I recently bought a 55" Panasonic Viera with 3d technology.
To be honest, when I was shopping for the TV, 3D isn’t something I was looking for. Apparently though, if you want 1080p @ 240Hz, 3D is a given. (I didn’t know that.)
So now I figure: “In for a penny in for a pound.” Might as well spend the extra money and get the damn glasses.
So please share with me your experiences:
1.) Are they worth it?
2.) Anything I should know before buying them?
3.) Buying DVDs. Do the DVDs themselves have to be in 3D? Or can I just take any ol’ copy of Avatar and expect it to play in 3D?
4.) Please tell me I don’t have to buy a 3D DVD player!
‘In for a penny, in for a pound’ is the standard advise coming from an absolute fools only. It makes no sense and gets people in trouble all kinds of different ways. Approach the question from a different angle.
What do you expect to get out of a 3-D experience at home and how much is that worth to you. How often do you expect to use it realistically? If there was a money slot in your TV that would show you 3-D only when you put in the required money to watch movies in 3-D at home would you still do it even if it costs $30 extra for the only five movies you like in 3-D. That mentality is how people end up owning boats, pools, and many other things which cost an exorbitant amount per use. What do you typically have to do to earn $150 dollars and is it worth it to spend it on a marginal thrill.
If you use it every day, several times a week or use it to avoid paying hefty fees for the 3-D experience in theaters then it might be worthwhile. In my experience, it isn’t worth it and few people use 3-D with any regularity at home.
Depends. If you like 3D movies, you’ll probably like 3D TV. Not a lot of content out there yet.
Is your TV a 2011 or 2012 model? Panasonic just changed their glasses from IR to Bluetooth sync. The way they work is that the TV displays both images alternately, and sends out a signal to black each lens so each eye only gets one image. 2011 and older TVs used IR, 2012s use bluetooth.
Also, there’s been a huge shortage of the 2011 Panasonic brand glasses, which is why they cost $150. Supposedly its due to the floods in Thailand. I’ve read there going to be back in stock this month. So if you’ve got a 2011 TV, you may want to wait a bit.
There are 3rd party brands that are much cheaper. Reviews are mixed - I bought a Sainsonic pair and returned them because the colors were messed up, and an Xpand pair that I’ve kept, even though they’re heavy. Everyone seems to agree that the Pannys are the best, so I’m waiting to see if the huge shipment somehow appears and prices drop.
3 & 4 - You don’t have to buy a 3D DVD player - you have to buy a 3D Bluray player. FIOS, Comcast, & maybe Dish all have very limited 3D content. There’s a 3D ESPN channel, and some 3D movies on demand (at $8 a pop on FIOS at least). For Blu-ray, you’ll need a new player and have to buy the 3D versions of the movies as well. Panasonics also have a 2D-3D conversion mode, but it IME results range from humorous to unnoticeable to terrible.
I bought a 3D TV with a 3D blu-ray player and the glasses, because I got a good deal on the package. I was completely and totally uninterested in the 3D aspect. Seeing as I had the thing, though, I set it up and watched Werner Hertzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
Holy shit, were we impressed. This is NOT the cheesy 3D of my youth. It’s frikkin’ awesome, and now I want every movie to be in 3D.
So here’s my take on your questions:
1.) Is it worth it?
Hard to answer. I think I dropped maybe $200 above the price of the TV alone for the DVD player (which I was going to buy anyway) and the glasses. I thought it was worth $200.
2.) Anything I should know before buying them?
Umm… not anything I haven’t already said.
3.) Buying DVDs. Do the DVDs themselves have to be in 3D? Or can I just take any ol’ copy of Avatar and expect it to play in 3D?
You have to make sure it’s a 3D DVD. Blu-Ray is not enough, it has to say Blu-Ray 3D. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of movies are available yet. Netflix has next to none (they might have none, I can’t remember). I’ve been renting them from the local Family Video.
4.) Please tell me I don’t have to buy a 3D DVD player!
If Avatar is one you’re considering getting in 3D you’re out of luck.
It was released for a limited time in a package with some tvs a few years back and is not currently for sale.
Check your local Best Buy or HHGregg. Avatar in 3D is usually sold as a package deal with 3D glasses. Unfortunately, you’ll have to spend $400! (There are also two copies available on AVSForums.com for $80.)
Shakes - keep an eye on AVSForum’s forums (both the plasma or LCD page - depending on what TV you bought, as well as the 3D page). A search of “panasonic 3D glasses” will show you a bunch of threads on the subject. What’d you end up getting? I got a ST30 back in February, and absolutely love it. It’s a plasma, which I’ve never had before. I did my research, and my room is the perfect setup for it - the colors are absolutely amazing.
I dislike 3D movies. No, scratch that- I *hate *3D movies. They *always *give me a headache.
