CRT TV vs. flat screen image quality

[TUD1]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Dave, I am almost 60 years old and was watching CRT TVs long before there were any such things as flat screens. When I got my Insignia flat screen almost five years ago, I had no trouble whatsoever adjusting to its picture quality compared to the RCA CRT TV it replaced.

One of the only reasons I am going to replace my FP with my old Zenith Sentry 2 table model when the FP quits is simply because CRT TVs are admittedly and in fact much more reliable than flat screens ever were. No one ever had to be concerned with having to replace a CRT set every couple of years (unless they wanted a new one or were replacing a worn-out 20+-year old set), unlike flat screens which seem to have a much shorter life span.

There are CRT TVs in use today that are 20 and more years old, and are still going strong. My Zenith Sentry 2, which was a birthday present to me when I turned forty years old in 1996, and an RCA CTC185 I bought when I moved here 16 years ago are two examples. Neither TV had ever had any service work done on it, except for a problem with a loose antenna connector on the RCA set which was repaired under warranty. The Zenith has never had to have any service work on it whatsoever in all its 20 years, and it still makes an excellent picture on its original CRT (even though the set's tube was made during the era of "bad" Zenith picture tubes in the late 1990s; I swear I must have gotten one of the good ones, simply by the luck of the draw), which is one reason I will use it again when the flat screen quits. The other is I have liked Zenith TVs (and radios) for decades.

I don't know why you hate flat screens so much (aside from their very short lives as compared to CRT TVs), but you had better get used to them since they are all anyone can get these days--unless you want to get a used color or B&W television with a CRT, like your RCA CTC25 or your latest acquisition, your Zenith 23" delta-gun color console. (I had relatives, now deceased, who owned just such a Zenith in the late 1960s and liked it; they used it for years before buying a new 25" Zenith console in the mid-1970s.)

Finally, why do you call CRT TVs "real" televisions? Flat screens are just as much televisions as the older CRT sets are, since they receive and reproduce signals broadcast from television stations using an antenna, cable or satellite, although I will admit that FPs do bear more of a resemblance to computer screens than to traditional TVs and are not much to look at when they are turned off, unless they are installed on or in an entertainment center cabinet or stand.

Flat screens and digital TV are all the current generation of young TV viewers know. Mention to these kids, many of whom are too young to remember CRT TVs or the NTSC television era, that there were such things as televisions with something called "picture tubes" that received pictures over the air with an antenna, years and decades before flat screens, cable or satellite TV, and they might not believe you; in fact, some of the younger ones might laugh full in your face and say you were making all of this up.

The only way I can explain it would be this. Suppose your entire life, you have driven body-on-frame American cars such as a Ford Crown Victoria. Now, Ford Crown Victorias are no longer made, but you still cling to them. Now suppose everybody is driving Honda Lunchboxes and Smarts, and the entire population of the planet is pressuring you into getting one. I CANNOT handle change in this way.

[kf4rca]

is flat screen CRTs. Not many people like them because they're deep being around a 70 degree deflection tube (much like the very first CRTs).

[zeno]

Originally Posted by TUD1

The only way I can explain it would be this. Suppose your entire life, you have driven body-on-frame American cars such as a Ford Crown Victoria. Now, Ford Crown Victorias are no longer made, but you still cling to them. Now suppose everybody is driving Honda Lunchboxes and Smarts, and the entire population of the planet is pressuring you into getting one. I CANNOT handle change in this way.

Me to a T. in 2004 I wanted a new car. I was all GM & one Studebaker.
6 years before GM killed the B body ( Roadmaster, Caprice, Vista
Cruiser etc.). So I had to go to Ford & Merc. Now you cant get them
either NOT due to Ford but guess who ? There are lots of them
& B bodies around but nobody will sell them. You gotta wait for
someone to die then compete with the kids wanting a 15 second car
out of the box that weighs over 2 tons.

73 Zeno