ConsumerReports.org Unveils First Ratings of 3D TVs
Looks like I might have to give in that this “3D” fad isn’t going away any time soon, as the all mighty Consumer Reports has finally started reviewing them. For those unaware, a lot of folks will place a HUGE emphasis on what CR says about a product (my dad included), and they’re well respected for knowing their stuff. In this case, it’s something that our own Andrew Van Til has been saying for a while now–the Panasonic Plasmas are really tough to beat.
In its first-ever Ratings of 3D TVs, ConsumerReports.org has found that the some of the best performing 3D-capable TVs were among the best overall HD performers. The Panasonic VT20 and VT25 plasma models were among the best HD sets that ConsumerReports.org has ever tested. In addition to excellent HD performance, they displayed the least ghosting with 3D programming, and achieved the highest overall scores in Consumer Reports 3D TV Ratings.
I regularly use Consumer
I regularly use Consumer Reports, since the wife subscribed a while back when researching new vehicles. However, other than cars, I use CR as an additional resource to my own Googling. I’ve found that they do not always look at the important factors for certain items because they’re trying to make the report apply to the widest audience possible. I haven’t used them for TV reviews, but I would suspect this to particularly be the case for TVs. While Joe Consumer will probably find their information adequate enough, visitors to Missing Remote will most likely need to do additional research here and on other reputable sites.
All that out of the way, at least they came to the same conclusion I did: Panasonic Plasmas are awesome.
its not going away because
its not going away because its a feature that can be added to a normal television without affecting its normal operation.
but that doesn’t mean that its going to be anything more than a novelty in its current form.
I’m pretty much a diehard fan
I’m pretty much a diehard fan of Samsung for anything LCD and Panasonic for Plasma. Back in the day I was a Pioneer Elite plasma fan but I heard Panasonic was behind a lot of their panels.
When I see Netflix streaming 3d, which I imagine would be by the end of the year. Then I’ll start taking a look at 3d Tvs. Otherwise I don’t plan on dropping 400 bucks on 3d glasses for everyone in the house. And Redbox would need to have new releases in 3d also.
Does anyone know if ATSC has enough bandwidth to send 3d signals?
Samsung makes some great
Samsung makes some great plasmas too. They simply don’t market them like they do LCDs.
I wouldn’t count on Netflix streaming 3D or Redbox stocking 3D BDs anytime soon. VUDU will be streaming 3D though fairly shortly.
ATSC can certainly be used to send frame-compatible 3D now. This won’t happen though because all the people with displays that don’t know what to do with the image will simply see a side-by-side or top-bottom view of the left and right eye content.
I would think it could be
I would think it could be done. If memory serves, ATSC provides 19.2Mb for the entire channel that can be split between HD and several SD sub channels. I believe that 720p and 1080i only need 12.7Mb of that bandwidth so the remainder of the sub channel bandwidth could be allocated for 3D.
Sure, you could relegate it
Sure, you could relegate it to a sub channel, but even 13mbps MPEG2 isn’t going to be great HD. I hate how my NBC affiliate has 2 sub channels which makes SNF look pretty bad.
ATSC has spec’d h.264, but I’m pretty sure we won’t see that any time soon.