[roman-r]

My spare room TV packed up and it got me thinking if it's also time to upgrade my front room TV & DVD.

All I really ever watch is DVDs - very very little broadcast TV - I have a Toshiba 2109 DVD player plugged in using S-Video into a Panasonic 36TX-PF10.

Now the Panny does suffer from the following common faults:

slight virtical dirty screen in the centre
Vapour during dark scenes
Slight green ting in dark scenes
Slight green on right hand side edges of human flesh.

Having said that the Geometry is excellent and I do still enjoy watching DVDs on my TV - and I do insist on doing it that way i.e. watching the movie and not the TV

Should I be going for a new 36 CRT and a new DVD player utilising Progressive Scan or maybe upgrading the DVD player still using S-video or possibly RGB might be a good temporary compromise?

Or would the upgrade be so minimal that I would be better off just waiting for HD?

Got the cash just never know what best to do with it

[CJROSS]

Roman I was in a similar quandry before Xmas, anyway I ended up with a Toshiba SD-9500 dVD-V end of line from Toshiba at an excellent price – Initially for the audio side, but also for its PAL PS Component abilities. Thus I was set on upgrading my existing RGB – 25” 4:3 TV. I spent a lot of time looking at what I could get for £1000-1500 in display terms, ie LCD-Plasma & CRT. In the end due to performance VFM, and every time I saw a Panny PD50 or Toshiba 48P series PAL PS Component CRT I felt they were quite a hike in performance over LCD/Plasma – the only think those displays offer is better ergonomics & space saving. I ended up buying a Toshiba 36ZP38P CRT, have not regretted it since, PAL PS wise DVD-V is stunning, and its RGB Scarts are also pretty stunning from my Humax 8000T. A small point but when checking out screens I always noticed that LCD/Plasmas did not do very well with RGB signals from Sky or Freeview compared to CRTs.

I also think that getting a good CRT with component input is a future proof idea too, as there will be component output HD Freeview boxes in the future I reckon. HD is quite a while down the line if your not a Sky customer, and even then Im happy with the current RGB service, will see how HD TV (Freeview) pans out, before committing to a HD display.

HTHs

[roman-r]

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm not ready for a flat panel unless HD is available and for me that needs to be via DVD which is still a way off - as mentioned before I'm no longer a broadcast fan anymore except for the odd footy game and the news.

Also a 36" set is fine for my viewing as I'm happy to move the settee closer to the screen rather than forking out for a bigger telly

Question still is do you think it's worth the upgrade as my Panny can switch between 50 & 100htz which I find essential for footie over freeview but willing to consider the change if DVD watching will improve from my current 2nd generation player and 1st generation Panny flat screen TV.

Also the 36" PF3 Nicam Tosh is available for £665 inc delivery on the web so not a huge amount to fork out when I can sell my exiting TV for £300+

Is the progressive scan worth the effort and cost of an upgrade when I already have a 36" 100htz CRT or is a new DVD player a simpler choice - although reports did say my Panny isn't great with RGB