3D gaming and 3D TV - consumers misunderstand the tech, or simply don't care

I'm looking at buying a Samsung 40" LED LCD at the end of the year. It's going for around R 15k these days, but the exact same LED LCD in a 3D version is around R25k.

The price is just too much. Unfortunately I was "lucky" enough to actually see the two of them in action side by side. The 200HZ of the 3D version makes a rediciculous amount of difference in quality compared to the non-3D 100HZ screen that I'll be getting. :(
 
The difference between 60Hz and 100Hz is insane...but that same difference does not scale going from 100Hz to 200Hz. My current plasma television does 100Hz and you'd be very hard presses to justify an upgrade to another TV because of the difference that 200Hz offers you. 100Hz is like a GTX280 where the 200Hz is the GTX285. Really - it's not worth the upgrade.

As for 3D technology; what these people don't understand is that 3D tech has never been widely adopted. EVER. 3D technology is nothing new and 20 years ago people loved 3D, but in movie theaters. Time moved on and 3D got left behind for bigger screens with higher resolution 2D images. The same applies today.

3D technology is nice, but it's not a driving factor behind sales. People simply are not interested enough and the costs just snowball the situation. Let it go man! Let it go!
 
I wrote this on the front comment section as well, but it's important that people looking into 3D TV's for gaming and blu-rays understand this. Based on what I know about 3D television and content, it's NOT the consumers that are being ignorant, it's the suppliers that are not giving consumers all the facts. They're purposely hiding the ugly facts about 3D technology because they know no-one in their right mind would buy the over prices hardware if they knew what was really going on.

Please include this fact as well:

Full HD 3D requires the consumer to have setup that is HDMI v1.4 compatible all the way through. This means that the TV needs to support HDMI v1.4 as well as your amplifier if you have one.

The reason behind this is that HDMI v1.3 (the current standard found in most homes) doesn't support the bandwidth needed for Full HD stereoscopic images.

But the PS3 only supports HDMI v1.3, so what now? Simple - the Stereoscopic 3D on a PS3 is NOT Full HD. That means when you watch a 3D Blu-Ray movie you're watching it at 1080i (at best) and not 1080P like normal Blu-Rays. So you're essentially dropping image quality by going down to 1080i and you're further dropping your image quality by using shutter glasses that darken the image and distorts colors.

So - what's the point of spending thousands of rands on an "upgrade" that gives you worse image quality than you may already have?

Think about it.
 
When looking specifically at gamers, who are generally perceived as being more tech savy than regular consumers, 63 percent wrongfully believed that all that was required to upgrade to 3D was a console firmware update. Eighty-three percent believe that special glasses are required to enjoy 3D entertainment, which is true for the most part, for now.

I loled ;)

For a person that does not have a huge budget will rather spend all that money it takes to upgrade to a 3d setup and get better hardware.
 
The difference between 60Hz and 100Hz is insane...but that same difference does not scale going from 100Hz to 200Hz. My current plasma television does 100Hz and you'd be very hard presses to justify an upgrade to another TV because of the difference that 200Hz offers you. 100Hz is like a GTX280 where the 200Hz is the GTX285. Really - it's not worth the upgrade.

I don't know hey. When I was at Makro last week they had both TVs there showing Avatar, the 3D one above the normal one. You can see the difference between them. Crisper images on the 3D version. But the price just doesn't make it viable.
 
I don't know hey. When I was at Makro last week they had both TVs there showing Avatar, the 3D one above the normal one. You can see the difference between them. Crisper images on the 3D version. But the price just doesn't make it viable.

Dude don't worry about it. You need to put your 100Hz TV next to a TV that only does 60Hz and you'll think you've got the best TV in the World. Like I've said, I saw all three models right next to each other and yes, 200Hz is nice, but the real difference popped out between the 60Hz and 100Hz models.

It's all marketing trying to push people to the next "best" thing. They'll lie straight into your face to get your money.

When it comes to TVs these days it's the same as PCs. Get what you can afford and feel happy with NOW and stay calm about it. 2 days later you know something supposedly "better" will come out. That shouldn't make you regret what you already have.
 
Dude don't worry about it. You need to put your 100Hz TV next to a TV that only does 60Hz and you'll think you've got the best TV in the World. Like I've said, I saw all three models right next to each other and yes, 200Hz is nice, but the real difference popped out between the 60Hz and 100Hz models.

It's all marketing trying to push people to the next "best" thing. They'll lie straight into your face to get your money.

When it comes to TVs these days it's the same as PCs. Get what you can afford and feel happy with NOW and stay calm about it. 2 days later you know something supposedly "better" will come out. That shouldn't make you regret what you already have.

