My TV died, and I’m in the market for a new one. I like the widescreen sizes of the 32" LCDs, but a friend of mine has one and you can see jagged edges along diagonal lines/borders on the thing that are quite distracting. They were using S-video, however, and I wonder if an RGB connection would solve this problem. The image also seemed softer than a CRT would provide. If can solve the jagged edge problem I might go for an LCD; otherwise I’ll just get a CRT TV like I’ve always had.
I have a 32" Benq connected with component to the DVD and with DVI to the PC. No problem at all.
So you think a component connection would solve the jagged-edge problem? I am really picky about the image quality for something that costs around 30k. I suppose I could take a dvd in to a shop and ask to test it out on their equipment.
They (LCD) do have ghost trails however on certain camera movements … wait a few years because Philips has just discovered how to eliminate that problem … but if you can’t wait, don’t buy the cheapest …
If you are picky, then you really should go to the shop and try different models and technologies with a DVD of your choice. Good shops allow you to do that. Don’t buy anything you think you will not be happy with.
The Benq has no jagged eggs and no gost pictures as far I can see it. But it could have a better contrast at dark greytones.
I have a 13" CRT TV which I think cost me NT$2000. When it dies I’m going to get a bigger one, maybe 19" to 26", so I looked at an RT Mart circular and saw that a 19" CRT TV costs as little as NT$4000. Four grand. So why, unless you really didn’t have the space for a big CRT unit, would you want to pay many multiples of that to get an LCD version?
Are there some benefits to an LCD of which I’m unaware? I’m not going to be hooking up games to it. It’s just for the occasional rented DVD, really. Why are people paying so much for LCDs? Just 'cause they’re slim and look high-tech?
I’m guessing some of you can educate me. :homer:
Did you actually look at the pictures in RTMart? I can’t believe you’re asking the question! I too have an ancient CRT TV – a massive one, true, but it’s pretty well on its last legs, although the TV repair guy does a great cheap job (which WON’T be the case if I have to switch, apparently – something to consider).
But when I look at the screens at RTMart I’m blown away by the difference in picture quality of even a cheap NT$20,000 LCD TV. They’re FAR better.
[quote=“sandman”]Did you actually look at the pictures in RTMart? I can’t believe you’re asking the question! I too have an ancient CRT TV – a massive one, true, but it’s pretty well on its last legs, although the TV repair guy does a great cheap job (which WON’T be the case if I have to switch, apparently – something to consider).
But when I look at the screens at RTMart I’m blown away by the difference in picture quality of even a cheap NT$20,000 LCD TV. They’re FAR better.[/quote]I’ve seen quite a few LCD TVs in places like that. I don’t recall anything amazing. My impression is that the contrast and colour on a decent CRT is better.
Nope, haven’t looked. Is that the main consideration, better picture quality? I can imagine paying 30% more for better quality, but 500%?
We now have fire, you know?
Me too, believe me. I’ve held out so far, as I said, thanks to occasional visits by Mr TV guy who charges me $900 and makes the picture nice again, but I HAVE been looking, and have been pretty impressed with the quality of those newfangled things.
But paying that kind of money for watching a few DVDs and er… “other kinds of discs given to me by criminal types” sticks in my craw, still.
Yeah, I know – I have no EyePod, have never owned an electronic game, and don’t really want the color screen and camera functions on my cellphone. I’d rather play at a pottery wheel or a canvas, carve name chops, or study languages. 
Never did subscribe to cable TV either.
Well, I did pose the question in 2005, when LCD technology wasn’t quite as far along and cheap as it is today. I ended up getting a 37" Sharp Aquos which looks very nice even though it’s not 1080p, just 1080i, but good enough for upscaled DVDs as well as HD TV and movies.
You didn’t say whether that was an LCD or CRT. 
[quote=“Dragonbones”][quote=“Poagao”]Well, I did pose the question in 2005, when LCD technology wasn’t quite as far along and cheap as it is today. I ended up getting a 37" Sharp Aquos which looks very nice even though it’s not
1080p, just 1080i,
but good enough for upscaled DVDs as well as HD TV and movies.[/quote]
You didn’t say whether that was an LCD or CRT. :p[/quote]
Don’t make me post that picture again. 
