# TV help: flat vs curved screen



## Datasaurusrex (Oct 23, 2004)

So I'm thinking of buying a 32" tv. Probably some knock off brand at Costco or Sears for around $300-$400.

It seem that there's about a $100 +- difference between a flat screen and the old style curved screen.

What kind of functional difference can I expect between the two? What are the different viewing characteristics?

I currently have an old Sony Triniton 21" with a curved screen and like it, but it's too small.

I do enjoy movies, on DVD in letterbox (main reason for wanting upgrade) does that make a difference or should it influnce my decision?

Thanks


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## tylerdurden (Oct 23, 2004)

The flat screen will have less distortion, and will reflect a lot less light from windows, lamps etc. If you're anal retentive about stuff like that (no judgement, I have plenty of things I'm uber-picky about, this just isn't one of them), it's worth the extra money.

The distortion is so subtle that I can't really detect it on my Panasonic "regular" tube unless I display a test pattern. The TV is in a room with a lot of windows, but I usually only watch TV at night, so the regular tube works for me.


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## x-ray (Oct 23, 2004)

Flat Screen = Less distortion at edges of picture & Less reflection (especially good if you have a window near the tv)


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## x-ray (Oct 23, 2004)

Oops beaten by the man with the shades /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


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## James S (Oct 23, 2004)

Whats funny is that it takes me a few minutes to get used to the flatscreen ones whenever I go somewhere that has one vs a regular tube. For a short time it actually feels like they are distorted the other way, skinny in the middle!

I know thats just an optical illusion, but it's funny /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


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## PhotonBoy (Oct 23, 2004)

Somehow, the flat screens seem smaller for the same size, they appear to my eye to suffer from an odd distortion (pin cushion, as opposed to barrel), true image reflections in the screen bother me (like windows, etc.) and I don't think the extra price is justified. JMHO.


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## mattheww50 (Oct 23, 2004)

Generally there is a little more involved than just flat versus curved. A cured screen represents a fixed distance from the electron gun to any point on the screen, and fixed angular difference between pixels. So to avoid changes in brigthness, and distortion, the sweep rate has to become non-linear, and beam power has to be modulated to insure that a pixel in an extreme corner is hit with exactly the same energy as a pixed dead center is hit with.

As long as you have to go to that much trouble, most flat screen TV's by Sony, Panasonic, etc, also have considerable signal processing inside. In the simplest form it may be only a comb filter. For those unfamiliar portions of the color broadcast signal (Chromiance and Lumiance) are fully seperated in the time domain, but not in the frequency domain. In lower cost TV's, there is a dividing line, where anything above is one, and anything below is the other. This limits over the air resolution to about 260 lines. If you invest in a comb filter, you can fully separate the two signals, and over the air resolution can be as high as 330 line, and in an SVHS recorder, where they are actually recorded, played back, and delivered to the display seperately, 400 lines is possible.

The difference between the $250 and the $500 TV set is usually the $250 really is a TV set, the $500 unit is a Computer that happens to have a TV set as part of it. The signal undergoes extensive processing to improve edge sharpness,contrast, DC restoration, prevent colour 'creep',perform color correction, and in some cases even the refresh rate is even artificially altered, i.e. an Interlaced input, is written to a frame buffer, and then displayed as non-interlaced at higher frame rate.


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## raggie33 (Oct 23, 2004)

i have a sony triintron 27 inch my dad got at garage sale it only clost me 25 bucks man it has a mazeing picture


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## PhotonBoy (Oct 23, 2004)

I have the same 27 inch Sony Trinitron too. It rocks. Bright, clear, sharp, reliable.


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## raggie33 (Oct 23, 2004)

yep and mine is probaly a older tv. well i have no idea but considering where it was bought .and like ya said the picture is amazeing mine is on 24/7 i like to have it on rather listen to it tthen all the other back grond noises around here.lol i even leave it on when im not here so thiefs wont go in my house. id say the pic on mine beats most new tvs unless there new sonys or panasonics


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## jtr1962 (Oct 23, 2004)

I'll go one step further and say that at this point you might as well get an HDTV instead of either a curved or flat screen regular TV. The few hundred dollars more is well worth it, and if you can wait as I am the price difference will get smaller. Even regular programming looks much better on an HDTV than on even a flat TV with a comb filter. And HDTV will be the new standard in a few years. Just make sure to get a TV with an HD tuner built in.


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## raggie33 (Oct 23, 2004)

how do football games look on hdtv?but im sure it will be like 5 years before there cheap enough for me.


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## Saaby (Oct 24, 2004)

For TVs a Trinitron and/or flat screen vs. regular isn't that big a difference to me since (Right now) TV is not that high quality of a picture, but if you're buying a CRT computer monitor do yourself a favor and get one with an aperture grill/Trinitron tube. Everything just looks so much nicer!

It's been said to buy a HDTV, if that's too expensive I'd grab a 27" Korean knockoff TV for under $200. Yeah it's not the 32" you wanted, but if you start putting a little $$ away now than in a year or 2 when it busts you'll be able to get the HDTV /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Somebody said that regular programing looks better on a HDTV which is *NOT* true at all. Well, that's a little harsh, it *can* look better, but some programs on some displays, especially fixed resolution displays like plasma screens, actually make regular def. programs look a lot worse. As always YMMV so an in store demo is always in order.


