OTHER TECH

CRT Rear-Projection

CRT-based rear-projection HDTVs have the biggest screens you can get for the smallest cash outlay. While their bulkier cabinets and generally duller image quality make them less popular than the somewhat more expensive microdisplays, low price keeps them in the game for now. But microdisplays are getting cheaper by the month, and their many advantages are worth the extra cash unless your budget is just too tight to break.

How It Works Each set has three tubes - one each for red, green, and blue. Each tube has a "gun" consisting of a cathode for emitting electron beams and anodes for accelerating them. The beam within each tube is focused on a small screen, causing phosphors within the screen to glow red, green, or blue. Lenses and mirrors combine the individual colors from the tubes and focus them on the TV's big screen.

Pros •Less expensive than competing technologies. •Reliable. CRTs have been in service for more than 50 years. •Best potential of any technology for deep blacks and clean shadows.

Cons •Big and heavy. •CRT projection sets are subject to errors in keeping the three tubes aligned as well as image retention ("burn-in"). •They don't hold their picture contrast as well as the other technologies in bright rooms and are usually less sharp looking - but with expensive professional adjustment they can look just as sharp as a microdisplay.

Entry Point: $1,000 At press time, BestBuy.com's least-expensive big-screen CRT was a 51-inch RCA for $1,099, while a 65-inch Mitsubishi set was selling for $1,799. Both of these sets provide almost exactly one square inch of screen per dollar, the best ratio among HDTVs I surveyed. But we haven't reviewed any rear-projection CRTs for a while, and with good reason: microdisplays are already more popular than CRT sets, and their smaller cabinets and sharper images are worth the added expense.