Why is it that "flat-screens" have become so overwhelmingly popular with the general tv-buying public? Is it just a trend (the next guy has one, therefore so must I), or is there actually some type of advantage to it? Call me old-fashioned, but I don't find them particularly attractive, myself. Give me a CRT-er with the glowing bottles (or at least some good old big transistors) any day!

Wait, flat-tube or flat-panel, as in LCD, DLP or plasma? Either way, I think it's aesthetics. People think it's cool to have a TV that's so big, but able to be hung on a wall. Me? I'll also take a tube - doesn't have to be flat, even. I'm one of those remaining few outside this forum who realizes that a) CRTs still have the best picture, and b) even digital TV is not meant to be displayed at such large sizes. The artifacts from digital compression are bad enough on a 27" set. I've seen them at larger sizes, and until the technology is there to make digital look as smooth as analog, I ain't buyin'.

The flat CRTs I've seen recently aren't that great either. Both an LG Flatron and a Panasonic QuintrixF I've seen have poor focus at the edges and worse geometry errors than conventional CRTs. Perhaps they haven't perfected larger flat CRTs (my 21" flat Diamondtron PC monitor is fine), somehow I doubt they'll be investing much in fixing the problem as the majority seem happy with their LCDs and plasmas (which have poor pictures in a different way).

Personally when l purchased a big screen "52" l chose Panasonic rear projection, great price, good picture all the bugs ironed out in this format years ago.

Now the smaller flat screen seem to be popular with the summer camping crowd in the park where l go; they take up less room in peoples trailers. For the record l do not camp so l can watch TV.

There are several technolgies converging: flat screen, digital, HDTV, and then LCD, plasma, color wheel (whatever they are called). When I walk into the electronics department at Sears (the only place I ever go that has these sets) I am kinda overwhelmed. I don't know one from the other. At first I am kinda wowed at the pretty picture of that nature/ocean dvd that they constantly play, but then I look closer and every one of those things has artifacts/patterns in the picture that I can really get distracted by. I guess you can get used to it. But an old CRT set driven by rabbit ears doesn't do it.

People buy these things for the same reason everyone went out and replaced their minivans with SUVs. They didn't need to, but it got embarrassing to be seen with "last years new toy". Who wants to go to a super bowl party at Uncle Larry's? That 1972 XL100 console has a great picture but it just doesn't cut it anymore with the "in" crowd, or whatever that crowd is calling itself these days!

color wheel (whatever they are called).
DLP. I can't watch those because of the rainbow effect I see when I turn my head - red, green and blue stripes all over.

I think the artifacts you see are due to the compression of the digital signal. You wouldn't believe how much compression happens between the originating network and your cable or satellite box. Blu-ray seems to be the only thing that makes flat-panel sets look halfway good.

I've seen that rainbow on every DLP set I've worked on.
The artifacts from digital compression are getting into the analog world too. I finally caved and ordered ANALOG cable a few months ago. (the signal from my antenna has gone to the dogs in the last year since Wal-mart, Home Desperate, Costco, and others have opened up in my signal path). I was shocked at how much worse the picture is compared to 15 years ago, the last time I had cable.. The compression is horrendous. On some channels it's so bad, I can't watch a football game or auto race. Sometimes it looks like it's been digitized, compressed, converted to analog, then digitized and recompressed again. It's OK on the talking-head news broadcasts, because nothing moves, but if there is a lot of detail or motion, it's not acceptable at all.

And the cable company can't stop bragging about the "Digital Quality Picture".

I've noticed that if anyone between the camera and the TV set changes the resolution or "scan rate" the quality goes down the tube really fast.
On one station here, the dot-crawl on colored edges is worse on the 1080i signal than it is on the analog. Must be composite-analog somewhere in the loop, otherwise there wouldn't be any dot-crawl. Many of the channels have a problem with saturated whites, like someone turned up the video gain on something without looking at the scope first

OOPS. I started ranting again, and not even on-topic.

I have a flat CRT Sony 27". It looks very good, geometry is quite good, but not perfect.
I think the flat CRT was developed to fill the gap between plasma/LCD sets and the curved CRT we all love. The marketing people got the buying public hooked on the idea of flat, and a lot of people don't know the difference between a flat CRT and LCD tv. (Until they try to hang a 300 pound CRT on the wall:tears: )
Watch the TV commercials: They will GIVE you a "flat screen TV" if you come in and buy their crap. Look closely: it's almost always a flat CRT. But people fall for it.
LCD/Plasma is nice, because it only stands out a small distance from the wall. And what are you going to do, make those curved on purpose?

We need to accept it: THE WORLD IS FLAT


I'm going to eat something now, and watch a CURVED CRT.

Give me a CRT-er with the glowing bottles (or at least some good old big transistors) any day!

Some HD digital ATSC receiver boxes have VGA connector outputs, which you can drive a CRT VGA monitor with. I have one that measures 19 1/2 inches diagional of actual CRT face that looks real nice.

I have a Mitsubishi 50" rear projection tv,and I wasnt impressed with the flat screen tv's I saw,or the plasmas,or whatever other technologies they were offering.Whenever I watched action,espescially sports,the picture just couldnt keep up at all.Ive been paying attention the last few years,and it hasnt seemed to have gotten much better.And I really dont regret not getting an HDTV.When using my Panasonic DVD player with the Faroujda,or whatever thingy,and component video cables,the picture is just fine to me.My wife told me she doesnt want a flat screen tv.Where would she put all her knick knacks?:D
Jimmy

i like the fact that every one is going flat panel i just picked up a 35 inch crt for the paltry sum of 225.00 $ at a local retail and repair shop in town here they were working on my tube amp when i spied the tv two birds with one stone you would say

Why is it that "flat-screens" have become so overwhelmingly popular with the general TV-buying public? Is it just a trend (the next guy has one, therefore so must I), or is there actually some type of advantage to it? One advantage of a flat screen is that it less likely to reflect off axis light sources to the viewer. This is true whether or not the technology is CRT, LCD, Plasma or whatever. I still use a conventional CRT set and notice the light refection problem occasionally. It is annoying, but, not annoying enough to cause me to buy a flat screen TV to get rid of the problem.

