3D TV? Video games?

[wash]

I finally upgraded my 32" lcd TV for a top of the line 3D ready LG 55LX9500 LED backlit LCD TV.

I mainly use my TV for Blue Ray movies and broadcast TV but I play my BD's on a PS3 with the 3D firmware so I think I'm ready for 3D movies and video games.

3D was not the main factor in my purchase. I just wanted a big screen with good color, contrast and faster refresh rates for less motion blur.

With that said, it looks like all I need for 3D movies are shutter glasses and a disk. After that, 3D gaming seems one game disk away.

The shutter glasses cost about $93 per set. I don't know if 3D movies cost more than 2D.

Is it worth it?

What movies/games should I buy?

Thanks for the help.

[professionalcoyotehunter]

I just got mine 2 weeks ago and I really dont like having to wear glasses for only 1% of the movie to be in 3D. The TV is sharp enough to have a depth perception without having to have the 3D.

[Coded-Dude]

For some movies 3d is awesome, for others...its just a gimmick. I'm looking forward to tron 3d tonight. 3D gaming should come as a feature that you can turn on/off(in the menu), and can give you better depth perception(depending on what type of games you play). Some developers have already released patches to make their games 3D capable.

I played Killzone3 in 3D at E3 and it was the best thing I have ever seen(even though it was a pre-alpha demo). Gt5 looked good, but was not as impressive. I can tell you it does look much more distinct in teh cartoony games/movies, but can also enhance other genre's as well.

[the_natterjack]

Try it out in a store somewhere and see if it's worth it. For me, it's not, but to each there own.

Oh, and please don't spend any money at Best Buy, they'll screw you over.

Brian

[shoupdawg]

I am looking at getting avatar in 3d. Also, make sure to upgrade to 1.4 hdmi cables.

[DaveFJ80]

For a PS3 game, you can play COD Black Ops in 3D. I tried it for awhile and it was a tricky to gauge the depth perception when shooting at somebody, but you can get used to it. Kind of cool, but if you have a large LED-LCD TV with good definition (I have the 65" Samsung LED), then IMO it's just as good or if not better than 3D since you don't need to wear glasses and put strain on your eyes (my eyes get tired if I sit for over an hour watching 3D). IMO, movies that were made in 3D (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, etc) look extremely good in 2D on Blu-ray and the colors and depth of the image looks a lot better than other movies I have.

I upgraded to 1.4 HDMI cables. Don't see a different between that and 1.3 but they were cheap from monoprice so I picked them up.

[wash]

I just got my new TV mounted.

I used a Barkan gallery mount so it's really flat on the wall. The whole set is 1.3" so it looks great. Sadly I can only use 1 HDMI port without spacing it away from the wall. I still need to hook up my antenna to see if I can pick up any local broadcasts but I need a longer coax cable to get the antenna in the right position.

So far the picture is outstanding, a huge step up from my cheap set and just huge in general, going from 32" to 55" does that.

I've decided to hold off a little bit on the 3D. There just isn't enough 3D source material and what I have found is expensive.

I also have another problem, the AV integrated amp I wanted evidently does not support full HDMI 1.4a. It doesn't do Ethernet over HDMI and that means I would need to space out the TV from the wall for a separate Ethernet cable or add a wireless adapter that also needs more space. It looks like I won't have surround sound until I can find a reasonably priced receiver with all the features I need.

[shoupdawg]

That's part of the reason I'm not wall mounting this. I have a really nice stand that matches the furniture in my living room and I just really didn't like wall mounting. I helped my buddy wall mount his tv. I came back a few weeks later and he has this huge tv stand set up that houses all his other gear and I was like, why not just put it on top of the stand if everything else is going to be out there? Another buddy did the same thing. In my opinion, that looks worse than putting it on the stand because now they have the cords snaking out. If it's something discreet and maybe the rest of the equipment is hidden behind a built in set up, I get it. But other than that, I prefer no wall mount.

I have to check if my new tv takes 1.4a.

[wash]

Yeah, it will be a bit of a mis-match because my center channel speaker can't flush mount.

There isn't much I can do about that but I have a small table under the set which I will place the speaker on. I want my home theater to be as few pieces as possible, just the receiver, a PS3, an iPod dock and maybe an AppleTV. That isn't as obvious as a stack of gear but it should do everything I want to do.

[DaveFJ80]

I posted this in another thread, but here's what I did for my setup (receiver, PS3, Blu-ray player, Dish DVR, speakers inside the cabinet). You can easily hide a iPod dock or AppleTV in there as well, but this gives you an idea.

What I did was I looked for the longest cabinet that I could find, that also wasn't too expensive, and that had glass inserts on the outer doors (the one I have is 72" long). I took the glass out and used speaker mesh and attached it to the inside of the doors. Put my Klipsh speakers in there and now my setup is clean looking and sounds great. I have a little room up top to put a center channel bar if I really want one, and that's if I decide to run rear surround speakers later (my current setup sounds great in my high-ceiling living room already). I'm still trying to figure out how to hide my sub (behind the couch) and hide the wires, without going wireless.






