My first impression of 3D TV is awful!

Lee James

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Having seen two 3D films at the cinema (Toy Story 3 and Shrek 4), and not being particularly impressed, I went into Comet today to see what 3D TVs were like. They had two options on display and I have to say I was utterly disappointed by both of them.

One was an active shutter system, and the flickering was just horrible. I would never buy anything like that. I really don’t like the idea of wearing flickering electronic glasses on my face. It doesn’t seem healthy.

The other system used polarised light, like they have at the cinema. But the resolution was absolutely appalling! I checked with the salesman that I really was watching full HD: he confirmed I was. It honestly looked more like 360p than 1080p! The picture was visibly interlaced, which I guess is how it works. But it was just shockingly bad. It looked far, FAR worse than SD.

I would never buy either of those two systems. Honestly, it was like stepping back in time to a time when screens used to flicker and video was low resolution! Ugh.

I was also disappointed that one demo was showing a computer-animated film, and the other was a football match. I was hoping to see something like a regular film with people, so I could get a good idea of how it looked. It’s weird that they don’t just have a 3D showcase video, showing a range of different types of shots and subjectmatter, so we can get a sense of how our favourite films might look.

I made this thread because I wanted to ask: is there any good 3D system out there, or in development? One that doesn’t require flickering glasses, and has FULL 1080p resolution?

In fairness, I have to say, I was actually impressed by the 3D effect of the animated film (Avatar). I’ve never seen anything that gave such a great sense of depth before, even at the cinema. So in theory I would like a 3D TV. I just couldn’t buy either of the two systems I saw today.
 
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You only ever notice glasses flickering with overhead or bright lights in the room if you watched a film with curtains closed during the day, or minimal lights in the evening, then a fab 3d experience will be had i have the Samsung 55d8000 and the picture is breathtaking. Take very little notice (hard to do i know) of the flicker in the shop as it is unlikely youll get this in your home. I never have. As opposed the passive, i dont have one so cannot comment! Hope this helps as 3d at home is amazing!
Having seen two 3D films at the cinema (Toy Story 3 and Shrek 4), and not being particularly impressed, I went into Comet today to see what 3D TVs were like. They had two options on display and I have to say I was utterly disappointed by both of them.

One was an active shutter system, and the flickering was just horrible. I would never buy anything like that. I really don’t like the idea of wearing flickering electronic glasses on my face. It doesn’t seem healthy.

The other system used polarised light, like the have at the cinema. But the resolution was absolutely appalling! I checked with the salesman that I really was watching full HD: he confirmed I was. It honestly looked more like 360p than 1080p! The picture was visibly interlaced, which I guess is how it works. But it was just shockingly bad. It looked far worse than SD.

I would never buy either of those two systems. Honestly, it was like stepping back in time to a time when screens used to flicker and video was low resolution! Ugh.

I was also disappointed that one demo was showing a computer-animated film, and the other was a football match. I was hoping to see something like a regular film with people, so I could get a good idea of how it looked.

I made this thread because I wanted to ask: is there any good 3D system out there, or in development? One that doesn’t require flickering glasses, and has FULL 1080p resolution?
 
You only ever notice glasses flickering with overhead or bright lights in the room
Well personally speaking, even if I was in an environment where I didn’t notice the flickering, I would know it was there and that would bother me. I generally avoid anything flickering, such as CRT TVs or flourescent light bulbs. I just don’t like it, sorry.
 
If you have an Issue with flickering take a look at a Passive 3D TV the one you looked at was clearly an active screen, the glasses don't flicker on passive TV's so may be more to your liking.
 
You have to be at the same level as the passive tv to get a good picture, I bet you were standing close to and looking down on it.

Get back and lower yourself to the same level, the picture is fantastic when set up correctly.

When comets in Leeds were demoing the LG they had seats at the correct distance and height, about 2m and they were selling loads of the sets every day. Indeed thats why I ended up with one despite having previously decided I wanted the latest Panasonic plasma VT30. Thank god I didn't make that mistake as they come without enough glasses and the reflections on the glass screen in my room would have been dreadful.
 
Hi

You tend to also get quite a lot of flickering in shops because of the strip lighting they use over thier displays. If you look in most manuals for 3D TVs or glasses it does warn you about use in proximity to flourescent lighting which works at a similar frequency to these TVs.

Regards
Graham
 
You have to be at the same level as the passive tv to get a good picture, I bet you were standing close to and looking down on it.

Get back and lower yourself to the same level, the picture is fantastic when set up correctly.

