I used to work at best buy selling tv's so i may be able to help here. Technically theres no difference in the resolution (how many lines horizontal and vertical) of any standard definition tv's, so when you say the flat tv's have a better pictrue its most likely because most brands flat tv's are thier higher quality models which render the image much better. The best makers of Tube type televisions are sony and toshiba. I'd be willing to bet that the picture on a rounded screen sony would look better than a flat RCA or magnavox. On the other hand the larger the screen the more obviosus the curve is, some of those 32" televisions are painful to watch from a side angle. For your price range i would recommend either the Toshiba 27" flat, which is about 350, or their 36" rounded which is about 380. Personally i'd go with the bigger one because i like big tvs
