Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater The 3D Gamble....

You may (or may not) know that IMAX has joined Sony and The Discovery Channel to start up a new all 3D cable channel. We've been scrambling to prep 3D content for the channel. So far we've viewed some material on both the new 50" Panasonic plasma and the 50" Samsung LED. If you're looking to purchase either of these I can tell you that the Panasonic has superior picture quality. The 3D is extremely impressive. Colors and contrast are excellent.

That said, for some reason watching 3D on a TV gives me eye strain rather quickly. I find it very uncomfortable. I don't seem to have this problem when watching on a large movie screen. I'd recommend that you watch a good 15+ uninterrupted minutes of 3D imagery on a 3D TV before making your purchase. You don't want to drop $4000 on a TV and then realize you can't stand to watch it in 3D mode.

Thanks for that info.

Now all of you need to go out and start buying 3D so it will drive down the price and drive up the content for the late adopters like me.

That's too bad about the discomfort. Certainly a good reason to hold off. When do you try out HDI's 100" display?

It's my understanding Vizio doesn't develop any of their own TV's. They only put together some of the better parts of one TV manufacturer, screens, processors etc. with cheaper components from another or their own supplier for some savings. For instance the latest 55" LED Vizio is an LG in disguise as they use the same engine and display at least from what I had read last year when I was researching for my TV.

That's correct. While Vizio claims to be an "American" company, all that really means is their execs live here. They have no panel manufacturing, so they source their parts from other makers.

Heck, even Lucky Goldstar, with their panel plant sometimes sources panels from other makers to meet demands. Worse still, the same model TV may have different panels (and picture quality levels) depending on the manufacture time and place.

While it's nice that there are cheap displays on the market, which has improved HD adoption, there's no "Axiom" of displays at this point. The cheap ones really are just cheap.

Interesting stuff. I've seen Visio displays for sale at Walmart, Meijers, etc... But I didn't know that was their angle.

Once again this site has opened my eyes to information. Was previously ignorant of. Bravo!

That was a long but well thought out rant and i agree with Micah 100%.

Since we started putting our media room together around 2002, the innovations have been so quick to come to the store shelves that no one can keep up.
It is too expensive a venture for the vast majority of North Americans.
I like the conceptual idea of some of the innovations but really, i am just now contemplating a BR dvd with universal players on the market, but to go back out again and get a 3D version?
Bah.
Forget it.
I have the cash but apparently not the patience.

Sell me a 3D tv once holographic images become the home standard.

This isn't anything new.
This was a problem with the old 3D red and green goggle idea as well, but for somewhat different reasons.

3D tv needs to be more than putting on a pair of stereo-imaging trickery unless one wants their visual acuity and perception messed up in the long run.

Hey thanks! But uh... Lol, it actually wasn't so much well thought out as it was me blowing off steam! Haha

Curiosity finally got the best of me and I started to google 3D TV's to see what a 65 inch model is going to cost them 'early adopters' (I'm with you Grunt, I'll sit back and let the 'gotta have it' crowd swoop in & pay 15 times what it's going to cost in 24 months). I found a pretty wide gap. First off I saw a 42 inch 3D set for $8k. So immediately I figured, "oh yeah, 65 inch sets won't be cheap"!

But then I found a 55 inch Samsung (I believe) that was '3D ready' for $3200... WTF? Is there a difference between 3D & 3D ready? I was confused so I started researching 3D even further. That's when I started finding out things like the fact that the glasses will probably be brand specific, not universal. So if you buy a 3D set for the movie room, and somewhere down the line you wwant to put another one in the family room you'll have to make sure they're the same brand or you may have to buy separate glasses for each set. Ridiculous!!!

I also read some manufacturers touting technology a few years out that will bring 'no glasses needed' 3D TV's into our living rooms. The only trouble with those sets are that they are very 'sweet-spot' oriented. So then I read where still others are developing the 2nd generation 'glassless' sets that will have a wider viewing angle.... And I got so pissed off that they are bringing the technology out 'as is' anyway, even though its flawed, they know its flawed, and they know how to fix the flaws, but in the meantime want us all to invest in the flawed product while they work all the kinks out. That really bugged me. Because if the technology they are working on requires a different broadcasting signal, and the stations that will be broadcasting the 3D channels switch over to this new signal, its going to leave everyone who's buying into today's 3D technology with a completely useless TV, BD player and everything else.

I don't know enough about the technology, so I don't know if that will come to pass or not? But that was the impression I got while investigating it. And I worked myself up into such a tizzy over it I jumped on here and basically opened the 'relief' valve and got all my thoughts off my chest. Admittedly once I logged on and read what I'd written the next day, I thought I came off a bit like a stark raving mad lunatic!

I'm glad I was at least able to fool you.

It seems that it's become more and more prevalent for companhies to release products on the public before they are ready. Let the public be your guinea pig. It's not so bad if the company backs up any problems that arise, but I've found that's not the case esp where the automotive industry is concerned.