Better than my 32" Sony Wega XBR?

The Sony 34" CRT series, #'s 510, 910, 960, 955 were all flat, rectangular, and outstanding! No longer made but the beauty is these amazing machines can be had for as little as $300 on Craigslist and Ebay, get 'em while you can!

I stopped by a big electronics store last night. The salesperson told me that in his opinion there is no flat panel tv that equals the CRT for shadow detail. He said he bought the last XBR tv his store had for less than $500 and will not upgrade it, yet.

His feeling was the best shadow details were to be found in the Pioneer Kuro and Panasonic plasma models, but that they would not equal or better an XBR in shadow details and in comparison would block up in the shadows. His feeling was that the reasons to go to the plasma were size and high definition resolution in the mid-range (on the scale from black to white). He opined that if one wants shadow detail and a good image from an analogue source, that one should stay with the crt - assuming one has the space for same.

I love the look and size of a flat panel. I love the mid-range resolution from a high def source. The Pioneer seems pretty pricy for such rapidly changing technology (the Panasonic less so).

Does anybody know when technology will improve to provide good shadow detail in addition to all the other flat panel benefits?

Jeff

Sigh, I went to Tweeter after work today and looked at the Pioneer Elite Kuro, the comparable Panny, and the Sony XBR5 LCD. Knowing that none of them were optimally set up, it was still disappointing to see that none of them (actually no flat panel in the store) had any kind of real shadow detail (compared to a great tube TV). The plasmas also seemed to have a problem with pure whites, although that could have been a cal issue.