Looking for an HDTV Bargain? Check Out a CRT

I recently bought a new HDTV. Being a true home theater geek, I poured ridiculous amounts of time researching this topic. I wanted the best I could get, with a catch or two: I am a cheapskate without a lot of money to spend. I also wanted the best quality picture for my dollar, as opposed to the largest screen or slimmest monitor or absolute cheapest price. Budget: $1,000 maximum. Despite the falling prices of LCDs and Plasmas, I looked to the latest crop of CRT HDTVs.

OK, I know what you are thinking: Why in the heck is this guy talking about a big, obsolete CRT television? Yes, I know: LCDs and Plasmas are hot. They’re slim. They’re sexy. Prices are coming down and the picture is great. CRTs are bulky, and it’s pretty much a dead technology, right? Yes, but these facts also what make them a bargain.

While CRTs are on their way out, they still offer an excellent picture. Like the vinyl record in the 80’s and the vacuum tube in the 60’s, the CRT is being replaced when it is really at its apex. The CRT is an old technology that is very close to being dead, but it is a mature technology. Manufacturers have spent many decades perfecting it. It’s a reliable and very capable; and many experts are saying that this last crop of CRTs is the best ever.

Not only are you getting a great television, but prices are great. LCDs and Plasmas being all the rage, there is a premium on them. CRTs don’t have the cachet that slim sets have, so prices for CRTs are much lower. And dropping prices for LCDs and Plasmas are pushing down CRT prices even more. So you can get a beautiful high definition CRT display for several hundred dollars less than a comparably sized and featured LCD or Plasma.

My Purchase – Sony 30” Widescreen

This was actually my second HDTV purchase; the first was a 32” 4:3 (traditional TV dimensions) CRT model from Sanyo. It had a nice picture and plenty of features, but quality control seemed to be a problem. When its component inputs died on me, and not one but TWO replacement sets were dead on arrival, I gave up on the brand. I’d always been impressed with Sony’s WEGA televisions, so I went with a Sony 30” widescreen KV-30HS420. This television has been out for sometime now, but it is still being sold at many electronics stores and is available at all of them for great price.

This HDTV has a pretty standard feature set: full complement of inputs and outputs, including couple component inputs, one HDMI input, various picture processing modes, and a nice remote. At about three feet wide, almost two feet deep and 150 pounds, it is pretty large TV, especially when compared to the new “flat panel” type sets. It does not have picture in picture, which may or may not be important to you.

Also missing is a digital tuner for natively receiving HDTV broadcasts. This means that in order to receive and view HDTV content, you will need a separate box, such as a cable/satellite set top box capable of decoding and displaying HDTV. I suspect that for most consumers this lack of an internal HDTV tuner isn’t a huge problem, as most already have a cable box. If you’re still watching broadcast television, however, you might want to look for a TV with a built in ATSC tuner.

This time I went with the widescreen format because I wanted movies and HD sports content to look their best, and I am less interested in “regular TV”. I am glad I chose the widescreen. It really adds something to the presentation of widescreen programming. No bars, full screen resolution – it looks great.

How does it look?

For DVDs, I matched the Sony with a Denon DVD-2200, a mid-priced DVD player that is now about three years old. It has received raves for its video performance, and I have to agree with those raves. These two make an excellent pairing through the Denon’s component video outputs. Video is crisp and smooth; colors are beautifully saturated, details finely delineated. Blacks are black. After eight months with this combo, I am still in awe of its performance every time I watch it. DVDs look fantastic.

DVDs looked great, but HDTV takes it to another level. HDTV completely sheds that last layer of grain to give you the feeling you are looking through a window or at some kind of stunningly realistic animation. Colors are bright and vibrant and full, minute details are clear and easy to make out. There is absolutely no evidence of “scan lines” anywhere - something we’ve all come to accept from our old non-HDTVs. With HDTV, they are just gone, and all that is left is a gorgeous picture.

ESPN’s 720p sports broadcasts look so wonderful it makes me giddy. From the expressions on players faces to the beads of sweat their heads, to the texture of the grass, the bright colors of the uniforms, and painted faces in the crowds, it’s all rendered in stunningly clear detail. I found myself watching anything and everything in high definition. I watched an entire discovery channel program about a beaver building his dam. Twice. That is a hard working little animal! I’d never make it as a beaver. I watch too much TV.

HDTV is so good that you’ll find it tough to go back to standard definition (“regular”) TV, which brings me to my next point. For non-HDTV broadcasts, this TV does not seem to stack up to decent SD televisions. My old Panasonic 27” consistently beats the Sony with SD programming. This is unfortunate, but a common complaint with many HDTVs. SD programming does not look bad, mind you, just not as good as with a good SD set.

As for reliability, unfortunately, I had a mishap with the Sony as well. Precisely 28 days into my purchase, the television suddenly would not turn on. It was just dead. So much for “Sony reliability.” I called Circuit City the next morning, and withinthree hours they had replaced it with a new one – great service! Happily – so far anyway – the replacement has held up pretty well.

Conclusion