Rampy-> CRT HDTV Shopping Adventure

[rampy]

note--> pulled this out of another thread as it was taking on a life of it's own =)

I went HDTV browsing/drooling last week and the Best Buy in my area is retarded.  How can you shop compare HDTV's if not all of the TV's have HDTV sources?! (and to not have a strong/solid signal/connection ?!)  and they no longer have any of the remotes... The toshiba next to the 30" widescreen version of that phillips was locked in 4:3 mode (with GREY portrait letterbox ?!!?! WTF?!) and no way to disable it...   The phillips 30" widescreen didn't have any HDTV stations and the standard def stations were staticy... and they claimed it didn't have a tuner (even though it clearly said it did)... it just looked really bad and was a real fustrating experience. also disheartening was that the best looking CRT based upon how it looked in the store was a Sony, which was an HDTV "monitor" and like 300 bucks more than I wanted to spend...  I just noticed taht sony is on sale this week so I've got to do some reading up / decision =P 

Walmart has a black cased version of the widescreen version of your phillips for like 569 bucks or something... I dunno what I need to do is see both HDTV content AND SD content to see how it copes as I'll be piping in some standard def PVR recordings (kinda like it sounds you'll be doing)...

*shrug*

rampy

[g808]

To conintue the thread hijacking...

Rampy - what's you HDTV budget? Might have some ideas depending on your budget. I have a couple HDTV's in my place (a rear projection Sony and a Syntax Olevia LCD). I did my fair share of researching before.

The only problem with HDTV is the lack of support for it in the HTPC world. So far the easiest way to integrate it into your HDTV experience is OTA, but that is not the best since it's only local channels and I always watch ESPN HD, and movie HD channels like HBO. All that makes it impossible to have one interface to everything. I need to switch beteen my Comcast DVR and my HTPC, which is no big deal to me, but makes it tougher on my girlfriend. It's easy to switch inputs since I have a Harmony remote controlling it all, but she has to learn 2 different interfaces and regardless of how easy she doesn like to do it. That makes us use the Comcast DVR more than anything. Once we can get an integrated experience all this headache will go away and I'll be a very happy man.

Sometimes I wish I never say HD since an SD setup is so much easier.  What am I saying? HD is worth it all! 

[rampy]

To conintue the thread hijacking...

Rampy - what's you HDTV budget? Might have some ideas depending on your budget. I have a couple HDTV's in my place (a rear projection Sony and a Syntax Olevia LCD). I did my fair share of researching before.

Between $500 - 1000 ... I feel CRT gives the best picture quality/size/value (at the expense of cooness and form factor/size/weight) and is less prone to things like dead pixels or the like. *shrug*  I also have some size restrictions to fit into my existing IKEA corner hutch (~38" wide max x 25" high which could be extended a little bit if I remove an auxilary shelf...)  for WAF purposes... also my living room is a little crowded/tiny (just the way cape style house is laid out .. small living room and a small den as opposed to one giant family room *shrug* )

I go back and forth on the 16:9 vs the 4:3... since I think I still will be watching a fair amount of standard def programming at first (for some of thre reasons you mentioned below).  But I think i'm leaning towards a 30 widescreen (16:9) and just look for one that scales/stretches and/or letterboxes SD content very well.

The only problem with HDTV is the lack of support for it in the HTPC world. So far the easiest way to integrate it into your HDTV experience is OTA, but that is not the best since it's only local channels and I always watch ESPN HD, and movie HD channels like HBO. All that makes it impossible to have one interface to everything. I need to switch beteen my Comcast DVR and my HTPC, which is no big deal to me, but makes it tougher on my girlfriend. It's easy to switch inputs since I have a Harmony remote controlling it all, but she has to learn 2 different interfaces and regardless of how easy she doesn like to do it. That makes us use the Comcast DVR more than anything. Once we can get an integrated experience all this headache will go away and I'll be a very happy man.

Sometimes I wish I never say HD since an SD setup is so much easier.  What am I saying? HD is worth it all! 

