Missed the Boat, So Looking For Suggestions

[Bisclavaret]

Hello all!

OK, first time post here, been a member for awhile doing research for the past month or so.

Suffice to say, I'm frustrated. I've been waiting to get my finances in order to finally buy a new TV. I was all geared up to get the Samsung 42" DLP when the price dropped to round $1600 - then I took a trip to Best Buy and saw what it looks like on SD. Terrible.

My limitations are that I only have SD television availble to me - I live in the severe sticks, dish is not an option due to terrain issues, and my cable company (Charter) won't have HD available in my area until 2007! (I can hear jaws dropping all over the forums at that). Don't want to give up my DVR anyway. So I know after research that an HD CRT is the way to go. But of course, I live in the sticks, so going to look at a TV is almost impossible - the closest Best Buy, for example, is two hours away.

And to top it all off - XBR960? Gone! XS955? Gone! HS420? Gone! CT34WX54 & 34HF84? Gone and gone! Well, I can find them at some online retailers, but most that list them as available have a whole "back-of-the-truck-special" feel to them, and no local independent retailer seems to know anything about anything.

So, looking to the opinionated experts here for some opinions - a 34 or 36" HD CRT to watch SD cable on. Also, do upconverted DVDs (thinking of also investing in a DVD player to do as such) look anywhere decent on any of them? I'm hoping to not start the typical flame/opinion arguements that start on these type of threads, but I suppose it's inevitable.

So some ideas:

Sony DVPNS70H Upconverting DVD Player

Toshiba 30HF85 30" HD CRT (smaller than I like, sadly)

(would have inserted links above, but I can't do URLs until after 5 posts)

I had read some specualtion about the Toshbia, but unable to find any long-term observation. Any comments thereof, or alternatives, etc? And do CRT HD sets REALLY convert all SD signals to 1080i? If so, I suppose an upconverting DVD player is unnecessary, or am I misunderstanding my research?

And does anyone have any experience / opinions with the Samsing SlimFits?

[kny3twalker]

you can still obtain a Sony XBR960 or XS955 online at many safe online dealers

[fchall]

I'm sort of in the same boat/boonies situation.
I got the Sony KV-32HS420( from Sony ). Which will work for me until more HD is available
and with my 10-12 foot viewing distance I don't really need the super fine screens.

[DerekinMerrick]

Best buy and Circuit city both have the xbr960 in stores. You just have to look at more then one store.

[Bisclavaret]

Best buy and Circuit city both have the xbr960 in stores. You just have to look at more then one store

I'm sure they do. As I mentioned, the closest one is two hours away. Finding one that has one in stock - well, I've called every store within a six-hour radius, no go. After that I got discouraged.

you can still obtain a Sony XBR960 or XS955 online at many safe online dealers

Care to recommend one? B&H Photo I trust (I deal with them frequently for my profession), but they've been out of stock for a time. Or is it verboten to recommend a dealer on these boards?

[kny3twalker]

I know Crutchfield has the XBR960N in stock
and they are many members here that have purchased TVs from them including myself

[Porcupine2]

I don't understand what is the deal with upconverting DVD players either. It seems unecessary to me as well. Practically all HDTVs should be able to upconvert for you. Also, I think only foolish people would want to watch DVDs in yucky 1080i interlaced mode. Assuming your HDTV supports it, which almost all should, you should definitely be watching in either 540p or 480p progressive mode. Interlacing sucks and if your source doesn't have 1080 lines of resolution there is no reason to watch in 1080i.

[DSperber]

[QUOTE=Bisclavaret]Care to recommend one? B&H Photo I trust (I deal with them frequently for my profession), but they've been out of stock for a time. [/QUOTE]I bought mine last year from DigitalCraze.Com. They are still in business and their web site shows XBR960N for $1550, XBR960 for $1200. They also have the 34XBR3 stand for $300.

Absolutely 100% dependable and reliable, factory sealed brand new products, white glove delivery service into your target viewing room location, I would definitely buy from them again without hesitation. My phone salesman was Lenny Carrington, if he's still there.

I don't know if they have stock, but I would guess they do... for both. You'll obviously pay shipping charges, but no sales tax depending on your state (they're in NYC).

I've also bought JVC D-VHS units from B&H Photo and trust them as well.

[kny3twalker]

I don't understand what is the deal with upconverting DVD players either. It seems unecessary to me as well. Practically all HDTVs should be able to upconvert for you. Also, I think only foolish people would want to watch DVDs in yucky 1080i interlaced mode. Assuming your HDTV supports it, which almost all should, you should definitely be watching in either 540p or 480p progressive mode. Interlacing sucks and if your source doesn't have 1080 lines of resolution there is no reason to watch in 1080i.

