I had to have one, just had to have one. 3DTV beaming at me from the corner of my living room just seemed like the most essential purchase I could make. I spent hours researching TV sets, Blu Ray players, HDMI cables and the pros and cons of active/passive viewing to come up with my set up – So let’s take a look at my final set up, how/why I chose it and how I’ve been getting on with it.
The TV
VS
The first mistake anyone can make when buying a TV is to think that bigger is always better. You should select the size of your television based on the size of your room and the distance you are sitting from the screen. There is a brilliant scene in Extras where Stephen Merchant, as agent Darren Lamb, talks about how his new TV is too big for his room “It’s too bright. I was wiring it up and David Dickinson came on and his tan nearly took my eyeballs out. I’m all over the place, I’ve got headaches – I’ve got it the box now. I’m just watching a little portable”.
A local retailer helped me out by providing me with a poster that folded out to show how big a TV set, it was really useful as it allowed me to get a really clear idea of how much space the TV would take up. I decided on a 40”-42″ screen as being ideal for my living room so the search began. I quickly decided on one of two sets (Sony Bravia KDL40NX713 and LG 42W450U) with the main difference between the sets was the technology for producing 3D.
Passive
If you’ve seen a 3D movie at the cinema then you’ll be familiar with this technology. A simple pair of plastic sunglasses filter the image seen by each eye to provide the 3D effect. Nice and cheap, if you broke a pair they’re cheap and easy to replace (Plus this TV comes with a massive 7 pairs of glasses to get you started). The problem here for me though was the loss in image quality as rather than seeing a glorious 1080p image you’re only seeing a 540 image in each eye. This isn’t a problem in the cinema as those screens use a resolution of at least 2,048×1,080 pixels (Newer projectors are capable of 4 times that) but in the home the reduction is pretty dramatic (in my opinion anyway)
Active Shutter
The Sony uses this technology which uses a Bluetooth link between the TV and glasses (Although you have to buy a 3D transmitter and glasses separately). What you have are essentially two LCD screens that alternate black and clear in time with the image in the screen, this makes sure that each eye sees only the image that it needs to see to create the effect. This all happens so quickly that you won’t really notice a difference when watching the TV although you may find the room darkens around you as at any time one of your eyes is basically being blocked out.
Eventually I decided on the Sony. In my opinion the set looks a lot more stylish and I really wanted my 3D in full HD rather than 520 lines per eye. I tagged on the 3D sensor and four pairs of glasses to complete the set (Honestly I could probably have got away with two pairs of glasses, but I want to show the TV off if we have folks at the house. Plus my sons will need glasses at some stage, so better to get the full set up now). Like most modern TV’s it uses the VESA mounting system so it was easy enough to take my old TV off the wall mounting and just pop this one on (A real relief, as a new mounting bracket would have meant a major construction project)
Blu Ray Player
I spent a while considering the option of using my PS3 as the BluRay player. Since last years update the PS3 is now capable of playing 3D BluRays and you can download 3D movies from the Playstation Network, additionally by the end of this year over 30 game titles will be playable in 3D. However as I tend to use my PS3 in a different room I decided a dedicated 3D Blu Ray was the way to go. I decided to stick with the Sony brand so it boiled down to a simple choice between two models – The BDPS480 and the BDPS580, essentially they are the same machine except the BDPS580 has inbuilt Wi-Fi (For updates, BD Live and the variety of web apps – although these are also featured on the TV). I decided on the BDPS580 for the Wi-Fi functionality, although you can add a “dongle” to the BDPS480 for Wi-Fi the cost of the dongle plus Blu player is around £50 more than just buying the BDPS580.
Cables
Don’t let anyone convince you that you need to spend a fortune on cables so transmit 3D or High Definition. As long as you’re using a High Speed HDMI (HDMI1.3 or 1.4 if you want to be technical) then you’ll be fine. It’s likely that an over enthusiastic salesman or Home Theatre enthusiast is going to tell you that you must spend over £50 to get a decent cable, it’s absolute nonsense. There isn’t any cable that can improve your picture or do a better job than another. An HDMI cable either works or it doesn’t, there is no in-between, this wasn’t the case with SCART cables but it is with HDMI.
A Month Later
I’m totally made up with the equipment, it looks great – honestly I could stare at the TV even if it was off. The 3D effect is stunning, especially when using a film shot in proper 3D (Tron Legacy), the TV can even do a trick where it converts 2D to 3D on the fly – the results are actually okay, but the novelty wears off in moments. But I must confess I’ve barely used the 3D properly. I did watch the Wimbledon finals in 3D and they looked nice, I’ve also watched Piranha 3D (An awful/brilliant horror movie) but other than that I’ve not really used it too much. The problem is there isn’t actually an awful lot of content available yet, apart from Tron Legacy (which I’m saving for a proper evening to myself where I can crank up the volume and not have to keep explaining the plot to the Current Mrs James) most of the 3D Blu Rays available are for kids. I have bought Yogi Bear, Ice Age 3D, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 3D – but you try convincing a 5 year old that he needs to wear glasses and sit up straight to watch a film. He’d rather lie upside down on the sofa and just watch a normal film with the option of running off if he wants to. If I can’t convince my 5 year old, then I have no chance with my 2 year old (Plus there appears to be increasing advice that children under 6 shouldn’t watch 3D for too long anyway. Also those glasses are £75 to replace so I’m not going to leave them sat on their own for more than 3 seconds at a time.
So the whole 3D thing may seem a bit pointless right now and perhaps you think that I wasted my money. However the best of 3D is yet to come. This year we’re going to get Transformers 3, Thor, Captain America, Pirates Of The Caribbean 3, Cars 2, Rio and a host of other delights coming our way which will increase the library available. Also more PS3 games will support 3D adding another interesting source of entertainment to the list. Plus by Christmas my eldest son, Jack, will be that little bit older and I think that between Cars 2 and Rio I’m going to give him reason enough to stay still and keep the glasses on.
I could not be happier with the set up I’ve chosen, now I’ve just got to convince the current Mrs James to let me get Sky Sports and Movies so I can watch Arsenal win the Premiership 2011/2012 the way it’s supposed to be seen – at home, on the sofa with a cup of coffee and a chocolate Hobnob.
A Final Note - Some of you will be wondering why I haven’t considered speaker set ups, amplifiers and that sort of thing to really deliver the “Home Cinema” experience. As previously mentioned I have two young lads who have a habit of sticking their fingers/lego/Thomas The Tank Engine into things. They destroyed my last speaker set up (although it was 10 years old) and it wasn’t something I wanted to explore at this time. I simply couldn’t deal with the stress of jumping up every time they got within 3 feet of a speaker. As such I decided to simply try the TV’s speakers before making any decision. LCD TV’s often get a bad write up from reviews but the fact of the matter is they are just fine for most of us. Tech reviewers have access to the very best kit around and compared to a £5000 speaker set up an LCD TV speakers will not compare, but do you really need to be pumping out Dolby Digital sounds at a volume that will make next doors cat pack it’s bags and leave home? I don’t think so, I know I certainly don’t. So for now I will get by without a full speaker set up, but it’ll be the first thing I buy when I win the lottery and convert the garage into a full home cinema set up.
