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The Semi-Official 3D TV Thread

post #1 of 34
3/24/10 at 5:51pm
Thread Starter 
It is done. 3D TV is here.

We got the new Samsung 7000 LED series in at work the other day and we finally put the 55" one on display today with their 6900 model, 3D ready, Bluray player. We had two glasses shipped in as well. I guess the pairs we're using with the demo are not the same as the one that we'll be selling.

So, I've this discussion countless time at work with others. I think it's too soon for 3D TV. Working at Best Buy, I still get these questions on a daily basis:

Will a Bluray player play regular DVDs?

Will a Bluray player make my old DVD's play in high definition?

I have regular cable. If I buy an HDTV will it make my cable high definition?

What's the difference between LCD and plasma? And what's this new... LED thing?

What's the difference between 60 hertz and 120 hertz?

Do I really need 1080p? And how is it better then 720p?

What is this digital transition thing?


And I'm sure there's even stupider questions that I'm forgetting. Not that these are stupid questions but it's just that people are still confused about this HDTV market. Why throw something new in there? We're still trying to convince people to get Blu-Ray players and now they're tossing 3D Blu-Ray players out there? That'll just make even more confusion!

Plus, there's no content out there right now to really justify investing in it. How many full 3D tv channels are there? And Blu-Rays? I don't want to shell out close to $5,000 for the TV, Blu-Ray and glasses* just to watch Monsters and Aliens in 3D.

Plus they're saying you need to have an HDMI cable that's version 1.4 in order to get the 3D to work properly from the BR player to the TV. More confusion! Hahaha!

Today, when setting up the display, (which took us about five hours to do) we ran into a road block when the TV wouldn't recognize the Blu-Ray player. We troubleshooted for almost an hour when I said, "maybe we do need a 1.4 HDMI cable or maybe the TV needs a firmware update?" In the end we decided to switch the HDMI cable. We thought maybe that input was broken so we grabbed an old, cheap ass Rocketfish HDMI cable from like two years ago. Plugged it in and BOOM, 3DTV was live! The other HDMI cable we were using? A $250 Monster cable. HA!

And going back to the discussions with my co-workers, we've all agreed that for gaming it'd be fun to have. For animated movies too maybe. But for everything else? Really? Is it worth it? The consensus in the store is that people won't really care as much as the manufactures think they will. I can totally see the masses getting annoyed by all this. "I just bought the brand new 52" LCD TV two months ago and now it's shit?"

I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out over the next year or two.

* The Samsung TV's don't come with the glasses. They're about $300-$400 extra... per pair.
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post #2 of 34
3/24/10 at 5:55pm
Take that, Monster! And screw your ridiculous prices!
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post #3 of 34
3/24/10 at 5:58pm
You don't have to spend that much. Most of Mitsubishi's DLPs are still 3D ready and the glasses aren't THAT expensive. I think they can be found for $100 or less. I've got a Mitsu DLP that was just one year early (from 2007) for 3D.

I know it's confusing for the average user but if I can get 3D TV that's all I really care about. And it won't really cost me THAT much more.

As for HDMI 1.4, it's just a spec and there will be slightly new certification processes. That doesn't mean any earlier HDMI cable won't work. Almost all of them will, it just means they won't be certified to work with the new spec.
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post #4 of 34
3/24/10 at 5:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan View Post
* The Samsung TV's don't come with the glasses. They're about $300-$400 extra... per pair.
Crissakes! As someone finally entering HD Land sometime this summer, I just hope the "new tech" succeeds in driving down even further the prices on the models I am interested in.
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post #5 of 34
3/24/10 at 6:02pm
FUCK 3D TV. Seriously. I am a huge tech geek and at times an early adopter on new tech. But I have zero interest in 3D TV. I just don't get it. I really think if you pay a premium for one of these sets you're either filthy rich or batshit insane.

I honestly hope this either dies a slow death or becomes a random niche like SACDs or DVD-Audio. I don't mind if companies want to offer this, I'm all for new and exciting tech. But do NOT try to make it the standard.

And if these firms think people will flock to buy new sets b/c they are 3D they are sadly mistaken. They'd be much smarter pushing more and better LED/OLED sets and marketing their benefits over standard LCD/Plasma than focusing on 3D sets for repeat customers.
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post #6 of 34
3/24/10 at 6:09pm
I won't be getting a 3D TV. I might consider a 3D computer display using some type of auto stereoscopic panel or similar technology that doesn't require the user to wear stupid glasses.
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post #7 of 34
3/24/10 at 6:11pm
This tech excites me though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_barrier

I believe there are limitations of only one user per display.
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post #8 of 34
3/25/10 at 10:18pm
Saw this at my Best Buy today. Interesting is all I can say. They had Monsters vs. Aliens playing.

