A client asked me if he could get a HD ready set that was 4:3. I assumed 16:9 was all that was available but it never occurred to me until he asked.

What's out there?
=Tom

The 36 and the 40 inch XBR Wegas from Sony will display an HD signal, and they are both 4:3. I think they squeeze the scan lines to fit into the 16:9 format, but I'm not positive. They can get away with this because they use an apperature grill instead of a shadow mask inside their CRT.

There are other things out there too, but you have to ask yourself this question. If you are putting your 16:9 rectangular image inside a 4:3 (near)square TV, and your TV scans 1080i. How many of those scan lines will you actually see with the top and bottom third of the picture masked? 712i?

Mit's used to make 2. a 50" and a 60" but they've been discontinued.

My boss loaded up on them before the warehouse was empty... about $1600, and $2000

not bad, but I'd rather just stretch the pic.

Don't get one. If it still works in ten years, you'll be sorry.

Well... 40" Sony XBT goes for around $2500. 34" SOny XBR goes for about $2500...

Hmm... 16:9 ratio is almost identical on both sets.

But you get 40" for your 4:3.

Sounds reasonable to me...

THere were a lot of Big screen crossover sets for a while, but I believe they are all gone now... Maybe some off brand manufacturers still, but no mainstreem.

I have the Sony KP-53HS30. It is a HD ready 53 inch 4:3 TV. It letterboxes for HD. I like the set alot. HD looks great and SD signals look MUCH better on it than streched out on our 57" 16:9 set. There is also a 65" version. I just checked Sony's web site and did not see it, so they may have discontinued it. It is still available in stores and distributors may still have some as well.

I should have mentioned that he is interested in a 32-36" TV. Sounds like most of these are larger. Thanks for all the replies!

check Toshiba.

SONY! I hate the company, but the trinitron picture tube is not beatable.

Sony makes 4:3 Hd ready tubes in 32, 36, and 40" Variations.

My parents have a Philips RPTV (61" I think) that is in 4:3. I don't know why you would want one though. Pretty much all DVD's are available in 16:9, and the HD channels are all in 16:9. If they are worried about burn in of the vertical lines on standard TV, most 16:9 TV's have a zoom feature that cuts off the top and bottom of the 4:3 picture to make it appear widescreen without stretching the picture. Most of the time the zoom doesn't loose to much relevant info. (Sometimes the scrolling marquee on CNN or one of the other news channels.) Also, they could go with DLP TV, and not worry about burn in.

Mark

I bought a Samsung TXN2771HF which was the smallest CRT based HDTV in 4:3 I could find. I needed it that small to fit the cabinet I had in my small apartment.

I wasn't satisfied as the Samsung 3100HD (provided to me by my cable company) made any HD broadcast of a show in 4:3 format have bars around all four sides. The video modes on the TV or the Cable box weren't able to compensate for this.

I posted a question about this here:
[Link: remotecentral.com]

Long story short, I would have gone 16X9 to begin with if I had known about this problem. On the upside, SD TV is excellent and my Progressive scan DVD's look great too.

Are you sure that you are watching an HD signal? If it is being broadcast on an HD channel, but in SD resolution, you will have exactly the problem you are describing.

CJ

That's likely what was happening. When I watched the movie channel on HDTV with movies formatted for 16:9, it looked fabulous. But no 4:3 image on HD channels filled the screen.