I would love some advice here, I've been looking for similar topics but I don't know of how much help they would be to me.

I'm looking for a tube-style (no Plasma, no LCD) TV with flat screen... around 25"-30" - mostly (if not entirely) for console gaming. Any suggestions? I've been having sore luck, every model I seem to find seems to have some purported flaw or other (the screen on the KV-27FS120 SONY is slightly curved, there are unintentional lines in the Samsung slim-fit, etc.)  Its hard not to feel a bit paranoid about all the choices!

Anyway, does anybody have any suggestions?  My greatest appreciations would go to you!

Have you looked into Panasonic televisions?  I have an older model Panasonic flat screen CRT-style TV (called Tau) and it has sharp visuals while having a flat screen.

The one that I had before I picked up my HDTV was the 27" Toshiba 27AF43.  Before that, I had a 27" Sony Wega that I ended up returning within a month due to this loud, high-pitched whine that would erupt from the set after it got warmed up.  When the repairman came out to try and fix it, he said that Sonys tend to have more problems than other brands, and recommended Toshiba since they either (a) don't have problems, and (b) have problems that are easy to fix.  This particular Toshiba also had 16:9 mode, which I very much wanted for playing Beatmania IIDX in arcade mode at home (which was the primary reason I had gotten the Wega before).  It has one component, one S-video, and two composite connectors (one in the front), so if you have multiple systems with different inputs, you'd need a switch of some kind.

Stephen's Panasonic recommendation is also worthwhile.  My earlier TV was a Panasonic, and I loved it.  The Tau line does have impressive visuals.  As usual, though, check the product specs and reviews online before making a commitment to make sure you get what you need.

I liked my TV quite a bit, but ended up getting a little fed up with the focus on the left and right sides of the screen.  Just due to the nature of flat-screen CRTs, the image on the left and right edges of the TV is going to be less in focus than in the center.  An easy way to demonstrate this is to turn on a channel with a ticker at the bottom of the screen (CNN, ESPN, CNBC when the stock market is open, etc.), and watch the  text go from slightly blurry on the right to focused in the center to slightly blurry again on the left.  On text-heavy games, this really started getting to me.  This hasn't been a problem with my LCD.

Why no interest in LCD or Plasma?  Just out to try and minimize the price?

try looking in the classifieds of your largest newspaper, there are usually people trying to get rid of 5-10 year old tvs for dirt cheap, because they just bought a supersize one and the garbage wont pick up their old one cause its got haz in it...

Thanks for the recommendations guys.  Unfortunetly I'm not having much luck at the big stores here - thier selection is pretty limited (and doesnt' include Panasonics or Toshibas.)  I probably will be scouring the classifieds soon at this rate.  To be honest I wouldn't even mind looking off the Internet, despite the high freight charges...

"Why no interest in LCD or Plasma?  Just out to try and minimize the price?"

Thats a big part of it, without a doubt.  But another thing, and maybe this is just my experience and you can correct me?  I tried hooking my N64 or Playstation (don't remember which) to a LCD TV a while ago, and it looked pretty bad - much more pixelated then it should have.  My friend, whose TV it was, said it had to do with the higher resolution of HD-compatible TVs (which I understand LCDs and Plasmas all have) exposing flaws that normally aren't evident in lower-resolution non-HD TVs.

Actually, I'm concerned how my older systems and games appear on newer TV's as well. I'm not really interested in purchasing a next generation console but I'm sure I'll eventually have to buy a new TV at some point in time. Still, I want the older stuff I play to look good.

Well, I have a PS3 hooked up using HDMI cables to a 720p/1080i 37in LCD HDTV, and it didn't hurt the PS2 games at all.  I popped in Klonoa and it plays at 480p and it looks good, although it is showing its age.  I don't think the PS3 does anything special to older games like the 360 (which I have hooked up using VGA to the tv) supposedly does the Xbox games.  As for N64 games, as well as various NES, SNES, TG16, and Genesis games, all I have are those I DLed for the Wii Virtual Console which only outputs at 480p over component cables and they look fine too.

