I think it's time to replace my television. What would best meet my needs?

Hello everyone,

I have been using the same Gold Star color CRT for 24 years now (which must be some kind of record.)  The picture has started to randomly stretch vertically.  Given its age, I've decided it's not worth repairing again.

So now I need to figure out what to replace it with. 

First of all, I'm not looking to replace my home entertainment center right now, so the new set needs to fit in a 28" x 25" opening.  I think that means I need to get a 26" screen. 

I will be sitting about 9 feet away from the screen. 

I do have digital cable, but not HD.  I do not have a Blu-Ray player yet, but I do have a Philips region-free player, a Samsung DVD/VCR combo, and a stereo to run the sound into. 

I have an extensive library of SD DVDs.

I watch a lot of material in Academy ratio (1.33:1), both movies and TV shows, which will be either film or video-based.  I want a monitor that will be able to have film look like film and video look like video.  From my reading, it sounds like I will need a monitor that will allow me to turn off any sort of enhanced settings to get the look I want. 

I am not a gamer, so the monitor does not have to meet those needs.

Any recommendations?

No real suggestion here. I'm not familiar enough with screens that size. But, sitting 9 ft. away, is an awfully far distance, for a 26" screen.

Honestly, under those circumstances, I'd recommend browsing through craigslist and finding a decent used 24-27" standard definition CRT to tide you over until you feel the need to get a large HD set.

Find another CRT, used.

New 20" and 27" tube sets are still around as House Brands. They may not be always on display but there still are some. (but rapidly becoming scarce) I saw a 20" at WalMart for about $135 and the 27" around $200. They will have a digital tuner but still be 4:3 CRTs.

Tim:  is that 28" wide by 25" tall? 

WalMart/Sam's Club has been selling flat panel sets in the 20" to 26" diagonal size for only about $200-$350, and they include an ATSC tuner and an HDMI interface.  At that price, why go search for an old tube set?  But of course at this size you can live with 720P rather than pay more for 1080P.

As an example, http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=407759&pCatg=13309  It has all the inputs you need.

Tim: would you like to watch any OTA TV at all?  The NTSC analog tuners in the old sets won't do you much good these days.

Yes, Dennis, that space is 28" wide by 25" tall. 

Which is why I was asking about sets in the range you're talking about.

Since I have digital cable, OTA TV isn't an issue at all. 

The thing I'm concerned about is getting a set that will display my DVDs properly. Especially my Doctor Who DVDs.  That's a major criteria in whatever I choose.

Now, if the entertainment center wasn't a problem, what would be an appropriately sized TV for the 9 foot distance I'm sitting from it? 

I like about half the distance, so 54" +/-.  Anywhere from 50"-58" depending on budget limitations.

That may depend on how much SD vs HD content you'll be watching and what kind of quality expectation you have, especially for the old SD stuff.

For HD, I'd go for 60"-plus -- we have a 61" DLP RPTV and watch it from ~9ft away (eyes-to-screen) for a view comparable to being in the rear ~1/3-to-1/4 section of a decently set up theater.

For SD of rather old content, 60"-plus will likely look like crap to you, especially if you're not used to that size from that distance.  Even the best SD DVDs will look a bit soft though they can still have a film-like appearance to a good extent, eg. the Star Wars OT DVDs and Lord of the Rings EE DVDs still look pretty good at that size, but definitely much softer than you're probably used to seeing.  Most folks moving up that much in screen size will find the image way soft -- and also revealing (and sometimes exaggerating) all sorts of artifacts that used to be hidden by their former much-smaller display.

If you need something that yields a good compromise, especially if you don't plan to watch lots of HD content anytime soon, and also don't need a size that comes close to a real theater experience, you might be better off going for something in the 40-45" range instead (at least until you're ready for something much bigger and will have lots of HD content to watch).  Not sure what your current TV size is, but sounds like jumping to say 45" would already be a pretty sizeable jump.  And if/when you decide to go bigger again, that 40-45" display may well still fit fine elsewhere in the house.

You might also want to consider that whatever you buy now may continue to be the main display for the old 4x3 SD content if/after you upgrade later too since most of that stuff (at least the video-based stuff) will probably never look good on a big screen -- well, maybe someday, it'll be easy enough to just display them in a reasonable windowbox mode rather than enlarge to full height (as is typically done) so that  all the PQ deficiencies of the old content will remain more or less hidden.

_Man_