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I love video games and gadgets and tend to be an early adopter when it comes to stuff like game systems, HD TV and Blu-Ray, so I've been very curious about the much hyped 3DTVs.
I was at Best Buy today an decided to check out the new 3D HDTVs they had in stock. The clerk at BB I spoke to was very polite and helpful. I was handed a pair of demo goggles and put them over my glasses. The first thing I was shown was a soccer game in 3D on what I believe was a Panasonic. The 3D effect was almost non existant. To be fair though a soccer game is not exactly optimised for 3D.
Next I was shown a bit of Monsters vs Aliens on a Samsung. The effect was far more pronounced and actually kind of cool. The thing is though, it's not actual 3D. It's View Master 3D. It's several planes of what looks like flat 2D cut outs spaced apart to give the illusion of depth. The scene from Monsters vs Aliens I saw was at the beginning with a guy playing with a paddle ball. The effect was really no better than it was decades ago with the similar paddle ball scene from House of Wax. Cool, but still just kind of a gimmick.
The 3D effect also looked to me to put everything into a soft focus and lacked the crystal clear crispness of traditional HDTV. I also noticed my eyes starting to tear after a couple minutes. Your mileage may very, but I don't think I could sit through an entire two hour movie or a long video game session on an 3D HDTV set. The price was high but I guess probably not crazy high for new tech. The Samsung was priced around $2500. I believe that was the 46 inch model.
I know Sony is pushing 3D hard and a couple PS3 games have been already patched for 3D and many native 3D games are coming. But they didn't have any 3D Bravias in stock so I couldn't check those out.
I was at Best Buy today an decided to check out the new 3D HDTVs they had in stock. The clerk at BB I spoke to was very polite and helpful. I was handed a pair of demo goggles and put them over my glasses. The first thing I was shown was a soccer game in 3D on what I believe was a Panasonic. The 3D effect was almost non existant. To be fair though a soccer game is not exactly optimised for 3D.
Next I was shown a bit of Monsters vs Aliens on a Samsung. The effect was far more pronounced and actually kind of cool. The thing is though, it's not actual 3D. It's View Master 3D. It's several planes of what looks like flat 2D cut outs spaced apart to give the illusion of depth. The scene from Monsters vs Aliens I saw was at the beginning with a guy playing with a paddle ball. The effect was really no better than it was decades ago with the similar paddle ball scene from House of Wax. Cool, but still just kind of a gimmick.
The 3D effect also looked to me to put everything into a soft focus and lacked the crystal clear crispness of traditional HDTV. I also noticed my eyes starting to tear after a couple minutes. Your mileage may very, but I don't think I could sit through an entire two hour movie or a long video game session on an 3D HDTV set. The price was high but I guess probably not crazy high for new tech. The Samsung was priced around $2500. I believe that was the 46 inch model.
I know Sony is pushing 3D hard and a couple PS3 games have been already patched for 3D and many native 3D games are coming. But they didn't have any 3D Bravias in stock so I couldn't check those out.
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