My only advice to TV buyers is to measure their houses and expectations. I bought a 47" flatscreen thingee, and now when people come to my squalid little flat I have to explain that, yes, it does occupy half the loungeroom, but no, it isn’t some fancy exaggerated art instalment reflecting the over-significance of modern electronics in our lives.
Mercifully they didn’t have a 20 foot screen in the showroom I visited at the time.
HG
huh? Sorry, but y’all should learn to talk down to troglodytes.
huh? Sorry, but y’all should learn to talk down to troglodytes.[/quote]I join you in the troglodyte department.
My question, same as Dragonbones, after reading the other thread about HD-LCDs and stuff was is LCD really worth it. You see, in the showroom, they have nice DVD set to impress customers. All you can compare is how the DVD quality shows on the screens of different brands, right?
But as you guys pointed put, the signal quality is … questionable to say the least, when it comes to cable TV. Look at you guys complaining that MOD looks kind of fuzzy in big TVs. So, what are our options?
After reading the whole story, I thought a normal CRT TV would be just fine. The first TV I got here in Taiwan was a 40-something inches monster, great sound and image … until it went down in flames. Alas, I can’t find something even remotely similar, and the one I have now, a 29 inch, takes 15 minutes to warm up and show an image that is barely visible.
I still would like a biggish TV, and hopefully I could plug it to the MOD or the HD converter. I think a cheap TECO would be a good compromise, though if I could invest in something better -SONY or PANASONIC- I’d be happy. Until I am convinced of the ability of an LCD to show a decent image with the cable signal quality we have, I won’t rush to buy it. That is, unless the current TV explodes, too.
[quote=“Dragonbones”]I have a 13" CRT TV which I think cost me NT$2000. When it dies I’m going to get a bigger one, maybe 19" to 26", so I looked at an RT Mart circular and saw that a 19" CRT TV costs as little as NT$4000. Four grand. So why, unless you really didn’t have the space for a big CRT unit, would you want to pay many multiples of that to get an LCD version?
Are there some benefits to an LCD of which I’m unaware? I’m not going to be hooking up games to it. It’s just for the occasional rented DVD, really. Why are people paying so much for LCDs? Just 'cause they’re slim and look high-tech?[/quote]
Couple of thoughts:
- There is a limit as how big a CRT can get before being too bulky for your average living room/TV shelf - the tube needs more depth as the screen gets bigger, and it becomes more heavy, too; that causes lack of demand for such a unit and hence high prices. The biggest I have seen was a 38 or 40" and it was huge 'n heavy.
- If you want big and/or flat LCD and Plasma are the way to go as of now
- HDTV does provide better picture quality but of course it depends on your source material or rather availibility of such, i.e. HDTV broadcast isn’t widely available in most of the world let alone Taiwan and Blu-Ray players and discs are still somewhat expensive; but a true videophile wouldn’t allow him to be stopped by that.
True, though LCDs are getting better at it, in particular those that use LED backlighting which can be controlled in blocks to give deeper blacks and hence more contrast.
And while CRT may generally have a better contrast and response times they have other problems that LCDs (and plasmas) don’t have, like geometry issues which I find rather annoying, had my 29" CRT replaced two times because of that and it still wasn’t entirely ok.
It’s all about SIZE. 
No current technology is perfect, so in the end it is just a matter of personal preference, depending on things like physical dimensions, screen size, source material / usage (more Taiwan CATV or DVDs, HD content, PC …) or whatever.
Not even that because the distribution of the signal is mostly cheap and thus makes it look worst (or they use a lesser video signal to begin with), not to mention that TVs in the showroom are usually poorly set up - cranking up the contrast makes for a “nice” bright picture.
In fact if you really want to judge a TV, in particular plasma and LCD, you should do so in a darkened room - then you can see if black is really black or just grey. But that’s of course not practical at most shops.
Use a smaller screen, and here it doesn’t matter what technology you use. I had a 42" LCD in Taiwan for CATV and DVDs, the latter looked great, the CATV was between piss-poor and quite good, depending on channel. But the 29" CRT that my landlord provided, and that was a upper-scale Panasonic, did not fare any better.
No TV can make the cable signal any better than it is. Shit in, shit out. (excuse my French)