I've never seen a plasma or other HDTV that looked better than my CRT TV.

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
36,052
17
81
A lot of the regular flat tube TVs now a days, especially 27" and up, have component input.
 

shilala

Lifer
Oct 5, 2004
11,437
1
76
What's up with the choppy "ghosting" that goes on with plasmas?
I've been shopping myself half to death and most all edtv's I see look like crap when things move quickly across the screen.
Is that a setup problem or a processing problem?
 

mpitts

Lifer
Jun 9, 2000
14,732
1
81
Come over to my place to watch CBS's OTA HD feed of a live football game on my 57" RPTV and I think you will probably say otherwise.
 

dolph

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2001
3,981
0
0
Originally posted by: Baked
A lot of the regular flat tube TVs now a days, especially 27" and up, have component input.

my 3 year old 27" toshiba does. why?

oh yeah, op: seeing the diff btwn hdtv and sdtv doesn't take a videophile.
 

Dulanic

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2000
9,957
581
136
Originally posted by: shilala
What's up with the choppy "ghosting" that goes on with plasmas?
I've been shopping myself half to death and most all edtv's I see look like crap when things move quickly across the screen.
Is that a setup problem or a processing problem?

It's a few problems, first off HDTV is digital, and fast action probably won't look perfect for a while, maybe 1080p.

Second, most stores are displaying one HD signal across 20+ TVs, they use component splitter boxes, and it degrades the signal, on still images this isn't too bad, but fast action and it shows up pretty bad.

Third, most stores use 1080i since some of the TVs won't support 720p. Most people think 720p looks better especially for sports, and I agree.

Anddd last... most TVs unfortunetely worsen the problem even more, very few support a all digital path. So even if using HDMI/DVI most TV manufacturers take their component input, toss a Digital to Analog Converter on it, and make one a DVI/HDMI input. This shouldn't effect a store display as I doubt many use DVI/HDMI. Still kind of disappoing, component ends up looking better then DVI because most DVI inputs have an extra DAC in the line. Thank god some manufacturers have a brain like Pioneer who are creating straight Digital paths with their DVI/HDMI inputs.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,204
45
91
Originally posted by: arod
A AE700 projector looks better than any plasma or rear projection Ive ever seen.

If he's 9 feet away from the viewing area a long throw projector might not be the best idea ;)

But if conditions permit, a short throw projector might be a nice alternative.
 

shilala

Lifer
Oct 5, 2004
11,437
1
76
Originally posted by: Dulanic
Originally posted by: shilala
What's up with the choppy "ghosting" that goes on with plasmas?
I've been shopping myself half to death and most all edtv's I see look like crap when things move quickly across the screen.
Is that a setup problem or a processing problem?

It's a few problems, first off HDTV is digital, and fast action probably won't look perfect for a while, maybe 1080p.

Second, most stores are displaying one HD signal across 20+ TVs, they use component splitter boxes, and it degrades the signal, on still images this isn't too bad, but fast action and it shows up pretty bad.

Third, most stores use 1080i since some of the TVs won't support 720p. Most people think 720p looks better especially for sports, and I agree.

Anddd last... most TVs unfortunetely worsen the problem even more, very few support a all digital path. So even if using HDMI/DVI most TV manufacturers take their component input, toss a Digital to Analog Converter on it, and make one a DVI/HDMI input. This shouldn't effect a store display as I doubt many use DVI/HDMI. Still kind of disappoing, component ends up looking better then DVI because most DVI inputs have an extra DAC in the line. Thank god some manufacturers have a brain like Pioneer who are creating straight Digital paths with their DVI/HDMI inputs.

That makes me feel a lot better. Thanks!!!
Now, tell me why I don't want to buy a Dell W4200HD. ;)
So far, as best I can see, it's the best bang for the buck (at least input/output/tunerwise).
 

nightowl

Golden Member
Oct 12, 2000
1,935
0
0
HD feeds look awesome on a plasma. Now, saying that I still can see compression artifacts on digital signals. I think that bothers me more than anything. Whenever there is fast motion I can see the pixelation in the signal. Also, many of the cable companies and satellite providers compress the HD signals to save bandwidth which can hurt the PQ. Even with that HD is still far superior to anything that is SD.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
u have to see the sony widescreen crt with super fine dot pitch. and theres no way your crt looks better than hdtv, u've seen nothing but sh*t examples i bet. stores tend to feed sh*t dvd signals split until they are degraded to hell to their nice tvs. rather sad. 720p alone has 3times as much detail as standard def.
 

