Tv-loution

[cube_b3]

Man a lot has changed with this technology, I still have a functional 35 year old wooden Sony Television at my uncle's house and I am really interested in this subject (the change of television).

I have been reading up but it is a lot of technical jibberish, but here are my list of questions if anyone with the knowledge would want to lend me a hand.

What is the best good old fashioned CRT Television (since the dc lightgun doesn't work with LCD/PLASMA)

Which is better LCD or Plasma?

What other types of tv exist other than CRT, LCD & Plasma?

What tv consumes the most electricity?

What is the worst for eye sight (I assume CRT?)

Is there a simple explanation to the function of Cathodic Ray Tube?

What is the difference between i and p, I know that one is interlaced and the other is progressive or pixel.

Do the old TV's also have the resolution thing?

Why are television's no longer square, why do they have to be wide screen or 16:9, what was wrong with 4:3?

Any other fun and easily comprehensible technical stuff I need to know to make an upgrade?

[mankrip]

About the lightguns, I guess they work with CRT VGA monitors. CRT monitors for computers will always have better image quality than CRT TVs, and these monitors are pretty cheap nowadays.

[Quzar]

Man a lot has changed with this technology, I still have a functional 35 year old wooden Sony Television at my uncle's house and I am really interested in this subject (the change of television).

I have been reading up but it is a lot of technical jibberish, but here are my list of questions if anyone with the knowledge would want to lend me a hand.

What is the best good old fashioned CRT Television (since the dc lightgun doesn't work with LCD/PLASMA)

I've seen a lot written about various late model Sony Trinitrons and PVM monitors as being the best CRTs out there.

Which is better LCD or Plasma?

Plasma in many/most circumstances. Plasma TVs tend to have better contrast ratios (darker blacks and brighter whites), more rich colors, and can be made larger (consumer models go over 100in).

What other types of tv exist other than CRT, LCD & Plasma?

SED and Laser come to mind. There are also LED TVs but those are generally limited (most TVs that call themselves 'LED' TVs are simply LCDs that use LEDs for backlight. There is also the granddaddy of them all: mechanical television.

What tv consumes the most electricity?

It all depends on size and brightness, but Plasma TVs are generally considered to be the most power hungry.

Is there a simple explanation to the function of Cathodic Ray Tube?

No. It's a very complex piece of technology.

What is the difference between i and p, I know that one is interlaced and the other is progressive or pixel.

Imagine taking every line on a screen and numbering it in sequence. With interlaced, every time the screen is updated, only the even or odd lines are updated. With progressive, all lines are updated simultaneously. The whole point of this was to be able to have a high refresh rate and resolution with low bandwidth (it requires half that of progressive). Interlaced video can be suceptible to a number of odd visual effects in certain situations and is generally just worse than progressive. Most broadcast HDTV in the US is still interlaced: 1080i, and it's often considered a tossup as to wheter it is better or worse than 720p.

Do the old TV's also have the resolution thing?

Yes and no. While analog TV has a fixed, definable number of lines it can display, the vertical information is analog and as such doesn't have specific discrete horizonal measurements. It is however constrained by the update frequency and availible video signal inputs. It's not something that can be measured accurately or concretely.

Why are television's no longer square, why do they have to be wide screen or 16:9, what was wrong with 4:3?

Widescreen better represents the way in which people tend to see. Also, movies have been in widescreen since the advent of the television (in order to make them still desireable) and it makes sense to have displays that can play back movies without wasting a lot of the screen or tossing most of the frame out.

[Eviltaco64X]

What is the best good old fashioned CRT Television (since the dc lightgun doesn't work with LCD/PLASMA)

Well, there's two answers for this question.

Most argue that the best HD CRT is:

The 34" Sony Trinitron/WEGA KV-34XBR960

It's known for it's very accurate representation of darker colors, it's Super Fine Pitch tube (a proprietary Sony tube that enhanced picture quality and resolution further), and it's numerous inputs (rf, composite, s-video, component, hdmi, cable card, i-link, memory stick, etc.) It's also one of the only HD CRTs that supports 720p (iirc most only do 480p and 1080i).

