Samsung's CRT Hi-Def TV

[Bob Crabtree]

We got one of these in at work today. It does have componant input and HDMI. I couldnt quite believe it at first. I think it also comes with some cheap and shoddy black stand that is fugly. We are selling it for £499 and thats less than a 32inch LCD so I can imagine them becoming really popular, and I think if I could afford it, I would snap it up instantly. Also also got a slim design, so even though its CRT, its about half the size of a normal one, though still bulkier than an LCD screen.

You appear to be inferring, but not actually saying, that the picture quality is good.

I would be VERY keen to hear your opinion of the picture quality relative to similar-sized LCD sets. I think that a LOT of people hereabouts would also be keen to hear that.

[5lab]

it could be better (my tosh crt has better pq than my sammy lcd), but i believe these short-neck tvs have bad geometry and bleeding problems for the sd versions. the hd *might* have cured this but i think its unlikely..

[villarule]

You appear to be inferring, but not actually saying, that the picture quality is good.

I would be VERY keen to hear your opinion of the picture quality relative to similar-sized LCD sets. I think that a LOT of people hereabouts would also be keen to hear that.

I didnt turn it on, I just put it on display and left it

I had a quick glance today now that it has been tuned into the store feed and I must say, it looked great, it wasnt a HD picture, because the same thing is shown on every tv in the store, but it looked as good, if not better than the 37" LG LCD (RZ37LZ31) that was above it.

[Bob Crabtree]

I didnt turn it on, I just put it on display and left it

I had a quick glance today now that it has been tuned into the store feed and I must say, it looked great, it wasnt a HD picture, because the same thing is shown on every tv in the store, but it looked as good, if not better than the 37" LG LCD (RZ37LZ31) that was above it.

Good to know that your employer doesn't think it necessary to show HD on HD TV sets.



Or is this a local policy?

[Bob Crabtree]

it could be better (my tosh crt has better pq than my sammy lcd), but i believe these short-neck tvs have bad geometry and bleeding problems for the sd versions. the hd *might* have cured this but i think its unlikely..

Theory is one thing, but I'd prefer to hear a first-hand account.

[villarule]

The LG ones, which are our leading brands do get to show off the XD engine and thats all in HD, and some of the others have HD feeds to show off various other features, but not every TV we sell is HD ready, for example 14" TV/DVD combis that still sell well need to have the same picture as the rest of the majority of the TVs to make them easy to look at; if all screens had different videos on, then it would be a mess and hard to look at.

[directhex]

Good to know that your employer doesn't think it necessary to show HD on HD TV sets.



Or is this a local policy?

i used to work at pc world. they banned us from running looped 3dmark demos on the TFT stand - and insisted that we run a 640x480 advert feed instead. it was hard to explain about tft crispness to people with that crap being displayed

[villarule]

Yup, I work at currys btw and they have the pooey feed on the PCs and laptops. Luckily im not sales though

[Bob Crabtree]

The LG ones, which are our leading brands do get to show off the XD engine and thats all in HD, and some of the others have HD feeds to show off various other features, but not every TV we sell is HD ready, for example 14" TV/DVD combis that still sell well need to have the same picture as the rest of the majority of the TVs to make them easy to look at; if all screens had different videos on, then it would be a mess and hard to look at.

Not wishing to be too unkind but that does kind of contradict what you said earlier.

Bottom line - in my view - is that HD sets need HD feeds and there's no reason for the displays to look messy if the SD stuff is kept separately, which it should be, and gets its own SD feed.

Ideally, of course, what you'd do is send the same programming - but SD to SD and HD to HD - so that the consumer can see the real difference between SD and HD.

Have to say, though, that way in which HD sets are displayed is, rather too often, very poor.

And this tends to be the case in all but the most thoughtful of specialist retailers.

I was, for instance, in the big John Lewis store in the centre of London a fortnight back and there, I was disappointed to see, a big HD set situated very low down to the floor - making the picture looked really, seriously, rubbish because there was no expectation by the maker that the screen would be watched from above.

When I got down on my knees to approprimate to the intended viewing angle, the picture was just fine.

And that positioning mistake (no, not getting down on their knees!) is very commonly made, not just here but in the USA.

A very good friend of mine (Bob Gerson) is the founding editor of the US trade magazine TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics) with whom I've stayed on holiday a couple of times outside of New York.

We were walking around a BIG US store and stumbled upon row of HD sets all sitting low down to the floor - and Bob G nearly burst out crying. The only upside was that he had found the topic of his next opinion column.

[Bob Crabtree]

Oh, and Samsung sent me a spec sheet for the TV in PDF format (265KB), which you can now download from here.

Not sure how much use it will be, though.

Bob

[Stoo]

Not much really..

Although the specs do look cut-down from the LCD screens..

Not sure if it's native 1080i, or if it's just accepting it and downscaling to 720p..

[Jonny M]

Good to know that your employer doesn't think it necessary to show HD on HD TV sets.

How would you go about distributing an HD signal to 30+ TVs?

[Bob Crabtree]

How would you go about distributing an HD signal to 30+ TVs?

I'd start with Google.

However, I'm pretty much assuming that the companies that selling HD distribution amps would have made themselves known to the trade directly and via magazines - notably ERT.

[Kef9]

These HD CRT's do 1080i. Thats what they all do in the states and thats what they will do here.

[Gunbuster]

Had a wee look at them in my local Currys and Comet.
In general I preferred the Black freeview one in Currys. They had the standard coax Currys display feed, but it looked noticeably clearer and less flickery than the fellow CRTs. The downside was the upscaling, but due to it being a CRT was a bit less noticeable than the 26" LCDs near by. The main problem was the white to black change over shrink/stretch when reacting to sudden changes from blank screen to a new trailer. Whilst I didn't get to see it in HD, both the Currys one (running a Cars Trailer) and Comet (running Shrek) didn't have any noticeable blurring.

On a side note Currys had a Xbox 360 running on a Panasonic 32"+ LCD via a composite cable on a scart adapter feet away from their selection of Xbox 360 AV cables... muppets.