does display type matter ?

I have always wondered how the display you watch movies on effects the quality of what you are viewing . Say you have a very cheap , low quality lcd tv and a cheap ,low quality blu ray player , and then you have a very high end Crt Tv and a high end vcr …which is the better viewing experience ? I would like to see a side by side comparison of this some time .I have a Samsung Slimfit 38 inch widescreen HD crt tv from the mid 2000’s that has hdmi outputs as well as a 60 inch LG smart tv and to me , the crt looks better .I would like to take pics to compare but I do not have a camera that is up to the task . I have also thought about ( just for fun ) taking my old Sanyo 4x3 16 inch crt from 1997 and hooking an av to hdmi converter to it to see how it looks .anyway , I would be interested to hear peoples meaningful thoughts on this

^ thanks for the response ,I suspected as much , I have seen a lot of videos where gamers swear by crt displays as superior due to the rich deep blacks and other things you mention . I wish they would have put the Star Wars films on D-theatre VHS which was a short lived format that had HD VHS tapes …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiu0LPeLQPE I would track one down if they did .

maybe that is another reason I like vhs on a crt …vhs was made with crt displays in mind as those were pretty much all that was available at the time

NextLevelArms said:

Nice

^ Really ? you signed up just to make that comment ? Troll , sock or bot ?

this is kind of what I am looking for by way of comparison of crt vs lcd display , although , I would like to see a more concise example , this is the closest I have found so far and the black levels and overall picture on the crt in this video look superior to me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5a5kZLvd1w

^ yeah , that is why I said that I would like to see a more concise example . OLED is pretty awesome , a friend of mine has one , that is not what I am interested in though , but thank you for the info .

just came across this video , the CRT tv and Vcr in this are of very good quality , he is playing the 95 faces vhs of A New Hope on it and it looks fantastically crisp and clear . I think the Faces set may be my new fave as the colors are the most vibrant out of the vhs copies I own and even pop more on the displays I own than the official Blu Rays too . I played 3 of my copies at the same time this weekend …the 92 widescreen vhs on my widescreen hd crt ( it had some dynamic colors but just a little faded ) the GOUT on my 60 inch LCD through a blu ray player ( the color grading was terrible , the x-wing pilot uniforms all had a pinkish melon like color to them no matter how I adjusted the color settings , although the image was very sharp ) and the faces 95 vhs on my 13 inch vcr/tv combo and that looked the most vibrant to me . Still not a fan of the blue tie lasers in Empire though . Seeing the same tape in this video on a big ass CRT , I am even more impressed with how crisp and clear a quality vhs can look on a quality CRT . Makes me want to seek out the widescreen faces vhs box set now . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJjNA4PuiGY

^well,since I am pushing 50 , I guess I am older technology ,lol . And Sony Trinitron and Samsung are excellent CRT models to answer your question .There are also some stores in existence that specialize in old technology and have a passion for it as well as for refurbishing it as the guy in the video does .This is just one such place you might find what you seek …https://www.captainedsfurniture.com/page/about-us.html

oops , double post

^ fair assessment , and I am willing to bet that older sources of media and content look great on it .$15 ? great find Handman !

ok , this is the best example I have seen yet of the quality that vhs can produce on a high end setup …this dude’s got an enviable set up , does not hurt that he is playing Pink Floyd The Wall either as it is a fave of mine …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_a0G-NP35E&lc=z23cshtbhx3lydogi04t1aokgcdt0pzegimjwm0a4dnbbk0h00410.1542969022721489

Impressive stuff (and am off for a Pink Floyd session later 😃)

Got to admit I wish I kept my old CRT tv from years back - was great for watching sci-fi films on in that it seemed to have a depth of quality not really there for many of the-then modern flatscreen tv’s at the time (Pioneer and Panasonic plasma units apart). The CRT did take up fair bit of room though, IIRC - yet gave off a fair bit of heat, which wasn’t bad for cold nights in front of the tv in a small room.

^ I know what you mean , they can be heavy beasts and a bit of energy hogs . I am not and never was knocking modern LCD televisions though , I have a 50 inch LG in my living room and modern movies on blu ray look great on it . The crt that I have in my bedroom is very much like this one …https://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-ws32z40-slimfit-32-crt-tv/specs/ and for me , it is an objectively better display . Warmer , with more depth and I admit that a large part of it is also nostalgia ,as the CRT is what I grew up with . Since this one has Hdmi ports , I sometimes bring my blu ray player and hook it up and it looks amazing .And on said nostalgia front , I love old tech and if I were rich , I would have a room full of it .

In the mid 2000s, I connected my laptop to one of my CRT monitors and I was astounded at just how rich the colours, tones and contrast were in comparison to that of the LCD. When I discussed this with an engineer friend, he knowingly smiled and nodded and confirmed the superiority of CRT’s vs much of the LCD’s that were on the market and mused that in years to come, many consumers will regret disposing of their current CRT TV’s.

Till 2013, this model was my main TV:

A hefty beast, running at 100hz with 3x SCART sockets, additional rear AV input/outputs and front AV input/outputs on a discreet push open/close panel. The only reason why I no longer have it today, is because it died on me and so, I replaced it with a 50" Panasonic Viera plasma. I still have VGA CRT monitors and a spare (4:3) Samsung CRT TV - but it’s not a patch on the Sony. In a side by side comparison between the Viera and a CRT monitor, the latter still won out in terms of colours.

^ very cool and a nice looking Sony Trinitron you had there . I remember reading articles from about 2005 or so where manufacturers were starting to try to compete with flat panel lcd’s at the time because they were prohibitively expensive , so they began to make some wider crt tubes and put bezels on them to mimic that flat screens at a far less expensive price point . Too bad it took this for crt manufacturers to up their game .The technology had really reached a zenith point ( ha ,Zenith , see what I did there ?) after 60 or so years of being around , they had a lot of time to develop . I can only imagine what we would have today if they continued to innovate .

Thanks! 😃 It was with great reluctance that I accepted its eventual passing. Watching the 80s/90s CBS widescreen OT Laserdiscs on it, was an absolute delight! My immediate thought was to consider looking for a replacement but at the same time, I had to accept that eventually, I’d want to have access to HD stuff.

Unlike my Trinitron: the Viera doesn’t have S-Video: and I can’t remember the reasoning that Panasonic gave me for its omission (yet RCA composite is provided) but I wasn’t impressed.

You might appreciate this:

Are CRTs Still Manufactured or Used?
https://www.thomaselectronics.com/faq/

Yes, I definitely saw what you did there. 😉

(On a side note, Zenith TV’s were not that commonplace in the UK but I did encounter them.)

thanks for your reply , and yes , I do appreciate that link ! I love learning about esoteric and old tech and that was an eye opener . I had no idea how many applications there were for cathode ray tubes . and glad you got my Zenith reference .I am in the U.S.A. and they were common here in the 70’s and 80’s . They were usually in wooden consoles and more like part of everyday furniture that some people used to put little white doilies on top of.

I’m amazed at Zenith’s history as an innovator in the electronics industry. It’s overlooked in comparison to others and this makes it particularly sad to see that they’re no longer an independent company.

https://www.zenith.com/heritage/

This was my desktop display workhorse from 2004 till 2016.

https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-e772p-crt-monitor-17-series/specs/

Completely outdated and superseded by my other display units but it still beats them all, hands down, in its representation of colour. 😃