Samsung's CRT Hi-Def TV

[Toge]

Can anyone shed anymore light on this? At 350 it seems to be a no brainer

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03..._ready_crt_tv/

[5lab]

well first off, it wont be 350 quid. the sd version of that telly is between 4 and 500 quid, so i would have thought the hd would add at least 1-200 to that price

secondly, reviews of the sd version are mixed - there are a lot of geometry issues and some bleeding of colours - have a look on homecinemachoice.com for a review. unfortunately - i dont think it will be as good as that preview suggests (they are already on sale in the states - the 30" is priced just above the price of a 26" lcd)

[monkeyville]

Even if its below £500 they'll still sell loads of them. Me included. Most people dont need the flatscreen as the house is already set up to accomadate a crt so whats the point in buying something i dont really need.

[Daneel]

Although they say HDTV, that only means it can accept an HD signal. I doubt very much it has the resolution to show all the detail available for 1080i, maybe 720p but don't hold your breath.

That doesn't mean it won't give a good picture of course, particularly for that kind of money.

[5lab]

i'm not sure - i think these crts may do 1080i..

[Gunbuster]

I have to agree on the price. As for the actual abilities, I think they will have to be seen to believed. Samsung have been making HD CRTs in the US, and I guess a cheap large solution would have it's place. The old version did 1080i, but not 720p, as 1080i by it's nature is interlaced.

[Toge]

so they'll upscale SD pictures?

[Skinleech]

so they'll upscale SD pictures?

It should do, yeah. The Upscale won't look great though, as you can't add what's not there to begin with. Of course, size makes a difference too, so the upscaling won't look as bad on a 32" as it would on a 50" or 60".

[Gunbuster]

Spec of the previous generation which didn't feature 720P:
http://www.digiuk.com/productdetail....&guid=&s=2&sm=

[Bob Crabtree]

Rather late but an update nonethless - see this HEXUS.headline about Medion (and Samsung) low-cost 32in sets.

[Nitestorm]

Any update on the Samsung HD CRT TV? Does it just accept HD input or can it really display HD and at what resolution?

[directhex]

Although they say HDTV, that only means it can accept an HD signal. I doubt very much it has the resolution to show all the detail available for 1080i, maybe 720p but don't hold your breath.

That doesn't mean it won't give a good picture of course, particularly for that kind of money.

if it says "hd ready", then it must meet 3 major points

1) accept a 720p or 1080i signal over component

2) accept a 720p or 1080i signal over hdmi or dvi, with hdcp

3) have at least 720 vertical pixels of resolution

[Bob Crabtree]

if it says "hd ready", then it must meet 3 major points

1) accept a 720p or 1080i signal over component

2) accept a 720p or 1080i signal over hdmi or dvi, with hdcp

3) have at least 720 vertical pixels of resolution

Well, the set is definitely being promoted as HD ready.

Trouble is the devil is in the detail and, in my view, the HD ready standard leaves rather a lot of options that could mean you buy a set that doesn't have all the features you need.

I've just wanged off an email to a bunch of Samsung people asking for FULL specs (I thought I'd done that some while ago, but maybe I didn't) .

I'll report back with what I find.

Might be an interesting experiment to pop along to a Comet store and see what you can find out - and report back here.

In the interim, not sure how good your German is, but Samsung Germany appears to have full spec here.

Model number is very subtly different - so no guarantees - but it's worth checking out.

But, if the set is being promoted as HD ready then it will, I'm reasonably confident, conform to the necessary spec.

The specs are within the licensing agreement, available as a PDF from a link on this page.

The direct link to the pdf is:
http://www.eicta.org/files/LicenseAgreement-153205A.pdf

Here's the relevant stuff from the PDF:

4. Requirements for the logo “HD ready”
The EICTA "HD ready" Minimum Requirements for display devices are neutral towards the technology used (plasma, LCD, DLP, DLA, LCoS, CRT, ...) as well as the implementation thereof (flat panel, rear projection, front projection, direct view, ...).

A display device has to cover the following requirements to be awarded the logo “HD ready”:

1. Display, display engine
· The minimum native resolution of the display or display engine is 720
physical lines in wide aspect ratio.

2. Video Interfaces
· The display device accepts HD input via:
o Analogue YPbPr1, and
o DVI or HDMI
· HD capable inputs accept the following HD video formats:
o 1280x720 @ 50 and 60Hz progressive (“720p”), and
o 1920x1080 @ 50 and 60Hz interlaced (“1080i”)
· The DVI or HDMI input supports content protection (HDCP)

Technical reference:
The technical references as detailed hereafter or in a later backward compatible revision apply:

DVI
DDWG, “DVI Visual Interface”, rev. 1.0, April 2, 1999 as further qualified in EIA/CEA-861 rev. B, “A DTV Profile for Uncompressed High Speed Digital Interfaces” May 2002, furthermore allowing both DVI-D and DVI-I connectors, requiring compliance to both 50 and 60Hz profiles,
and requiring support for both 720p and 1080i video formats.

HDMI
HDMI Licensing, LLC, “High-Definition Multimedia Interface”, rev. 1.0, December 9, 2002

HDCP
Intel, “High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection System”, rev. 1.1, June 9, 2003 (Note: on DVI HDCP rev. 1.0 or rev. 1.1 will apply)

YPbPr CEA-770.3 rev. C, November 2001, with the notice that the connectors required may be available only through an adaptor

Note 1 - “HD ready” display devices support analogue YPbPr as a HD input format to allow full compatibility with today's HD video sources in the market. Support of the YPbPr signal should be through common industry standard connectors directly on the “HD ready” display device or through an adaptor easily accessible to the consumer.

Bob

[directhex]

sounds a lot like my summary, bob

and yes, you're right that there's wiggle room - Medion are known for taking the specs and pissing on them, by scaling HD inputs to 1024x768, then RESCALING to 1280x768. technically, the spec allows for it

[villarule]

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.

[Bob Crabtree]

sounds a lot like my summary, bob

Yup - it's just that yours was more succinct but mine had links that showed that you did actually know what you are talking about!

and yes, you're right that there's wiggle room - Medion are known for taking the specs and pissing on them, by scaling HD inputs to 1024x768, then RESCALING to 1280x768. technically, the spec allows for it

The thing that gets to me is that the spec for HD ready allows makers to support HDCP through one or other of DVI or HDMI input - and that's something that, I fear, is going to cause considerable grief to some buyers of TV sets carrying the HD ready logo.

You could, for instance, be forgiven for assuming when you buy a set that if it has DVI and HDMI, then HDCP would be active on both - but that won't necessarily be so. It's possible it might only be on DVI (or vice-versa).

And that's why what I said in my email to Samsung was that I needed FULL spec cos the devil is in the detail.