CRT, Plasma or LCD

Makaveli

Television recently died so looking to get a new one. Had planned on getting a 32" Panasonic crt but the chap in DID was going on about it being dead technology and all SD being gone by 2010 and Sky broadcasting solely in HD. So long term it was a waste of money according to him.

Should I be looking at an LCD or a plasma tv instead? Budget would be at most €1300 (so that's what 26" or so?) and it would need to be HD ready.

Would be used for Sky Digital and dvds.

All help and recommendations appreciated.

Still half fancy that 32" Panny for €600.

andy1249

Firstly , if you want HD ready , then no CRT can do that , HD is just starting to come out over here , I would say it would be affordable in about 2 years time.
The sky HD box is currently 299 sterling which is approx 450 euros and the subscription is an extra 15 sterling a month ( think thats sterling anyway ).

For this you get a couple of movie channels , a sports channel , and not much else really so that 600 panny might just do for a couple of years until HD really takes off. Its a premium product at the moment.

HD ready TVS must be at least 1366 x 768 ( thats the most common ) or better resolution. Also has to have the inputs to match such as HDMI or component in.

The real problem with the LCD's and Plasmas at the moment are that SD ( standard def content) tends to look like crap on them. Lots of artifacts and digital noise.

They are brilliant if you have HD content or if you have a progressive scan DVD player. Its just ordinary stuff looks very poor due to the high res and this can make you feel like you have wasted your money .

andy1249

Firstly , if you want HD ready , then no CRT can do that , HD is just starting to come out over here , I would say it would be affordable in about 2 years time.
The sky HD box is currently 299 sterling which is approx 450 euros and the subscription is an extra 15 sterling a month ( think thats sterling anyway ).

For this you get a couple of movie channels , a sports channel , and not much else really so that 600 panny might just do for a couple of years until HD really takes off. Its a premium product at the moment.

HD ready TVS must be at least 1366 x 768 ( thats the most common ) or better resolution. Also has to have the inputs to match such as HDMI or component in.

The real problem with the LCD's and Plasmas at the moment are that SD ( standard def content) tends to look like crap on them. Lots of artifacts and digital noise.

They are brilliant if you have HD content or if you have a progressive scan DVD player. Its just ordinary stuff looks very poor due to the high res and this can make you feel like you have wasted your money .

Makaveli

Cheers for the reply.

To be honest right now I don't care about HD but if I'm going to buy an LCD or Plasma then there's no point in buying one that's not HD ready.
Considering Sky wont be changing to HD only for a good while yet I'm just looking at my options, spend more than I had planned and get a hd tv that will be somewhat future proofed or spend less and buy the crt and then upgrade again when the time comes.

I've no plans to get an XBox360 or PS3 and the dvd players in the house aren't progressive scan so really the only thing holding me back from getting the Panny is whether I'm just wasting my money and would be better served getting the LCD/Plasma.

andy1249

Well, A decent 32 inch LCD is going to be about 1500 euro , at least , and considering that the technology is improving at a fast rate , by the time the unit was recieving everything in HD chances are there will much better units around and cheaper as well , so considering the fact that you dont have any HD content , get the Panny , and stick the other 900 that you save away for when HD is everywhere and the technology is stable and cheap! I would say about 2 years from now.

DannyBZR

Just one word of advise, Make sure that the Tv has the Correct inputs for a HD DvD player as I know a lad that got caught for this, A DVD player cappable of HD DVD at the min is unatainable but just keep the future in mind..

A LCD tv can be HD ready but with-out the correct inputs, so that would just leave you with the source being something like SKY....

Just keep an eye out for this, as there are some "pretty good deals" out there without the inputs.

If you want a Recommed give me a bell

Hope some of this make sense......

Catch ya Later...

jmkennedyie

Eh, perhaps worth waiting for a 32 inch Samsung Slimfit HD CRT? Apparently being released in May in UK...anyone know anything about it?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/13/samsung_hd_ready_crt_tv/
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/13/samsungs-new-ctv-32z30-32-inch-crt/

(I heard a batch of 32 inch Sammy HD CRT's on sale last year were supposed to be dodgy, but this is a different model - hopefully problems sorted out now???)

