I need help with figuring out what kind of TV I need.?

Question

I am trying to find a new HDTV but I don't know anything about them. I have a budget of around $500. Should I get LCD or CRT? A friend of mine says CRT cause LCD does not have as good of a picture when watching DVDs. Should I get a normal or widescreen TV. Will a widescreen TV make satalite TV small? Will it make Games small? I am looking for the best picture quality and size for my budget. Please help me! I am completly lost!

Answer 1

Wide screen is now considered normal since they don't make the old ones anymore. Go to this site for a comparison: displaymate.com/crtvslcm.html.

Answer 2

At $500, for the moment you will not have any great choices. Still, I'd advise the following:

1.) Skip the CRT purchase, 4:3 (square screen format) analog TV's will soon be worthless. They will not be able to receive a broadcast signal starting early in 2009. If you buy a conversion box, you'll end up with a much smaller image due to the HDTV use of the wide (16:9) format.

2.) DVD's these days have a resolution of 852x480. There is no benefit to watching these discs on a TV of 1080p resolution. Save your $ and buy a 720p capable flat panel TV.

3.) Widescreen TV's will display HD images in the best manner as they are natively using the wide format aspect ratio.

4.) At $500, you will be limited to very small LCD's of low quality. I'd actually suggest you find a way to save up a few hundred more. A 37" 720p LCD would be a good entry point at about $700 - $800. A 42" HD Plasma TV would be even better, at about $800 - $900. Black Friday saw some 42" HD PDP's on sale as low as $775. I've seen refub PDP's on buy.com and e-cost.com for $6XX, you might see these prices again before the holiday season is over.

Astrobuf

Answer 3

720 P is the resolution, with the P it's smoother. 1080 i is a higher resolution, interlaced, but not as smooth as the 720. 1080P is the best of both worlds. When LCD television begin experiencing trouble, they start to lose pixels, so you'll get little black spots around the screen. Plasmas are beautiful, but very expensive to repair if anything happens. I happen to have a rear projection, 1080p, and I like it a lot. The only issue with the rear projection is the size, you can't hang them on the wall like an lcd or plasma. The lamps in the rear projections last about 4 to 6 years and run, maybe 500 bucks to replace. Mine is a widescreen but there are five or six different screen formats so you can change to suit your tastes. With the rear projection you can get a larger tv with less money if screen size is an issue. I bought a 57 inch rear projection for less than I could have gotten a 40 inch lcd, or plasma. Good Luck.

Answer 4

CRT's are on the way out.
Newer LCD's are perfect, low weight, slim design, but anything smaller than 42" is unsatisfying. However 42" will cost you at least $850 in a refurbished unit.
Rear projection gets you a bigger picture for less $'s than a LCD. Try to get a DLP system.
Widescreen TV's will show full fram HD, and put black around a non HD image.
So, you're really stuck. There is no good solution for under $1000.00

Answer 5

CRT is wonderful, if you want to spend time calibrating your TV. I have a CRT RPTV. CRT RPTV and DirectView sets are hard to come by. Especially for 550. At that budget, got for a LCD TV, you will probably be limited to 26 inches. Go for the widescreen, check out best buy and circuit city in the coming weeks, should be able to snag a great deal

Answer 6

I would go with the LCD and for around 500 you can get a 26 inch vizio from walmart check them out they are really nice.Also dont get a CRT becuae they take up too much space and they are also going out of date. Not to many are mad anymore. Hope this helped you

Answer 7

get the CRT there the best & you can find them on ebay for around $400.00