Aaaahhhh, I never checked to see if they were a 200Hz and 100Hz or a 200Hz and a 60Hz. That could be why the dif was so clear. Cool man, now I feel better for getting 100Hz one. :D
 
When it comes to TVs these days it's the same as PCs. Get what you can afford and feel happy with NOW and stay calm about it.

Precisely. This philosophy can actually be applied to any purchase made. It doesn't help you wait, because next week/month/year they are releasing the new model and the prices will drop etc etc. I've heard all those arguments. And they are mostly correct, but the problem with that reasoning is that you will then never buy, because there will always be newer and better technology coming out.

My first rule when buying anything is always first determine budget. Then shop around in that budget and get what you can now and be happy with your buy. So what if Bob from next door buys a bigger better toy next week for 20% less, you had yours first!
 
Precisely. This philosophy can actually be applied to any purchase made. It doesn't help you wait, because next week/month/year they are releasing the new model and the prices will drop etc etc. I've heard all those arguments. And they are mostly correct, but the problem with that reasoning is that you will then never buy, because there will always be newer and better technology coming out.

My first rule when buying anything is always first determine budget. Then shop around in that budget and get what you can now and be happy with your buy. So what if Bob from next door buys a bigger better toy next week for 20% less, you had yours first!

Doesn't it make you guys a bit sick to think that even Television manufacturers have now started the same mentality and tactics that have made PC gamers bankrupt over the years? Every second month now we're bombarded with new models of HDTVs, each one has a "one up" over the others and you're made to feel like something you bought just a short while ago is no longer good enough.

WTF is happening to this World? I remember when you bought a TV and you were set for, what was very likely, a couple of years! The only thing that use to change was that new gaming consoles were released and even the time frames between that was always years, not months!

One of these days (and this may be a very chilling prophetic vision) you're going to have to upgrade your TV in order to play certain games. What these manufacturers are failing to understand is that buying a new TV isn't exactly affordable and a television is one of those things that only gets replaced when the current one becomes ancient and REALLY outdated.

Sorry, but unless Blu-Ray doesn't double in its image resolution, I cannot see why I would ever want to upgrade my current television.
 
The only reason I would buy a better LCD than my current would be so that I can stick my current one in my bar (okay, still working on that) and get a nice new flashy one for the TV room. And that's also only if I can convince my wife that it's absolutely neccesary and that would be a very hard sell!
 
Doesn't it make you guys a bit sick to think that even Television manufacturers have now started the same mentality and tactics that have made PC gamers bankrupt over the years? Every second month now we're bombarded with new models of HDTVs, each one has a "one up" over the others and you're made to feel like something you bought just a short while ago is no longer good enough.

WTF is happening to this World? I remember when you bought a TV and you were set for, what was very likely, a couple of years! The only thing that use to change was that new gaming consoles were released and even the time frames between that was always years, not months!

One of these days (and this may be a very chilling prophetic vision) you're going to have to upgrade your TV in order to play certain games. What these manufacturers are failing to understand is that buying a new TV isn't exactly affordable and a television is one of those things that only gets replaced when the current one becomes ancient and REALLY outdated.

Sorry, but unless Blu-Ray doesn't double in its image resolution, I cannot see why I would ever want to upgrade my current television.

Its not all about the resolution when it comes to tv's. Theres a reason on why u pay 10k and 40k for a 42" LCD display and you might find that they are both FULL HD, but theres alot more to that. I currently have the samsung Ps50c7000 which retails for about 28k and the qaulity on that is phenominal. Probably one of the best qaulity displays out there on the market which is 3d as well but i bought it mainly for the qaulity. Pioneer 42" displays which uses the kurov technology you will not be able to compare that to some cheapy 10k display. Definately worth the money, when buying a display make sure u buy a decent one and you wont have to buy another one for a while, its not the same as pc's where you will see stuff lagging and you will need faster hardware. Tv's will always be good, no need for an upgrade all the time, unless u got a cheapy display with horrible qaulity.
 
I just want to say that personally price is always the deciding factor. When one is a serious gamer you are bound to own more than one platform and buying all the games games is pretty expensive. Right now I do not see enough gain for what I will be paying, once I do however I will look into is asap.

I am keen on this tech however suffering from headaches and eye strain in general puts me off somewhat. Once the prices stabilize, like most tech does, then I will go into it. Right now it is in its infancy, and only the dedicated and rich seem capable of justifying it. It certainly does have a future, obviously without glasses, and more on the gaming side I think.
 
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