I need input on tv (1 Viewer)

I am thinking about upgrading my 8 yr old proscan 36" tv( which has been very reliable and even survived my house burning down). Nothing wrong with it except the ripples on the top of the tv from the fire. I am looking at getting HDTV. I have a small living room so I want to stay with a picture tube. I am looking at 3 different makes sony, panasonic and toshiba. The sony is on the bottom of the list because it does not have invar shadow mask which the panny and the toshiba have. My proscan had the invar mask and had a great picture but not flat screen or HDTV. Any thoughts about which company has a better picture? I will miss my proscan..:frowning: Any help would be appreciated thanks

You're going to get opinions saying Toshiba is better and you'll get some saying Sony is better. You need to look at them yourself and make the decision on your own.

Having said that, I would go with Toshiba. The out-of-the-box picture is superior than Sonys IMO. The grayscale is more accurate (that's a fact) and there is little to no red push. The Toshiba is also cheaper so to me it's a no brainer, but as I said before only you know what looks good to you.

David

thanks David, I was kind of leaning towards the toshiba.

The new Toshiba 50HDX82 does seem to exhibit red push based on many reports, while the 50H82 (earlier model) does not. However, I'm sure this can be defeated via the service menu, just as I did with my Sony 46".

I agree with David. You need to demo them all. I was completely sold on Toshiba until I demo'd the Toshiba 50HDX82, the Toshiba 42H82, the Mitsubishi 42311, Mitsubishi 55311, the Hitachi 51SWX20 and the Sony KP46WT500. Despite it's smaller size, the Sony offered me what I felt was the best feature set and picture quality for our particular needs.

Sean.

So you see? Always demo and demand that the salesperson let you take complete control of the remote.

Worth noting: After a professional grayscale calibration all the nicer displays look very much alike in terms of picture quality. You really can't go wrong with the brands you're considering.

As for the Invar Shadow Mask: Hey, Sony's got an "Aperture Grill" instead. (That's what inspired the "Trinitron"® name.)