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I guess I'd better clarify a few things...

Posted by Steve K (P) on September 26, 2002 at 20:49:46

In Reply to: Plasma vs Tube vs Rear projection posted by uzun on September 24, 2002 at 17:17:22:

...I'm the integrated system's engineer/manager at the local HIFI store. I have to deal with plasmas, front and rear projectors, and direct view CRT's every day. I know what the current stuff is and looks like...we display it and sell it.

Ok, now that that's out of the way...

Rear projection gives you the most screen size for the buck...no doubt about it. I'll also allow that RP has come a long way in the last few years. When properly setup the better sets can look pretty nice. Spend enough hours looking at a truely good direct view HD CRT set and [if you're me] all of a sudden the RP sets look a whole bunch less appealing. I understand that you typically get a much bigger picture with a RP set, but to me size is not a deal breaker.

You can get a nice 55" RP HD set for about $2500. For the same $2500 you can look at 34" direct view CRT's. The DV looks better...it just does [assuming both the RP and DV are setup "well", and are quality displays]. Ok, so the question is does the DV look better enough to justify spending the same $$$ on a smaller picture? To me, yes...just my opinion.

The newer plasmas have pictures that look like the old ones, but better. No revoloution here, just evoloution. You can thank the advances in scan rate conversion, as much as anything, for the improvment in the picture you see on plasma's [or any fixed pixel device, for that matter]. I've compaired a current production Fujitsu/Hitachi [same factory] 1024x1024 plasma to a Loewe Aconda [HD 1080i signal, via RGBHV]...we carry both brands in our store. I think the Loewe is a fair shot better, IMO. That's not to say the plasma dosent look nice...it does. For most, plasma's main selling point is "wow, it's thin". That's ok...sometimes you need thin. You can put a plasma in places a bulky heavy DV could never dream of going.

Fixed pixel is generally considered to lag behind CRT in absoloute picture quality. That is the consensus in the upper end of the CE industry, and I agree with it. That said, the gap is closing and will most likely continue to. Texas Instruments has a 2nd generation single-chip 16x9 DLP chip that boasts greater black level and overall contrast than the previous chip, which looked pretty nice in it's own right [in the right projector]. Modern 3chip DLP's look wonderful [and are amazingly bright!], their price is most decidedly not wonderful. Hopefully, one day, that will change. CRT's are big, heavy, expensive to buy and setup, and have their own list of picture quality issues like convergence, edge distortion, low light output and uneven light output. That, along with the progress of DLP has left CRT barely clinging on to it's status as "top dog" in the projector/monitor world.

Ok...so what I'm finnaly getting at is that with all this in mind, you have to make a choice about what kind of video monitor to buy. You have to balance picture size, cost, picture quality [to your eyes], and interaction with the room. Just because I'm willing to give up a fair amount of picture size to get a better picture [without spending 5 figures or more] dosen't make anyone wrong if they make a different decision.

To relate this to something I'm personally much more passionate about [I don't own a TV of any kind]...I have a Hovland HP100 preamp. I think the Hovland is great...the best I've heard. I'm sure there's a Krell owner/fan out there that'll tell me that his KCT is a fair shot better than my HP100. He will never convince me of anything of the kind! Does that make him wrong, nope [well, maybe just a little ;-)].

:-)
Steve

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