I love the flatscreens! Everyone´s buying them, and then they give me their old TVs for free. Nice!
But i really don´t like the flatscreen picture. It is mainly the "flat" colors and the kind of matte picture. Not to mention that the sond from the 2*2 watts (if you are lucky) sound system is not much better than in a mobile phone. The plasmas are a lot better, but they are expensive, heavy, fragile and uses a lot of power. Another thing is that i actually like the size of the CRT sets, i think it looks kind of stylish with that back cover that is so big and deep that a kid could have used it as a bath tub. Bigger is better, right?

It's the same reason 5/7ch home theater systems have become popular over conventional 2ch stereo - aesthetics and the 'cool' factor. People don't like huge things anymore. This can be partly blamed on the housing trend within the last 20 years, which is to cram as many bedrooms into otherwise usable space as possible, resulting in family rooms the size bedrooms should be, and bedrooms the size of walk-in closets.

I went out and bought a new TV recently. It's a measly thirty inches or so, and only about 10-12 years old, a higher-end model from B & O. Splurged a whopping hundred bucks on it; roughly a dollar a pound. Clear picture, no digital artifacts or exaggerated contrasts, natural skin tones, smooth motion... Except for the very minor inconvenience of having to deal wtih SCART inputs when most of my other gear doesn't use SCART connectors, I couldn't be happier with it! It even looks almost "flat", at least from the front. For only twenty times the price, I could have bought a really flat one, that would last maybe a whole 5-7 years. Hope I didn't goof! :D

no plasmas for me or bulb eating dlp,s i have a 64" hdtv pioneer projection that i picked up for $300.00 new bad out of box. 2 convergence ic,s bad and i am thrilled with the picture quality of this set. and i do see a lot of tv,s. steve

I went out and bought a new TV recently. It's a measly thirty inches or so, and only about 10-12 years old, a higher-end model from B & O. Splurged a whopping hundred bucks on it; roughly a dollar a pound. Clear picture, no digital artifacts or exaggerated contrasts, natural skin tones, smooth motion... Except for the very minor inconvenience of having to deal wtih SCART inputs when most of my other gear doesn't use SCART connectors, I couldn't be happier with it! It even looks almost "flat", at least from the front. For only twenty times the price, I could have bought a really flat one, that would last maybe a whole 5-7 years. Hope I didn't goof! :D

It probably uses a Philips "super flat" CRT. They don't suffer from the geometery and focus problems of the newer completely flat tubes.

Those SCART inputs will probably accept an RGB signal (not component). If any of your gear has an RGB output (most games consoles, some DVD players, some set top boxes) you'll get a much better picture (no more dot crawl or color bleeding) than using composite or S-video.

Why is it that "flat-screens" have become so overwhelmingly popular with the general tv-buying public? Is it just a trend (the next guy has one, therefore so must I), or is there actually some type of advantage to it? Call me old-fashioned, but I don't find them particularly attractive, myself. Give me a CRT-er with the glowing bottles (or at least some good old big transistors) any day!

I can see some advantages. A screen in the mid 40" range works in some situations, much better than a smaller CRT would. I don't like the idea of stuffing the largest possible screen you can fit and compromising on the rest of the system, but once you get to a certain size, it's just better to go with the "newer" technologies.

I'm not in the market, so I haven't been looking seriously. From what I have seen in various stores while looking for other things I've yet to be impressed. The stores I have seen them in are discount stores stocking the cheaper units, so their may be higher end models out there that address some of the problems I have.

They may look okay from a distance, but as you get closer the various flaws become more distracting. I don't see the point in buying a big screen only to sit so far back from it that the picture is effectively smaller than my existing 27" CRT at my normal viewing distance.

I guess I am the oddball here... I have several old TV sets going back to the 40's, and other CRT color sets, but I love the flat panel and other "digital displays" (pixel-based rather than analog scan-based), and I would never want to go back to CRTs for anything more than very casual viewing. The perfect convergence, ruler-flat lines, and "looking-through-a-window" sharpness are very enjoyable to me, someone who has been adjusting and repairing video displays for 25+ years.

Modern signals are full of digital compression artifacts, indeed. That, however, is no more reason to disparage the technology than hearing one poorly-mastered CD is a reason to say "vinyl LPs are better", never mind the clicks and pops, constant cleaning required, no remote track access, etc... A good digital signal (that is, an HD DVD or Blu-ray disc and not the first few BR discs either, or any decent DVD, but certainly nothing from over-the-air or worse yet, cable or satellite) will surprise you if you have not had the opportunity to see one on a well-calibrated modern display.

I had a nice flat screen 36" Sony Wega XBR. Went to a 42" Sharp Aquos LCD about a year ago. No going back... :thmbsp:

It does surprise me that several stores around here demo their LCD/plasma sets hooked up via composite video. I'm sure that some, perhaps most sets look very impressive when running from a decent digital source. Maybe next time I'm in one of the better stores I'll see one.

Crap in HD is still crap. Crap in HD over the air is highly compressed crap. At the moment there just isn't enough out on BR/HDDVD that's worth the $40+ (local retail price) per disc price tag.