Makaveli

Saw that on the Power City website and looked interesting enough. €800 doesn't seem too bad either.

byte

Yes, there was a common fault with last years model.

I would think/hope that the fault has been rectified on the newer model now. The new model is to have a HDMI port, which the previous model didn't have.

I also thought the newer model was already released. Will have to check that.

I would think that, if you're gonna use HD signals that maybe 32" is a bit small to benefit fully from HD transmissions.

Snake Plisken

Go with the Panny CRT 32" it will do you for a good few years yet, both LCD and Plasma have their Flaws (LCD:Dead Pixels, poor black levels/Plasma Screen burn). Also its worth seeing how the new SED sets will turn out when they are released to the market next year.

Also do your own research on the models your interested in Sales people usually know f"ck all in the Electrical Chains! AVForums is a good place to gain info on TV's (including CRT) and users opinions of them.

Cheers

Snake

P.S. I have a 32" Panny 100htz for the last 6 years and its never let me down

Naikon

My 32" samsung slimfit CRT supports high definition content through component or HDMI. Its not true that CRT,s cant support high resolutions as CRT,s are far superior in terms of resolution support and scaling due to no physically defined pixels unlike LCD,s which have a fixed pixel rate.
I would go with the CRT as it is better value and has much better contrast ratio,s than nearly all LCD panals.
Plus if you end up with dead pixels on a lcd the ISO regulations usually states less than 7 bad pixels is acceptable for a lcd and that under such conditions isnt regarded as a faulty screen.(just something to bear in mind)
Also any resolution from 1024x768 and up is high defintion as i think standard t.v,s only support a resolution of 512x413 pixels or something like that(correct me if im wrong;) .
Go with CRT in my opinion.

Naikon

My 32" samsung slimfit CRT supports high definition content through component or HDMI. Its not true that CRT,s cant support high resolutions as CRT,s are far superior in terms of resolution support and scaling due to no physically defined pixels unlike LCD,s which have a fixed pixel rate.
I would go with the CRT as it is better value and has much better contrast ratio,s than nearly all LCD panals.
Plus if you end up with dead pixels on a lcd the ISO regulations usually states less than 7 bad pixels is acceptable for a lcd and that under such conditions isnt regarded as a faulty screen.(just something to bear in mind)
Also any resolution from 1024x768 and up is high defintion as i think standard t.v,s only support a resolution of 512x413 pixels or something like that(correct me if im wrong;) .
Go with CRT in my opinion.

base2

Go for a good 32inch CRT with component inputs. Cheaper, better picture and it will be easier to upgrade in 3-4 years when high def might actually be in common use. No point spending e1500 on an inferior screen only to have much better ones available (wait till 1080i is common) in a few years.

kaisersose77

@naikon

Do you have the Samsung WS32Z409TQX and if so does it have any geometry problems or blurry in the corners. And if thats the model you have, where did u get it and how much did you pay?

cheers

Naikon

Yeah that is the model i have.
(checked the serial number on the back)
Originally i bought the tv and took it home to realise it had awful picture focus
and weird geometry i.e the picture was skewed in the centre.
I brought it back to DID electrical and they replaced it right away when they compared my tv to the store tv model.
The guy said the slimfit tv was only introduced and some of the televisions had clarity problems ect. I paid around 1000 euro for the tv which also included a free stand unit and it was on offer at the lucan branch where i bought it.
If you have problems with it like colour bleed,geometry problems ect,bring it back. the replacement unit was pretty much perfect in comparison to the first unit.
Hope this helps;)

Pixel8

Get a projector, all XGA models handle 720i HD and go up to 300" plus you can play 1920x1080 res movies on them too from a laptop once your laptop is in the projectors native resolution such as 1024x768

You can buy XGA projectors for around 1200 these days.