I've been wanting to go HD for awhile now, but I don't really have the money to do it.
My budget is going to be about $450.
From what I hear, CRT displays are still the best for black-levels and still have the most vibrant colors. I think I'm going to be looking for a CRT, 30"-32", preferably widescreen. It'd be good to have a lot of component-in and maybe an HDMI.
I have no clue what the good brands are, and I don't know much about native resolutions and whatnot. I am mainly going to be playing my Xbox 360, PS2/XB/GC along with my old-school consoles on it.
What do you guys recommend?
--EDIT--
My mom just informed me that I'm getting a car for my Birthday, but I'm going to have to pay for insurance. My budget just got cut back to about $200.
In one way I'm happy, but damn I wanted to see Halo 3 in HD.
So now, I just need something 20"-24" with S-Video, A/V, and Component-in. This sucks.
Last edited by Raz1r on Sun Sep 02, 2007 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
450 bucks could actually get you quite a bit if you just look hard enough (I found my 50 inch DLP 1080p screen for only 1000 bucks... a freakin' steal).
You just have to be willing to look hard, be patient, and avoid places like best buy at ALL costs.
First, types of TV's:
you have a few choices here, it appears you are looking at CRT. But lets really weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of all of them.
Plasma - I list this first as it is EXPENSIVE, and actually doesn't give you the colour you really would expect at it's price. Blacks appear a blueish purple, and any fast motion that occurs on screen tends to blur. Still images and slow images look amazing though, the colour contrast is sweet. Making Discovery channel a God send of no other. But... at it's price... DON'T EVEN BOTHER!
LCD - LCD screens are getting relatively cheap now a days. And the picture on them is very nice as long as you don't mind certain things. First off, again yes, the blacks aren't as deep as CRT... but it isn't that noticeable except in the most extreme situations. For the clarity of picture, level of detail and really amazing visual quality it is worth it... as long as you find it at a good price. That and the space saving slimness of it is just unbeatable... really it is. Downside is low resolution stuff on an LCD really burns out... the pixel size is precise and can only handle 1 resolution... scaling is just awful. As long as you keep a good quality picture fed to it though, you are ON.
-cont'd: I just bought one of these for my mother for only 250 bucks. It was a 27" widescreen 720p. Not the greatest name, but at the price, and because my mum had been on a 9 inch screen for a decade now... it was well worth it. If you plan on going LCD (which isn't bad) stay with a known brand (i.e. Samsung) and you will be pleased. These tend to be cheaper when you buy the ones that are more like monitors converted over to TVs, but those are usually by the unknown name brands. Oh, and make sure it's got a good warranty no matter the brand... dead crystals SUCK!
CRT - good ol' trustworthy CRT displays. They are BIG, bulky, heavy, and ancient... the great thing about this is that. The engineering world has tons of experience with them, these TVs will last for ages, withstand abuse, and generally just be good to you... or as good as a CRT can be. CRT's pluses are the fact they support a wide range of resolutions (yey, no scaling of low resolution stuff like Cable tv) and the blacks are deep and dark. Downside is they are typically kinda blurry. The contrast on them is very bloody and colours meld together. This also get's worse over time. If you've ever put a CRT monitor next to a LCD for a computer dual display (which I'm on right now) you'll see what I mean. Other style TVs are much clearer and crisper... but certainly NOTHING beats the price and great colour of a CRT.
