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Which type of rear projection TV to get? (1 Viewer)

Jonathan Dagmar

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I am planning to replace my current JVC i'art 27FA44 with a big screen. My first inclination is to go with a CRT rear projection model because the the low cost. However I am worried that the poor gemoetry typical of direct view sets will tranfer over to a CRT porjector, is this a legitmimate worry?

My biggest requirement is that the TV must have superb colour accuracy, and failing that a service menu that is well documented on the web so I can fix it to my liking myself. Sepcific model recomendations welcome.

P.S. 95% of viewing on this TV will be DVDs, minimal standard cable TV, and I have no plans to subscribe to any HI-DEF programming.
 

Steve Schaffer

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In my experience the geometry on the 2 rptvs I've owned has been better than on most of the direct-view crt sets I've had. Not perfect but noticeably better than on a 32" Sony, 35" Sony, or my ex's new Samsung 27" set.

The only time it's really noticeably off a bit is when watching 4/3 stuff with gray bars on the sides the edges of the 4/3 image aren't quite ruler straight.

CRT is definitely the best bang for the buck in rptv, with the usual warnings about proper adjustment and mixing up of aspect ratios to minimize the likelihood of burn in. I've used crt based rptv since 99 and have not had any burn in.

Sony crt models are pretty good out of the box and there's lots of tweaking info available. The basic service menu hasn't changed in 2 or 3 years, color decoder can be set to near 0 red push in the service menu and reducing or eliminating SVM is (I think) in the user menu now.

The same can be said of most other major makes, specifically Mitsubishi, Hitachi, and Toshiba in particular but my own happy experience has been with a Sony KP57-HW40, basically the same as the current WS-510 and WS0550 series sets so I'm a bit biased toward the Sony.
 

Jonathan Dagmar

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Okay, been doing a little more research, and I am now considering the follwing models. I have ruled out DLP or LCD, too rich for my blood. Would greatly appretiate opinions on these specific models, all in the 46" range.:

-Toshiba 46H83
-JVC I'Art Pro AV-48P575
-Hitachi 46F500
-Sony KP46WT510

If you have experience with any of these tvs, please let me know which you think is best, and more importantly, why. (Not interested in any opinions based soley on brand loyalty :)
 

Jeff W.

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Here is a review of 4 RPTVs in that price range including the Toshiba, which would be my recc.

Here is a review of the Hitatchi.

From what I've gathered - drawbacks of the Sony are, no HDCP which means you can forget about HD-DVD and possibly other HD formats, when those come out (but may not come out for quite a few years yet..) and the fact that it downconverts 720p (such as ESPN-HD) to 480p.

The Toshiba upconverts everything to 1080i, with a switchable 540p for watching progressive DVDs if you prefer the progressive display. It does have a DVI input with HDCP.

I don't know much about the Hitachi.
 

Jonathan Dagmar

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Okay, still not really sure which one to go for. The JVC I understand converts all input to 1080i, which I guess means orgressive scan DVD players are pointless with this TV....am i correct that feeding it a progressive signal would mean that the the signal would be converted twice?

Let me say again that the single most important function is that the service menu must allow me to tweak red push and so on. I understand the Toshiba does not allow me to modifty red push at all.
 

Steve Schaffer

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vaporware future connection concerns notwithstanding, the Sony is the only one on the list that will display a 480p signal from a progressive scan player natively, without the conversion to either 1080i or 540p.

red push on the Sony is easily corrected in the service menu, VSM is also defeatable there or even in the user menu on current models.

Downconversion of 720p to 480p on the Sony is a complete non-issue unless your main priority in choosing a set is whether you can play X-box games at their native 720p. The X-Box can't output 1080i.

ALL HD tuner boxes can be configured to automatically convert the 720p from ESPN or ABC to 1080i, and do so quite well. My stb does this and the ESPN and ABC picture quality from it's upconversion is indistinguishable from native 1080i from the other HD channels.
 

Jeff W.

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Dec 21, 2003
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Also the Toshiba 46H84 is out or will be out soon, and that adds a HDMI port (basically a DVI with audio, the new "USB" for home theaters).

With almost all newer RPTVs, they have a video scaler built-in, so a progressive scan DVD player isn't exactly needed, but since you can get one for under $100 and a really nice one like the Denon 910 for under $200 it's not much to worry about. I think most of these TVs will do some kind of conversion on 480p no matter what, since they don't have a native 480p display mode (most now are 1080i with a few like the Tosh doing selectable 540p).
 

Mauro Colella

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Hello to all,

Was wondering if anyone here knows, and wouldn't mind posting, the key combinations for entering the service menu on a Toshiba 51HX83 (I guess all HX83 would have the same keystrokes).

Thanks in advance.
 

John F. Palacio

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Jan 6, 2002
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If this is your biggest requirement then a direct view CRT will be your choice. A set with no color matrixing (or red push as it is commonly known in these forums) SMPTE phosphors and calibrated to 6500K, is what professional colorist and video control engineers in the industry look at while color correcting and adjusting color pictures.

No projection or plasma system, I know of, meets these standards. This is not to say that they cannot produce an excellent and very satisfying color picture.
 

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