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Need help making TV decision

I'm looking to replace my ancient Proton 27" CRT with something new. I've poked around AVS forum and CNET but still feel confused and underinformed. Would welcome advice here and pointers to other sources of information.

Here's our situation:

-- Can accomodate up to 40"-42" wide display
-- Use Comcast digital cable box through TiVo box as main source; also DVD
-- TV (not DVD) probably 80% of viewing
-- Viewing distance is about 8 feet
-- Can accomodate the depth of a CRT or rear projection, but a flat panel would be just fine (will sit atop 40" AV cart)
-- Don't need built-in audio as I route audio signals through an AV receiver
-- Price not too much of an issue

So....LCD, Plasma, DLP or CRT? HD or ED? One of my main fears is that I will get a set that kills on DVD or HD but leaves me unhappy when I watch an old movie or a Seinfeld rerun or any non-HD TV program. There's also the issue of our addiction to TiVo and the absence of an HD TiVo box for digital cable (as far as I know).

Thanks for any guidance you can provide.
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Showing 2 responses by shadorne

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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
I recommend the Panasonic TH-42PD50U 42" Diagonal Viera Plasma EDTV - it will give you best viewing on regular non-HDTV and DVDs/Tivo....and it still does a fair job of down scaling HD source. It has an HDMI input aswell, which may become standard in the future....

Colour and contrast is impressive and signifcantly better than other TV's, LCD or Plasma or rear projection, in that price range....best value I have seen...no wonder it is one of the most popular TV's last year and this year.

Currently available full HDTV Plasma/LCDs with all the pixels necessary to display full 1080 HD signal are very expensive and any scaling of source pixels to screen pixels (up or down) is best avoided and, worse, some HD sources are 720p as well as 1080 to complicate it all further for screens with fixed pixels. If you want best quality for all sources then the 5 year old CRT Sony 36XBR400, which was top of the line at the time, still does a great job without scaling problems but it is a heavy beast and will not like speaker magnets getting to close - but you might be able to find one second hand at a good price...
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
EDTV will give me better viewing on non-HD sources and TiVo than HDTV? (Perhaps I should ask, will HDTV give me worse viewing than EDTV on these sources?)

Yes the Pansonic EDTV pixel format fits the DVD/TV format optimally and it does a farily good job of down scaling HDTV sources. I saw both EDTV and HDTV Panasonic models side by side working off an HDTV source and I would say that the scaled down HDTV signal on the Pansonic EDTV was impressive...as good as a DVD and comparable to the full HDTV on the more expensive Panasonic model, but of course not as high definition as HDTV, noticable pixels and graininess up very close.

Apparently scaling up is tough as data has to be "created" and lines become blurred (some HDTV's with fixed pixels have better algoithms than others for up scaling - so it is worth comparing if you definitely want HDTV but watch a lot of regular TV or DVD's)

...scaling down is quite a bit easier for the TV's algorithm and a nice clear image can usually be retained when it is scaled down (making less data from more data).

As for HDMI - I am told that in future some pay per view cable/satellite services may only come in HDMI format so as to limit piracy...if true, then it would be annoying not to have an HDMI input if you end up using those services.
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