Buying a 3D LED TV

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MvanHeerden

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Hi,

I saw a Cinema 3D 47' LED TV at Hifi selling for R10999. Now before I spend that amount of money I would first like to find out if I can't get the same deal for a little cheaper somewhere else...
I've notice that you can get a 51' Plasma for around R8000+. Whats the difference between the two? Is it better to go LED over Plasma?

And I would also like to find out if anyone with a 3D TV ever had any bad experiences with it? Is it worth it?

Off topic - Sale: Nokia N8 with all accessories and box, 2 year guarantee for R3000 onco. :) Had the phone for about two weeks now. Used once.

Thx
 
Ib4 Postman and Dolby starts a war again ;)

Please post the general use of the TV e.g SD content, gaming, HD Content, Sports etc.
Also, what environment is the TV is going to be used in. Lighting/direct sunlight on the panel etc.

Any makes/models that concerns you? I take it the 47" LED that you saw was an LG?

3D TV is seen as a luxury still, while there is some content for it, to get the full Experience you would need a 3D BD player. Else SBS 3D rips are available from torrents/news, taking into account the TV you are buying has a good enough media player to handle .mkv files etc.
 
MvanHeerden said:
Hi,

I saw a Cinema 3D 47' LED TV at Hifi selling for R10999. Now before I spend that amount of money I would first like to find out if I can't get the same deal for a little cheaper somewhere else...
I've notice that you can get a 51' Plasma for around R8000+. Whats the difference between the two? Is it better to go LED over Plasma?

And I would also like to find out if anyone with a 3D TV ever had any bad experiences with it? Is it worth it?

Off topic - Sale: Nokia N8 with all accessories and box, 2 year guarantee for R3000 onco. :) Had the phone for about two weeks now. Used once.

Thx
Click to expand...

I have that Cinema 3D 47'
It's awesome. I've had absolutely no problems with it.
Without any model numbers I can't be sure, but I suspect that 51" plasma is active 3D, which will need those expensive, heavier glasses that have to be charged or take batteries. The LG Cinema 3D uses the passive glasses you get from cinemas.
 
MvanHeerden said:
I saw a Cinema 3D 47' LED TV at Hifi selling for R10999. Now before I spend that amount of money I would first like to find out if I can't get the same deal for a little cheaper somewhere else...
I've notice that you can get a 51' Plasma for around R8000+. Whats the difference between the two? Is it better to go LED over Plasma?
Click to expand...
Depends on your preference, you need to go test them both for yourself.

The LG uses passive 3D which is better for comfort (lighter glasses with no flickering or crosstalk) but only runs at half FHD resolution (1920x540 per eye).

(Samsung) Plasma uses active 3D which provides FHD 3D (1920x1080 if you have the appropriate model) but the glasses are expensive and heavy. Note for R8K its probably a PS51D490 which isn't FHD but rather HD-Ready (1366x768), you'd need to pay R10-11K for a FHD PS51D550.

Also all the above models are not what's referred to as 'smart' TVs (LG 47LW4500 doesn't even have an Ethernet port) so forget any type of 3D streaming off the Internet (you'll need some external device to do this).
 
musha said:
Please post the general use of the TV e.g SD content, gaming, HD Content, Sports etc.
Also, what environment is the TV is going to be used in. Lighting/direct sunlight on the panel etc.
Click to expand...

+1

And viewing distance.
 
Cool, thanks for all the help and suggestions guys. Much appreciated. I found another store that sells a FHD LED 3D 51' for 10K. Gonna go have a look at that one..
 
PostmanPot said:
+1

And viewing distance.
Click to expand...

That reminds me, that LG requires that you sit at least 2 metres away from it or the 3D effect disappears.
It shouldn't be a problem though because you're not supposed to be sitting that close to the TV anyway.
 
The tv will be used in a dark...eish area and viewing distance about 3 meters away.Mainly for ps3 games and general TV shows and movies.
 
MvanHeerden said:
The tv will be used in a dark...eish area and viewing distance about 3 meters away.Mainly for ps3 games and general TV shows and movies.
Click to expand...

I would still suggest the LG. I use mine for gaming on PS3 as well, and I don't want to deal with my glasses needing a recharge mid game, when the controller takes so much longer to run out of power.

I've also used it for a lot of 3D .mkv files (side by side or top/bottom) and they work flawlessly. I've been told that the tv will also play files directly from a USB drive but I havent tested it because I use a mede8er.
 
MvanHeerden said:
Mainly for ps3 games and general TV shows and movies.
Click to expand...
As mentioned above, its a trade off. If you're planning on having say 5 hours 3D gaming sessions, I personally wouldn't be able to take the active glasses for that extended period.
 
I've also tried the 2D to 3D conversion on a few movies and games. Its not as good as something designed for 3D from the start, but its mostly passable.
Games such as Resistance 3, Killzone 3, GT5 look incredible in 3D.
I tried the 2D to 3D conversion on Starcraft 2 and it didn't really add much to the game. I prefer to play Starcraft 2 in 2D.
 
Sweet, thx guys. Made my decision a little easier.. :) It's a lot of money to fork out, so also need to do a little research first.
 
I found the picture on the Cinema 3D tv's to be rather grainy when viewing shop demo's like games and movies :/
 
PostmanPot said:
Wikipedia seems to think PVA is better? Why would IPS be the best? Poor black levels IME.
Click to expand...

Wikipedia states the advantages and disadvantages of each type, there's no mention of PVA being "better".
I assume that was your opinion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TFT_LCD

Initial iterations of IPS technology were plagued by slow response time and a low contrast ratio but later evolutions have made marked improvements to these shortcomings. Because of its wide viewing angle and accurate color reproduction (with almost no off-angle color shift), IPS is widely employed in high-end monitors aimed at professional graphic artists, although with the recent fall in price it has been seen in the mainstream market as well.
Click to expand...

IPS (1996):
Most panels also support true 8-bit per channel color. These improvements came at the cost of a slower response time, initially about 50 ms. IPS panels were also extremely expensive.
S-IPS (1998):
IPS has since been superseded by S-IPS (Super-IPS, Hitachi Ltd. in 1998), which has all the benefits of IPS technology with the addition of improved pixel refresh timing.
Click to expand...

LG Display remains as one of the main manufacturers of panels based on Hitachi Super-IPS.
Click to expand...

And I haven't seen any issue with the black levels on the LG TV
 
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