I hear you on the complicated factors... i've been trying to see on my HD-3000 card if there's any QAM channels over the cable in the clear...  or what OTA HDTV channels I could get... but it's been an uberpainful overly complicated experience

rampy

[SHS]

I haerd that the Sony KD-30/34/36XS955 are best
If have Samsung at CircuitCity
You may dig thur this
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=64

[rampy]

I haerd that the Sony KD-30/34/36XS955 are best
If have Samsung at CircuitCity
You may dig thur this
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=64

right on SHS  the AVSforum direct display (CRT) is a good place to research this... I've spent many hours sifting through huge threads over there for each of the canidate < $1000 HDTV CRT's and each system seems to have a fatal flaw *sigh*  I over in the AVSforum Sony's are a little too well regarded, they're given the same reverence we reserve over here for Hauppauge WinTV PVR cards     And after looking at the Sony's it's somewhat understandable as to why... but if you're in my budget range can you find a set that looks good for both HDTV and SDTV content and doesn't have geometry, or jail bars, or need mondo adjustment to look fair.  Plus it's hard to tell if what I find "acceptable" would be considered "hideous" and "unwatchable" by some of the videophiles over there... (although they're info and insight is generally right on!).

Example... the new slim fit Samsung's have ATSC/QAM tuners but has geometry issues (but despite the geometry issues the overall signal looked really good maybe 2nd or 3rd to the Sony monitor... but if you saw a straight line at the bottom of the screen if you knew to look for it you could see that it bows up -- presumably an artifact of the first generation of slim fit CRT HDTVs... )

hmph.  I need to see the (cheaper) Sony HDTV "monitor"  with SDTV content I think... I really thought I wanted QAM/ATSC tuner integrated but realistically I'm gonna throw an HDTV card in a future HTPC...

rampy

[SHS]

well I don't what tell being trying get rid of CRT and move ever one to LCD but I agree I think LCD are a joke and cost to damm much.

[Nosferatu]

I go back and forth on the 16:9 vs the 4:3... since I think I still will be watching a fair amount of standard def programming at first (for some of thre reasons you mentioned below).  But I think i'm leaning towards a 30 widescreen (16:9) and just look for one that scales/stretches and/or letterboxes SD content very well.

 I just wanted to throw a few thought at ya.
 I bought a rear projection LCD 16:9 big screen tv just shy of a year ago. It is a Hitachi. I have never had any problem finding a setting that scaled SD content decently. I usually have to use a zoom setting to avoid the parallel side boxes but I have never really had a problem with it. Now I do use sattelite not cable but when I did use cable I still liked the picture.

 As for 16:9 vs. 3:4? I have to say the 16:9 is better. I like being able to watch my dvds as a wide screen movie(of couse I also like to turn up the volume so the house shakes, but I digress). I guess it is a matter of opinion but the 16:9 is a beautiful way to watch tv IMHO(thanks for the acronym thread).

 Good luck with the search.
 
 

[rampy]

good points all around...

considering lg 30" widescreen 30FZ4D and the philips 30" widescreen 30PW9100D

I need another field trip though to look upon them with my own eyes =)

rampy

[g808]

Good luck Rampy. It's tough finding a retail store that runs a decent video feed through their TV's. I was in the same boat when buying my TV's.

In defense of LCD TV's I got a Syntax Olevia 32" LCD TV and it was pretty cheap (approx. $1200). I needed a slim TV since this would go in my bedroom, and this was the perfect size. It performs very well for it's price. A 32" Sharp LCD would have costed approx $800 more.

I got my 46" Sony rear projection for $1400 about a year ago. It's not nearly as small as DLP, plasma, or LCD TV's but it produces a very nice picture. This is in my living room, and fits fearly nicely.

Both these TV's costed less than the single plasma my friend bought for this living room. 

[rampy]

Well... I went back to a different Best Buy and looked the phillips 30" that was on sale (it's the same black philips that you find in walmart now except it's silver) and I just felt it looked awful... both in HD and SD.

