Where would I find one of these and what do they cost?
Ta.
You get get plasma TV’s in any TV shop or did I misunderstand what you want ? Cost about 150,000-200,000
What I want to know is, where can I get a widescreen CRT TV ? I obviously can’t afford a plasma one, and a 4:3 tv is not so good for watching films on.
Something like this Matt: 
US$600 on Amazon; should be cheaper in Taiwan.
There are cheaper models on Amazon too.
Ah… one of them… again, almost anywhere, I saw some in FNAC in Hsin Guang opposite Warner, about 40,000 or 50,000. Wrong shape for me and expensive so I don’t really remember. I’ll have a look when I leave work
Much appreciated.
I had a peek in a Daichi type place, they had 15" for between 17,000 and 40,000
[quote]they had 15" for between 17,000 and 40,000
[/quote]
Wow, that’s quite a price variation there. Any idea what’s the diff. between a $17,000 15" screen and a $40,000 screen of the same size?
Nope, I didn’t look that closely, I just wanted to give Alleycat a rough idea of the prices available. Maybe there’s something wrong with it… That was the cheapest and most expensive, there were a lot inbetween.
Matthew thanks. I think the price variation is probably because of the different brands. But still it’s quite a leap.
What makes you say that? Electrinics (except computer and parts) are not cheap in Taiwan. Go to Malaysia to buy a camera or to Singapore to buy AV/hifi stuff and you will cry - the prices are way lower there.
If you want a flat panel TV I guess we are talking about 30-32" - the Sharp LCD will cost you a whopping NT$250,000.
Great picture which can match or better a plasma screen but note that the brightness will change dramatically if you are off-axis, something which plasmas are not that much subjected to.
LCD is a pretty new technology for TVs and failure rate during production are high and thus they are quite costly at this time, especially the bigger screens.
Check out the shops at the Kuting MRT station to get an overview, e.g. Daiichi has lot’s of plasmas and LCDs on display.
I have also some brochures I picked up at the exhibition earlier this year, I can pass them to you when I am back (if you are interested).
I went back at lunch to get a more meaningful feel of the prices. most 15" are 35,000-40,000. some are cheaper, one is a lot cheaper. Hope that’s a bit more helpful
From what I remeber on these screens they are graded according to
a) the supplier
b) the defects/sq cm
The low cost ones are usually from second level suppliers and have higher number of bad cells. This is taken as an estimate of the life expectancy. I am not sure of the current life expectancy but was told that you can expect a degradation in picture quality over about 3 years.
Anyone know whether this has been improved upon?
For LCD screens you may have to accept 3-5 dead pixels, even it’s brand new. This also applies to PC monitors.
Thus you are best advised to check the screen when purchasing it and reject it if there is any dead pixel.
It won’t protect you from any pixel “dying” in future though …
My notebook’s just lost its first pixel, after it came back from having its inverter replaced.
What’s the difference between a flat-panel and a plasma? The plasma ones in Daiichi look really nice. I think the big ones cost about 200000NT. I saw an article a couple of years ago which said that the reason they’re so expensive is that there’s a failure rate of 50%. Apparently even with normal TVs, sometimes they make them and they just don’t work (probably the tube), but it’s a very low percentage. As the percentage goes down for plasma TVs they should get a bit cheaper.
Brian
“Flat-Panel” is a generic term for any panel being flat, so it could be a plasma or LCD screen (I will omitt newer technologies which are not yet commercially available). As of today CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs still deliver the best (brightest) picture but are limited to a screen size of appr. 40" (and weight a ton then). RPTV (Rear projection TV) can be of CRT, LCD or DLP (Digital Light Projection) type, but due to the mirror system they loose some brightness though screens can be up to appr. 70". Haven’t seen any 16:9 RPTV in Taiwan though.
Plasmas are now available in sizes up to 60"-63" (or a bit more) and can cost more than 1,000,000.00 Taiwan Dollar (yep, that’s a million dollars).
A good plasma, highly rated actually, would be the Panasonic 42" [or it’s more expensive Toshiba clone] which I think is priced around 250k (actually too expensive compared to other countries). Cheaper ones won’t be so bright or not produce such a good picture and note that you need a good source to bring out the best. If the source is crap the display will show all the flaws, so for watching TV it might be a bit of a waste. Thus I rekon it makes only sense with DVD (player should have a component (YUV/YPrPb) output) and HDTV (Hi-Definition TV), the latter if available.
Plasmas have become much cheaper over the years and smaller ones (with an ok-picture) can be bought below 100k in Taiwan now.
But remember - prices in Taiwan are not to be the reference, certain things are overpriced here.
LCDs have only recently become bigger and thus suitable as TVs, but as I said earlier it’s a pretty new thing for the TV consumer market and the failure rates during production at this size are high, hence the higher price. Of course in time they will drop, too.
I found the quality to be comparable to plasma if you are not too much off-axis - neither is perfect but if you want to go flat without a projection system they make a good alternative.
Note also that plasmas and LCD have a risk of becoming faulty, as mentioned LCD may get dead pixels and plasmas might loose gas (which can’t be refilled) over time, resulting in less brightness.
If you are into DVD and/or HDTV make sure you buy a screen (whatever it is, CRT, LCD, plasma …) with an aspect ratio of 16:9, else no joy. It won’t always avoid the black bars since only one movie format fits exactly 16:9 (some films, in particular older ones, come with a different aspect ratio) but it gotta be wide. 4:3 should be banned from this planet for good. 
[quote=“Rascal in bed in Germany”]If you are into DVD and/or HDTV make sure you buy a screen (whatever it is, CRT, LCD, plasma …) with an aspect ratio of 16:9, else no joy. It won’t always avoid the black bars since only one movie format fits exactly 16:9 (some films, in particular older ones, come with a different aspect ratio) but it gotta be wide. 4:3 should be banned from this planet for good. [/quote]I agree completely, 1:1.85 films fit a widescreen TV pretty well, and 1:2.35 leaves minimal bars apparently. Fit’s a whole lot better that in a 4:3 screen. So why can’t we get widescreen CRT’s anymore, used to be able to. Do people think they are missing the top and bottom on the picture in widescreen ? 
Or is it because TV isn’t broadcast in that format (in the UK it is), so it doesn’t matter. But I never watch TV here, only DVD’s
I guess 16:9 isn’t that popular because of (analog) TV broadcast.
IMHO only digital broadcast like those in the UK and HDTV (High Definition TV) will change that and hopefully people ‘will see’.
Then again most plasmas and the bigger LCD screens are all 16:9 and I have seen a handfull of 16:9 CRT TVs here, too.
Not that many though and they are priced at the upper end, yet I am not impressed with their picture quality (in particular Philips dissappoints).
If 42" plasmas wouldn’t be so expensive here I would have one at home already and ditched that shitty 29"er … ! :x
I bought one of those LSD screens by accident and the colors all have trails.
I wonder what else people swallow when watching TV … 