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## raggie33 (Oct 24, 2004)

lol i love that my dad loves garage sales cant beat this tv for 25 bucks lol i also have one he payed 5 bucks for but its only 19 inch color..i have him looking for a bed for me now


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## Draco_Americanus (Oct 24, 2004)

Got with the flat screen, you will love it. Less glare and less distortion. 
One thing to note, flat CRT's are more heavy and sencetive to stray magnetic fields and vibration, also don't drop it!
The aperture grill suport wires don't like that.

I personaly don't like normal broadcast tv on a HDTV, the contrast just seems off, maby it was beacus the tv was not set up right in the store.


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## geepondy (Oct 24, 2004)

Guys, if you're watching TV from an angle as opposed to straight on, does either the curved or flat screen have an advantage over the other?


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## gadget_lover (Oct 24, 2004)

A cheap flat screen will frequently have MORE distortion than a cheap conventional one. It will (typically) have less glare if oriented correctly. 

With a flat screen the corners are further from the electron gun than the center or even the middle of the sides. Proper circuitry can compensate for this.

To see the effect, grab your favorite flashlight (with a good hot spot) and stand about 3 foot from a wall. Shine it straight ahead and you see a round spot. Shine it 6 or 7 feet to the left and you see an oval. A bigger oval at that.

The curved tube has less difference (in distance from the elctron gun) from edge to edge. The slight angle helps keep the beam round so it hits the phospors more accurately. The curved front has more chance of reflecting light (glare) at the viewer.

Some "flat screen" TVs are actually curved inside with a very thick glass front that's fairly flat. These are also very, very heavy. Sony made some like that at one time.



Daniel


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## PhotonWrangler (Oct 24, 2004)

I've seen many bad HD demos in stores. They either use a noisy tape as their signal source or they wind up simply stretching a regular NTSC feed - ugh.

Monday Night Football is amazing in HD. I'm not a football fan, but it's cool to be able to pick out individual blades of grass when they take the field-level cameras.

As far as screen distortion, I've found that once I get over the optical illusion of the different screen shape, a flat screen is much easier on my eyes in the long run because my focal point isn't shifting as much from center to edges.


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## PlayboyJoeShmoe (Oct 24, 2004)

My eyes can't really tell as much as all you TV Gurus.

All I know with any certainty, is that my some 12 year old RCA 32" that's down (needs repair or replacement - /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif ) was a rearend load better to watch than the 19" Zenith we are using now!

Picture quality doesn't seem THAT bad. But seeing 19" at the same distance as 32" is QUITE different!!!

A buddy of mine bought a Sony Flatscreen some months ago. It came down to that or an RCA that wasn't quite flat. I saw very similar picture quality between the two, and the RCA had nicer audio. It would have been my choice.

I can't afford to go buy a new TV. But if I do, I likely will not pay more for a flat screen.

I really hope my 32" can be fixed, because I REALLY liked that TV!!!


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## mapson (Oct 25, 2004)

Sports in HD looks great, football, baseball, Olympics. Primetime shows in HD looks from ok to great. Non-HD shows on a HD looks better than on a regular tv. That's in my eyes, The digital broadcast no longer shows any "snow", "ghosting", and such, but it does add another issue, kind of pixelation from dropouts due to poor/bad weather.

I have a 7 year 27" Panny I may have to replace soon. When I first turn it on, it has a jumpy or bouncy picture until it warms up. I don't know what's the problem, not a tv expert. Anyway, if it goes, I will either get a 32" regular curved tv or an hdtv depending the cost of the hd. Most hd tvs in the 30"-36" range are monitors that will require a receiver, a few are built-in.


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## geepondy (Oct 25, 2004)

One reason I am not yet going to invest in HDTV is that it would require me to buy a $60/month cable package to jump into a service that provides it. I wonder if satellite TV owners are penalized as well? I'm going to buy a cheap 27" $200-250 range that will hold me for a couple/few years when HDTV prices become more reasonable. I know the HDTV prices themselves have dropped tremendously in the past couple years, maybe the cable service will follow? (yeah, right)


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## Datasaurusrex (Oct 25, 2004)

Well you guys are a wealth of information! Thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think I'll just go with a curved screen that has a comb filter. I'm not tech crazy, so I can wait for a HDTV untill they come way down in price.


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## PlayboyJoeShmoe (Oct 25, 2004)

Oh yeah! I'm reminded of something...

My 32" RCA has a video entry mode that DOES present a clearer picture on DSS or DVD. Not enough clearer that I ALWAYS used it, but noticeable.

In an incedibly bad turn of luck, my Dads 27" Magnavox PIP has wigged out in coloration. It's purple in the middle with bright yellow edges. EEK! That'll need replacing before anything happens to my stuff.


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## PlayboyJoeShmoe (Oct 26, 2004)

In an almost unbelieveable turn of events, Dad's Magnavox has gotten better again...

What in the heck can happen to do that???


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## tylerdurden (Oct 26, 2004)

Sounds like it needed a degauss maybe. Do TVs auto-degauss?


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## thesurefire (Oct 26, 2004)

[ QUOTE ]
*PlayboyJoeShmoe said:*
In an almost unbelieveable turn of events, Dad's Magnavox has gotten better again...

What in the heck can happen to do that??? 

[/ QUOTE ]

an electrical strom?


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## PlayboyJoeShmoe (Oct 27, 2004)

All I know is that within the limitations of cable runs and splitters, it has a picture as good as ever again.

And it looked HOKEY a couple days ago!

Thanks!


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