The 30" widescreen LG 30FZ4D look good in HD and did a real good job with SD content... so I think once I get a pal with a truck or SUV to come around to help I'm gonna pull the trigger.  Wish me luck. 

I think I'm gonna go with whatever stupid protection plan / extended warranty they have even though it goes against my priniciples just because there's a few rumblings about LG products in general in the AVS forum thread(s).

I did like the look of the samsung slimfit... except for the geometry issues probably related to the way they compact the tube to make it a "slim" fit... but it seemed like a very nice picture IMHO.

my mail order dvi to hdmi cable came already (in preparation)

*Shrug*

rampy

[g808]

Good luck! It's tough to judge quality based on the video that retails stores feed their TV's. Some places make great TV's look aweful. It's best to just read reviews and make the best choice based on those reviews and your budget. If you can find a good deal locally, then just pull the trigger and if things don't work out, then you can always return it.

[rampy]

Good luck! It's tough to judge quality based on the video that retails stores feed their TV's. Some places make great TV's look aweful. It's best to just read reviews and make the best choice based on those reviews and your budget. If you can find a good deal locally, then just pull the trigger and if things don't work out, then you can always return it.

Going to the different best buy made all the difference... being closer to hartford they had a few OTA feeds besides the internal best buy HD feed and some regular cable/TV feeds.

But yeah I whole heartedly agree with you... it's a wonder they sell any hdtv's in some stores...

rampy

[rampy]

I picked up the lg 30" widescreen 30FZ4D HDTV yesterday   

still sorting out what should ideally use what input and whatnot. 

I don't have an audio receiver at all...

I had one main issue so far... that there isn't a corresponding analog audio input for the hdmi port, just digital.  So my choices are HDMI by way of DVI with digital audio input OR component video with analog audio .. which would be fine except I don't have the right component dongle/adapter for 5200 just dvi output.  I also don't have optical output on my motherboard, nor the optical cable if I did!

I like it (expect a full write up at some point)  it looks nice... needs some tweaking.  HDTV content looks awesome.  The SDTV content is a little bit of a compromise of either slightly smooshed heads or zoom which cuts off a little of the top/bottom (or portrait letter box which on this set looks too small for my taste... it's only 30" after all)

I only have svideo output on my Tivo series 2, and with the SDTV content zoom the artifacts of the Tivo "medium" quality MPEG2 is more noticeable (obviously) than  on my old crappy SDTV set.  that's not the Tivo's fault, it's just another (interim) step/issue to deal with... I bumped up the quality level one notch and we'll see if that helps on future recordings.

It's weird, it's like I'd be ok with a little analog noise or mpeg pixel artifiacting occaisonally on the old set... but it's so  apparent/stark/noticeable on the HDTV set it's much more annoying (or much sharper/stark)?  Part of that again is that I'm using the zoom feature to make it fill the full 16:9 from 4:3 content which makes any artifact more noticeable...

I did hook up my dvi to hdmi and set my desktop resolution to some sick 1900 x XYZ resolution (windows XP/nvidia driver recognized the tv as an LG TV automagically which was nice...)  It wasn't quite as readable as I hoped, but i've got some tweaking to do... part of it is that it's such a high resolution it makes the icons/fonts super small.  I've got quite a bit of noob style learnin' to do to get this setup "right".

too be continued...

rampy

[ElectricBlack]

I don't have an audio receiver at all...

Hmm...now I understand why your hookup choices are limited.

It's weird, it's like I'd be ok with a little analog noise or mpeg pixel artifiacting occaisonally on the old set... but it's so  apparent/stark/noticeable on the HDTV set it's much more annoying (or much sharper/stark)?  Part of that again is that I'm using the zoom feature to make it fill the full 16:9 from 4:3 content which makes any artifact more noticeable...

That artifacting is obvious to me when viewing a DVD on an HDTV.

[Chris Savala]

Hey Rampy,
   I'm a new user here and just picked up the LGFZ4D tonight and was just wondering what your tv settings at i.e. color, tint, sharpness etc? Also what do you think of the tv so far? Thanks