to get the problems fixed ( A professional calibration would cost damned near what the TV does so that is out of the question. ) and it drives me nuts seeing that the flat-panels my friends have look MUCH more sharp and don't have nearly as bad of problems with blacks as people on the net led me to believe when I first started researching this stuff. Yeah, mine does have better contrast but theirs are better in every other way! And they don't have to keep screwing with theirs. They haven't had all the overscan and geometry problems I have and to make matters worse my set is starting to develop a purple spot in the middle of the far right part of the screen. Whew, had I known then what I know now I never would have bought this thing. I wish there was a way I could get out of it, like get Sony to give me my money back, but I know that is impossible.

I Have a HD kv36HS500 and i bet you that i can put it side by side with any other set either lcd or plasma and i can beat them all in pic quality.

Also my HD KVHS500 is 5 years old i bet you that your LCD or PLasma won' last that long Special the ones Made in China

I Have a HD kv36HS500 and i bet you that i can put it side by side with any other set either lcd or plasma and i can beat them all in pic quality.

You can say that all day long until the cows come home if it makes you feel better but I know that a Sony XBR4 or 5 LCD and/or a Samsung 81 series LCD running 1080p native material most certainly looks better. Sure, the prices on those are ridiculous but you said "any" LCD or plasma. Then there's also newer Pioneer and Panasonic plasma sets that look amazing. Also, I don't know if the CRT you're talking about has the SFPT or not. If it does there is one hell of a difference between it and the 970, a 65% detail difference. The 970 is what I was talking about. I made the dumb **** mistake of not researching things completely enough and not knowing that resolution had dropped off by 65% from the 960 to the 970 until months after I bought the 970. This TV has its strengths but it just isn't really HD imo. If I had the 960 I'm sure I'd be satisfied but this 970 just isn't as sharp as a HDTV should be.

Also my HD KVHS500 is 5 years old i bet you that your LCD or PLasma won' last that long Special the ones Made in China

LOL what isn't made in China nowadays? And is "made in Mexico" or "made in Taiwan" really better?

Ok, now the voice of experience is talking.. I have an LCD now, but owned many CRTs. Tell you this, CRT wins hands down by a wide margin in PQ. I can put down the ~10 year old CRT in comparison with with some LCD, and it blows LCD out of the water.

The KD-36XS955 is another with the SFP screen. I got it off CraigsList maybe a year ago for $500.00.

One thing you need to look when you buy old tube TV is that if it has the DVI with HDCP. I believe only 34XBR910 or after Sony added HDCP capability in it.

You need HDCP to work with Blu-ray on PS3, for games you probably can live without HDCP (via component).

Both the KD-34XBR960 and KD-36XS955 have HDMI and also cable card.

I have owned the KD-34XBR960 for 3.5 years and it's the best TV I've ever had. All the positive attributes of CRT are exploited, such as nearly 180 degree viewing angle without quality loss. I also expect this CRT will long out-live the LCD and plasma models sold at that same time. The down side is that it will likely outlast my satisfaction of a 300 pound monster! Although I love the quality, the flat panels are certainly attractive and I will probably go that route sooner than I originally thought because the price has dropped to reasonable levels since I first shopped for HD.

My viewing is largely SD via local cable so CRT was attractive for that purpose. I also own the Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD player and subscribed to multiple HD channels via local cable. No measurable amount of gaming is done. For all these reasons, CRT seemed to be the best choice for me at that time, especially with the burn-in issues with plasmas back then. The LCDs were not even close to the quality of plasma or even CRTs at that time, yet plasmas were far too expensive and unproven.

Additionally, it is becoming very difficult to find CableCard ready devices. My cable company informed me that they have "so many problems" with these cards, yet I have never had a single service call regarding this issue. It's my belief that the cable companies don't like the fact that the cards are bringing $0-$2 per month into their accounting departments. The DVR STB that they require for HD around my city runs $12.95 per month which I choose not to pay. For me, the CableCard is a much better solution since I can actually utilize both tuners that are built into my TV, although only the primary tuner is digital.

Incidentally, it was simple to get my KD-34XBR960 tuned properly. All I did was logon to this forum and do a little searching and I had some excellent recommended settings that I used to start. Then I tweaked those settings to my liking. I have never moved my heavy TV so I haven't experienced the issue of re-tuning my settings.

This TV has excellent HD. I do not regret my purchase for one second.