Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New TV - comments?

A friend of mine just purchased this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051826214597&skuId=5450503&type=product

Any thoughts? How important is it to have any ISF calibration? Will there be that much improvement in the PQ?

Hi Spiffnme,

Since you've become rather discriminating in sound quality, I suspect you might become just as critical of video quality. In that case, ISF alignment will really do wonders for an out-of-the-box rear-projection CRT set, which can be jostled out of proper convergence just by moving it across a room.

It's not quite as important with a fixed-pixel technology like Digital Light Processing (DLP) or an LCD rear-projection, where convergence of three separate projection tubes isn't an issue.

Here are some symptoms of whether you are demanding enough of picture quality to justify whether an ISF alignment is worthwhile:
--Do you readjust (manually) the color and tint and black level controls when you change channels on your current set?
--Does it drive you crazy when you walk into someone's living room and see their TV is horribly misaligned, with too-red skin tones, or no contrast, or poor black levels, etc?
--Do you have an overpowering urge to quickly re-adjust their set for a good picture?
--Do you notice (or care about) significant differences in picture quality, sharpness, contrast, etc. as you change channels and video sources?

If your answer to any of these is "yes," then you should get an ISF guy in to do the setup, especially with a CRT rear-pro set.

Thanks for the tips Alan.

This particular set is a friend of mines. He's not fussy at all. Maybe it'll not be worth his money.

It certainly would be for myself. If I get a CRT set, the ISF guy will be there the very next day. Though to be honest, I couldn't really care less about TV. It's DVD's that I'm REALLY fussy about.

I'm still trying to figure out what TV will be best for me. With everyone going nuts over the new technologies (DLP, LCD, LCoS, Plasma) CRT prices have been dropping like stones. I may very well end up with a big giant CRT box in my place.

I saw that TV today at BestBuy (floor model on sale at $1999). Picture looked as good as anything else and the speakers sounded great for a TV.
That Twinview splitscreen is fantastic for watching two football games at once, but once again I will assert that buying a widescreen now - when HD signals are not commonplace - is unnecessary and unwise. By the time HD signals are ubiquitous, that TV, and every other current-year TV, will be obsolete.
I know most of you aren't buying TVs to watch reruns of I Love Lucy, but if you're going to be watching much TV in the next few years...

An interesting point from personal experience buying a high-def CRT. If you're not satisfied with the picture you achieve by tweaking (using the Avia DVD, for example), a calibration to an acceptable picture should be part of your warranty. It might not get you precisely the picture you're looking for (especially if you can't disable SVM from the user's menu), but you'll be very pleased with the result.