However, 3D games don’t bother me; they’re actually pretty cool. If you’re going to do any gaming on your system, you might want to see if the 3D works for you. Gaming is the only reason I would buy the 3D glasses.
Shakes, if you’re still undecided, as of a day or 2 ago Amazon started offering the TY-EW3D3MU glasses (the ones that have been $150+ or out of stock forever) for $75-80. Looks like a big shipment came in.
Here’s a really good comparison thread over on HighDefJunkies.com. I think I’m going to get a couple pairs of the Playstation glasses for $56 on Amazon.
To me, yes. I opted for a 55" 3D TV from LG, which uses a “passive” technology that allows me to use cheap Real-3D-compatible polarized glasses (I now have twenty pairs of the damned things, actually, since friends keep giving me theirs after they see a 3D film in the theater), but would have spent the money to go with the expensive “active” glasses. However, a caveat: I really like 3D technologies. I spent the extra money to play 3D games on my Sega Master System and Vectrex, and have probably $300 invested in old-school 3D NTSC systems.
Research the movies available on 3D Blu Ray. The catalogue is very heavy on kid-vid, action, and science/nature documentaries; middling on music concert, comedy, and horror; light on drama, arthouse/documentary; virtually no classics (though Kiss Me Kate and Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder are rumored to be in the pipeline). Blu-ray.com’s 3D sub-site is a good start. There is no point in investing right now if you’re not into the action/kids genres or just enjoy 3D for the sake of 3D.
There are also sources of 3D content aside from Blu-Ray (including online streaming and downloadable sources in addition to the other VOD methods mentioned beforehand) but it’s the primary delivery format right now. The only stuff more readily available from online sources than Blu Ray or VOD is… adult content.
3D gaming is available on the PS3, and the PS3 also serves as a quite good 3D Blu Ray player (see question 4) and streaming device to get 3D VOD.
Blu Rays need to be 3D Blu Rays. Very occasionally, 3D Blu Rays are not marked or marketed as “3D Blu Ray”-- Spy Kids: All the Time in the World and Kylie Minogue: Aphrodite / Les Folies - Live in London are the two I’m aware of.
Oh, and 3D releases are more expensive than the concurrent 2D releases, though usually by only a few bucks. And 3D releases can be played back in 2D (and/or often also include a completely separate 2D version), so you could buy 3D films right now and enjoy them in 2D while you wait to bite the bullet on the glasses.
To play 3D Blu Rays, you will need a 3D Blu Ray player. If you have a PS3, you already have a 3D BR player. If not, there are some pretty cheap ones out there now–I see a couple under $90 at various discount retailers-- and better models are not too expensive.
I’ve got a bit of 3D content saved to a hard drive from online sources, and can plug it directly to my LG and watch 3D stuff without a 3D BR player; I can also stream YouTube to my TV and watch 3D content there, though it’s mostly trailers. Overall, though, 3D Blu Ray is a must if you want to get into 3D right now.
Now, for my honest opinion for whether you should do this or not…
If you have to ask if it’s worthwhile, don’t spring for the glasses yet. As mentioned, the movies available are pretty limited in genre, and 3D is still pretty much a “wow! technology!” early-adopter thing. Next time you’re in a Best Buy, though, do stop by and sample the 3D demo stations, to see if it does make you go “wow!” too.
It wouldn’t hurt to make sure your next Blu Ray player is 3D compatible out of the box, however. They’re relatively on a par price-wise with 2D players, and will future-proof you in the event the glasses become cheap enough to be a casual purchase for you. And, frankly, if you’re going with a huge TV yet haven’t gotten into HD video (by your use of the “DVD” terminology), it sounds like you could do with a Blu Ray player anyway.
Finally, if a movie you do like happens to come in a 3D format, go ahead and pick it up in 3D. You can still watch it in 2D right now, and if you eventually accumulate a number of 3D titles, that will either (1) give you a hint that your tastes do skew towards 3D-friendly genres, or (2) give you a ready-to-go library when you find used/cheap glasses for far less cost when their price drops in the future.
No one’s mentioned Samsung yet in this thread, so I guess it falls to me. I recently picked up a 55" Samsung LED that supports 3D; it uses BlueTooth-enabled active 3D glasses. Presumably, the BlueTooth signal tells the shutters in the glasses when to open & close.
Samsung sells the low end 3D glasses for $30; however, I’ve seen other online vendors sell them for under $20. I would imagine similar discounts would obtain for other brands.
If the OP has a 2011 model Panasonic which has IR control, so the Bluetooth Samsung glasses won’t work for him at all.
In fact, I’m pretty sure even older IR Samsung glasses wouldn’t work with a Panasonic set. I’ve got a pair of Xpand glasses that are multi-vendor, and if I set them to Samsung mode, they don’t work with my Panasonic TV.