Do you REALLY think lcd is worthwhile with SD freeview input?

[Troot]

I was just about to buy an 32inch LCD to replace the 25" trinitron I've had for ten years. I watch freeview mostly, play the odd avi, bit of xbox playing etc...
I narrowed it down to 3 with online reviews in this site and others, then went round a few retailers to have a look.

The picture with standard freeview wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great, no better than the crt's the same size in the shops. I couldn't say if it was worse than the crt's or not, there wasn't really much in it, but it certainly wasn't any better than my Trinitron at home.

The lcd's I was interested in were around £900 ish. (sony KDLv2000u and Toshiba 32WLT68). Paying that money for a telly that would have no better picture than the one I've got already would be daft. The only reasons to do so would be if I was using some HD thing (I'm not) or if I just wanted it to look flash in my living room (which I wouldn't mind, actually, but not for the tune of 900 quid).

I'd quite like a widescreen telly, though, about 32inch. Unfortunately the crt ones I saw that looked decent were around the 800 quid mark, so they're no kind of cheap alternative.

Shame really I was looking forward to a new tv. I'm unlikely to subscribe to Sky HD, so it looks as if freeview viewers like myself (and many others) will have to wait until freeview transmits HD before it is worthwhile buying a new telly.
I've had an lcd monitor for ages and I would not go back to crt there, I'm convinced that LCD is the way to go but not until the telly transmission is better. It doesn't even need to transmit at 1080p, in my opinion, I think 720p transmission would make the lcd's look tidy.

[Cliff]

Nothing wrong with the 25 inch telly. It probably displays a very good picture. However you should be looking at widescreen as most programs are made this way now. CRT TVs are a dying breed because of their bulk. The cost of LCD has come down and provides a good picture with an integrated digital tuner.
Digital picture processing techniques have improved drastically so the apparent definition is higher than it actually is. There will be no flicker either resulting in a stable looking picture.
These enhancements come into there own when veiwing screens bigger than 25inch
Believe me, its worth moving on!

[Andy98765]

Do not know what shop you where looking in, but for prices, then WOW.
£600 for this http://avforums.pgpartner.co.uk/sear...terid=18700622 or £380 for this http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/p....do?sku=363200 now these are real prices and not shop prices. As the previous member stated, just about everything is widescreen these days that is being transmitted so if you are looking at TV/films in their natural state you should be looking at great big black lines top and bottom on your old trinitron.
Most analogue sent today is 14:9, freeview is 16:9, but can be adjusted to 4:3 where the box chops off the sides for you and films are 16:9 or wider in nearly every case or again if your DVD is chopping off some of the sides for you (see your settings in the DVD box).

[Troot]

I aggree about the need to get a widescreen tv.

Crt 32" widescreens are pretty big, though, it would look a bit large in my room. I find a 28" widescreen a bit small.
A 32" widescreen LCD would snick into my corner just right at about 800mm wide. If I could find a 32" CRT without speakers on the side adding to the width, so it was still about 800mm, maybe that would be OK.
To tell you the truth, I really wanted an LCD but I was genuinely disappointed with the picture quality. Its hard to tell, when viewing in a shop, how the telly's picture will look in my house, but the crt's in the shop looked superior to all the lcd's and plasmas (except the ones that were showing HD, these looked stunning).

If anyone knows of a 32" widescreen CRT that's only about 800mm wide, please let me know. I might consider that if I could pick one up from ebay, and postpone the move to LCD for a bit longer..

[paul_round]

I too was in the same position as you, my old 4x3 panny was dying, but for me the normal everyday picture on an LCD or plasma is not quite there, true on a good source they give a good picture, particularly an HD DVD, but most of the time we watch stuff off our sky box and a CRT is a much better picture for regular transmissions, so with that in mind I picked up a 2 year old 32 16x9 panny off ebay for £97

[ad47uk]

Originally Posted by paul_round

I too was in the same position as you, my old 4x3 panny was dying, but for me the normal everyday picture on an LCD or plasma is not quite there, true on a good source they give a good picture, particularly an HD DVD, but most of the time we watch stuff off our sky box and a CRT is a much better picture for regular transmissions, so with that in mind I picked up a 2 year old 32 16x9 panny off ebay for £97

I have no idea what it is about LCD T.V's, but I agree with you that there is something that is not right. I set up my next door neighbours LCd a couple of weeks back and looking at it I am glad I did not waste my money on getting one, instead I have decided to stay with what I have got until it breaks down and then I expect I will go for another CRT if they are still about, if not I will go for a second hand one. I did not find the picture on the LCd set very pleasing, even from a DVD.