Does the 3D effect turn off for normal television viewing? It just seems asinine.
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post #9 of 34
3/27/10 at 11:17am
Thread Starter 
Yes, the 3D can be turned off. It asks you when you put the B;u-Ray in if you want to view it in 2D or 3D. I've heard that the 3D Blu-Ray player can possibly (or will possibly, maybe a firmware update) be able to "up-convert" DVD's and non-3D Blu-Rays to 3D. How this can work and how it would look is beyond me.
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post #10 of 34
3/27/10 at 3:28pm
So, studios push 3D to get people into theaters. Now they're pushing 3D TVs, so you can watch 3D at home, and you won't need to go to the theater to see 3D movies.

I'm not sure if greed is good, but it sure is insane.
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post #11 of 34
3/29/10 at 6:19pm
Short and sweet review of Panasonic's 3D TV and player:

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4362
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post #12 of 34
4/11/10 at 1:17am
Thread Starter 
Ok... I'm ah, a little back on the fence with 3D TV. We hooked the 55" TV up to our stores satellite feed today and watched the PGA Masters in 3D. It was God damned impressive. The divots flying! The trees! The crowds! Seeing the caddy and player on the green in depth. The rolling hills. It was pretty wild to see.

I really want to see some NHL action or night time NASCAR race (preferably Daytona) in 3D.
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post #13 of 34
4/11/10 at 1:44pm
3D is a gimmick. A fucking overpriced gimmick. We can only hope that it goes away quickly.
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post #14 of 34
4/11/10 at 3:27pm
Enough with yer Goldblumin' Brendan!
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post #15 of 34
6/13/10 at 12:34pm
Thread Starter 
We received the Panasonic 3D plasma the other day and hooked it up and.... wow. Holy fuck, wow. It's pretty damn amazing. The demo disc we played came with a "Grand Canyon" scene and to canyons depth and the mountains soaring past you was something else. There was a water rafting scene in it too and the water splashing up on the lenses was awesome. Everyone who tried it out lost it at that scene.

So I'd say that right now Panasonic wins over Samsung by a long shot. The glasses look like ass but they also stay powered on if you tilt your head or look away, unlike the Samsung glasses. OH and one pair comes with the TV itself, unlike the Samsung glasses. And the TV is is about $500 cheaper. I would have loved to have seen this TV in a dark room though since it is a plasma.
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post #16 of 34
6/13/10 at 1:24pm
Tried out the new Sony 3D Bravias the other day, and they are pretty fucking phenomenal. Also got a chance to play and watch some people play a couple of 3D PS3 games too. Holy christ, that is the future of gaming. So completely immersive, I actually had to resist ducking and diving like a spaz.
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post #17 of 34
6/24/10 at 2:48pm
I stopped by a Best Buy and tried out a Samsung 3D TV that was playing some of the World Cup in 3D. Looked cool.
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post #18 of 34
6/24/10 at 3:28pm
I still say phooey on 3D TV. My cable provider just sent me a mailer happily promoting ESPN 3-D. Bah humbug. The idea of asking my kids/wife to put on $80 glasses to watch a sporting event is ridciulous to us all. Sure the demos in the store look neat but for practical use it's so stupid. Only good thing to come of this is the fact that as more new sets get rolled out with 3D the fantastic LED sets with 240Hz and no 3D will continue to drop in price.
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post #19 of 34
6/24/10 at 3:29pm
I'm having lunch with a buddy on Friday, and he texted me last week and said he bought a 3D TV, and he said he really likes it.
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post #20 of 34
7/5/10 at 6:16pm
Thread Starter 
The Sony 3D TV LOOKS nice on the outside but all around I still say Panasonic has the edge right now. The downside to the Sony is that you need to buy the glasses separately AND a sync transmitter separately in order for the glasses to connect to the TV. Samsung and Panasonic have the sync transmitter built in to their TV. Funnily enough this didn't surprise any of us at the store that Sony would pull this shit.

AND... the price tag on the 52" Sony LED 3D TV $4,300 (Canadian) while the 58" Panasonic Plasma 3D is $3,000 (Canadian) and it comes with a set of glasses. So you're getting a bigger TV and a pair of glasses for less then the smaller, glasses-less TV.

I added up how much the Sony 3D Blu-Ray player, glasses, sync transmitter and TV would cost and it came to about: $4,900. While the 58" Panasonic with a 3D Blu-Ray player would come to about $3,500. The Samsung 55" 3D LED with Blu-Ray player and glasses would be around $3,400.

