Video Asylum

Posted by LarryI (A) on December 07, 2004 at 06:44:36

In Reply to: CRT HDTV -- Any opinions posted by gjharrington on December 6, 2004 at 15:44:15:

All CRT direct view sets are limited in size -- think of how difficult it is to build a massive vacuum tube. In order to get enough lines of resolution to even remotely qualify as HDTV, the shadow mask (metal grid with pin holes that blocks all but a narrow beam of electrons to strike the pixels) has to have a lot of small holes. The compromise is that a lot of the area of the tube is not lit and the sets are noticeably dimmer than non HDTV sets. Personally, I think that all CRT sets have more than adequate brightness so this is not a big problem.

However, to counteract the dimness "problem," this year's Sony WEGA models have boosted brightness. The result has not been good. Look at the edge of the picture to see how bad the focus is and how much visible bloom (sign that the tube is being overdriven -- this significantly shortens life) the current sets have. Quite disappointing. If you can find a 2003 model, you would be better off.