# Televisions



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

I have just been told that the tube in my JVC 28inch flat widescreen TV that I bought in 2000 has gone.









For the last 2-3 months, it has had what I call "blue moments"; the screen would get bluer and bluer before our very eyes and then suddenly go back to normal.

Last week, it went blue and bluer and then the blue totally failed altogether and left us with a very yellow picture.









I want to buy another 28 inch flatscreen...but

Conventional CRT or LCD/plasma??

Preferred make?

All advice greatefully received. Thanks

Paul


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

I bought a Philips 23" Widescreen LCD TV last year. It operates as a TV, FM radio or PC monitor. It's bloomin' fabulous and I'd never want another CRT









Picture quality is bright, razor sharp with high contrast - superb I would say, and much better than the larger plasmas. A downside is that dark areas can be a little too dark, sometimes obsuring detail. Because it's only an inch or two deep it can be hung on the wall







A downside of this is that the speakers are a little puny and so sound quality is not as good as it might be - but that's what a separate surround sound system is for isn't it









Prices are tumbling for these which is also good news.

Too bad I don't have an aerial


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Sony do the sharpest LCD/Plasma screens ive seen.... (Viao?)


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## hakim (Sep 13, 2004)

Paul, I would say forget about another CRT. They are on the way out. LCD and Plasma are the only two choices you should be looking at for that size of display. If you were sticking to 28" or thereabouts then LCD is the best, but if you are looking at something larger like 33" upwards then plasma would be the choice.

Also depends on your viewing distance. Don't get a 33" plasma and sit 4 feet away. It no good.

I would think in typical UK houses a 29" LCD is perfect. The picture is crisp and colors slightly richer than plasma. Pound for pound the LCD tv is better than the plasma except in one area. It can't keep up in those fast action scenes where you'll get some picture lag or blur. Plasma has no problem there. But for the majority of people in normal viewing its OK.

There are only four manufacturers of plasma displays; Sony, Pioneer, Fujitsu and Samsung. All the other manufacturers buy the basic screens from them and then put in their own speakers, software and features. In actual fact a Philips plasma is actually a Fujitsu. These four companies are the major players and pioneers in plasma screen technology. OK there are Chinese manufacturers, but their screens are very primitive.

My suggestion would be for you to get either of these two choices depending on your budget and stick to the main players. The acknowledged best for plasmaioneer and for LCD Sony.

Hope this helps.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

hakim said:


> Hope this helps.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It sure does! Thanks!

Sadly, the 710 has some say in what I purchase







. If she had her way, we wouldn't own a TV at all









28 inch will be the max...it's what we had before and she said that was too big. So size does matter, despite what they tell us. (







).

From your post, it sounds like a Sony LCD might be a good bet....but they are still so much more expensive than a CRT







(and that means less watch money). Are the Samsung LCDs any good?









BTW: the JVC TV that has just packed up had a Philips tube


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

Beware of some LCD offerings...they can be "slow" ie watch, say, a tennis ball and see if it leaves a "tail"...some are worse than others.

My choice would be a projector and screen (or white wall) always fancied an 8 foot screen

Roger

Further thought...watch also for "dead spots"


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## hakim (Sep 13, 2004)

Paul,

The Samsung LCD's are not too bad, but you can also take a look at JVC and Toshiba, Philips etc. I'm sure you can get some sort of financial packages there in UK for buying electronic stuff e.g. interest free installments using your credit card? That way you can get yourself a decent set and pay a smaller managable fixed amount for say 12 months. At the end of that you have a nice tv and still be on speaking terms with the 710







.

Lucky for me my wife is a movie and music fan who trusts me to pick out the stuff no questions asked











> Roger Posted Today, 03:24 PM
> 
> Beware of some LCD offerings...they can be "slow" ie watch, say, a tennis ball and see if it leaves a "tail"...some are worse than others.
> 
> My choice would be a projector and screen (or white wall) always fancied an 8 foot screen


Correct Roger, that tennis ball tail is exactly what I mean about the blurriness in LCD screens.

The projector and screen is unbeatable if you have a dedicated room or with modifications to existing viewing area to block out other light sources. But its not very friendly when you want to watch something with a group of friends while eating etc due to the darkened room.

In such case I would reccomend a rear projection tv. You can get some really good 43" ~ 55"sets from Toshiba (hight reccomended) that give a bight clear picture even in daytime. That might be another option for you Paul. Add a good surround system and dvd player and maybe your wife would change her mind







Good luck!


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Silver Hawk said:



> BTW: the JVC TV that has just packed up had a Philips tube


Funny you should say that:

I've never liked Philips CRT's. I always avoided them as they invariably appeared rather "green" to my eyes. The Sony ones seemed far superior except the annoying horizontal retaining wires that some of them exhibited. But with LCD I find it's the other way around. The Philips ones look really good compared to Sony. Same goes for PC monitors too. Each to their own of course









Anyway, best bet I reckon is to go over to Comet or somewhere similar and see them all together so you can make a direct comparison. That's what I did.

The only "trails" noticeable on my screen are with very fast scrolling white text on a black background (eg. credits at the end of a film) and then only if I sit very close to the screen...in a pitch dark room...and try really hard to spot them









Another make I quite liked the look of (although I didn't try any of them) was Panasonic.


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## seiko6139 (Aug 25, 2003)

Well,

I bought a Sony 32" widescreen TV a couple of years ago and I'm very pleased with it.It's a bit of a monster though.

I can see why people go for LCD and Plasma TVs but the CRT will still be around for a good few years yet.

I have a reasonable size living room and I prefer a larger screen.

The actual resolution of digital broadcast TV is not as high as the analogue system.

I live on a hill and so my analogue signal is perfect and free from ghosting. I have Sky and the resolution is not as good but it's perfectly adequate.I have noticed that some stations, eg UKTV People is very poor.

The Government want us to go digital because a digital TV signal requires considerably less bandwidth than an analogue signal.

Broadcast standards seem to be dropping









I've gone off at a tangent there









Cheers,

Ian


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

Just as an "aside", I have found that a good CRT monitor is by far the best for photo work when using a PC

Roger


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