Some of these TVs are known to be unreliable, though. From what I've read on a/v enthusiast websites, they were originally manufactured in Pennsylvania, US with more rigorous production guidelines. Eventually, production was moved down to Mexico where the guidelines were a little more lax. These later ones are known to have a few issues.

Despite it's few problems, though, it's been known to produce one of the best pictures around after a proper calibration job. It's rivaled by the 38" Loewe Anaconda HD CRT and the higher-end Pioneer Kuro Plasma HDTVs.

Unfortunately, most HD CRTs are incompatible with light guns (I believe it's because of a higher refresh rate?), so your best bet then would be a late-model Trinitron/WEGA SDTV with component input as Quzar mentioned.

It sucks that production of CRTs has been reduced to the very high-end and the very low-end due to consumer demand for thinner TVs. Thanks to the low demand, however, a lot of these high-quality, late model Trinitrons and HD CRTs can be found for a song on Craigslist and eBay.

EDIT: Another TV I've heard many great things about is the Mitsubishi LaserVue. It uses laser technology to create an incredible picture and consumes little power in comparison to LCDs and plasmas. The only downfall is that it's very expensive (usually in the $4000-$6000 price range).

[cube_b3]

About the lightguns, I guess they work with CRT VGA monitors. CRT monitors for computers will always have better image quality than CRT TVs, and these monitors are pretty cheap nowadays.

Yeah I got myself two 21" CRT Monitor (black and white), I don't quite understand all the technical stuff but I think I know that it would have higher resolution with the VGA Box and the games should look best on it.

Dreamcast games were all stretched and weird on my 50" HD LCD capable of 720p/1080i.
________________
@Quzar: Thank you for all your insights, they were quite fun to read.
________________
Eviltaco64X: You gave me hope and took it away in the same post, the idea of hooking up my Dreamcast to a 32" tv :markdance:, but no light gun support is a bummer.

Damn it if Sega only released the guns like the wii.

[Ex-Cyber]

Is there a simple explanation to the function of Cathodic Ray Tube?

Depends on your definition of "simple". You don't need an EE degree or anything, but you do really need some fundamental physics knowledge (at least Newton's second law and electric fields) to get a sense of how it works.

[Christuserloeser]

Most broadcast HDTV in the US is still interlaced: 1080i, and it's often considered a tossup as to wheter it is better or worse than 720p.

Mathematically there's no contest as 720p distributes more information. 1080i transmits the same information as 540p, but isn't even compatible with any modern TV (as it has to be deinterlaced).

[Eviltaco64X]

Most broadcast HDTV in the US is still interlaced: 1080i, and it's often considered a tossup as to wheter it is better or worse than 720p.

Mathematically there's no contest as 720p distributes more information. 1080i transmits the same information as 540p, but isn't even compatible with any modern TV (as it has to be deinterlaced).

Of course, on paper, 720p is superior to 1080i. You can't necessarily say that it's inferior to 720p, though. I believe it's subjective.

1080i doesn't look too good on LCDs from what I've seen. Of course, most of them have a native resolution of either 720p or 1080p, so any other option may look kind of shitty.

With an HD CRT, though, all resolutions run natively. That's the beauty of them (excellent compatibility).

[Quzar]

Most broadcast HDTV in the US is still interlaced: 1080i, and it's often considered a tossup as to whether it is better or worse than 720p.

Mathematically there's no contest as 720p distributes more information. 1080i transmits the same information as 540p, but isn't even compatible with any modern TV (as it has to be deinterlaced).

Of course, on paper, 720p is superior to 1080i. You can't necessarily say that it's inferior to 720p, though. I believe it's subjective.

1080i doesn't look too good on LCDs from what I've seen. Of course, most of them have a native resolution of either 720p or 1080p, so any other option may look kind of shitty.

