I have a 40" tube TV and have been debating upgrading to what I think will be a 42" plasma


How do Tube TV's compare to LCD's and Plasma's? Everyone in my family keeps telling me that Tubes are great and I shouldn't upgrade yet.


It's a 40" mitsu tube from the mid 90's fucker weighs 300lbs

 

Tube will still give you the best picture IMO. But the gap is closing.

 

On the other hand your tv is 10 years old so the old tubes might not be able to keep up with something newer. A plasma/lcd will look slick and will be a lot smaller.

 

i have heard a plasma will get a crisper look over the lcd, i don't know if its true

 

I can vouch for the fact that the tube is NOT as good as the plasma at my parents' house. I notice little black lines running across the screen that weren't there 6 months ago. Or they were there, but I hadn't seen the really high resolution that a plasma offers yet, and now I notice them. Either way, we need to get an HDTV. We tried watching March of the Penguins last night (until the baby penguins died and I started bawling like a 3 year old about my bunny) and while it was cool, I know from the bottom of my heart that it'd have been 100x better on a plasma.

 

The current tubes still out perform the LCD/Plasma TV's. Yet your TV is old so either are going to be better.

 

Depends on how much you want to spend. Any of the cheaper plasmas, for some reason look a little washed out with anything less then an HD signal. My father has a sony plasma and i have a 34 inch sony wega xbr HD, crt monitor with built in hd tuner and the picture quality of my crt(tube) shits on his $10,000 plasma with everything. The only thing he owns me on is the size and weight, but fuck that, i rather save a few thousand than a few pounds.

 

i am still waiting a year or so to get a plasma, so they drop in price more

 

i guess the thing would be to find a set that is high quality with a decent price

 

CRTs own because they don't have a fixed resolution. They have a maximum, but they can display anything below that natively. In comparison to what is available now, they will always look the best with multiple, different resolution sources.

Plasmas, LCDs, DLP chips, etc all have a native resolution - they really have that many pixels - EXACTLY! Something has to fill those up, so if the source isn't native, it must be converted. The cheaper the TV (IE cheapo plasma) the cheaper these scalers and they look like crap on non-HD sources. The better the TV, the better job it will do at displaying these sources. A good external scaler can make any of the above look almost as good as on a CRT but it will probably cost you as much as your TV (the units we use at work are around $5K).

CRTs are big, they are heavy, and they have all sorts of other problems that go along with that big ass piece of glass in there. Most people now will sacrifice a very small difference in picture quality for the advantages of other types of displays (thin, light, etc). You have to decide what you want out of it. I have a projector setup in the living room, and on HD channels it's pretty killer. It's got a good scaling chip in it and looks OK on non-HD, but nothing to call home about. I have a nice Sony tube in my bedroom, but whenever it decides to go out - I'll probably replace it with an LCD simply for the clean look. The tube is big, and since I have it sitting on my dresser it's exposed. I'm willing to take a hit on quality in return for the 2" thick display I can sit there.

 

if i had enough room, i would have gotten a RPTV instead of a plasma.

 

get a new HDTV tube. Better and will last longer than plasma or LCD

 

I guess the real question is, how big do you want your TV?
I don't think you can get a 42" widescreen tube.

If you want something 30" below then its between tube and LCD.

 

I would suggest lcd over plasma. I work in an electronics store and I sell these. Plasma give good picture but it is a gas, so eventually it will wear out, it can take anywhere from 5-10 and if you are lucky, a little longer. But as you have it longer, you will notice poorer picture quality from the plasma. If i am not mistaken, in our last meeting one of the manager said that sony is going to stop making plasma and focus only on lcd, the are planning 22 new model or something. One reason why prices on plasma are falling as well, and if you buy plasma, better get an extended service contract.

If you have the money, I don't suggest tube because there is really no advantage and the disadvantage is the space it takes up and the weight. The gap between quality are so low now you will never notice. The wires you run also help the pictures. Monster cable are the best right now and there is a noticable difference in picture quality.

 

I've got a 42" Sony LCD and I think its the best thing since air conditioning. My parents have a 36" Tube and the colors are no where as clean and crisp Its a proScan so I'm not to sure about the quality, but performance wise I don't think that a tube could touch a LCD or plasma
not to mention cosmetics of a LCD/plasma....just can't touch them
just my 2 cents

 

Pure marketing jiberish. Plasmas don't wear out, and they won't degrade any significantly over time. The pixel will either work or it won't. LCDs on the other hand can also have pixels go out but worse, can develop "hot" pixels where they will stay constantly lit up. Plasmas create the pixel from scratch, and can alter the base color temperature. LCDs must tint the entire picture, as they are forced to accept the color temp of the backlight. Most plasmas now are rated for longer life than the life of the backlight in the LCD. No backlight = REALLY dark picture Plasmas will always have a better contrast ratio, they can totally black out the pixel. An LCD must attemp to block the backlight. LCDs now are good, but the new plasmas are SICK.

Both have advantages and disadvantages. Saying one is going to crap out before the other isn't really an issue any more.

I wouldn't be suprised if Sony quits making Plasmas, but it's not because they are junk. Plasmas are expensive to make, and it's a delicate process. LCDs are much cheaper, and with Sony's ability to pump them out - they can sell an LCD tv for a better profit than a plasma. On top of a better profit, they can lower prices to consumers at the same time. Lower prices means they sell more units, and if you sell more units at a higher profit margin - you make more moneyyyyy!

This is generally true.

Aww you were doing so good

 

Yeah it will burn out after 14000 hours too.....

 

Additionally, don't you think Sony may be getting out of the plasma businsess simply because Panasonic and (on the higher end) Pioneer seem to be dominating that market?

I cringe at bringing up my question, but I'm hoping maybe proaudio22 or someone knowledgable can shed some light. Why aren't there any plasmas in actual native HD resolutions? Is it simply that the demand wasn't really there until now so the panels were just made with the most "convenient" resolution for mass production?

 

I don't know why people are so into Monster cable. For digital signals, Monster cable offers absolutely no advantage over other cables, and for other types of signals, the advantage is so insignificant that the extra cost for Monster cable is absolutely ridiculous.

It's amazing how well Monster has spread their misinformation.

 

my dad picked up 32 inch lcd last night, its bad ass

 

Oh thanks for the spoiler




















j/k

 

Try 60,000. Most LCD backlights are rated at 50,000.

 

I don't know any real number but I'd have to agree. I see TONS of Panasonic plasmas, and I know the Pioneers Elites are just amazing.

I honestly don't know. I assumed it had something to do with using them as a computer display as most are at least half a standard computer resolution (like 768 in heigth). Many of the large LCDs are following suite.



I remember the first pair of Plasmas we had, a pair of Hitatchi 4:3 units. 1024x768.

 

Well I wouldn't say they offer no advantages over ANY cable, they are obviously better than cheapo cables manfs throw in or improper cable mismarketed as something it's not (using twisted pair cable for analog video or something stupid like that).

The key with cables is to have the proper type of cable for the application with a good connector. That's all.

Monster just goes a few steps beyond that by adding a really pretty, colorful package and lots of fancy words.