DLP - everyone forgets good ol' DLP screens. I use DLP for all my large displays... they are freaking AMAZING. And, just like CRT can support more then one resolution... usually not as large a range as CRT, but it still is much better then the strict native resolutions of LCD and Plasma. It's as if you get the best of both worlds, crisp clean picture of LCD, but the great colour of CRT. You really can't beat these things... there are several downsides to them though for budget shoppers. These displays only come BIG, they only come thick (not as thick as CRT, but still thick) and you really need to take care of them. The bulbs in these bastards are expensive and need time to cool down. They have fans built in to cool off the bulb everytime you turn it off, so you'll notice a slight wirring noise every shut down. The bulbs also only have a certain life span. This and the fact that you can NOT tilt these bastards they take lots of babying. And NEVER EVER EVER pull the plug on this bastard or allow the power to cut out to it... I advise a UPS or something hooked up to it to turn it off if the power does go out... this way it can cool off the bulb for you (bulbs range from 400 to 2000 dollars, it can sometimes be cheaper just to buy a new TV). These TVs aren't in your price range probably, but if you ever look to go big screen... these bastards are the most affordable AND have the best picture (in my opinion)... they are built with projection in mind so there is very little distortion in the projection.
-cont'd: I've been through several big screen TV's, LCD projection, CRT, projection, and DLP projection. CRT suffers the most from being projected onto the display, it gets foggy and blurry and light sources in the room make the viewing angle awful. LCD isn't as bad as CRT projection, but still suffers severely. DLP tends to be very good at projecting, holds strong to the blacks and light sources don't effect it as badly (though there is still glare, anyone with bigscreens can tell you about the freakin' glare).
one last thing about the DLP, make sure you see the TV before you ever buy it. Do NOT buy these off the internet. They will be hurt in shipping, and you want to make sure it was built well. There is an effect called 'rainbowing' that is common with DLP screens... it is when to highly contrasting colours (usually white against dark colours) create this rainbow effect around the edges. You want to make sure the one you look at doesn't have it.
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So yeah, CRT or LCD is probably your best bet when it comes to TV's in the mid 400's.
I'll continue if you want... I've typed a lot, so I don't want to bore you if your not going to bother reading further.
I think CRTs are damn fine for the money. I recently picked up a 27 inch RCA HDTV on clearance from Walmart for only $174! The picture is pretty nice on for local HDTV signals(I bought an antenna just to see, since my cable company still doesnt support it) and my wii and xbox look damn fine in 480p. I really need to get a 360 to see what this thing can do. Its not widescreen, but that is fine since I mostly play my dc and saturn. I happen to work at Walmart and I know at my store, we have several 30 inch widescreen sanyo hdtvs and a few philips that are the exact same as the Sanyo, marked at $200 and $250 on clearance. These are not out on the salesfloor at my store, so you should got talk to someone in electronics to see what they might have in the back. I wish these had been marked down when i got mine, but oh well.
Hey lord, I read all of your post, and you should check out my Edit, I just found out that I'm going to have to start paying for my car insurance. My budget's at about $200 now, and I think I'm just going to go to WalMart and buy a cheap Flat-screen SDTV with a Component-In.
Slimfits are SO much better than normal CRTs in terms of depth and weight.
They are still pretty heavy, but I have my 27" on a old Computer desk (which actually passes as a cheap entertainment center) and unless you look around the back, you'd almost think it was an LCD or something.
yeah those slim fits are pretty nice... up until I went HD that's what I was using all the time. Down at the SD level, CRT beats all... hands freakin' down.
lordofduct wrote:yeah those slim fits are pretty nice... up until I went HD that's what I was using all the time. Down at the SD level, CRT beats all... hands freakin' down.
Nothing wrong, just your options grow more when you get HD.
It's not a what's wrong with slimfits, it's a what is great about CRT. If your gonna go SD, CRT televisions are the best you can do... hands down. And slimfit's make CRT's that much better.
Okay, i went into work today, and had nothing to do today, so I went to the back to research the tvs i metioned earlier. The Sanyo 30 inch for $200 has 1 hdmi, 2 components and svideo/composite inputs. We were so bored we actually took it out of the box and hooked it up to the hd signal we get on the salesfloor. The picture is super sharp, and looks just as good as the LCDs as far as i can tell. Actually a little smoother, and best yet......NO GHOSTING!!!! The Philips has the same specs but 2 hdmi ports. I didnt get to set it up to check it out though. Well sorry for the spelling errors, as im on luch and trying to do a millio things at once, but you should go ask at your local wallyworlds to see whats in the backroom.
