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My television for the majority of the 90's was a combo portable TV/radio, black and white screen about the size of... my hands together, maybe? I don't need to be able to count the pores of the actors' faces.

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:I did find the upgrade from the older tube-style (CRT, to be precise) box it replaced quite noticeable.

The difference is in the resolution, not in the type of projection. HD tube TV's are every bit as HD as LCD or plasma TV's. I know the difference from my old standard tube set to my current HD tube set is remarkable, and I've heard folks say that HD CRT sets provide pictures equal or superior to flat-panel sets.

I bought a blu ray player a few years back, quite cheap. I have about a dozen blu ray films for it, but mostly I just kept watching my old DVDs on it. Can't say as I notice a huge difference in quality between the two.

But more and more I just download films and pipe them through to the TV via a computer. Quality of that is usually not that great, but it's eminently watchable.

Mikey wrote:

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:I did find the upgrade from the older tube-style (CRT, to be precise) box it replaced quite noticeable.

The difference is in the resolution, not in the type of projection. HD tube TV's are every bit as HD as LCD or plasma TV's. I know the difference from my old standard tube set to my current HD tube set is remarkable, and I've heard folks say that HD CRT sets provide pictures equal or superior to flat-panel sets.

Yes, I should have been more clear (to my defense there aren't so many HD CRTs around). BTW, you have PMs getting old and collecting dust

GrahamKennedy wrote:But more and more I just download films and pipe them through to the TV via a computer. Quality of that is usually not that great, but it's eminently watchable.

Well that would certainly depend on the quality of the downloaded source material. If you get a well-recorded HD video from the interwebs it'll look pretty good!

That said Graham only has a 720p TV so the resolution is much lower than a modern one. The step up form 576i to 720p isn't that great. Just to explain the numbers and letters.

- Old standard definition TV works has 576 lines on the screen (top to bottom). On each refresh these only half of the lines are updated in each pass. First it's the odd numbered lines then the even ones. This is called interlacing and means that the screen is really only refreshed at 30Hz rather than the 60Hz it claims. The interlacing gives you the i in the name 576i.
- The lower level HD (often referred to as HD Ready) has 720 lines on the screen, each of these lines is updated in a progressive fashion, from the top to the bottom. Thus the name 720p. The advantage here is 25% more lines on the screen and twice the update frequency.
- The higher level of HD (offen referred to as Full HD) has 1080 lines on the screen, again each updated in a progressive manor. This gives us 1080p. This is about 88% more lines than old style TVs and a refresh rate double that. The full screen resolution on Full HD is 1920 x 1080. Clearly this about 4 times the resolution of the old system and should show a significant benefit. It's also worth noting that all HD signals are digital, whereas, SD is analogue. Analogue signals suffer noise and other interference more readily.

All DVDs are recorded in 576i and just about all BluRay's in 1080p. I find the difference quite marked. What you can't do it compare DVDs on a new TV with BD on the same system. It's a bad comparison. Your BluRay player and your HD TV is taking that old 576i signal and enhancing it. It up scales it to full screen resolution and runs all sorts of other tricks on it to make it work as best it can on the new set.

I find the difference between standard definition and HD on our two downstairs tvs (both 1080) dramatic. On my tv which is 720 its still noticeable but its only s small difference.

I've never got used to hard drive movies simply because I've never seen a movie play very well on a PC. Maybe its just the files I have but I've no idea how to get a decent quality digital copy of films.

Reliant121 wrote:I find the difference between standard definition and HD on our two downstairs tvs (both 1080) dramatic. On my tv which is 720 its still noticeable but its only s small difference.

I've never got used to hard drive movies simply because I've never seen a movie play very well on a PC. Maybe its just the files I have but I've no idea how to get a decent quality digital copy of films.

Buy them from Apple

Mikey wrote:

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:I did find the upgrade from the older tube-style (CRT, to be precise) box it replaced quite noticeable.

The difference is in the resolution, not in the type of projection. HD tube TV's are every bit as HD as LCD or plasma TV's. I know the difference from my old standard tube set to my current HD tube set is remarkable, and I've heard folks say that HD CRT sets provide pictures equal or superior to flat-panel sets.

Actually, it's both. CRT screens do not have pixels they have lines. They work by scanning a beam across the line and varying the signal as it goes. This means that there isn't really a pixel count in the horizontal direction. Flat screen TVs on the other hand, be they LCD or plasma have individual dots that make up the screen. Each dot is turned on and off electronically. They are also stable for the entire frame, unlike a CRT which relies on the phosphor in the screen to stay active after the beam has passed by. This is partially why you get better colours out of a flat panel. Another reason is beam alignment, if it's even slightly out you will get incorrect colours displayed. Most of the time you wont really notice but it is there.

Indeed, that's exactly the pro/con difference I've seen time and again between HD LCD/plasma and HD CRT. Flat panel tends to have more pronounced color, while CRT tends to produce a more defined picture - no matter how tiny the pixels on a flat screen are or how many there are, they are still there.

GK hit the nail on the head for me - the difference in Blu-Ray to DVD isn't pronounced enough, even with a 1080p set, for me to begin the task of changing over my library.

I currently have 325 DVD's and/or boxsets. And I can't even see the difference with HDTV (my eyesight is not the greatest), so I'll save myself a whole load of expense and stick with the DVD's. And besides, I only use my TV & DVD player when my girlfriend is over, otherwise I just use the laptop's DVD drive.

One big difference between old TVs and the new LCD screens is how light they are. I got a 46" TV that I can lift up by myself, and while hard to carry because of the size, I will not experience my spine being crushed like I if tried to lift even a 36" CRT TV by myself.

I also have hundreds of DVDs and they are all in those leather binders. I have no reason to replace them with Blu-ray unlike when i did with VHS. Then I did because of space, and all the neat features that a DVD had over a VHS tape.

McAvoy wrote:One big difference between old TVs and the new LCD screens is how light they are. I got a 46" TV that I can lift up by myself, and while hard to carry because of the size, I will not experience my spine being crushed like I if tried to lift even a 36" CRT TV by myself.

I also have hundreds of DVDs and they are all in those leather binders. I have no reason to replace them with Blu-ray unlike when i did with VHS. Then I did because of space, and all the neat features that a DVD had over a VHS tape.

Gods, yes. Those old TVs were a pain in the neck-literally-to lift when I was a stockman at Walmart.

That, to me, is the huge advantage of LCD or plasma over CRT. Picture isn't, if we're comparing 1080p to 1080p - but it's a heck of a lot harder to schlep a tube TV upstairs, or mount on a wall, or seat on a narrow dresser.

*EDIT* Oh, and of course available size. IIRC, you won't find a tube TV of any resolution larger than 36" or 38".

I agree. The last two CRT TVs had excellent pictures. However, I got an extra $2,000 one year and decided to get a LCD screen. When it was time for me to move out, I kept the LCD TV and gave my 32" to the illegal Mexicans across the hall because 32" CRT TVs down four flights of stairs fucking sucks.

There were three times I had to lift a 32' flatscreen into the back of a truck by myself. I had to sit down after because my arms were rubber after.