With an HD CRT, though, all resolutions run natively. That's the beauty of them (excellent compatibility).

Perhaps I missed adding the qualifier 'looks' 'there is debate to which one looks better'. Since humans don't have 16:9 30Hz 720p CCDs for eyes (and not all TVs are created the same) 1080i can look higher quality than 720p material.

On a more practical note if we were using 100% uncompressed video and both could easily be transmitted 720p could be superior (even then you might have debate for some displays). The problem is that all broadcast video is compressed and there is a fixed amount of bandwidth availible to transmit the A/V streams. If you have to compress the 720p video significantly more than the 1080i, much of that 'mathematical' advantage dries up quickly.

To say that 1080i 'transmits the same information as 540p' is somewhere between egregiously glossing over the differences between interlaced and progressive video, and a straight up lie. Consider the following: 'a 960x540 32bit color image transmits the same information as a 1920x1080 8bit greyscale' or maybe even 'a 3.5mb mp3 audiobook transmits the same information as a 3.5mb eBook'. In both cases what is the same is the amount of data used to represent the information. The whole point of interlaced video is allowing for a greater amount of information to be transmitted with the same amount of data by taking advantage of the way the rest of the factors (the display and human eye) work.

[Lartrak]

Widescreen better represents the way in which people tend to see. Also, movies have been in widescreen since the advent of the television (in order to make them still desireable) and it makes sense to have displays that can play back movies without wasting a lot of the screen or tossing most of the frame out.

To add to this, they came up with 16:9 as an average of various different aspect ratios. If it was strictly for feature films, it'd probably be around 2.33:1 or 2:35 to one, which today is the most common overall ratio. But, of course, many films (particularly comedies and such) are at around 1.85:1. Basically, 16:9 is a compromise allowing 4:3 to be shown and 2.35:1 to be shown with neither losing huge amounts of real estate (compare it to the amount lost when watching 2.35:1 letter boxed on a 4:3 TV).

Also, for me personally, 720P is better than 1080I because interlacing artifacts suck really a lot sometimes.

[Christuserloeser]

and a straight up lie

[cube_b3]

Is there a simple explanation to the function of Cathodic Ray Tube?

No. It's a very complex piece of technology.

What is the difference between i and p, I know that one is interlaced and the other is progressive or pixel.

Imagine taking every line on a screen and numbering it in sequence. With interlaced, every time the screen is updated, only the even or odd lines are updated. With progressive, all lines are updated simultaneously. The whole point of this was to be able to have a high refresh rate and resolution with low bandwidth (it requires half that of progressive). Interlaced video can be suceptible to a number of odd visual effects in certain situations and is generally just worse than progressive. Most broadcast HDTV in the US is still interlaced: 1080i, and it's often considered a tossup as to wheter it is better or worse than 720p.

So what role do Pixels play cause I thought p stoof for pixels?

Also what is the maximum/Minimum HD resolution?

My guess is 1024 x 768 Minimum
and 1920 x 1280 should be maximum (that is how high my lcd goes)

Now this is a bit off-topic but the major thing that Bleemcast did was take Playstation 1

320X240 games to 640 x 480?

[not just souLLy now]

So what role do Pixels play cause I thought p stoof for pixels?

i = Interlaced
p = Progressive Scan

[Eviltaco64X]

Is there a simple explanation to the function of Cathodic Ray Tube?

No. It's a very complex piece of technology.

What is the difference between i and p, I know that one is interlaced and the other is progressive or pixel.

Imagine taking every line on a screen and numbering it in sequence. With interlaced, every time the screen is updated, only the even or odd lines are updated. With progressive, all lines are updated simultaneously. The whole point of this was to be able to have a high refresh rate and resolution with low bandwidth (it requires half that of progressive). Interlaced video can be suceptible to a number of odd visual effects in certain situations and is generally just worse than progressive. Most broadcast HDTV in the US is still interlaced: 1080i, and it's often considered a tossup as to wheter it is better or worse than 720p.

