CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

JCP

Hi there, I think I have, more or less, the european equivalent of the Toshiba 34HD82 or the 34HDX82 models. It's the 36ZP48. The tube is the same and it has a component input which sort of accepts 1080i. I say sort of because I tried with a VGA to component transcoder connected to my PC and 1280x1080i works, but the image is a bit too big. Not double size though, and it can be tweaked on service menu, but I still haven't tried that. So, keeping in mind the the horizontal resolution on the american models was advertised as "1000 lines of horizontal resolution" or something like that, and that my own tests with test patterns more or less confirm that above 1000 lines the tube can't resolve it (the vertical resolution of 1080i is achieved though, but the flicker is kind of disturbing on PAL frequency signals (50Hz), 60Hz is ok and completely acceptable) , do you guys think it's worth it to get an HDFury2 for it ? I mean, it might be expensive but the contrast and black level on these tubes is something I won't find in any cheaper LCD or even expensive for that matter.
It's seems like everyone is jumping in HD ready sets (some selling high end CRTs for nothing in the process!), plenty of them are crappy LCD's with abominal black level and inferior color rendering. But the resolution is higher and I don't know if I'll even be able to get my set to be on par with the US models on HD, even though like I said the tube is the same. Some reports say some devices that output 1080i though component don't work, but I doubt the accuracy of them because for one I managed that res with my VGA to component transcoder and secondly because nowdays plenty devices have HDCP, which is probably stopping the devices from sending the signal in the 1st place.

Thanks in advance for your comments
José

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:59 am Post subject:

Hi José,
Welcome to the forum.

You are right about the great black levels and color rendition of the CRT. Also don't get too hung up on resolution. It's not everything. I like the 3D look of CRT over LCD with their grey blacks any day.

To get your PC to send a 1080i signal you may need to get powerstrip. http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm
Some video drivers have this built in too.

Adding an HDFury2 to your set will be a good upgrade as many of the newer sources ( PS3, Bluray etc...) have poor quality component outputs. Upgrade your CRT it's worth it.

Jeremy