Video Asylum

Posted by Harmonia (A) on October 25, 2002 at 23:22:06

In Reply to: 30" Wide Screen vs 32" 4:3 ? posted by kyzyltuva on October 25, 2002 at 13:20:37:

I recently did a lot of HDTV shopping. Your estimates on the 30" 4:3 image size are close.

Unless your room is small, I think the 30" sets are undersized for 4:3 programming. If you watch mainly cable TV, then a 32" would make sense.

But have you considered a 34" set? That's what I bought and it displays a good sized standard 4:3 image and a great 16:9 DVD or HD one. Bars on the sides don't bother me - a 2:35.1 image on a 32" 4:3 screen with massive bars top and bottom...now THAT bothers me.

It just depends on what you want to optimize your viewing for - we have digital cable, but we mainly watch movies off it, and we watch a lot of DVDs. Therefor, it was more important to us to go for the best 16:9 experience, which is definitlely going to be had on a widescreen TV.

I'm not a big fan of stretch modes. As I said, the bars with 4:3 don't trouble me overmuch. But as far as burn=in on either aspect ratio, unless you/re running your set in showroom "torch mode", with the contrast and the brightness cranked all the way up, you shouldn't have any burn-in issues with a CRT direct view.

You might want to check out www.avsforum.com and their direct view forum. Lots of good TV info there, including Samsung comparisons.

(Have you checked out the Zeniths?)