televisions

[Dixon's Dame]

Okay, gang, I'm looking for your opinions/advice. My 50" tv bit the dust about two months ago and I'm in the market for a new one. Everything seems to be going HiDef and DLP and this, that, and the other, which is all very good until I put my old movies on, then the new sets look awful. My set that died was the old CRT kind, and all my B&W classics looked great on it.

I took my DVDs to a couple of friend's houses, tried out a new Mitsubishi Diamond - nope, everything looked digitized, pixillated (sp), and generally washed out. I checked out a new plasma set, same story. Put on "Star Wars: Episode III" and these sets look fabulous and outstanding. Put on "Laura" and it sucks. I'd be miserable with these sets, as 95% of what I watch was made before 1970.

So, what are you guys watching your classic movies on? Anybody have a newer set that they really like? Pros? Cons? Am I just too picky? I live in the boondocks so getting a new tv isn't exactly easy.

Thanks!

 

[J. M. Stovall]

I have a Sony Wega. It's still a crt, but the screen is flat. You can't hang it on the wall but everything looks great!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I highly recommend the following latest models:

 

[Serial Hero]

I really like the 1939 RCA TRK- 9

I'd love to have one of these old sets.

 

[Senator Jack]

I've posted this pic before, but I wanted to point out the tv. I got that through this guy. http://www.harryposter.com/

What he does is remove the guts from the old tv and installs a modern tv in the cabinet. The dials on the cabinet will not work - everything has to be done by the remote - but at least you'll have a fairly modern tv that looks good in a vintage pad.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Pilgrim]

First thing to check is whether you're going TOO big. Your viewing distance from the screen should be at least 2.5 times the diagonal measurement. For a 50" screen, that means you should be 125 inches (10 feet) away. Most rooms aren't that big!

I'd take a look at a CRT that is digital and high-def capable, since it really doesn't make sense to buy any high-end set today that is not digital ready and hi-def ready, since both are already here. If I were buying a $120 set I wouldn't sweat it, but that's not what you're considering.

Best bet is to take a DVD to a big electronics store and start working your way through the sets. BUT - be aware that every one of them will have the "Picture" control turned up as high as it will go to make the display look better in the store. This is an inappropriate adjustment that may make B&W look worse. Check the set adjustment while you're watching.

The answer may also be in the DVD player. Talk it over with a knowledgeable salesperson (if there are any) and see if they carry DVD players that will interpolate or fill in scan lines from the older, lower-res source material.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

I highly recommend the following latest models:

Mine's later. (And looks better than this picture, if I just had it running........)

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I have my eye on a 36" Sony Wega CRT. It's HDTV, but it has a 4:3 screen which I want because I mainly watch old movies. The only downside is that it's heavy as heck.

 

[Sefton]

All of those old sets are lovely. I like what Senator Jack did too. My ideal is to have my tech toys but camouflage them into a vintage looking home (plastic is just too ugly...)

Most of the time I watch my old films on a Sony Wega 13" with a flat screen. More recently I've started to watch them on a laptop though. They still look o.k. to me like this. (The screen on the laptop is a "jumbo" 14 inches! Nothing like watching "King Kong" climb the Empire State this way...lol )

 

[Absinthe_1900]

In the case of my old Dumont TV, I hope to have the set put back in running order to use for watching B&W movies.

Mine was purchased by my Grandmother in 1950, and worked up until the early '70's, she saved all the papers, and it still has the tie tag on the power cord. (And the warranty) I picked up a Dumont service book on eBay, and hopefully keep it original.

The papers outlasted the Alan B. Du Mont Laboratories.

 

[Pilgrim]

Hey Tony in Tarzana, as an ex-video producer I've always been a big fan of Sony sets. I like their color temp and durability. About a year ago, our 1986 25" Sony XBR set finally died (this was an $1100 set in 1986, but it had the finest picture quality of anything made...and it lasted almost 20 years under heavy use.)

