Anyone knowledgeable about TVs?

Our 6 yr old Loewe 32" blew up last week and I've been advised its as well to get a new TV than to get it fixed as the CRT itself would need to be replaced.

Much to my surprise Mrs Beeb went along with my first thought of going for a 42" plasma.... but upon reflection and on reading various experiences on forums I've decided I do not really want to spend £2-£3k on a TV. And lots of stories on web about buzzing plasmas, constantly upgrading firmware levels and all sorts of adjustment problems. And the ones I have seen have frankly poor pictures from broadcast TV.

I am instead looking at 36" normal CRTs - we wanted something a wee bit bigger as we sit quite far from the TV since moving house a couple of years ago. Anyone got any experience of either Toshiba or Panasonic offerings in this ballpark? What about those new DLP rear projection offerings - specs look good but is the picture any good? thanks.

 

I've had 3 or 4 big panasonic, currently have the 36" tau (I think? the one with the curvy stand) and have had a 32" tosh as well.
The Tosh was pretty good, nice pic on 100Hz but it went wrong in a matter of weeks so it went back and was changed for another panasonic 32". The Tosh had a sharper picture and better spec than the panasonic (no 100Hz support and less well equiped I/O wise) but the pan had a much flatter screen and the colours were far more vivid so I prefered that overall. Then that was upgraded towards the end of last year for the 36" tau model which is much better still, sharper pic, better colours, much better spec. Looks noticeably different with DVD and Sky+ box.
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/widescreen-tv/tx36pd50c/index.htm
I think thats the one I'm currently using.

 

Cor you must be the richest student in the world! New tonearms and upgrading TV's. Sky+ too. Now which political party is going to decrease the student grant? You should all have to live in unheated houses like we had to, and suffer slugs in the kitchen

 

I worked before I went to uni, two of the panasonics were hand me downs and the tonearm was paid for with my old turntable and some inheritance Oh and its my parents sky+ box, sky is too much of a distraction for me. Oh and and, the new panaphonics is a rental.

 

Blimey! That brings back memories.

SCIDB

 

Doesn't it just. It was that cold one winter that the washing up liquid froze

 

Sorry, if it makes you feel any better I don't use the heating in my flat and in a few years time I may as well bin my hifi and record collection anyway cuz there won't be enough energy to run it.

 

panasonic make some excellent large screen CRT sets... its still widely accepted than CRT is far far better quality than plasma/lcd offerings.. the same is true for projection.. CRT projectors although bulky still offer the best image quality. DLP is becoming a close second.

you can get good DLP's now for about £1000-1200 and they are definately worth having if you want that large screen experience

plus the progressive scan ability will kick ass with DVD. CRT's are still not set up for digital video and or hi-res stuff.

if it was my money it would be a 36" AND a cheapish DLP projector with a screen that could be rolled away. best of both worlds

 

Both aint an option..... got to be practical nowadays!

Anyway I can get the Toshiba 36" CRT with 100Hz and Progressive scan for about £800-850 delivered, or the same spec Panasonic for about £1000... a lot cheaper than the plasmas I was originally thinking of and I'm sure much better TV picture.

My father-in-law and brother-in-law both recently bought top of the range Sony 32" LCD sets and I think the picture is crap!

 

Im just going to buy a £150 large telly from tescos... !

more money for music hopefully in the long run

 

Can the 100Hz tellies have that ability turned off? I'm sensitive to flicker up to 72 Hz (non-interlaced!) due to nystagmus, but HATE 100Hz with a passion - loads of digital crap all over the place - even worse when using Sky/digicable.

I have an 8 year old (well, 9 year old really as it was ex-dem) Sony 25incher that's still producing a great picture, but the flyback's getting noisy and I suspect implosion and death is imminent (it's covered by guarantee until July, then can't be covered any more).

Are the mid-price 28-32 inch flatscreen CRTs any good these days, or just plastic crap designed to die 5 nanoseconds after the guarantee runs out? I need one with phono audio outs as well. Was thinking Panasonic or Philips (Sony's not the best any more, and Loewe-style prices for a goggle box are frankly obscene!).

Alternatively, how much are monitor-only CRT displays? I have VHS and cable for TV tuning duties...

 

Thats well timed, as ever. Yeah you can turn 100Hz off, they're aren't all bad though. Its nice for games.

 

have a look at some of the new rear projection dlp tv's - they aren't all monsters nowadays and the picture quality is damn good.
cheers


julian.

 

Regarding the DLP TVs.... from what I've seen in the shops the picture does seem very good, smooth, no grain, quite natural....but not much contrast and a bit dark - is this a recognised 'feature' of DLP projection TVs or are the ones I've seen not setup properly.

Half the problem shopping for TVs is that they don't seem to be too bothered in shops what the picture is like - what source are they using, is the signal any good etc.

 

Well, the guarantee is a yearly-extendable one, and to be honest, the set works well, so it might just be me being paranoid

Either way - with 100 Hz off, does the tube scan at 50Hz, or 100Hz but with the frame rate doubled e.g. the 2 half-frames of the interlaced image doubling up?

 

No idea sorry. I have a suspicion that when you watch terestrial TV at 100Hz it still scans at 50Hz anyway, it just doubles each frame up and refreshes at 100Hz. I think thats what the Tosh did anyway, I haven't found an option to change refresh rate on the panasonic, I think its all auto-sensing, when I put the xbox to 60Hz output the TV just changes without telling you so I assume its the same for 100 although what actually outputs at 100? Hmmm