I just recently setup another lcd HDTV, this time for my grandparents who are clueless when it comes to A/V. It got me wanting a better set with some HD capability and combined with my need for a CRT upgrade got me wondering about the old mid 2000's HD CRTs and how it would work with both LD and DVD/BD. Are these generally worth a look for a cheap Sony? There's a few around locally that look really nice, but I have no idea if the picture would benefit the major hassle of tracking one down and transporting it back home.

Do they just automatically sense the resolution, or just do 720p/1080i for things connected via component or hdmi/dvi? Would I need anything to better refine the picture when using LD or would the comb filters still be okay?

Some are even 16:9, but I assume that with LD it would just be preserved in the center of the screen and you lose the sides.

I have a Sony WEGA KV-40XBR800, and I do love it lots. It works really well with LD (the 3D comb filter is VERY good) as I have my Runco LJR-I hooked up via composite (just make sure you use something like Video Essentials to calibrate the picture) and my friends were pretty astounded when I showed them blu-ray on it.

Letterboxed LDs are just shown in full screen mode.

I believe HD resolutions are scaled to 1080i. And the higher end sets automatically lock any progressive, anamorphic or HD resolution to "16:9 Enhanced Mode."

Also the HDCP connection (be it DVI or HDMI) will lock to "16:9 Enhanced Mode."

Keep in mind that this comes at a price as these sets are INSANELY heavy. The KV-40XBR800 tips the scale at 300+ lbs. In planning my next move I am only looking at 1st floor apartments as I am NOT going to try to move that thing up any stairs.

This Wikipedia entry has a pretty good chart letting you know what each set has:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FD_Trinitron/WEGA

Yeah there are 16:9 sets too, so you have to decide on which you prefer.

Either way WEGAs are cheap to get off of craigslist these days. Sometimes you can get them for free (just got a KV-32HS510 for my mom from a guy on CL for nothing!)

The Sony HD CRTs are probably the only one's worth looking at.

One thing to note with the "flat-screen" models if you've never had one before: The geometry is nearly always going to be off (horizontal lines dip or curve up at the screen edges and/or the screen middle). Some individual TVs (not models) are better than others. Also you may not be as sensitive to it so therefore won't notice (I wish this was the case for me. My wife couldn't care less).

The Sony sets do have really good 3D comb filters and they are even adjustable from the service menu for motion bias etc.

If you want to watch a lot of LD, get a 4:3 set. You won't have to zoom into the letterbox area or put black bars on the side depending on your source. Then if you want to watch widescreen DVDs or BDs the sets have a 16:9 enhanced mode that compresses the scanlines into the 16:9 area for full resolution.

Also see if you can find one of the Super Fine Pitch models if you are hoping for the best HD picture.

There was only one SFP WEGA with a 4:3 screen made, the KD-36XS955. Even has an HDMI input and built in ATSC tuner!

this is true, my parents had an RCA flat screen that was perfect and didn't dip.
then I bought a Samsung and it had the most horrible S curve on the black bars.

there are a bunch out there, I've seen some at local thrift stores but that 250-300+ pounds really turns me away.
and after this LED set I have I would never go back, in some ways I have to say that this tv I have now is better than any CRT.

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This is why Sony's pro level CRTs were a hybrid solution (only a horizontal curve, no vertical one); superior geometry over a flat CRT. Can also speak from experience that it's pretty much impossible to get ideal geometry on a flat CRT, it's just not worth the trouble.

Tbh as much as I prefer CRT, I can't recommend the 16:9 HD models at all. The aspect ratio and 1080i/480p resolutions are wasted on the kind of stuff you want to run through a CRT in the first place. Analog home video, pre-seventh gen consoles? All designed exclusively for 480i at a 4:3 aspect ratio.

So after my WEGA KV-40XBR800 got the dreaded flashing standby light (it's fixable, but read on as to why I didn't bother), I got ultra lucky and found a FREE 36" WEGA KD-36XS955 (with the Super Fine Pitch Trinitron tube) on Craigslist.

I gotta say I thought LDs looked good on the 40"? This one just takes the cake. I didn't even calibrate it yet and LDs looked slammin' on this thing. I thought LDs might look not quite as good on this than on the 40" because of the higher resolution, but no. I was really blown away.

So if any of you are looking for the best HD-CRT for your usage--I heartily recommend this one if you can find it!!

I'm very happy with my Philips 28" PW9551 "HD Ready" tv.
It is basically an ED TV (576P), not exactly true HD, but yields a very nice picture for the time being on all sources analogue and digital up to a 1080i source. I even noticed that when i select 4:4:4 16bit color on my bd player, it appears to take it and shows more pungent clear whites and deep blacks and smoother transitions... on the xmb menu as dvd's and bd's are 'only' 8bit 4:2:0 and sent out as 4:2:2.

I bet the Wega could beat this one by far... have no comparision at hand... but the thing i don't like at many Sony models is that apparent grid or lines on the screen, which i don't see on my philips luckily.

I imagine what a hi vision ld on a real hd monitor would be awesome to watch.

A really good HD CRT will be better than any plasma or LCD display in some aspects, mainly color accuracy. Contrast will also be better than most modern sets. Size and resolution kills the purpose for me though, but if you can live with it I see several reasons to give it a shot. I'd also go for the Sony WEGA models.

