My TV just 'popped' and died. Bummer, but not unexpected given it was about 20 years old. I have a space 36" wide and 29" tall in my entertainment center, so a SuperHyperWideScreen obviously won't fit. What's the technology like these days in CRT televisions? Any decent links for real information about them? Specific model recommendations? Thanks T
Tillman, I was in a similar situatation fitting a TV in a builtin... we got a widesreen with the speaker below the screen (not on the sides), so it's overall size is similar to a conventional TV... just an option Simon
Forget CRTs, pop for an LCD - heck you own a Ferrari... This should fit http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7937682&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat95100050006&id=1151658135237
T Man, I'm shopping for a new TV right now as well. I've read and taken into consideration all the recent threads here regarding the subject. I looked into Flat Screens sub-$1000, and there are some great 30" and 32" LCD HDTVs out there for between $600-1000. With the piped-in HD programming they were showing at Circuit City, they all looked fantastic. However, I wanted to know what "normal" TV programming would look like since the majority of what I really want to watch (History Channel type stuff, Formula 1, and Hockey) would be in Standard Definition. I'm moving soon and haven't decided on whether to go cable or dish, but I probably won't buy any HD package right off the bat. So I asked the non-commissioned, knowlegeable and helpful (<---no sarcasm) guy at Circuit City to hook up an antenna to the flat screen 32" LCD HDTV, which can also recieve digital broadcast channels. I was fairly disappointed in the quality of the picture of over-the-air stations, even the ones broadcasting digitally. Right behind us were normal, CRT type TV's that were showing a far better picture, in my eye, of the same broadcast programming. So I explained to the sales guy my concern. His suggestion, and what he had at his house, was a High Definition Widescreen Tube TV. He said the blacks are much blacker than even the most expensive LCDs, and that for watching sports, the tube was still his preference. The widescreen CRTs they had at Circuit City looked great, and they can also pull in the broadcast digital channels. Also, the one I was looking at said it could display at 1080i, which is apparently the bees knees. Normal ratio programming is shown with two black bars on the side of the picture tube, and looks like any high quality CRT TV out there. So that's what I've decided on. A widescreen tube 16:9 TV with an digital HD tuner built in. I'll probably end up spending around $6-800 for a 30 or 32" when I buy one in January. One other consideration was that my new place will have a high level of ambient light during the daytime, lots of windows. So no worries about that with the CRT vs Plasma/LCD. Also no viewing angle concerns. One strike aainst the tube is that the LCDs all seem to come with a VGA input, which would be good for computer gaming, I suppose. But I don't do any serious gaming so I don't care. Another thing I noticed was that one of the tube widescreens at the store had a TINY bit of distortion on the left and right edges when showing a 16:9 HD program, but there were plenty of widescreen CRTs that didn't have any distortion at all when showing the same HD program side by side.
