Tweet
I think Sony CRT TV still have the best picture. The 40" Trinitron Wega with 3d comb filter to me is still unsurpassed for the all around TV experience. Plasma TV's and LCD seem to have latency problems especially with movies that have a lot of action IMHO.
-
-
Interesting observation. Many audio buffs will claim that a tube based amplifier has a "warmer" or "milky" sound when compared to a solid state based amplifier of same power and frequency response. And they are correct.
Tubes operate in a more "linear" fashion than transistors. Thus the signal is pure from input to output, nice clean sine waveforms. In transistors, there is a little bit of noise generated by the semiconductor junction, which is unavoidable. Then along came the FET and MOSFET devices which eliminates the PN and NP junction completely, thus removing all internal noises generated as well as eliminate the junction "leakage". The noise artifacts gets introduced into the signal during amplification, but is very very low in level compared to the signal itself.
However some will swear that the extremely low level noises is what causes the audio to not sound as clean or warm as it would when amplified by a tube amplifier. Inside a tube, there is no connection between the plate, grid, cathodes. Nothing but vacume.
A CRT is a linear device just like the audio tube. And both devices can absorb mismatch loading and still operate, ie a weak CRT will still display a picture but dim/dull and an audio tube still amplify sound but weak. An LCD and Plasma display is a digital device. Unlike a linear device, a digital device is 1 or a 0. There is no middle or linear factor in a 1 and 0. The signal or picture is either there (1) or not (0).
Yes, there is a latency issue with both Plasma and LCD displays during heavy video changes. The primary reason for this, actually two reasons.
1. The switching functions which make the plasma and lcd display work is still not quite fast enough to catch all the action in heavy changes in the video. There are circuits within the digital processing modules to try to compensate for this switching lag. It is exactly the same principle with a program running on a slow speed CPU computer vs a fast one. The program will run "laggy" on the old 486 workhorse and run like a bat out of a box on a 2 gig pc.
2. The plasma and lcd displays incorporate a digital processing module called an "upscaler". This process takes the input signal and scales up the resolution so that it can be properly "fitted" into the viewing diplay. If you have ever played a heavy graphic game on a PC at 800x600 display, then up the resolution to 1024x740 or more and notice the graphics run a bit slower or have some latency, that is what is taking place. You are basically telling the video card to "upscale" the normal size of the graphics to a larger scale, thus the video card, or digital upscaler in the plasma and lcd tv, has to "rebuild" the video in order to properly display it at the higher resolution and do all of this "on the fly" as the video/program is running, all in a fraction of a second.
So the result is slight image delay/pauses during processing and the speed of that processing is not quite fast enough to completely eliminate the delay during the upscaling. But they are getting better. Just like how the PC went from 8mhz CPU to the 2 and 3Ghz CPU, along side the video cards becoming faster, the upscalers in plasma and lcd displays are also getting faster.
Comment
-
lcd monitor
i'm also an electronics engineer.and i would have just chucked it in the bin ages ago but i'm lazy
Comment
-
Funny you should mention tube amps. My music system is an 1960 Scott LC290 Laboratory Amplifier with the matching preamplifier which has a derived 3rd center channel, LL Scott was ahead of his time. It is gold anadoized and looks brand new, original tubes and caps (don't wince they still work). I have it mated to a pair of 1/3 wave tubes I designed and built with an BF20 Pioneer full range speaker. I use a Piezo tweeter so there is no need for a crossover as the piezo makes it's own resistance (until it blows!!!). I have a speaker FS of 29 Hz. which matches the 6.5 length of the tube (a right sided triangle) 14" deep at the base. I use a Miller Kreisel if I need sub frequencies. Tubes are better at non-harmonic distortion IMHO which is why they don't sound so harsssssh as a transistor amp. Not being an engineer this is all supposition on my part and some of what I have read which seems to make sense especially when you consider the non-existent THD in transistor circuits. I love tubes for music. I have a Sony 6.1 reciever for movies. The lack of a crossover in the speakers gives these speakers great imaging, better than speakers I have heard that costs 10 times the price. (they only costs me $200 U.S. to make!!) I love my Sony TV's. I have 3 32" XBR's that I keep. Two for back up since you have to re-sotter the tuners every once in a while (along with the VIF). It'll be a while before I see an LCD (wouldn't buy plasma) that I can watch and enjoy.Comment
-
We also tend to put our own equipment on the back burner when service is needed.....sometimes for years, even if it is just a simple fix!
Ive got a Pioneer RT-1050 open reel deck that works perfectly except for the reel brakes....all they need is a simple re-adjustment.
Its been sitting there for about 22 years looking pretty, just waiting for that re-adjustment.
Comment
-
Definately a keeper! That thing will probably continue to run long, LONG after all of us here have kicked the bucket!
