This is the technology created to compensate for the bulkiness and screen size limitations of CRT TV sets. It has a gimmick well know to any magician worthy of his craft: a mirror. CRT rear-projection uses three ray tubes, one for red, one for green, and one for blue, to shoot electron beams unto a mirror at an angle, which reflects the image through a translucent screen. The better the tube’s lens, the higher the color fidelity and image brightness. Analog images can be formed by five to seven-inches tubes; high-def images (720 pixel-quality) need tubes with bigger lenses. The mirror gimmick allows the screens to go over 60 inches in size without the rear bulkiness it would create in a traditional CRT TV set – but it’s still a BIG final product. All rear-projection TVs look like pianos; they’re just like a big piece of furniture. Transport is a big issue: our 1998 57” Toshiba couldn’t enter the elevator and had to come by the stairs over seven floors, held by four men. A later model from Sony had to be discarded since its base couldn’t make a turn from the entrance corridor to the main room. Maintenance is very expensive: the 10 years-old Toshiba model underwent overhaul two times already and we paid a small fortune to get it fixed.

Model example: Panasonic PT-47XD64 (47”)

Strong point

• The bigger screens for the lowest prices.

Weak points

• It’s like a (big) piece of furniture and not a TV set.
• Viewing requires a dark room.
• Small viewing angle.
• High maintenance.
• CRT rear-projection is being dropped over LCD, DLP and LCoS rear-projection (reviewed later).