Again... I'm a huge Samsung whore (love their TV's) but Panasonic wins on the 3D front so far.

But I still think this is a waste. I've noticed that with the bright lights in the store you don't get the whole effect of the 3D. You see reflections and glare on the screens which hinders the 3D. So if you buy these TV's you really need to toss them in a basement with no light sources whatsoever to enjoy them.

Does anyone know anything about the TV's that use the RealD 3D glasses? I've heard there's one that does.
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post #21 of 34
7/5/10 at 6:53pm
Vizio is/was making a 65" 3D TV that uses polarized glasses:

http://www.vizio.com/news/page/2
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post #22 of 34
12/17/10 at 6:00pm
65" Vizio for $3499.99. Uses the same glasses as theaters:

http://news.ecoustics.com/bbs/messag...81/666327.html
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post #23 of 34
12/17/10 at 6:10pm
Seems a step in the right direction.
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post #24 of 34
12/30/10 at 12:48am
Wonder how good the effect with the polarized lenses is. Vizio makes some pretty good budget HDTVs. Have yet to see their 3D stuff or even their LEDs yet.


So far I've had my Samsung (55" 8000 series LED) for about 3 or 4 months. And so I'm actually pretty impressed. Blu-Rays look fucking incredible, I don't think I've seen a better image on another TV before. Absolutely stunning. The best TV I've ever owned hands down. I've had nice HDTV's before, but the day I got this TV, I seriously sat down and watched movies, one after the other. It'd ridiculous how great Blu-Rays look on this thing.

The 3D effects are also amazing. I've gotten over the glasses. They don't bug me as much as I thought they would. Though they're still a little inconvenient. We got Monster House and Despicable Me (Cute movie. My girlfriend and I really enjoyed it.) in 3D Blu-Ray. The effect is as good as it is in the theater, honestly. There is some very minor crosstalk that happens in Despicable and Monster vs. Aliens (came with the set) for a few sesconds. But nothing to really write home about. My friend who bout a whole Panasonic set let me borrow Avatar and, though I'm not a big fan of the movie itself, it looked absolutely beautiful in HD and in 3D.

The TV itself also converts anything you watch into 3D; TV shows, movies, games, whatever. What seems like a gimmicky feature (like having a digital camera that do sepia), it does a surprisingly good job of this. Though all it does really is add a depth of field, like you can reach in to the set and it doesn't really make anything pop out. Wall-E and Up actually looked pretty good converted. It was kinda cool. The hilarious part is I Netflix-ed the 2D version of Clash of the Titans and had my TV convert it into 3D and I SWEAR it looked better than when I saw it in 3D in theaters! I only tried it out on a couple movies for the hell of it. A useless feature essentially, but kind of cool when it works right. I should go home and watch my new Blu-Ray of Seven Samurai converted to 3D! Say, wouldn't that be something! ...

We also got Coraline and Piranha 3D for Christmas (pre-ordered for us) so we'll see how they look.

Overall, even though I'm not clamoring for 3D content, I'm still pretty impressed by my 3D home theater experience so far. And it is fun to watch, I'll admit. And on this set, it looks really good.
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post #25 of 34
12/30/10 at 1:14am
I hadn't realized Coraline was coming out of Panasonic exclusivity so soon (next Tuesday! Hooray!). The one 3D blu-ray (other than How To Train Your Dragon) that I'm willing to pay 35 dollars for.

I've got a Samsung Series 7 and have mostly been using it's 3D capabilities for games (Dead Space and Mirror's Edge look pretty awesome in 3D. Portal looks pretty good. I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard good things about Arkham Asylum). There's some ghosting, but it does seem to be an issue with the contrast of the images (i.e. it's a lot worse when there's something dark on a light background or vice versa). And the set is edge-lit, so there's some flashlighting on the lower corners that occasionally bothers me.

I picked up Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs a couple of weeks ago, and it's quite lovely. I've been tempted to get Despicable Me, but Coraline takes priority (I've even been sorely tempted to pick up the Samsung 3D starter kit just so I can get HTTYD, but dammit, 200 dollars is too much).

That beta 3D channel app that Samsung released is also kind of cool. It only lets you stream the Shrek, Megamind, and HTTYD trailers right now, but if they're able to actually add full movie streaming the way it looks like they plan to, I'll probably drop some money on rentals through that.
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post #26 of 34
12/30/10 at 5:22am
Yeah, I read a while ago that Coraline and some others from Sony and Samsung were only gonna be timed exclusives until early in the new year.