Correct! The internal junction noise generated in a PN or NP device introduces harmonics of not only the noise, but the signal as well. Which is why if you compare the output network of a tube amp and a transistor amp, the transistor amp has more compensating and filtering components than its tube counterpart.
Musicians tend to prefer an amplifier with a tube based output rather than a transistor or FET output because at higher volume levels, the tube simply out performs the solid state in many ways. Clarity, purity and power. Although the amplifier might have solid state circuits in the front end, its the final stage that is important. But there are full tube based amplifiers still being built as well.
Yep, sometimes it just makes sense to stick to what worked in the first place, even if its 40 years old in design!
I have re-soldered a many of those! So many I lost count. It was a very common problem for those units. Mostly because of the EPA's requirement to have the lead content of solder removed, thus making the solder very weak and prone to degridation over a short period of time.
I managed to get a case of lead content solder before they pulled them and I use that exclusively in certian situations where the solder connections are known to go bad. I even touch up other areas that may go bad with the lead core solder.
Comment
-
Wow, a whole case, is that a case of spools? Buddy? Pal? Amigo! What are the 40" WEGA's prone to. I may buy one of them as an interim to a 40" LCD. If is't the usual stuff then no problemo. How has Sony dealt with the sotter problems?Comment
-
Yep, a case of spools, two layers! I have used 3 spools so far. I dont see too many of the tuner/IF units these days. I think the ones that are still working out here have all been soldered so is probably the reason why I dont see any of them come to the shop needing re-soldering!
The only problem I have run into with those is the input processing card that sits right behind the input pannel. It is mounted vertically and sits in a socket. The sockets on both the card and the main board it plugs into can develop some connection problems and cause video to flash in and out.
The day is comming when ALL CRT's will be history!!!! (about time!!!) Those flat screen CRT's are extremely, I mean EXTREMELY heavy! The reason is because of the very high vacume and the flatness of the front requires a very thick section. The 36" has a 6 inch thick front piece. That makes the CRT very front heavy, which requires a very stout tv stand to sit it on. The back of the sets have a strap bracket so it can be secured at the rear of the set so it wont topple forwards and land on the floor face down.
Comment
-
this thread has turned into an electronics lesson and a very good one at that.Comment
-
I was happy you mentioned that rear strap. Their are a lot of children who die in this country from TV's falling on them. The little guys climb up the fron of the TV/ Entertainment centers and the TV's aren't properly strapped down and fall forward onto them. I would hope anyone reading this thread would either strap the back of the TV to the wall or take any measure necessary to to secure the TV from tipping over. I still want that 40" WEGA. Maybe I better get one before they stop production. Do you know if that is coming soon?Comment
-
Thank you for the kind comment discman!
Well I am not sure about other brands and their plans to cease CRT set production, but Sony has already stopped new production on 27" and smaller sets. The 32" and higher, Sony plans to stop new production after this year. So yes the day is comming very quickly and CRT's will fade into history.
The weight factor on those huge CRT's, IMHO, should have been outlawed. They are way too heavy, can and have injured many service technicians changing out the CRT's, and I do remember reading reports about these things seriously injuring or even killing little children. The Sony units are not the only ones tho, RCA, Phillips, Mitsubishi, Magnavox (which is actually a Phillips product) and a few others that made these over-sized boat anchors should have been pulled from the shelves, recalled and refunds issued at the first report of an injury/death. It is not worth having a large viewing screen at the expense/risk of personal injury or worse.
Fortunately the number of instances of injuries and deaths are low compared to the number of units sold, for any brand. But to me, looking at the whole thing from an engineering point of view, the massive CRT is overkill just to watch pictures. But they are impressive making those pictures!
Comment
-
Sony CRT's going, sacrilage. Actually I have never seen a bad Sony tube. I guess you would but not the average TV repair guy. RCA, Phillips, Mitsubishi, Magnavox sucked. The worst are the Magnavox. I really hate those TV's. RCA with all those tuner eeprom problems sucked but I sure made a lot of money off of them. They seemd to always break just after the warranty ran out. Planned obsolescence. Good pay. So I have a year for my WEGA, I better start saving my pennies. Which Sony would you recommend (do they makes LCD's) I've been out of the loop for a while. In the 40" rangeComment
-
Absolutely.
KDF42A10
KDF42EA10
KDF42XBR2
These are all direct LCD pannel units, the latter is Sony's model with multi HDMI inputs and highly improved upscalers for the lower resolution modes and faster CPU's in the LCD driver modules as well as in the upscaler modules. This resolves 99 precent of the "latency" issue we talked about a few posts ago.
Comment
-
I found a lot of KDL's but no KDF's ? Got any recomendations on a retailer? I feel like an idiot, I just found them, I kept coming up with the KDL. Still I always wonder who would be the best to purchase expecially if an extended warranty is available.Last edited by toomanycats; 16 Sep 2006, 05:43 AM.Comment
-
Are these panels Samsung panels? Or are they made to Spec for Sony by Samsung?Comment
Comment