Replacing my Sony CRT - seems like a downgrade!
0-markymark-0
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So, I have a Sony Vega CRT 32" I bought many years ago and I'm still really happy with it, I find the picture quality great. However, it won't last forever, think it will be months or maybe up to a year before it dies - it's taking longer and longer to switch on!
Every now and again I have a look at replacements in John Lewis etc. I don't want a big screen 37", 40" at a push.
BUT, when they're not showing some CGI bluray and are showing 'normal' tv, everything they have on display is fuzzier than my TV. Am I missng something? I don't want to spend money upgrading to find it worse? I'm not that interetsed in bluray and am happy with normal TV. I guess I could also pay more for HD with my Sky but it them seems I'm paying all this extra to try and catch up with what I already have.
Are there TV's out there that will give me the decent quality I'm used to?
Thanks in advance.
Every now and again I have a look at replacements in John Lewis etc. I don't want a big screen 37", 40" at a push.
BUT, when they're not showing some CGI bluray and are showing 'normal' tv, everything they have on display is fuzzier than my TV. Am I missng something? I don't want to spend money upgrading to find it worse? I'm not that interetsed in bluray and am happy with normal TV. I guess I could also pay more for HD with my Sky but it them seems I'm paying all this extra to try and catch up with what I already have.
Are there TV's out there that will give me the decent quality I'm used to?
Thanks in advance.
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You simply need to take account of screen size and viewing distance - the normal reason for complaints is buying a MUCH larger set and then viewing from the same distance.
With HD programmes you can (and should) view from closer, but for SD you need to view from a certain minimum distance - this is no different to CRT sets, where if you were too close you could see the lines that made up the picture.
Replacing your 32 with a Sony 32 LCD should be just as good or better, but you could probably move to a 37 or 40 quite easily, particularly as the set will be able to be set further back in the room.
It's also important not to make an instant negative decision, LCD or Plasma pictures are 'different' to a CRT one, and it takes a few days to get used to the change.
Have you got a HD box, if you have you will get a few free HD channels, BBC1/2 HD, ITV HD etc.
If I were you, I'd go no further than checking out a small plasma TV - and an HD Ready one at 1024 x 768 resolution should be fine. The "detail" freaks will scream "noooooo!" but they are the closest to giving a CRT-style picture and if you sit around 10 feet away, will look good on SD TV and even better on HD channels.
I'm about to buy a 50 inch HD Ready plasma at almost half the price the equivalent 42 incher was over 5 years ago, and apart from the number of pixels and connector sockets, everything is better specified than then. View it first though - find a shop where you can stand at the distance from screen of your home armchair (take a tape measure!) - and get them to change the screen picture mode to something like 'normal' and 'cinema' as well as the awful 'dynamic' setting they often have it set up on.
You may not find one below 42 inches diagonal though, but at 10 feet or thereabouts, it should be fine. Save yourself some money too... I've seen even Panasonic 42 inch HD Ready plasmas recently for £330. You know it makes sense. :cool:
I went from a Sony KV28-FX20 Vega (I think) CRT widescreen which performed quite well and changed to a Sony 32" W4000 LCD (5 years ago) and never looked back. I did a side by side comparison before removing the old CRT and at normal viewing the LCD won hands down on all material.
Of cvourse if you buy a low cost budget LCD then results may vary!
When i got my new Tv (a Sammy 40" 6710), i thought the picture quality was bad, watching SD, it was like watching pirate dvds, but its great now, now that ive set it up properly, which is what you have to do with all these LED/Plasmas
Only if you watch Freeview - for the millions of Sky, Freesat and VM users a DVB-T2 tuner is a complete waste of money.
Not bad prices either for Sony, never been a fan of Sony either to be honest so thin they are now.
Still not stuck on this 3d lark, still can't see the difference.
No, there will be no setting up at all, just connect it up and select 'shop mode' when asked.
Sony and Panasonic are still the top makes, but their higher quality means both are losing money on their TV's
If you can't see the difference are you perhaps blind in one eye
While I wouldn't want 3D (and there's VERY little 3D content anyway) the difference is absolutely obvious - I'm presuming you were watching 3D content and wearing the glasses?.
I've carried out a VERY, VERY rough poll, with only a tiny number of participants (so it's not statistically significant), but of the 3D purchasers I've had occasion to go back to (to install something else, set up a PVR etc.) I've asked how they get on with the 3D. In ALL cases they have said they used it a bit in the first few weeks, but almost never after that.
Cheers,
David.
So you'd like to force people to pay for something they don't want and will never use? - I wasn't aware we'd become a communist country?
Why this obsession with a possible future move to T2?.
And why should YOU want to force everyone to spend more money just for YOUR obsession?.
That would just be you
Lag behind in what?
Seriously though, what if soon even the SD channel multiplexes migrate to DVB-T2 or the OP is based in Northern Ireland and wishes to watch the channels on the RTE mini-mux?
I have no complaints about the SD picture quality on my Panasonic 3D plasma. On channels with reasonable resolution and bitrate the picture can be even be quite good (depending on the quality of the source material, of course).
Low resolution/bitrate channels may look poor, but then these same channels look terrible on a CRT!
(Incidentally the old chestnut about plasmas somehow being good only for SD is nonsense - as if somehow good SD and HD picture have to be mutually exclusive!).
Just imagining possible future changes doesn't make them happen - why aren't you calling for all sets to have DVB-T3 tuners, in case we change to that in the future?.
But assuming anything at all ever does happen, it won't be 'soon'.
btw Nigel, since you don't know anything about T2 switch over, it might be better not to say anything at all.
Cheers,
David.