Your so right. I have a Sony tube model HDTV and it is stunning. But the flat panels need more work. The overrhead projection stuff really sucks bad. After watching four commercial overhead projectors at Damons and two overhead projectors at the local audio/visual store anyone who purchases one of those things must be blind. The loss of contrast, brightness, fuzziness and foggyness is the same quality as the old 1950's black & white recordings of Milton Berle.

JJK

overhead projectors ? I mostly only see those in high schools ...

You mean "video projectors"?

You havn't seen good video projection yet then .. It can be stunning ..

Of all the HiDef monitors, I have yet to see anything that can beat a CRT, it's a very mature technology. The Sony XBR910 or 960 are both amazing HD monitors. The 960 can be had for under $2,000 and has an OTA tuner.

John

January, SUPERBOWL sunday... you're right!

Jay

Depends on WHICH model you buy. I just took the plunge. Rather then getting a "HDTV" I went with a 50 inch Panasonic Plasma.

Their model TH50PHD7UY. Caution, you won't find them very easily in the retail channel, because its a professional grade flat panel plasma monitor, not a consumer DVTV, but you can use it as such, and it actually cheaper and has many more features then their current HDTV models.

Why did I go this way?

Because my cable company WOW (WideOpenWest) provides HD service and the necessary tuners come in their provided settop box, so no point in buying a HDTV with build-in tuners.

This particualr model takes the componet board approach so you can always update to whatever they throw at you standards wise or what you need feature wise.

For more info, visit this link, http://www.panasonic.com/flash.html, click on search, be sure you click ENITRE site so you get past the consumer only section of models otherwise you'll never find it. Then under search on that page enter TH50PHD7UY then click on the first item in the generated search list, then click on borchure to see the PDF file and be prepared to get blow away.

Having only seen HiDef LCD monitors, we just got a HP 1080 unit I cannot really comment on how they stack up against the CRT ones however someone who'd been doing color grading on a Sony CRT gave up on it, too much down time while the thing was cosntantly being recalibrated.
The guy ended up using the LCD projector, even though it wasn't perhaps as accurate it least it was the same every day. Still the project was 2K res, worth $35K.
LCD projector technology has improved dramatically from what I've seen. Not anything like the pricepoint where Joe Average is going to be interested but they'll only get cheaper, at least now the technology does exist.
Bob.

John, I have a 36" Sony XBR Wega that provides a truly stunning picture. When I compare it to a HD flat panels, yes, I can see an obvious difference. However, I'm not convinced that the difference I see is worth $5,000+ just to say I have an HDTV. And I've not seen anything that has "blown" me away.

This may sound crazy, but from what I've seen of HDTVs, they make video look even more like video than it does on my Wega. Does that make any sense?

Jay

I think the problem with flat panels is they don't really have full HD resolution. Check the specs and you will see they almost all fall short. It's hard to find one that has a full 1920 in width.

I'm waiting for DLP. From what I've heard, LCD, Plasma, and CRT models can burn-in, but DLP can't. What I don't know is whether anyone would ever notice the burn-in.

I didn't know there was a difference between and overhead video projector and a video projector. The Damon projectors had to be hoisted up with a towmotor. They are about 2.5 ft x 4 ft x 10 ". But I always keep an open mind and pocketbook.

JJK