When comets in Leeds were demoing the LG they had seats at the correct distance and height, about 2m and they were selling loads of the sets every day. Indeed thats why I ended up with one despite having previously decided I wanted the latest Panasonic plasma VT30. Thank god I didn't make that mistake as they come without enough glasses and the reflections on the glass screen in my room would have been dreadful.

Ken is bang on there! I hate the flickering active system and waited til there was a passive set on the market. Go back, have another look. Ask for them to link up a blu ray player with the likes of Despicable Me and you will be stunned! Anyone who comes to my house and has a look says "wow!"

Passive IS the way forward.
 
...The other system used polarised light, like they have at the cinema. But the resolution was absolutely appalling!
... But it was just shockingly bad. It looked far, FAR worse than SD...
...I was also disappointed that one demo was showing a computer-animated film, and the other was a football match.

By the sound of it, u was watching the awful quality demo disk on the Passive 3D tv, which really does look as bad u mention. I took a 3D blu-ray with me one day to test on the LG 550T and it was a far better quality experience than the demo they usually tend to show. I really don't know why they are using those demo disks if they really want to sell the tv's- they really don't do them justice at all.

I for one think LG's "Cinema 3D" passive system is great, but u do need to make sure you're sitting/standing further than a meter away to not see the lines, and as already said, make sure you're eye level with the screen.

But please don't dismiss it so easily just based on that awful demo disk quality.
 
I checked with the salesman that I really was watching full HD: he confirmed I was. It honestly looked more like 360p than 1080p!

Just to point out ( and not to start any arguments about whether you will notice it or not ) the passive sets wont do full HD they only do 720p.
 
Just to point out ( and not to start any arguments about whether you will notice it or not ) the passive sets wont do full HD they only do 720p.

The new LG software released has overcome this and each eye will get the full HD for every refresh of the screen.
What it does is shows half the left screen, then half the right, then the second half of the left screen followed by the second half of the right all faster than the eye can register. To do this it has to displace the second half of each picture by one pixel horizontally, so the filters in the glasses work correctly, but this is invisible to the eye.

In any event the 3d on sky only has half the picture for each eye anyway so you get the full detail that is transmitted on each refresh.

I read an interesting article recently anyway that looked at screen resolution and typical viewing distances and you would have to get uncomfortably close to a screen before full HD could be utilised. At normal distances 720p as broadcast by Sky is the best resolution you can actually see in the real world, and ignoring blu-ray is really the main source for HD at this time.
 
I agree on the flickering issue being a bit of a problem with Active Displays. In the store I could see the flickering quite obviously and was assured that this would not be the case at home. I could basically only watch with the lights off as flickering was still present, but even once they were dimmed, I could only watch for about 10 minutes before suffering from a crippling headache. Therefore the flickering is still there, it just might not be particularly visible. I might be a special case though, as I can discern a difference in refresh rates all the way upto 120Hz. :rolleyes:

Overall, I would say that taking into account all the pluses and minuses currently, Passive TV's are a better bet but LG or Philips really needs to make a good one that isn't fatally flawed or crazily priced. LG, I need at least 50", decently styled and featured and less than £1500 with little to no input lag with games. Make it happen and you have yourself a sale :lease:
 
With active shutter you can easily have full 1080p with the full horizontal resolution too. The TV just needs to be fast enough to display 2 frames instead of one (one for each eye)

For a movie shot at 24 frames per second, the TV only needs to do 48 frames per second to give each eye each frame in full resolution. But the flicker would be noticeable.

So they just flicker faster. At 240 shutters per second, the same frame is shuttered 5 times to each eye each second.
 
I went into Comet today to see what 3D TVs were like. They had two options on display.

Think that might have been your first mistake :smashin:, the demo i saw in currys and comet was a bit rubbish and didn't impress me. Wait till you get a set home and calibrated and you can see how good it is then :)
 
I have the LW450u from LG (Passive) and the 3D is excellent with this set. Much less crosstalk than the 2010 Sammy Active set I returned (not seen the new ones, but heard there are improvements) and the crosstalk that IS apparent is very minor and not tinted yellow by the glasses.

At normal viewing distance I see very little difference between the Sammy I had before and the LG - using Avatar blu ray as a reference. I find the 3D experience better on the passive system than I ever did with active - less crosstalk, eyes feel less tired, brighter image - and the glasses are far less fragile too.

The lines of the filter on a passive set can be seen up close (1 meter from the screen) but only on 3D material. My set has a banding issue that really shows up when watching football, other than that this would be the closest to perfect TV I've ever had.
 

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