Your Guide to Making the Most of 3D TV
Whether you want a 3D TV to enjoy the most high-tech, real-life viewing experience that a home entertainment system can offer, or you’re a serious gamer who demands nothing but the best in interactivity, the following guide will explore some of the main factors that make 3D TV’s stand out at their best.
Picture Quality
When it comes to top of the range screen quality, you have three main options:
Projector
If you’re on a budget and your living room logistics allow, you cannot get closer to the cinema quality experience than projectors. You’ll need a large blank wall for this. The one downside however is that projector 3D models are best for dark rooms – if you want to watch TV during the day, you might find the brightness levels and contrast ratio are not quite as sharp as you would like.
Plasma
Plasma screens arguably come out tops when it comes to refresh rates. What this means is the ability of the screen to replace one image frame with the next one without any detection by the human eye – thus, the higher the refresh rates the better for a seamless viewing experience. Plasma 3D TV’s offer refresh rates of up to 600Hz, which is exceptionally high. It must be said however that the human eye cannot discern the difference between 600Hz and 480Hz (which is what some LCD’s offer), so in many respects this is a mute point.
Plasma TV’s also have a high contrast ratio – typically at 10000:1 compared to 5000:1 for most LCD’s – which means they tend to be brighter for daytime viewing.
LCD
LCD TV’s are known for their superior backlighting technology, which makes colours vivid and black/white contrasts sharp. They offer similar specs to Plasma’s in most respects, so ultimately, it will come down to your personal preferences – your best bet is to pay a visit to your local High Street electronics store and compare the picture quality yourself.
Complimentary Audio
Even if you buy the most high-end 3D TV available on the marketplace, it will fall flat without the complimentary audio to really bring the images to life.
While your budget might limit you to a 5.1 system rather than a 7.1, this simply means that you won’t have the two extra rear speakers. With only four, you will still have an impressive sound quality however, since these four main speakers that come with any decent sound system are really the ones that will give you that truly immersive depth of sound.
Some top tips to get the best complimentary sound for your 3D TV are:
- Put the speakers as far away from each other as possible and as evenly distributed as your living room allows.
- The centre speaker is best used for dialogue, its placement is important so that you never miss a word even while bombs may be exploding and bullets flying.
- The bass speaker, or subwoofer, is unidirectional, meaning it provides a low rumble and thump that will in most cases be felt equally from any position in your living room.
Gaming Interactivity
3D TV is surely going to take the gaming world to a new level by offering the most immersive interactive environment ever seen. To date, over 500 first person shooters, flight simulators, car racing and puzzle solving games are now available in 3D and this is set to expand at a rate of knots over the coming years, with major games manufacturers investing heavily in this cutting-edge technology for home entertainment. 3D gaming provides a vivid experience of virtual immersion to revolutionise the possibilities of interactivity.
As a gamer, you’ll be looking for the following features from a 3D TV:
- Any demanding gamer will need high resolution imagery and intense levels of detail that push their hardware to its limits. Your 3D TV model must be capable of displaying no less than 720p50, 720p60 or 1080p24 resolutions. You’ll want high frame rates so that the virtual action flows seamlessly.
- For watching fast moving images, the refresh rate of the TV is critical. The minimum refresh rate for a 3D TV is 120Hz, but this may be insufficient for optimal gaming. As a rule of thumb, 240Hz is sufficient and ultimately from there, the higher the better. Plasma TV displays tend to have an estimated refresh rate of around 600Hz. While some LCD/LED’s also fit the bill, they don’t always come standard with this capability.
- LCD/LED TV’s tend to have higher contrast ratios and brighter screens, so in an ideal world a gamer would choose an LCD/LED screen with a very high refresh rate.
Conclusion
In summary, getting the most from a 3D TV is all about knowing your priorities and researching the corresponding features that different models offer, as well as choosing the right complimentary electronics to add to the quality and realism of your viewing experience.
About the Author: Barry Knightly owns a 3D TV and electronics repair business.
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