Why LCD and Plasma? 37

Well, I am not sure we can compare apples to apples anymore. My new 42" TV plays a 4:3 picture at 34 inches, I am not aware of a high quality 34" SD only set to compare with. My new TV replaces a 27" tube TV and my new TV has a better picture than my tube TV when both playing SD, without question.

Either way, I suspect none of this matters, as you are settled/happy with where you are at as am I.

But as for your classifications of who buys HDTV's, I have no problem being in the latter. The programs I watch in HD are so much better than SD and I enjoy it very much.

I also have the 36" Sony XBR CRT 1080i that I bought in 2004. It was the reference set for some reviewers at the time, and I'm still constantly amazed at the picture quality and color richness. I use it with standard DVDs, I tried a Toshiba HD-DVD and was not impressed with the color (maybe it needed to be calaibrated for the Toshiba HD-DVD). I've been wondering:

1. Do the newer plasma and LCD sets have better picture quality than Sony XBR CRT?

2. Is there any benefit of using Blu-ray HD with this 36" screen, at a viewing distance of about 6 feet? Or is the screen to small to benefit from HD?

thanks.

Tonnesen
I calibrated my set with the Spyder Colorimeter. It attaches to the screen through suction and has to be used with a Laptop or nearby PC.
I originally wanted the 40" XBR(the largest direct-view made), but it wouldn't have fit through the door.

I have the 40" Sony XBR CRT and it took 4 of us to get it into the house and into the viewing room. I would love to have a large screen plasma mainly because of the space savings, but despite what the pundits say, the CRT is still a video reference monitor. I hate to think of what I'm going to do with it when it is time to be replaced, I may have to just dig a big hole in the backyard and bury it.

well, just in case i missed something here, i have, as i said before, a toshiba analog TV- 36 inch curved picture tube in a veneered walnut cabinet. it has great built-in stereo speakers. when i watch a DVD on it i can see the peach-fuzz hairs on the actors' faces. the colors are as close to real as i could want. IN MY BEDROOM i bought a SONY XBr digital-34 inch CRT-TV; this set comes in a silver and black case with a matching stand and looks great. it also has excellent built in speakers with simulated-surround sound (very impressive), so i have not added anything yet (except for a vcr and dvd player of course). BUT, the 4:3 problem can only be solved by looking at a small image with black all around. the colors are just NOT AS GOOD somehow as the OTHER (sh**) set. the picture is a bit sharper, but it "looks" like early cd players "sounded"- simulated/artificial.
so once again, my older "crappy" television set is easier on my eyeballs. it will be some time in the not-so-near future when i get a plasma tv monitor. it will look superb of course, when i'm not too bored to watch another law-and-order re-run. and trudge through the HORRIBLE commercials.
why can't they make a set that shows 18 yo girls in g-strings and sports-bras exercising and stretching until the show comes back on? i'm paying to watch the cable presumably to be entertained, rather than watching a housewife in court accusing her mop (who hired its own lawyer) of not getting her floor clean enough? can you imagine her auditioning for the part, perhaps wondering, after doing a hundred other similarly horrid commericals, if her life has lost all meaning? perhaps hookers get more satisfaction from their jobs and find the work less demeaning than she does from hers. in any case i really dislike watching television. it gives me the creeps.