Need advice on RPTV! (1 Viewer)

[John Roger]

I currently own a sony wega 29"

I am planning to upgrade to RPTV.Is the upgrade worth?Does standard def TV look bad on RPTV with the scanning artefacts and noise becoming magnified?What is LCD based RPTV vs CRT based?

Recomend me some good RPTVs for a low budget.

 

[Kevin Nolan]

Hi I have owned 2 RPTVs in the last 6 years a Sony and a Hitachi.
In answer to your question about LCD/DLP or even plasma the old tech can still be supreme, esp when considering black levels.
There are drawbacks to EVERY type of display.
If you have the room, CRT based displays will still give you the best bang for the buck properly calibrated. And the basic calibration does NOT have to be done by ISF guy, although it would be a wise investment.
You can do a very good calibration yourself with a proper calibration disk like Video Essentials or AVIA.
It really depends on how anal (sorry best way I could put it) or serious you are about picture quality.
I would put my Hitachi 57TWX20B up against most of the new tech today and it's almost 2 years old.
Can't wait for more Monday Night Football in HDTV!!
Kevin

 

[StephenHa]

I agree the crt based has a very good picture, I like the clairity of the real big digital sets, but is it worth double the price probably not

 

[Kevin Nolan]

And to answer your question about SD.
Standard Definition is what it is on a DTV or HDTV.
It really depends on the source.
I have had both D* and E* and depending on the channel it looks pretty darn good or pretty bad.
It's not your display but the bandwith the signal has. It is something one has to expect and either get used to or ignore those channels that have heavy compression look terrible.
My locals look good from the dish but better from my antenna.
Another thing to consider when picking out a HDTV or DTV is how it handles stretching a 4:3 image to 16:9. My set does this OK but it took some getting used to. The center of the picture is fine but it stretches both sides to achieve full stretch creating somewhat of "funhouse" image. The newer RPTVs and others deal with this better now than before. This is probably my biggest beef with my RPTV...but minor.
Mild Rant here...sorry....ahem
I also currently receive my HDTV from my locals OTA (over the air) and they look great! I love Monday Night Football there is no other way to watch the game now that i'm spoiled.
And I'm on the fence right now as far as getting HDTV from the dishes or cable. I now have TIVO from D* and LOVE it (only SDTV). The ONLY way I will buy HDTV from any of these sources is that I can record in HDTV or SDTV without it costing a freaking $1000 (for the receiver/recorder)about half that sounds right for now. Oh but wait still we pay more bucks to enjoy BASIC HD programming freaking BS! This technology (HDTV) is not cutting edge in as much as that THEY would like us to believe. If the suppliers of such want more buyers, well a freaking grand for reception equipment and then pay for channels that are at best mildly entertaining without channels like HBO etc. they are out of there minds.
OK well then...
Ah sorry
I hope I gave some more insight.
Kevin

 

[John Roger]

Are you talking about CRT tube TVs or CRT projection TVs?

Projection TVs look dim compared to tubes and Plasmas.Is this ok or is it because the black levels are turned low?

And another doubt, i heard LCDS dont show scanning lines but CRT does.Is it true?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

LCD's display by pixel, CRT's display by scanlines. So yes, you do not see scanlines on LCD's, but you can see pixels at about the same distance you would see the scanlines on a CRT. 6 of 1, 1/2 dozen of another depending on the actual resolution of the set and/or source material (VCR vs. cable vs. DVD vs. HDTV - all have different resolutions and picture quality).

 

[John Roger]

which brands have got brighter better picture on budget?

 

[John S]

What size screen you looking for here again?

I personally decided what size screen, and then went around finding out which sets in that size fit my budget, then decided which ones of those I prefered the picture quality of....



John S.

 

[John Roger]

50 inch

 

[Kenshiro]

I'm also looking to upgrade after three years with my 47" CRT-based RPTV.

I wanted to get another RPTV preferably 50"+, but was wondering if a LCD/DLP was the way to go.

Is the pic quality in comparison to CRT getting close enough together that a difference is harder to tell?

 

[John S]

Hmm be a little carefull here on your upgrade Ken.

If your current 47" set is a 4:3 aspect ratio, and you buy a 50" 16:9 aspect ratio, your 4:3 material is going to seem tiny and be quite a shocking downgrade in size.

I was in the same boat, and man for there to be no reduction in your 4:3 material you have to go really really big on a 16:9 set.....

I came from a 46" GE 4:3 non hd set. That fact alone influenced my choices heavily, I was not willing to down size any content, that's for sure.

I ended up getting a 60" 4:3 set with a 57" native 16:9 mode for 1080i HD sources as the best possible choice for me. After close to a year, I still think it was the way best choice for my particular parameters.

