Is buying a HD CRT the cheapest way to enter into HD?

Congratulations on getting a great TV at a great price.  As I recall it, the XBR960 picture is excellent.  Your friend is right - video quality was not the reason for ditching CRTs - bulk, size, and low margins were.  In terms of luminance and black level, the CRT is still the winner.  The only negative is that, in order to progressively shrink the depth from front to back, the geometry was relatively compromised.  A pro quality studio CRT was always deeper than it was wide.  Later consumer CRTs fudge the focus in the corners to allow the set to be wider than it is deep.

We had a 32" 1080i Sony CRT display for some time but eventually replaced it with an IPS panel LG- as InnerSpace said, there were some geometry problems that couldn't be adjusted for and we wanted 1080p. Otherwise, the Sony CRT certainly did have better contrast than the LG despite its local dimming tech.

i loved my Sony KV40XBR800 when it was working properly... but more recently it started having problems (streaking, an inability to display black as anything but a dark grey) and about a week ago it died

For me any CRT will top a LCD (except maybe LED), but since I went plasma I never looked back. LCDs lack depth and contrast in comparison, I was really underwhelmed because of that when I first bought a LCD.

Ever since I got my iphone 4, I've been pondering an IPS display to replace my aging CRT. But anything past 23/24" and the cost skyrockets, just doesn't seem worth it right now. :(

CRTs are still good options.  I still use them all the time [SDTV, and a Computer CRT], I even picked up a cheap computer CRT for a secondary video and  gaming monitor (well worth 20 times the price I paid if not more to have a input lag free monitor).  The only problem I can see you running into is if the TV even if it has a DVI input it'll probably not support HDCP.  If you never watch anything that requires you to have HDCP you should never have a problem with it.  Only thing that personally annoys me with TV CRTs is the fact that they all do overscanning which is unacceptable in my opinion.

CRTs for their price is still an amazing technology.  IMO plasma is the clearly superior technology unless we are talking about input lag (compared to CRTs) but as time goes on and the processing technology gets faster the delay will slowly get chipped away until it is gone.  

They probably discontinued the CRTs due to falling sales numbers.  People rather have a light big screen TV that doesn't take up a lot of space and the majority of people don't even notice the downsides.  Then there is the wife acceptance factor, she rather you not get a massive TV when you could get a thin LCD.

I hope you enjoy your new toy!

P.S.  My current HDTV for non-computer use is an LCD.  The next HDTV I'm buying is going to be a plasma.  [That is if there is still a company making them by then (I might have to buy a used one)].

CRTs give me headaches no matter how high I try to turn up the refresh rate. 

I would never want to go back to a CRT. 

I keep a CRT around just to play old consoles (nintendo, sega genesis and dreamcast) and especially for older fighting games. I would probably cry the day it breaks and i can't replace it. Another than that plasmas are getting cheaper. I bought 50" LG 720p plasma for $600 about 6 months ago. It's good enough for this poor college student.

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Originally Posted by ReVice 

I keep a CRT around just to play old consoles (nintendo, sega genesis and dreamcast) and especially for older fighting games. I would probably cry the day it breaks and i can't replace it. Another than that plasmas are getting cheaper. I bought 50" LG 720p plasma for $600 about 6 months ago. It's good enough for this poor college student.

The old school consoles look pretty good on an LCD depending on what outputs you use on the console.  RGB is the best but it needs to be converted to component [Older consoles, pre-Dreamcast].  (Scan converters expensive, it's needed because no tv accepts RGB at 15kHz).  Fighting games often need an input lag free device, and light gun games will not work plain and simple.  D: So no Duck Hunt! after the age of SD interlaced CRTs has finally come to it's natural death.  I'm sure you'll still be able to find CRTs for many decades to come, that's not to say that the prices will always be dirt cheap.  My personal favorite SD CRT is the Commodore 1702 it's a tank that will last the test of time, the image still looks amazing even by today's standards and you can input an S-Video signal (adapter needed (via to 2x RCA adapter to S-Video)).

P.S. Plasmas are really falling in price.  You've got a nice deal.

I've got a CRT Sony 34xs955, which I think was from the range one step below the XBR, but shares some of the same innards.  Terrific picture, great contrast, and viewing angle is not an issue, ever.  But I want something bigger, and I think the larger size tends to make the image "pop" more, so that while my current CRT is razor sharp, it is not as immersive as some of the larger non-CRT sets.