Budget buying: 51"-ish CRT RPTVs (1 Viewer)

[Phil L]

A friend is looking for a 51" (51ish, not below 50 but bigger is okay) CRT RPTV with a budget cap of around $1000. I was surprised to see TVs like this so inexpensive but its been a while since I bought my own 51

So this is definitely the place to ask. This is a luxury expense that isn't just a 2-3 year thing so not being locked out of HD through dvi/hdmi/hdcp/whatever is important. Upscaling/upconversion is good to know about as well. Most important though is if any of these or other TVs in the class have frequent failures (my Sony had the flicker problem) that should warn him off.

Questions:

Does HDMI mean HDCP compliant?

What are the general opinions/reviews on these in particular (though if you have other suggestions in the budget please shout them out):

Hitachi 51" 51F59 for 900
RCA 52" D52W23 for 1000
Magnavox 51" 51MP6100D

An internal over the air tuner for HD would be nice but wouldn't be a deciding factor.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

The Hitachi has HDMI, any current set with HDMI will be HDCP compliant. The older DVI connection could be HDCP or not, all HDMI is HDCP compliant.
It will also have an ota tuner, but no qam (HD cable) tuner or cablecard.

Of the 3 brands listed I'd definitely go with Hitachi. RCA has a lousy reliability record, the Magnavox is a bargain basement Philips product. Hitachi crt based rptvs have a good reliablity reputation. Their newer lcd sets don't impress but they were a premiere make for crt based sets.

I dodged the bullet on the flicker problem, got an early production KP57HW40 that's as good now as it was brand new 5 years ago.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

what Steve said....

Perhaps you can find a Sony around somewhere??

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Yup ... no magnavox or RCA ... stay away.

Hitachi is a good choice ... so is Sony if you can find it as well as Toshiba if there are any left. Panasonic has a 53" if you can still find it ...

Regards

 

[Dave H]

How does a well calibrated, late model Sony CRT RPTV (e.g., KP-57WS520) compare against a newer calibrated Samsung DLP or Sony SXRD?

 

[Dave H]

Gregg or Michael, your thoughts?

 

[Phil L]

Thanks all. He's going to go with the Hitachi.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

The crt units look nice when calibrated, but need more TLC to stay that way. The blacks will be better than the digital displays and the image is overall softer. The SXRD looks similar to the CRT rp unit. The goal of the digital displays has been to look like CRT units, but without their weaknesses.

Calibration of the CRT will improve it substantially in most cases, but some weaknesses cannot be overcome by tweaking. A neon cannot be tweaked into a lexus ...

Regards

 

[Dave H]

The SXRD has more resoluton, as well, right?

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Yes ... more resolution ... the CRT RP sets can do about 1200 to 1300 lines. Which is more than enough for Hd on cable or satellite given that their hd signals tend to be about 1200 to 1300 x 1080i anyway.

The SXRD is the closest a digital display has gotten to looking like CRT, but without the weaknesses. Costs more though. Same as a Lexus costs more than a Neon.

No technology is perfect though and the longer you live with one the more problems you see in it.

Plexi is bothersome on the SXRD ... but can be removed on CRt RP sets ...

Regards