The less expensive 42" Plasma screens are "ED" instead of "HD" (852x480). They still look impressive, but when I've seen them in the store next to a real HD screen the difference is very noticeable due to the larger pixels. Do you have the "HD ready" Gateway 42" (1024x1024)? If so, what do you think of it?

110" NEC CRT Projector. Old technology but shows a great picture. I run 1280X720p via HTPC.

110" NEC CRT Projector. Old technology but shows a great picture. I run 1280X720 via HTPC.

I just got a Sanyo PLV-Z2 projector and I'm totally blown away by it. It projects a beautiful 100" (or bigger) 720p native 16:9 HD image. I really didn't realize how big the difference between HD and SD was until I saw this image, and how any SD just falls apart when you blow it up to small movie screen sizes. Based on my experiences with it so far I would definately recommend getting one of these over a large screen HDTV. (I used to have a 32" Monivision which was very troublesome).
I don't know where else can you get this large an HD Image for just under $2000.

In response to Boyd..
 

..I have the HD ready Gateway 42". I subscribe to Adelphia cable's HDTV service which looks incredible! (Although they only offer 5 channels in HD.)

Paul Mogg,

What happened to the other HDTV you had. Monivision, was it?

heath

Hi Heath,
I may have just had bad luck with the Monivision, but mine kept breaking down. It would run for a week or so, then the picture would just dissapear. It also had a problem with green vertical stripes on the screen when you viewed anything through the component inputs, and also some visible fish-eye effects at the edge of the screen, which seem to be inherent in the design. If you can live with this though, and yours works, it has an excellent picture. I got a full refund, and I have to say that A/V science, who I bought it through, were very good about it, as were Monivision, who gave me three replacement sets before I gave up on it. Now that I'm spoiled by this massive screen that the Sanyo PLV-Z2 gives you, It would be hard to go back to a smaller one, except for editing, it really shows up the inadequacies of SD for large screen projection, which I knew about before, but I could ignore to some extent while working on a small screen.

Too bad about Monivision...Glad you like the new HDTV!

heath

What are our CRT and rear projection options for true 720ps?

>I don't know if it's CRT or projection, but I saw an 80 inch HDTV.

That's a projection. The biggest consumer CRT I know
is the Sony Wega 40" . It's also the best looking picture in my book even though it's 16:9 picture is only 37" in diameter.
If you really want the best picture for about $2000, get the WEGA XBR 40.

BTW, when you have to sit 8-13 feet away for rear projection convergence, the TV no longer appears as big as the specs.

I agree with Paul Mogg. It is all about resolution, which is most noticeable on a large screen. I have an Infocus model 7200 front projector. I am projecting onto an 8-foot wide screen. The projector has the “TI Mustang HD2 DLP projection system” (1280 x 780; 16:9 chip). The picture I see from my HD10 is very comparable to any cable feed HD input I receive. I also think colors are quite natural. But the bottom line is the resolution, which is all about a large screen experience. What I am experiencing is far better on that large screen, than any previous analog or DV input. But this again is totally due to a large screen experience with HD support.

Betsy,
Many of the three CRT projectors are HD capable. Prior to getting the above mentioned projector, I had a GE three crt projector that did indeed resolve HD input from my HD10 camera. However, it was over ten years old and needed at least a couple of new CRT’s. In addition, the maintenance required to keep these three gun unit’s converged and focused is considerable. The newer DLP and LCD single lens sets have come a long way’s in just the last year or so. Although many people claim that CRT projectors are still the ultimate, and they may well be, there performance is highly subject to extreme adjustment requirements.

I have a Mitsubishi 65" rear projection CRT HDTV for about 3 months now. HD pictures on it, 16:9 widescreen DV on DVD, and DVD movies look great. I subscribe to DirecTV with HDNet and HBO HD but there isn't a lot of current content. There are a lot of local channels that broadcast over the air digital and occasional HD, but I haven't tried to put a large directional antenna in my attic yet to complement the DTV.

I looked hard at the 72" Grand Wega, but it was about $5K over my budget...beautiful picture, though. One of my neighbors and colleagues recently acquired the new Sony projector after patiently watching his backorder count down over the last three months. He had nothing to test it with so brought it over to my house so he could see how it looked in HD. We projected onto one of my den walls and it looked really good at about 100" diagonal. It has 3 different brightness/cinema modes and you could really tell a difference in each one. It actually looked pretty good with SD content. I was seriously thinking about getting this or the PLZ-2 but they weren't practical. My wife watches too much TV and she wasn't thrilled about projection. That and the cost of lamps killed them. I have been really satisfied with the Mitsu...PQ is very, very good, and I haven't had it professionally tuned...yet.

<<<-- Originally posted by Thomas Ferlauto : I have an RCA F38310. It is a 38" CRT with built in HD OTA and DirectTV tuners. . -->>>

hee hee... me too... the one people love to hate but hate to love... ;)

dang roll off problem...

<<<-- Originally posted by Leo Divinagracia :

dang roll off problem... -->>>

I've fixed that problem. By "roll off", I assume you mean the barrel roll effect or the pinchushion effect where the image distorts near the edge of the screen. I thought I had to live with it, but it is caused by the internal scaler converting a 480i or 480p picture to 1080i for display. That internal scaler is crap. If you feed this beast a 1080i signal it will look great with no barrel roll! But with only a component input, DVD players that output 1080i are rare. Nevertheless, I found the Momitsu V-880, and it outputs 1080i on component and the PQ is great.

Once I get my HD-Tivo outputting 1080i, Everything on this set will be 1080i and will look awesome.

<<<-- Originally posted by Thomas Ferlauto : <<<-- Originally posted by Leo Divinagracia :

dang roll off problem... -->>>

I've fixed that problem. By "roll off", I assume you mean the barrel roll effect or the pinchushion effect where the image distorts near the edge of the screen. I thought I had to live with it, but it is caused by the internal scaler converting a 480i or 480p picture to 1080i for display. That internal scaler is crap. If you feed this beast a 1080i signal it will look great with no barrel roll! But with only a component input, DVD players that output 1080i are rare. Nevertheless, I found the Momitsu V-880, and it outputs 1080i on component and the PQ is great.

Once I get my HD-Tivo outputting 1080i, Everything on this set will be 1080i and will look awesome. -->>>

unfortunately, i got the thing about 4 years ago and i got a p-scan dvd player which was just horrible...

until 2 week later and i hooked up an old antenna that was kinda dying but i saw SHAVING PRIVATE RYAN on ABC on memorial day weekend and was just blown away...