I'm guessing you used standard a/v cables when you hooked them up to his tv?  That would explain it.  480i is just ugly and even s-video for my cable box on the 26in 720p/1080i LCD I had just was horrendous.  Perhaps someone else on here with with those older systems and an LCD or Plasma can step forward and tell their experience.

^^ You get what you pay for. A good HDTV will still handle non HD material well. A crappy TV won't.

You're giving the right advice as far as connect via component or HDMI/DVI as available.

I always tell people: Try to demo the TVs you're interested in like this:

Take a game system and/or DVD player with you to the store and test material that you're intimately familliar with. If a store doesn't let you do this, they shouldn't get your business.

Make sure you take said TV out of "torch mode" which a lot of these stores like to do to make sure it's real bright on the show floor. Take a moment to bring the settings down to Earth.

Tubes stil give the best picture quality for the least amount of money but they take up more space. If you have the space, CRT is still king.

You get what you pay for in the LCD/Plasma TV arena right now.  Consumer Reports did an annual review of these TVs, and that's one of the the general observations they noted.  The higher-end models tended to have better visuals for HD and non-HD content.  Since you're trying to save money, you probably don't want to buy LCDs/Plasma TVs just yet.

Most big retailers are shrinking their shelf space of CRT TVs to make room for LCD/Plasma TVs, so it is getting harder to find them in stores.  The internet retailres or classifieds are your best bets at this point.

Hey, sorry for the delay in reply.  I was able to find a Samsung CRT in the (admittingly dwindling) section of CRTs at Best Buy a few days ago and per advice, I did bring in a spare PS2 (yes, I have spare PS2s... ) to try it out.  It looked very nice, they're sold out now but it should be available in a few days.  I'm crossing my fingers hoping I don't get some sort of defective model.

I also got the chance to hook up an older system (PSone, this time) to another LCD TV, and once again, it just seemed much more pixelatedthen I'm used to.  I mean, perhaps it was that I haven't played the game (MGS Integral) in a long time, or that all the LCD TVs I manage to come into contact with are cheap - but I don't know.  I guess since I don't watch any proper television (or even movies really) anyway, and am probably not going to be buying any of these new-fangled consoles, worrying about LCD/Plasma is probably just not something I should ever be concerned with.

The sharp image qualities of recent TVs/Plasmas/LCDs will cause some images to appear pixelated.  That's because theold games were designed for low-resolution TVs.  The low resolution "hid" the pixelations that are now more apparent.

Thats what I've been told... lovely how new technology works, eh?  Anyway, I just realised an additional benefit of getting a new TV, I can keep my old TV for TATE games!!

Just got a Toshiba TV today, after returning the Samsung yesterday because it was misadvertised as having an S-video input (it does not, and how do you get that wrong??)

One question for the pros here, how long should the break in (non-gaming period, I guess) be?  Is that even something to worry about with a standard CRT?  I currently have it rerunning the movie Chicago (about four hours now) but I'm dying to hook up a console to it!

You have to break-in a tv before playing games on it?  That's news to me... why?

I don't know   I've read it online... it seems to only apply to Plasma TVs though?  So who knows, I mean, thats why I ask!

Plasmas today should not have burn-in problems any more, but if you wanted to play it extra-safe, you could spend the first 100 hours or so looping a DVD with lots of action and changing colors.  After that, you should be good to go.  There may be image retention after long sessions of games with relatively fixed backgrounds (IIDX, PnM, etc.), but these should go away if you watch TV for a few minutes.

LCDs and CRTs should not require any conditioning before launching into full-scale gaming.

I didn't have to break in my HD CRT TV when I first got it, but I did have to clean off the screen a few times after seeing Tomb Raider Legend in action.

"I didn't have to break in my HD CRT TV when I first got it, but I did have to clean off the screen a few times after seeing Tomb Raider Legend in action."

Thanks for all your assistance guys... its been a great help!