Mani

Diamond Member
Aug 9, 2001
4,808
1
0
The nice thing about CRT is that it's a natural scaler so you don't get the ugly digital scaling artifacts. Color of CRT is also pretty much unrivaled. But you don't get the sharpness and clarity you can get with plasma and digital imagers at higher resolutions. You also have those damn scan lines to deal with. You might just prefer the "smoothness" and color of a CRT to Plasma. Could also be that you just are looking at a crappy/unoptimized Plasma TV.
 

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
18,409
39
91
Originally posted by: DPmaster
The picture quality of standard definition material will look better on a standard definition TV most of the time. Watch a DVD or play Xbox/PS2 using just regular video cables hooked up to both a SDTV and a HDTV and 9 times out of 10, the SDTV will have better picture quality.

HDTVs are made with high definition in mind. Play a hi def source on a HDTV and the picture quality will blow away the picture quality of the SDTV.

Bingo. It's like playing DVDs on a computer monitor. The monitor is so sharp and high definition that it points out all of the artifacts on the screen. Videos always look best in their native resolution.
But go watch an HDTV source, that's true 720p, or 1080p, and tell me it doesn't look FAR better than your CRT SDTV.
 

Goosemaster

Lifer
Apr 10, 2001
48,775
3
81
Originally posted by: Muadib
You never did say what size your tv was.

36''


That said, my friend has a 36'' Toshiba and it DEFINTIELY has its limits.

From experience, the best way to gauge actual resolution is to plug a TV into it, and the best way to gauge color, blackness levels, etc, is to watch a DVD with all the lights off.
 

Qwest

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2001
3,169
0
0
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
u have to see the sony widescreen crt with super fine dot pitch. and theres no way your crt looks better than hdtv, u've seen nothing but sh*t examples i bet. stores tend to feed sh*t dvd signals split until they are degraded to hell to their nice tvs. rather sad. 720p alone has 3times as much detail as standard def.

i've read and tested this out myself....at stores like bestbuy, etc
the feed going into the CRT HDTVs are all coaxial which is crappy while all the DLP, LCD, Plasma get component feeds.
just another way for the salespeople to push the "latest technology".

yes, they are bulky, but with their black levels and contrast, a CRT HDTV has the best picture IMO.

for my studio apartment, convince me why i shouldnt get this tv for $1000.
as opposed to some sleek Sharp Aquos LCD which would be smaller and more $$.

all opinions are welcome, i'm shopping for a set now.
 

EvilYoda

Lifer
Apr 1, 2001
21,198
9
81
I was just flipping down this thread...did I see someone use the words "ISF" and "off the chain" in the same sentence?

oh my.
 

Wingznut

Elite Member
Dec 28, 1999
16,968
2
0
I own a 51" HDTV (RPTV) and a 32" SD CRT... Never would I even begin to think that I'd rather watch a DVD or play an Xbox game on the CRT. Not in a million years. It is so much more enjoyable on the RPTV.

Yes, a SD feed will look better on the smaller CRT. When I first got my HDTV, the newbie in me didn't realize that the standard DirecTV signal would actually look worse. But if you think about it, of course it totally makes sense.

But then you throw in a high def source and the picture is nothing short of amazing. It's hard to watch football on a SD source once you've seen high def.
 

Viperoni

Lifer
Jan 4, 2000
11,084
1
71
As mentioned above, your DVD player spits out 480i; 720x480.
non-HDTV's take this signal right in.
HDTV's blow that up to their native rez; 1280x720 or 1920x1080.
 

Kev

Lifer
Dec 17, 2001
16,367
4
81
Originally posted by: Qwest
sort of related...but i have yet to see a better picture than the one from a 40" Sony HD CRT.
dlp, plasma, projection etc...look like garbage.

confirmed.

for the OP, you probably think the HD is worse than your TV because you can more easily see all the imperfections from the source of the video. DVDs and Xbox games are not High def.

Also I think plasma screens in general are bad looking