My WII Play

Is it worth replacing my faithful 28″ CRT with an LCD HD Ready tv?

I’d like to save some space in my living room so am tempted to finally get one of these flat LCD tv’s. What puts me off is when I see these LCD tv’s in shops the picture quality looks crap – except when they’re demonstrating HD movies.

Also I’ve heard a whole host of things are wrong with LCD tv’s:

Inferior sound quality (less space for speakers than there was in CRT tv’s)

Fast moving images blur

Slow update time (apparently this is a problem when playing the guitar hero drums)

Blacks aren’t really black

Higher power consumption

I only really use my TV for watching DVD movies, playing wii games, and normal tv (I’m not going to subscribe to HD nor buy a blu-ray player).

Is it worth ‘upgrading’?

I would say it’s not worth it. It is true that many people who have bought LCD TVs are disappointed with the picture quality. The polarized fluorescent backlighting can cause distortion of colors as well as narrower viewing angles (people watching off-axis, off to the side, may not see the image correctly), and the liquid crystals cause a slow response time which results in motion blur, as well as the inability to display true black. Furthermore, content not at the TV’s native resolution must be scaled, which can cause further distortion and artifacts on the screen–you can’t create something out of nothing.

If you do not plan on upgrading to high-definition cable service, I’d say there is no reason to get one. Any improvement in picture quality on DVDs and Wii due to progressive scan will be countered by the aforementioned reduced contrast and motion blur. CRT provides by far the best standard-definition picture quality.

Nintendo’s E3 2006 press conference