First Look 3D: Samsung UN46C8000 3D HDTV and BD-C6900 Blu-ray 3D Player (review link)

[HDTV1080P]

The first 3-D TV's are neat with their 3-D effect but in theory future 3-D displays will have improvements in picture quality. Consumers might only see around a dozen 3-D movies released in the BLU-RAY format in 2010. The following are a couple of interesting Home Theater magazine articles to read on 3-D. The 3-D effect on the Samsung LCD's are good at the center location but according to the review off axis performance has a very negative effect on 3-D.


3D: The Next Big Thing?
http://hometheatermag.com/advicefromtheexperts/3d_the_next_big_thing/


First Look 3D: Samsung UN46C8000 3D HDTV and BD-C6900 Blu-ray 3D Player

Select quotes from the review

" We’ll be lucky to see more than a dozen titles on Blu-ray 3D by the end of the year, and perhaps fewer. There’ll also be few cable or satellite 3D channels before 2011."

" So how does 3D look on the UN46C8000? In a word—and keeping in mind the fact that we only had a single disc to check it out—spectacular. In many ways, it was even better than the best theatrical 3D presentations I’ve seen."

"The Samsung’s off-axis performance is no better than that from most LCD HDTVs, which is to say it’s the set’s main weakness. The 3D effect also falls off progressively as you move off center."

"Some of the loss of brightness results from how the Samsung uses its 240-hertz native refresh rate for 3D. For 3D playback, Samsung uses a technique called black frame insertion. When it’s engaged (and you can’t defeat it in 3D mode), every other image each eye sees is black. As you might imagine, this reduces the image’s overall brightness. But it’s necessary to limit the ghosting that can result from LCD’s relatively slow reaction time. Ghosting occurs in 3D when one eye sees an image that’s intended for the other eye."

" I wore the 3D shutter glasses over my distance/movie-watching glasses, and I found them to be mildly uncomfortable."

" I never had headaches or other negative physical reactions to the 3D experience. But it might bother some viewers. Keep in mind that physical reactions to the passive polarized glasses used in theaters might not translate to the shutter glasses used at home."

" But Samsung’s 2D-to-3D conversion works. I tried it on several 2D Blu-ray Discs. The effect was certainly nowhere near as dramatic as what a true 3D source provides, and it varied with the program material, but it wasn’t a joke by any means. Even simulated 3D will impress a lot of folks—not to mention help sell 3D HDTVs."

http://hometheatermag.com/flat-panels/first_look_3d_samsung_un46c8000_3d_hdtv_and_bd-c6900_blu-ray_3d_player/