CRT v LCD

[racketman]

I would love to buy an LCD TV for style and space but having viewed what are meant to be the best models available I have to say that picture quality compared to traditional CRT technology just doesn't match up. In the UK there are very few HD broadcasts where I have to admit image quality is superb so until HD is the norm here LCD seems a waste of money - agree?

[DozerLYP]

no, because soon enough it will be a lot more HD channels and then you will regret not gotten the LCD.

[viperx27]

plasma ;)
amazing contrast ratios, and deep blacks

[DozerLYP]

for sure the plasma would be better, but he ask between LCD and CRT...

[racketman]

Panasonic claim Plasma optimizes at 37" or more whereas LCD is best up to and including 32" which is the size I want.

[Moppie]

I would love to buy an LCD TV for style and space but having viewed what are meant to be the best models available I have to say that picture quality compared to traditional CRT technology just doesn't match up. In the UK there are very few HD broadcasts where I have to admit image quality is superb so until HD is the norm here LCD seems a waste of money - agree?



I noticed the same thing yesterday.
I spent about half an hour looking at LCD and Plasma screens while waiting for some prints.
I was amazed at how bad many of the pictures looked, especialy when compared to my 10 year old Sony CRT TV.
There were some that came close, but tonal graduations would still look bad, and fast momvent just didn't seem quite the same on them.

[Nightstalker]

The newer model TV's are getting better with less noise / motion smearing but the issue of picture quality is mainly IMHO to do with the low quality of source material.

Many channels are highly compressed and all non-HD native channels have to be upscaled to fit the screen size.

I'd give great odds that ALL HD TV's will look great with a HD source but some of the budget TV's just don't have good enough picture processing technology.

You can get around lots of the picture quality problems by employing a seperate scaler unit - something like a Lumagen but at around £1000 it's not a cheap option.

[deadpass]

if you don't care about mounting your TV on the wall then go with a samsung DLP tv, they are simply the best looking tvs out here.

[olly_k]

I am amazed these things sell at all tbh!! I was looking at hi-def tellies (plasma & lcd) showing BBCHD and to be honest I still was not very convinced!

It is such a shame that CRT's have been shunned especially considering Samsung were selling UK spec HD slim CRT's only last year... I think they had some geometry issues but slim CRT's are fairly new tech and like lens's this appeared to vary and could be sorted by opening up the engineering menu, if you were comfortable doing this! However, no blurs, more accurate colours and 5000:1 ratio meant for a damn good picture!
I believe HD CRT's are still the standard in the States?

Just to add, it appears people care more about how the telly will look in their room than what the picture will look like!

[Pekka]

Well, I have 46" Samsung F86 LCD and 32" Panasonic Aquity (best CRT TV out there), and LCD wins in every aspect (after you tune the colors!). Tonality is excellent, gradations are smooth, black is good enough - very close to plasma black levels, shadow detail and integrity is much better than with CRT. Older LCD's have very jerky movement output, but this Samsung has 100Hz mode which makes it very smooth and fast, especially needed in 24 frame movies. Blu-Rays (from 40GB PS3 to HDMI) look totally great and most DVD's are surprisingly good (there is more detail in them a CRT can show).

Problems with this LCD are narrow viewing angle, occasional movement artifacts (100Hz algorithm is not perfect, but can be updated with firmware).

Plasmas are now also Full HD, too, but they have several problems like power consumption, heat dissipation, static image burning, loss of image quality over time etc. No thanks.

When you see LCD picture in a shop it is usually in very dynamic settings which makes the image look digital. None of them look good with factory settings. Most of them can be adjusted really accurately, and e.g. some Spyder models support LCD TV's too.

PS. Buying LCD can also be a bit of a luck. For example F86 has three different screen revisions, two of which have odd problems. I seem to have the "good one".

[Zepher]

no, because soon enough it will be a lot more HD channels and then you will regret not gotten the LCD.
CRT is much better than LCD for HD.
the main drawback is size and weight. Largest CRT HDTV was I think 34" or 36" and the unit weighed about 260lbs.
My 30" CRT HDTV blows away our 32" Viewsonic LCD in Picture Quality and Contrast ratio, but my 30" weighs 165lbs vs the 30 or so pounds of the LCD.

[Quad]

I think it is a pity that coil stovetops are being shunned in favour of those horrible glass cook tops in the electric fuel types.

Sorry can't comment on TV, I can't even watch photoshop TV, the format is just too awful, makes me want to claw my eyes out it is so painful.

[Vincent Vega]

I wouldn't judge the quality on what you see in a shop. They just get them out of the box, stick them on display and don't bother optimising the settings for the picture or the sound.

I upgraded to a LCD about a year ago and I don't miss my huge CRT one bit. The LCD is miles smaller, more modern looking, has easily enough inputs for two consoles, a cable box and a DVD player and is of sufficient quality to make DVDs look good when upscaled to fit on screen.