I spent the last few weeks in search of the 3rd
dimension. It started, however, a little over four years ago when I
purchased my Samsung HL61A750 DLP TV. At the time it was the last of the DLP
TV's (along with the Mitsubishi DLP's), the LCD/LED/Plasmas were starting to
take hold in the market. Although the last of what was becoming at the
time of an older technology (how fast things change when you're having a good time!) the Samsung DLP, which
was rear projection, did not use the usual projection bulb - which needs to be
changed out every 2-4 thousand hours of use, and can cost upwards of
$200-$350! This television used an LED
light engine, which has the same MTBF as the entire set. MTBF, for those who are curious, is Mean Time
Between Failure, a number which represents the mean time until the first
failure or breakdown occurs on a product.
It's a number that manufacturers use to determine how long warranties
last. So if you want to know how they
can figure out how to make the product fail a week after the warranty is gone,
that's how......
My Samsung TV was 3D ready, BUT this was prior to when the HDMI Ver. 1.4 standards were set, which
ultimately did not include the checkerboard 3D format the Mitsubishi and
Samsung DLP TV's used. I figured I was out of luck and did not really
pursue the matter further. Last December I was talking to my brother in
Arizona, and he said I should figure it out, because he felt 3D adds allot to
movies - although I think it looks cool, I was still not convinced. In
the meantime i visited a friend that has a 3d TV, and I was impressed enough to
do some checking to see what was possible.
Seeing my friend's setup was a
bit of encouragement - it looked a whole lot better than what I've seen running
at Best Buy. I don't wonder that Best buy is having problems when they do
such a crappy job of setup of the things they are trying to sell.
SO:
1. Mitsubishi
came out with a 3D converter box that allows the DLP sets made by both
Mitsubishi and Samsung to use any 3D source - PS3, BluRay, DirecTV, etc.
$560. There are two versions of this box, and the earlier version (cost
about $450) seems to 'kind of work' with the Samsung DLP tv's, the later one is
definitely designed to . Either way, I
won't spend that much on a 4 1/2 year old TV! I can get a new set that
has 3D on it - Vizio has a 3D 42" set for $500. This is not an option that I would consider.
2. Use software
on the computer (my HTPC). I found that Cyberlink PowerDVD has 3d output -
including checkerboard. Might be promising, and am emailing their tech
support to see what can make it happen. I found that the anaglyph setting
(blue red glasses) works, but the colors are way off, and of course there is a
definite decrease in brightness. I can set the output to checkerboard,
but the TV doesn't recognize the signal. This is going to be a lot of playing
around to try to figure out what settings are causing problems, and with
everything else on the HTPC (Home
Theater PC) I am reluctant to screw things up.
3. It turns out
that Panasonic's 3D BluRay players have built in checkerboard for the DLP sets
made by both Mitsubishi and Samsung. I bought a compatible emitter
for my Samsung DLP set with two pairs of glasses, and got a refurbished Panny
BluRay player for $60 - and voila! 3D that looks great! I am very impressed with the results.
So the pursuit of the 3rd dimension has been
successful. I am still going to see about getting the software solution
working (reluctanty), but am unsure of what that particular outcome will
be. I know that the video card I have in the HTPC should be capable
- it's an ATI/AMD HD Radeon 6670 - and the 6XXX series does 3D - but between
the drivers and the software and who knows what else it's pretty convoluted at
best.
The other thing I've been doing is 3D as well - upgrading my
A/V receiver for better surround sound. The Panasonic BluRay player that
I got has only DTS sound out of BluRay discs, so I needed to get something that
would recognize the new audio codecs that seem to be increasing almost
daily. The receiver I was replacing is an Onkyo - with 65 watts x 5
channels (simultaneously!) and was fairly high end when I got it back in
'97. I figured around 500-600 I could get something decent, but found a
great deal at 1saleaday.com.
1saleaday.com
has really great prices, but apparently the guys in shipping only work 1 or 2
days a month, and their 7-10 day shipping guarantee works out to 15-35 days,
depending on whim, weather or mayhaps hot flashes or something.
They had a Sherwood Newcastle R-972 7.1 surround receiver for
$299.95, refurbished. Tests online indicate 68Watts/channel all channels driven.
Retail on the unit is $1800. Got it a few days ago, and its gonna
take another month to figure all the stuff out on it! Sounds Great!
So now I have to check out some 3d movies that I
purchased. See you later, I'll be busy!