I like 1080i over 480p on my XS955 cause at 480p I have small gaps in between the scan lines which are obvious to me
at 1080i I am at least using the entire resolution of my display

bringing out more of the fine detail of the DVD source

also the point of upscaling players is because usually the DVD player has a better higher quality scaler than theTV

[squonk]

I too am deciding between the XBR 960 and the 36" XS955 and they are getting scarce.

[Porcupine2]

> I like 1080i over 480p on my XS955 cause at 480p I have small gaps in between the scan lines which are obvious to me

Yes, that is true, the Sonys show obvious scan lines in progressive mode. I suppose that is one reason (only applies to the Sonys though). I still prefer the Progressive mode on the Sonys because seeing the "bounce" of the Interlaced mode annoys me more.

> at 1080i I am at least using the entire resolution of my display...bringing out more of the fine detail of the DVD source

Whether at 1080i or 540p I don't think any "more" of your display is being used, in a sense. Because the phosphors on the screen stop glowing after every 1/60th of a second. So either way you activate the same surface area of phosphors at the same rate.

Hmm, that made me think of a funny thing though. I wonder, what if you watched tons and tons of stuff in 540p on the Sonys and practically never in 1080i. After many many years could the screen possibly burn in and you be left with scanline burns?

> also the point of upscaling players is because usually the DVD player has a better higher quality scaler than theTV

Could be. I never had any issues with the scaler on the Toshibas I owned though. As far as I could tell it was top-notch scaling, impossible to improve upon.

And maybe this is kinda unrelated, but I ended up never using the Progressive Scan 525p output mode of my crappy 60 dollar Samsung DVD player. It constantly churned out poor quality combed images, and I had to resort to the de-interlacer in the Toshiba TV itself, which was far better and never combed (in Video mode).

[kny3twalker]

Yes, that is true, the Sonys show obvious scan lines in progressive mode. I suppose that is one reason (only applies to the Sonys though). I still prefer the Progressive mode on the Sonys because seeing the "bounce" of the Interlaced mode annoys me more.

you will not see that on a SFP tube, cause of the finer electron gun, meaning minimal overlap

Whether at 1080i or 540p I don't think any "more" of your display is being used, in a sense. Because the phosphors on the screen stop glowing after every 1/60th of a second. So either way you activate the same surface area of phosphors at the same rate.

actually you 480p would be leaving unused space between the scanlines where as 1080i would be using that unused area
at least thats what my eyes see

no different then running a PC monitor at low resolution like 640x480, it appears that there is unused phosphors

Could be. I never had any issues with the scaler on the Toshibas I owned though. As far as I could tell it was top-notch scaling, impossible to improve upon.

And maybe this is kinda unrelated, but I ended up never using the Progressive Scan 525p output mode of my crappy 60 dollar Samsung DVD player. It constantly churned out poor quality combed images, and I had to resort to the de-interlacer in the Toshiba TV itself, which was far better and never combed (in Video mode).

I am using a PC, which does great scaling

[Porcupine2]

> actually you 480p would be leaving unused space between the scanlines where as 1080i would be using that unused area...at least thats what my eyes see

I've always agreed with you on this. You are totally right, there is unused area in 480p. My above argument was something different...a different way of looking at things. Well, nevermind it doesn't matter much.

But let me ask this, what's the point in using that "unused" area? The only thing that unused area would display in 1080i is the same information from the line above, copied and displayed again. Possibly some extra interpolation could be done (although I don't think the Sonys do that when selecting 1080i on a 480i source, but I'm not sure) but even that doesn't really give you any more real information.

I do agree that seeing black scanline empty space can be annoying, though. Like I said, to me it's simply choosing between two evils. Either black scanline space or weird interlacing effects (I personally hate interlacing).

[kny3twalker]

But let me ask this, what's the point in using that "unused" area? The only thing that unused area would display in 1080i is the same information from the line above, copied and displayed again. Possibly some extra interpolation could be done (although I don't think the Sonys do that when selecting 1080i on a 480i source, but I'm not sure) but even that doesn't really give you any more real information.

well actually you can bring out more of the fine detail by upscaling
of course you can also show artifacts and such but DVDs are the highest of quality for 480i sources

and Sony should not be doing any scaling when I send it 1080i from my PC

all the decoding and scaling is done on the PC