The replacement we got was a 30" widescreen Wega which is both HD capable and digital-ready. It cost only a few bucks more than the 1986 set!

The 30" widescreen has proven to be an excellent choice. We watch standard aspect feeds with a black border on each side, because I REALLY don't like stretching a standard picture. But for DVDs and other widescreen program sources, it's like having a much bigger set, and Sony provides about four different viewing options. I do like the Stretch-Zoom option for watching football, as it fills the screen and football players look OK stretched a bit - they're mostly wide-bodies anyway. And although it's quite a deep (and heavy, at 150 pounds) CRT set, the 30" widescreen is a good fit to a moderate-size room.

So my recommendation for a set you're buying now - especially a set that you will have for many years - is to consider a widescreen format set in addition to the HD and digital-ready considerations. You can watch either standard or wide aspect feeds.

 

[Big Man]

In the case of my old Dumont TV, I hope to have the set put back in running order to use for watching B&W movies.

Mine was purchased by my Grandmother in 1950, and worked up until the early '70's, she saved all the papers, and it still has the tie tag on the power cord. (And the warranty) I picked up a Dumont service book on eBay, and hopefully keep it original ...

I have an old DuMont of about the same vintage (late 40's or early 50's) which was my Grandmother's as well. While the television stopped working in the late 60's, the radio still works. It would be nice to retrofit it with a "modern" screen.

I can still remember watching the old DuMont. Sometimes I think "modern" TV's just don't have the same "class" as the old sets. Of course when you are little, and TV is a relatively new thing in the area, than I guess it is easy to be impressed.

Here's a picture of the old DuMont at my Grandmother's house.

 

[Dixon's Dame]

Thanks all! I really dig those old sets, thanks for posting the pics! I wish I could get one of those!! My couch is 12 feet from the front of the tv screen, so plenty of room here (I have a long living room). I think I'll check out those Sony Wegas, as they've come up a couple times in this thread, and I'll definitely be taking a couple representative DVDs with me to test out the sets.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Hey Tony in Tarzana, as an ex-video producer I've always been a big fan of Sony sets. I like their color temp and durability. About a year ago, our 1986 25" Sony XBR set finally died (this was an $1100 set in 1986, but it had the finest picture quality of anything made...and it lasted almost 20 years under heavy use.)

The replacement we got was a 30" widescreen Wega which is both HD capable and digital-ready. It cost only a few bucks more than the 1986 set!

The 30" widescreen has proven to be an excellent choice. We watch standard aspect feeds with a black border on each side, because I REALLY don't like stretching a standard picture. But for DVDs and other widescreen program sources, it's like having a much bigger set, and Sony provides about four different viewing options. I do like the Stretch-Zoom option for watching football, as it fills the screen and football players look OK stretched a bit - they're mostly wide-bodies anyway. And although it's quite a deep (and heavy, at 150 pounds) CRT set, the 30" widescreen is a good fit to a moderate-size room.

So my recommendation for a set you're buying now - especially a set that you will have for many years - is to consider a widescreen format set in addition to the HD and digital-ready considerations. You can watch either standard or wide aspect feeds.

That's true, but my present set is a Mitsubishi 36" CRT non-HD, and a 30" 16:9 screen would be a step down. The 36" is too big for my room, but I'm used to it now.

I think letterboxing would be less annoying than side bars, and the 4:3 Sony has a feature that, when watching a widescreen picture, uses all the scan lines available but squeezed down to the 16:9 aspect ratio so you don't lose any resolution.

The Mitsubishi probably has a year or two left in it, so I'm still considering my decision.

Besides, I went nuts on eBay so my available cash reserves aren't quite as abundant as I'd like. :eusa_doh:

Thanks, I really do appreciate the advice and will take it into consideration.

 

[Twitch]

Curiously, I never thought of this. Interesting. Has anyone viewed old flicks on the plasma screens? Wonder how they stack up.