I used the $17 Monoprice TV wall bracket, and it's not the 'slim' model either so my TV sticks out maybe 1-2 inches max from the wall.... enough to where I cannot fit my hand behind there. It doesn't look like it in the pics due to the shadow, but it's very close to the wall and I'll have to take better pics of it.

I have plugged into the back a single HDMI cable, a Cat6 ethernet cable (which is kind of pointless for the TV now), an ultra-thin SVGA cable for my laptop (also kind of pointless since I have a DisplayPort on my laptop that uses a HDMI cable), and the power cable. The Sony receiver I have is nothing special, cost around $200 from Best Buy, but has HDMI 1.3 switching built into it. Works great between the Dish DVR, PS3, and Blu-ray player, using only 1 remote to control everything.

Even if you have your TV really close to the wall, you can make a hole in the wall around the approx area of where your cables plug into the TV, then fish it down and pull them out close to the ground. As long as you're not using some thick "Monster" style A/V cables that are very hard to bend, then you shouldn't have any problems getting them behind the TV when on the wall. Places sell 90-degree connectors also for your RCA/Composite and HDMI inputs, so you don't have to bend the cable or connector behind the TV.

[Coded-Dude]

PS3 and a BD player? If only.....



nice setup though. I need to get myself a nice little stand like that(for the speakers)

[maurice05]

I'll keep my money and wait for 3d without the glasses and the next generation chip set which is due out next year

[shoupdawg]

I posted this in another thread, but here's what I did for my setup (receiver, PS3, Blu-ray player, Dish DVR, speakers inside the cabinet). You can easily hide a iPod dock or AppleTV in there as well, but this gives you an idea.

What I did was I looked for the longest cabinet that I could find, that also wasn't too expensive, and that had glass inserts on the outer doors (the one I have is 72" long). I took the glass out and used speaker mesh and attached it to the inside of the doors. Put my Klipsh speakers in there and now my setup is clean looking and sounds great. I have a little room up top to put a center channel bar if I really want one, and that's if I decide to run rear surround speakers later (my current setup sounds great in my high-ceiling living room already). I'm still trying to figure out how to hide my sub (behind the couch) and hide the wires, without going wireless.






I used the $17 Monoprice TV wall bracket, and it's not the 'slim' model either so my TV sticks out maybe 1-2 inches max from the wall.... enough to where I cannot fit my hand behind there. It doesn't look like it in the pics due to the shadow, but it's very close to the wall and I'll have to take better pics of it.

I have plugged into the back a single HDMI cable, a Cat6 ethernet cable (which is kind of pointless for the TV now), an ultra-thin SVGA cable for my laptop (also kind of pointless since I have a DisplayPort on my laptop that uses a HDMI cable), and the power cable. The Sony receiver I have is nothing special, cost around $200 from Best Buy, but has HDMI 1.3 switching built into it. Works great between the Dish DVR, PS3, and Blu-ray player, using only 1 remote to control everything.

Even if you have your TV really close to the wall, you can make a hole in the wall around the approx area of where your cables plug into the TV, then fish it down and pull them out close to the ground. As long as you're not using some thick "Monster" style A/V cables that are very hard to bend, then you shouldn't have any problems getting them behind the TV when on the wall. Places sell 90-degree connectors also for your RCA/Composite and HDMI inputs, so you don't have to bend the cable or connector behind the TV.

Very nice set up...is that the 8500 samsung?

[Keystone]

the only reason I see 3d as any benefit to gaming is the possibility to play 2 player full screen while sharing the same tv. no more split screen and privacy.

[wash]

That looks nice and I would try to do it that way but my L/R speakers are towers...

Also the idea of a hole for cable routing would work but I'm in an apartment and probably shouldn't do that.

I'm pretty happy with the gallery mount I got, it was cheap and holds the TV dead flat on the wall. I just learned that LG has new models coming out that are 8.8 mm thick (0.343") which is probably why they were blowing out their top of the line TV's so cheap, but mine is only 1.3" thick which still looks great to me.

As for 3D without glasses, I don't expect to see it any time soon.

I bought my previous TV 4 years ago. If I continue the trend, I expect I won't be replacing my set until late 2014. I doubt 3D without glasses will be widely available by then and even if it was, it most likely won't be a reasonably priced second or third generation product.

I don't mind being a generation or two behind the cutting edge, it makes for more stable products with lower price tags.

For reference, this ~top of the line 55" 1080p LCD HDTV with local dimming LED backlight and 3D was $1,500.00. It has only been out a few months and is pretty cutting edge but it dropped beneath my price threshold and has better specs than what I wanted for an upgrade. I jumped for value, not to be an early adopter of 3D HDTV.

So far it's only a 2D TV for me (and a very good one), I would have bought it without the 3D feature but since it's there I will try it eventually.

On the antenna front, I got it hooked up yesterday. It pulls in many channels without even aiming it very well (it's an indoor antenna because I'm in an apartment). It's much better than my old set which has a not so great tuner that will freeze up if the broadcast signal isn't strong enough.

So far so good.