There are rumors going around that Panasonic has Avatar 3D exclusivity until sometime 2012, but I don't buy it. Considering Panasonic themselves refuse to say. If they had it for that long, why not just come out and say,"Avatar - the biggest movie of all time - is ours until 2012, so you might as well buy Panasonic 3D shit." Plus how much would that cost them? I'm guessing we'll see Avatar available by June at the latest, really. I hope so. I don't even love the movie, but it is just beautiful. Definitely one to get to show off the set with.

I'm hoping Samsung beefs up that 3D channel soon. They've had the same old stuff on it since I first checked it out. Comcast's 3D stuff is pretty good, too.

I'm wondering how long it'll be until Netflix starts offering 3D Blu-Rays and 3D Instant Watching.
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post #27 of 34
1/1/11 at 1:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyRockyHorror View Post
I'm wondering how long it'll be until Netflix starts offering 3D Blu-Rays and 3D Instant Watching.
Quite a while I imagine. 3D blu-rays still have to catch and they can barely handle basic HD for instant streaming. Hell most of them don't even have 5.1 sound.
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post #28 of 34
1/1/11 at 2:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Waaaaaaaalt View Post
Quite a while I imagine. 3D blu-rays still have to catch and they can barely handle basic HD for instant streaming. Hell most of them don't even have 5.1 sound.
Oh, for the streaming, yeah. It'll probably be well into 2012 before they start offering streaming 3D movies. At the earliest.

But I think they'd have 3D Blu-Rays available relatively soon. Maybe sometime in the first have of the new year?

EDIT: They could even charge an extra $1.00 or $1.99 a month for the 3D Blu-Ray option. Like they do for Blu-Rays and DVDs, if there is a 3D Blu-Ray disc available for that movie, you'll get it instead of a regalur Blu-Ray disc.
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post #29 of 34
1/1/11 at 3:30am
Also, anybody have any recommendations for a really good, but affordable 3D compatible receiver? Nothing too fancy. I don't need a ton of wattage, either. I'm just looking for something in the $500-$1000 range that does it's job and does it well. And good, not just "good for it's price" you know? If there is one that cheap.

Right now I've got an old Yamaha receiver that I've had for about 10 years and some cheap Polk Audio speakers that have served me well, but it's definitely time for an upgrade. I'll be getting a set of some pretty decent Paradigm speakers.

Just want a respectable surround sound system.

I've been looking at Denon and Sony. I don't think Onkyo makes a good 3D compatible receiver, the ones I've seen have been really cheap ($200-$300)

Any suggestions?
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post #30 of 34
1/2/11 at 1:29pm
Thread Starter 
I have the Onkyo 608 and I love it. Obviously I don't do the 3D thing since I don't have a 3D TV but I love the receiver. It's received great reviews too. I've heard good things about Denon and the HT supervisor in my old store loved the Denon receivers. I've heard some bad things about Sony receivers though. Nobody seems to like them at work and generally the people who buy them are buying them just because it says "Sony" on it so they think it's quality.
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post #31 of 34
1/2/11 at 4:42pm
Most receivers can have their software upgraded by an authorized dealer, which leads me to believe that some that are not currently 3D capable can be made so.

I've considered taking my own Onkyo sr705 in for a software upgrade, but I'm too lazy and the idea of disconnecting all that speaker wire make me apathetic about the whole thing; I don't even own a 3D tv.
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post #32 of 34
4/30/11 at 6:27am
Thread Starter 

We finally got LG's 3D TV in and we put it on display today. Amazing. It rivals the Panasonic plasma. No flickering or anything when you have the glasses. I'm a Samsung TV whore but now I've switched and will be purchasing this TV in the future. The best part? The glasses. No batteries, no charging, no bulkyness. They're the same style as the Real3D glasses used at the theatres. And apparently you can even use those theatre glasses with this TV as well. I'm really curious to see what Sharps 3DTV will look like but as of right now, I'm on the LG 3DTV bandwagon.


 

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post #33 of 34
5/6/11 at 1:10am

I started looking into these LG Cinema 3D HDTVs that Brendan brought up.  I read up on active shutter glasses (the ones that require batteries) and passive glasses (which these LGs use). 

 

The downside of the use of passive glasses is that you technically cut the resolution in half since both images are coming at the same time.  But this is definitely something I'd like to see in action before making any judgments.  It sounds like it still looked great, according to Brendan.

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post #34 of 34
9/3/11 at 8:01am

55 inch, glasses free 3D by the end of the year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRGL-IbDZ9Q

 

a. It's only being released in Europe for now.

b. It's about $12,000 American.

c. 3D backlash is pretty high at the moment.

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