What's new

What is a good flat-screen TV for watching old, classic TV shows? (1 Viewer)

Ron Lee Green

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 24, 2004
Messages
1,209
My old-fashioned analog TV died, and I want to buy a new flat screen TV.
I watch a lot of old, TV programming on all the nostaglia channels like antenna TV, me-tv, etc.
I also have a lot of old tv shows on DVD in my collection.
I've tried watching some of these older, filmed shows on a new flat-screen tv, but they don't look as good as they do on the old-fashioned analog TV's.
What should I take into consideration when buying a new flat-screen TV.
Some of the terms I've seen are plasma and LCD, and dpi.
I'll probably look at walmart or target or k-mart. My budget is approx. $200.
Thanks!
 

Richard Gallagher

Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2001
Messages
4,275
Location
Fishkill, NY
Real Name
Rich Gallagher
I have owned a Sharp LCD and a Panasonic plasma. Standard def material looks much better on plasma. I spent more than $200, though!
 

GeorgeAB

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 28, 2001
Messages
522
Location
Denver, CO
Real Name
G. Alan Brown
schan1269 said:
Find an older Fujitsu or Hitachi ALiS plasma.ALiS were 42 and 50 only.Short of that...a 720p plasma.
As a reminder- potential problems with "ancient" plasmas will be phosphor aging and/or image burn. All phosphor type displays become less bright over time. There is also the possibility that permanent damage to areas of the screen could have occurred due to station logos, news crawls, black bars, game graphics, stationary computer images, etc., being left on for too long. Do not buy a used plasma without viewing it with full field test patterns first, or receiving a declaration in writing that no phosphor burn has occurred.
 

Bryan^H

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2005
Messages
9,515
CRT!!!!
You can't go wrong with CRT for full screen classic tv shows.
many people give them away. My friend is giving me is 27" Samsung HD that he had had since 2001. It's a flat screen(not widescreen) CRT that when he first got it made me envious($1,200 I believe). It has been sitting in the corner of his basement unwanted for years. I will give it life once again.
 

schan1269

HTF Expert
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
17,104
Location
Chicago-ish/NW Indiana
Real Name
Sam
Bryan^H said:
CRT!!!!You can't go wrong with CRT for full screen classic tv shows.many people give them away. My friend is giving me is 27" Samsung HD that he had had since 2001. It's a flat screen(not widescreen) CRT that when he first got it made me envious($1,200 I believe). It has been sitting in the corner of his basement unwanted for years. I will give it life once again.
My 2nd HD TV was a 26" Toshiba wide tube. Bought it for $800, sold it three years later for $150.
 

schan1269

HTF Expert
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
17,104
Location
Chicago-ish/NW Indiana
Real Name
Sam
GeorgeAB said:
As a reminder- potential problems with "ancient" plasmas will be phosphor aging and/or image burn. All phosphor type displays become less bright over time. There is also the possibility that permanent damage to areas of the screen could have occurred due to station logos, news crawls, black bars, game graphics, stationary computer images, etc., being left on for too long. Do not buy a used plasma without viewing it with full field test patterns first, or receiving a declaration in writing that no phosphor burn has occurred.
Phosphor change happened in 2007. ALiS plasma were all "new phosphor" to begin with...when the tech arrived in 05(I think it was 05).
 

Ron Lee Green

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 24, 2004
Messages
1,209
Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to respond.
I am taking each and every one of your suggestions into consideration.
 

schan1269

HTF Expert
HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
17,104
Location
Chicago-ish/NW Indiana
Real Name
Sam
By the way, to tell you why you want to find an ALiS...1. Cheap on the used market. Fujitsu and Hitachi have both exited the TV market(current Hitachi is ODM, Google that If you don't know what it means).2. ALiS is "pseudo HD". They natively do 480i, 480P and 720P. They do a "mix" of 1080 i and P(tech lit shows they do 1080...non-specific). What that means for you...The upscaling it does for SD is fabulous. If you feed it 480i/P. I have two of them. However, they are prone to exaggerating jaggies and other anomalies...If fed a shitty upscale, if you'd rather send an upscaled image.(So, buy a good upscaling DVD player).
 

JMas

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 25, 2011
Messages
146
Real Name
John Mason
Will a widescreen HDTV stretch a 4:3 picture from a DVD, or will it keep the original aspect ratio intact?
 

Cinescott

Supporting Actor
Joined
Nov 2, 2010
Messages
848
Location
Milwaukee, WI
Real Name
Scott
JMas said:
Will a widescreen HDTV stretch a 4:3 picture from a DVD, or will it keep the original aspect ratio intact?
Any HDTV I have ever owned has enabled me to view DVDs either way.

It's probably a setting on the Blu-ray player.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,807
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top