My friend is looking to get rid of his 30" Samsung Slim CRT HDTV 16:9. I will happily accept it and replace the cheapo Sylvania 20" CRT I have in the basement. Thankfully it only weighs a bit over 100lbs. My Dad's Sony 30-36" WEGA is in the garage... where it will stay... because damn is it heavy!

I had to promise lunch to my brother when I went to go pick up mine

But isn't it so that most U.S. HD CRT's take only 480i/p and 1080i? So no 720p and pal 576p?
And that most of the the time they sort of convert 1080i to 540p so not true hd?
And that they only have component as a hd source, not hdmi?

Which models did have truly more pixels and hdmi as well?

The later Sony WEGA Trinitrons in the USA will accept a 720p signal, but it will be scaled to 1080i.

The later WEGAs also had HDCP compliant DVI inputs and some had HDMI inputs.

The Super Fine Pitch models had the higher resolution of 1440x1080i and had HDMI inputs (save for a few that had DVI.)

The most of the Hi-Scan models had either DVI or HDMI.

This wikipedia page is pretty accurate with the breakdown of the WEGA models with with they have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FD_Trinitron/WEGA

I have had both the Hi-Scan KV-40XBR800 and the Super Fine Pitch KD-36XS955. The former is a damn good set, but the latter is an amazing set.

There were quite a few CRT's toward the end that have DVI and/or HDMI along with tons of other inputs. I have many CRT's in the game room including a mint Toshiba 26HF85 TheaterWide HD CRT I paid $2.18 for. It has 3 Composite, 3 S-Video, 2 Component, 1 HDMI and multiple AV outs. The picture over HDMI is gorgeous and it has that CRT look we all love so much. I have a Retron5 hooked up via HDMI and my retro games also look super clean. There are really nice CRT's out there and are worth it. I have the ability to get a Sony KV-40XBR800 for basically free with the stand, but that thing is a beast honestly and don't know if I can dedicate that much room to a single TV. It is very good though. I would make an exception for a Sony KD-36XS955 TV with the SuperFine dot pitch.

Any suggestions on how to re-setup LD on an HDCRT? I had gotten perfectly happy going composite out from the Pioneer CLD-D702 into the Panasonic DMR-ES25 for its comb filter then into my Sony 32" Trinitron FS320.
I got a great deal on the Sony XBR960 16:9 34" with the super fine pitch tube. Problem is that LD is like starting all over again. I've re-calibrated with DVE obviously and tried the TV comb filter, ES25 component and the HDMI connection. The ES25 cleans up better than the TV but best of all is it's HDMI scaling...however it seems to be inherently processing the image.

Anyone have suggestions? Is this time for a scaling unit of some kind? Like a DVDO unit or something?

Boy you guys weren't kidding about the geometry. I've spent over a week just trying to tweak what I can. It drives me nuts to see 4:3 vertical bars skew but at this point other than hiring an ISF calibrator to come out for $500 and use magnets there doesn't seem to be much fixing it. I was able to overcome the overscanning using the service menu. It was horrible.

Picture is staggering. PS3 games are great, BD is mindblowing, DVD is brilliant (non-anamorphic is a nightmare because the HD input locks to 16:9). LD is at times the best I've seen it and not so good. I often want to go back to my old set to be honest.

The XBR has a better filter than the ES25, so I would go straight into the TV with composite and calibrate it from there.

Since the Sony's have 4 calibration "saves" I usually use "Pro" for my LD settings with the calibrations from Video Essentals, then "Standard" for DVE calibrations.

Other settings for WEGA's you'll want to keep in mind:
- Turn "ClearEdge VM" off. That's sharpness adjustment that you just won't need as all it does is add edge enhancement.
- DRC Mode you'll want to set to either "Interlaced" or "CineMotion." For LDs I just keep it at "Interlaced" since ALL LDs are interlaced.

That's what I was thinking. I turned off the clear edge VM first thing on all inputs. I then calibrated for video essentials on the vivid setting on all inputs. Then did DVE on standard. I had to adjust for overscan on the HDMI input but not so on the others. Geometry also appears much better on those with the hdmi one still being out whack for some reason.
When playing a disc, I've compared across straight composite in, component es25, and the hdmi form the es25 in the various options it offers 480p/720p/1080i. Adding the es25 back in seems to help the image despite revealing more of the formats limitations. The HDMI appears to process it a bit simply by using it but it does make LD appear the most suitable to the screen which makes me believe I might just need a scaler. Running straight composite in looks the most natural but unlike my older 480i Sony CRT it looks a bit washed out and of course dwarfed by the wasted space in the 16:9 glass.

Zoom modes help but all seem to crop the image a bit and I can't quite tell yet which one is simply scaling to fit the screen versus stretching the image a bit which I don't want at all.

Thinking I need a TBC for chroma noise, and possibly a scaler to fill out the 16:9 screen. That's where most of my problems seem to come in.

And of course when watching a BD last night I noticed the lovely phosphor trails. Starting to think this was a huge mistake.

yeah, for whatever reason, I don't think the widescreen WEGA CRTs are as good as the 4:3 CRTs for LD.

I had a KD-34XS955, and it just didn't do well for LD. Bad geometry and poor colors for some reason.

I just stick with the the 4:3 WEGAs.