Throw in the fact I have an extensive Laserdisc collection and all that is non-anamorphic / 4:3 and it sealed the deal.

 

[Kevin Nolan]

This is true only if you have alot of old non anamorphic laserdisks and don't like the 4:3 stretch modes that the current products offer most of which are 16:9.

 

[Kevin Nolan]

Roger..

You asked about brighter....well i'm a bright fan too!
I almost went for a Mitsubishi Platinum but it had and has always allot of red push issues that required allot of attention but a great bright picture. I loved my Sony but when it was time to upgrade at the time Sony was having technical issues. Soooo I went with Hitachi which had few if any issues at the time..had sharper brighter picture at the time than the Sony line.
I am at his time a SOLID Hitachi fan for CRT based RPTV.
Without ANYTHING ANYONE says here or in any other forum you really must go and audition ALL the major players.
It's alphabetical boys no flames...and any other brand your eyes like. Research in this whole deal is part of the fun. Well it is for me.


Hitachi
Mitsubishi
Panasonic
Pioneer
Sony

 

[Jerome Grate]

With the thanks of this forum, I was able to make my decision on which RPTV to get for the budget I had. I compared all the t.v.s I was looking at, such as RCA, Panasonic, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Sony. I narrowed it down to two and then finally will be getting the Sony 51 inch set. The S520. The new model that has two seperate Digital video inputs, DVI and HDMI. To me the Sony was quite warm and I got a real treat when the salesman put on a HD signal throught the component video and it was just beautiful. Getting it from Circuit City with the 4 year plan. 1699.00 plus 300 for the plan. I'm so excited. My advice to you is if there's a quality store like a Tweeter or any high end video store that has this t.v. or any rptv, go there, the chances of them having a HD and SD signal going through it is greater. With Circuit city, Best Buy or Sears, there's just to much light and you can't really see how great the pictures can be.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Here's the link to the thread I posted when I needed help. Please further note the I provided links to the specs of the t.v.s I was considering.

 

[Kevin Nolan]

Oops forgot Toshiba another great one!

 

[John Roger]

Should i go for widescreen? What are the lowest prices for a decent widescreen set?

I dont like the fat images used to fill the widescreen.So is there an option to enlarge the image to fill the widescreen(cropping top and bottom).

I have heard that watching lot of 4:3 on widescreen causes burn in.So does the letterboxed images causes burn in on a 4:3 set?

 

[Kenshiro]

John S -

No problem there, my 47" is a widescreen set. I was just trying to figure out if LCD/DLP might be a better way to go.

Do most LCD/DLP sets allow pass-through of native resolutions?

 

[John S]

John Roger.....

This is only something you can decide. I went with a 60" 4:3 set, with the native widescreen HD mode, and when all my sources are taken into account. It was the way best choice for me personally.

But I also own like 300 to 400 laserdiscs, all of those are non-anamorphic / 4:3. I took my back up LD player to a brick and mortor, and only 65" sets were acceptable with them for me, and at the time, they were all over my budget.

Just something to think about is all. If not for the large LD collection, I'm sure I would have bought a true 16:9 set, but with the native widescreen mode, where you have to set your source for a 16:9 set, it really does seem the best of both worlds for me.

 

[Jerome Grate]

John Roger, I think widescreen is the best way to go, for DVDs and of course HD programing. When comparing the difference between DLP and CRTs, DLP is certainly a brighter and I think smoother picture, if you can go DLP at the standing costs of about 3,000, then go for it. But the new CRTs really are good looking pictures I think well worth the costs and I think in some sets a real bargain. You can do 1080i on them and HD on CRT's and really get a great looking picture. Try the think about a couple of things when making that purchase.

First, what will be the material you will be watching the most. If it's broadcast satellite or cable, widescreen still works if you don't mind the bars on the side that accompanies 4:3, but the stretch mode I see on the sets with satellite broadcast was really good looking and didn't look pulled or stretched to me.

Second, how long do you plan to keep the set. Future proof your set, DVI and HDMI all being HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection) compliant appears to be the connection for true HD broadcast as well as HD-DVD.

When my wife bought the Toshiba 32 inch about 8 years ago, she ask the salesman make sure it has all the appropriate connections for a stereo and other devices. Back then S-Video was the next best thing to component and Toshiba put it on their models one year later. But I still have and will be keeping the 32 inch t.v. until it dies. So keep those things in mind when making that purchase. That's certainly the reason why I went the new Sony RPTV, it has both DVI and HDMI which I heard HDMI looks to be the future connection for HD-DVD.