Questions for RPTV and/or HDTV owners (1 Viewer)

I'm thinking about making the move from direct view to rear projection TVs, and I have a couple general questions:

1.) I read on another site that one of the negative aspects of owning a RPTV is that "periodic maintenance is required". What kind of maintenance, and how frequent? Do you have to have the TV repair guy on speed dial, or is it just every few years? Also, how often do the CRT guns need to be replaced or realigned?

2.) For HDTV owners, how bad does 4:3 material look on it? This is a subjective question, but I'd love to hear some opinions. It seems like watching low quality analog TV programs and black and white 4:3 movies with gray bars on the side would be pretty bad.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Greg,

1) Yes and no. I think what you are referring to is set convergence. I can only speak for myself when I say that this is a infrequent adjustment. I would be more concerned about it if the set were being constantly moved/jostled. Otherwise, this should be one of those "every few years" items.

2) I have Direct TV and had cable in the past. I'll admit that SD sources look "alright" and that I actually prefer to watch some material on my 5 year old Trinitron. That said, it seems to be a fair compromise that works most nights. My TV won't allow me to use any of the stretch modes when receiver HD signal from my receiver (whether it is actually HD or not) so I let the DirecTV receiver handle the 4:3 mode and place grey bars on the sides. This actually doesn't bother me becuase I hate all the stretch mode compromises out there, including the one that came with my set.

Michael.

Greg,

Owning a CRT RPTV does require more maintenance than a Direct View CRT display. This is due to the fact that there are three CRTs inside an RPTV and only one CRT inside of the Direct-View.

When people say maintenance they are usually refering to convergence touchups, cleaning the lenses and mirror and possibly even the screen.

Now in order to get the best performance an RPTV HDTV you will most likely want to have the set calibrated by a trained professional. Most often a calibrator will clean the lenses, mirror, and screen, as well as perform focus, geometry, convergence, grayscale adjustments, color decoder adjustments, ect...

But as with any display these adjustments may drift over time, it's just like tuning up a car after so many miles. Keep in mind the calibration on a Direct-View will also drift. They just don't require as much work as an RPTV to get to their optimal operating status.

As for the 4:3 picture...whenever you put a lower resolution picture on a hi-rezolution display it's always going to appear flawed. There are ways to hide this with scalars and whatnot, but they are just an improvemnt, you cannot create something that is not there. As for the quality though, it's a very subjective thing.

Regards,

As for the 4:3 question. I looked at the stretch modes of every TV in my price range on a regular cable broadcast and picked the best one. They all looked good in HD so it really just came down to how good it looked on a regular cable station since I will not buy an HD receiver until there are more stations available.

Vincent,

If Comcast HD is available in your area, you may want to give them a look. Receiver rental is around $5-10 dollars a month extra over a basic channel package.

Michael.

Well, I certainly won't lie, and say that cable on my 65" Widescreen HDTV looks like DVD quality, but truth be told, it looks VERY good. Not as clear as DVD quality, but more than watchable. What's weirder, is the fact that it's analog, and not digital.