Sony KD-34XBR960 CRT TV

By Scott Wilkinson • Posted: Jun 14, 2011

Do the current high-end and mid-range LCD, LED, or plasma TVs equal the picture quality of Sony's KD-34XBR960 CRT TV?

Dave Butler

That particular model is beloved by many videophiles, and with good reason—it looks fabulous. One big reason for this is its deep, inky black level, which has never been equaled by any consumer-grade flat panel other than the late, great Pioneer Kuro plasma. LCD TVs with LED backlighting or edgelighting can achieve a comparable black level when displaying a flat black field, and the few with LED backlighting can get pretty close on real program material, but they have other problems, such as halos around bright objects on a dark background.

Otherwise, many modern flat panels, especially high-end models, can hold their own in terms of color accuracy and resolution—heck, the KD-34XBR960 has a horizontal resolution of "only" 1400 lines, not 1920 as in most current flat panels. Granted, LCDs exhibit motion blur, and the fix of frame interpolation causes the dreaded "soap-opera effect," but plasmas have no such problems to begin with.

Also, the Sony can only accept 720p and 1080i high-def signals, and it displays everything at 1080i, so interlace artifacts might intrude, and it can't avoid 3:2 pulldown on 24fps movies, making this content appear somewhat jerky. Finally, its screen measures only 34 inches diagonally, which is too small to be considered a true home-theater display, though smaller screens do tend to hide any problems in the picture. And at nearly 200 pounds, I sure wouldn't want to lift it into place!

If you have an A/V question, please send it to askscottwilkinson@gmail.com.

Comments

Submitted by uavK.Reid on June 14, 2011 - 4:20pm.

David addressed this issue June 30, 2010, on Home Theater Magazines site: http://www.hometheater.com/content/crt-upgrade-3d-pjs-best-connections

To quote an excerpt from him:
"Bottom line: I don't know of any current flat panel that can match the overall picture quality of the 960 (as long as you keep it calibrated). However, it's really too small to be considered a true "home theater" display. It's a coveted model among enthusiasts, so you can probably sell it, but I suspect you wouldn't get more than maybe $1000 for it, which is actually quite good for a CRT TV these days. If it were me, I'd put it in a secondary room

Submitted by dnoonie on June 14, 2011 - 9:35pm.

I must agree with the authors thoughts. I owned the Sony unit and hard a hard time replacing it. Finely Pioneer came out with the Kuro line, I purchased one in '08. I still visit my Sony that I sold to a buddy and it still has some fine points, he claims it's sharper, I told him to sit as close to the Sony as he had to to have the larger Kuro fill the same field of vision. The last time we watched a movie on the Kuro I had upgraded to the OPPO 93, now he's thinking my larger Kuro looks real good.

CRTs still have many strong points, but I'm very happy with the Kuro, I hope it lasts till OLED becomes affordable because I don't know what I'd replace the Kuro with.

Happy viewing!!

Submitted by loop7 on June 15, 2011 - 2:47pm.

I always miss the WEGA when viewing SD content.

Submitted by uavK.Reid on June 15, 2011 - 12:09pm.

I have hope for OLED as well if the manufacturers can get their acts together. I really wish I would have brought the 60in Elite by Pioneer, but I would not have thought at the time that they would stop producing reference caliber flat screens.

I am just not satisfied with the overall picture quality that this new generation of plasmas and especially LCD/LED flat panels are providing...especially LCD/LED.

Submitted by gunhed on June 17, 2011 - 9:18pm.

This Sony unit has Cinemotion(TM) Reverse 3-2 Pulldown Technology which eliminates judder. I have the Australian version of course but it did not come with the 24hz mode. If you compare pure picture quality, leaving out the size, it produces a picture better than my Pioneer 9g's simply because there are no motion artifacts, has zero black when no electrons are hitting the phosphors and has no contrast banding which is a problem for PDP's. Because the pioneers have to essentially dither to create varying shades of the same colour there is always that slight posterisation effect with less colours displayed overall. It reminds me of my old Amiga days where dithering was used extensively to cover up for the limited 4096 colour palette. Crt's are just so much smoother as each phosphor element can have an almost limitless intensity depending on the speed of the electrons hitting it. How I wish sony continued with SED which was basically a flat panel crt. Plasma is close but each phosphor can only have a limited intensity variation and it shows ! LCD of couse was never designed for HDTV. Motion, black ... I still love my pioneers of course !

Submitted by Rockit on July 13, 2011 - 7:15pm.

I have always prefered CRTs over any of the new Plasmas or Lcd-Leds.
I am noticing some of the Sonys being sold around where I live for cheap. I bought a Samsung Slimfit 30" widescreen and it failed after only 3 years. I also understand there is a lawsuit against Samsung for price fixing and using defective componets.

But my question is this: Is this specific TV model the only one to look for or did they make other sizes and model numbers that compare to the one pictured here. The one I have called on is listed as a "Sony FD Trinitron WEGA KV-36HS420 hi def. TV. 36 in."

I only use a antenna .. no cable but would like to hook up my computer to it with a HDMI cable.

Thank You For any reply's

STOP. I call FOUL. I read

Submitted by TheGoyWonder on March 17, 2013 - 8:05am.

STOP. I call FOUL. I read glowing accounts of the XBR/trinitron tubes so I got almost this exact TV (34xbr800) at a thrift store for $50, thinking I had "beat the system" and saved hundreds on HDTV, while also owning a piece of history and conversation piece. FALSE. This misinformation can still cause people a lot of trouble.

The 1080i resolution is lies. I hooked up my computer and it saw SONY TV and chose the exact right resolution settings (1080x1920, interlaced, 59.whatever Hz). Still looked like garbage. I could read text just barely enough to find what I planned to watch. Pictures were pretty, but not super accurate. Also red-heavy, and I couldn't quite iron that out in normal menus. So why the myth that this looks good? Maybe a tv will TEND to look good if you paid $2000 for it new!

I would have just lived with it but it died...can you be suprised? There are 3-4 motherboards worth of 10 year old electronic junk inside, and operating at a staggering range of voltages right next to each other...it's a miracle if it DOES work! Take the chance of a 10 year old motherboard working, to the third or fourth power, and that's the chance of this beast working. And NOBODY will want to fix it for you...just get yourself a modern plasma.

Bad Call Goy

Submitted by Dictator Nick on March 30, 2013 - 1:45pm.

GoyWonder....I can understand your frusturation, but a little research could have saved you $50. Sony used to use the term "Super Fine Pitch" to describe their premium, and by far most detailed Hi-Def CRT's. The 34XBR960 is a Super Fine Pitch set. The 34XBR800 is not.

However I agree with your other point. There really is no excuse for the processors dying after just ten years, especially in a Sony product.