which technology really has the best picture

No rear projection TV can compete against a direct view TV. You will notice that rear projection TV's are slowly disappearing from stores. The only advantage they had was size. With plasmas, and now LCDs, both above the 50 inch barrier, the only advantage that rear projection TV's had is now gone.

You mentioned Toshiba's DLP. The head of Toshiba has stated that they are going to stop making all other TV technologies once their SED TV's come on stream. That's a pretty good clue as to what they think of rear projection, as well as plasma and LCD.

In addition, a lot of people feel that plasma's days as a mainstream product are limited, now that LCD's are increasing in size.

My crystal ball says that LCDs will dominate, with front projectors remaining as a niche product. CRT's, rear projectors and plasmas will slowly wither away. And if SED's are what they're hyped to be, and are priced properly, then LCD will die as well. Then we can look forward to OLEDs! The world keeps turning.

I have a rear projection 60" LCD and a 42" direct view plasma. Like them both but the plasma has a superior picture. Both are 1080i. I don't have any real interest in 1080P until the networks use it for broadcasting.

Hello,

The best is still the tube TV but after that it has to do with the environment you are putting the TV in, how good the scalar and optics are, how it is calibrated, and if the technology you choose is designed to be price sensitive or built for performance.

Let me know if you are still looking at this thread and I can go into detail of the pros and cons and why along with who makes the best in each technology.

Thanks,
Duane

For shear picture quality, the CRT is still the best.