So what role do Pixels play cause I thought p stoof for pixels?

Also what is the maximum/Minimum HD resolution?

My guess is 1024 x 768 Minimum
and 1920 x 1280 should be maximum (that is how high my lcd goes)

Now this is a bit off-topic but the major thing that Bleemcast did was take Playstation 1

320X240 games to 640 x 480?

The 'p' stands for progressive scan. The difference between the two is that progressive is a full image while interlaced is a series of black lines and lines that form the picture itself. These lines flash back and forth at a fast enough rate that it tricks the human eye into thinking it's a full picture (as Quzar mentioned).

720p (or XGA/1024x768 for monitors) is generally regarded as the minimum requirement for HD. The highest resolution TVs of these times broadcast in 1080p (or 1920x1080), but there are experimental forms of high definition such as QSXGA (2560x2048) and WQXGA (2560x1600). Below this is 480p, which is regarded as EDTV (or "Enhanced Definition TV").

I believe Bleemcast did enhance games. That emulator was a technological miracle:

[Christuserloeser]

Edit: Didn't notice above replies.

So what role do Pixels play cause I thought p stoof for pixels?

i (interlaced) / p (progressive) are indicators for the way the picture is broadcast/transmitted/displayed.

480i and 480p as well as 1080i and 1080p use the exact same resolution for the source image but 480i and 1080i provide only half of that information to your TV (240 alternating lines every other frame, resp. 540 alternating lines every other frame).

Also what is the maximum/Minimum HD resolution?

The industry seems to have settled with 720p and 1080i for the "HD Ready" TV standard (but calls it "HD" if broadcast), and 1080p as "Full HD" (i.e. Blu Ray).

Personally I feel that 480p should have been part of the HD specifications as it is a phenomenal step up from 480i, especially considering that 480i isn't really compatible with (modern) HDTVs.

Now this is a bit off-topic but the major thing that Bleemcast did was take Playstation 1 320X240 games to 640 x 480?

Yes, that's four times the resolution of the PS1. It also applies texture filtering, perspective correction, and other neat things.

Plus it's fully HDTV compatible (via VGA adapter).

[BlackAura]

Is there a simple explanation to the function of Cathodic Ray Tube?

I can have a go at it, but you probably need a decent knowledge of physics to make any sense out of it...

CRTs consist of a large vacuum tube, with a screen on one end, and an electron gun on the other end. The screen is coated with a material which glows when it is struck by electrons. The electron gun emits a stream of electrons toward the screen. Wherever this beam hits the screen, it makes it glow.

Since electrons are charged particles, their movement is affected by magnetic fields. You can steer the electrons using electromagnets, and hit any point on the screen.

A TV produces a picture by scanning the electron beam across the screen. It draws lines from left to right, and covers the whole screen starting at the top, and moving down. On an NTSC TV, it scans the entire screen 60 times a second. It draws the picture by varying the intensity of the electron beam. More electrons make the screen glow brighter, while fewer electrons make it glow dimmer.

To get colour, the screen is broken up into separate cells (basically, pixels). Each cell is coated with a material that either glows red, green, or blue when hit by the electron beam. At the back, you have three electron guns, one corresponding to each colour. A filter is placed behind the screen that ensures each electron beam only hits one coloured cell.

Plasmas and LCDs are completely different.

[DanteJay]

@BlackAura

Very nice explanation of the CRT.

[Christuserloeser]

Yeah, even I understood that

[cube_b3]

Okay last question and a very simple one High Definition Tv's have more pixels right?

Is this guy wrong or right?
http://ciklife.wordpress.com/2010/04/06 ... condensed/

He is basically saying that 720p is 720 pixels per line, do read please.

[Ex-Cyber]

720/1080 refers to the number of lines, not pixels per line. The standard HD resolutions for ATSC are 1280x720 for 720p (though many 720p HDTVs actually use a 1366x768 panel) and 1920x1080. I don't know if standard resolutions are defined for other standards (DVB family, etc.).