going 3D, is it worth it?

paradisiac

paradisiac

paradisiac

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hi, been having a quick scout around since getting the new powerdvd 10 and noticing it has a 3D option for 3D capable displays. now on there site they list the 3 different types of 3D, my question is, which is best, is it realistic that the technology will be more advanced and cheaper in the near future, and is it really that good?
my only experience with 3D is with the red and blue glasses and it wasnt really that good at all, are the other technologies that much better?
 
The shutter glasses tech is MUCH better than the coloured glasses tech, especially in games. Personally, I don't enjoy long gaming sessions (or movies) in 3D as my eyes get tired, but that is an individual thing.

I would suggest finding someone who has a proper 3D gaming PC setup and see how you find it (I believe there have been some demonstrations around the country). It is certainly an expensive technology (you need Nvidia 3D bundle, 120Hz 3D capable monitor and quite possibly a graphics card upgrade) - so you will want to know that it is definitely for you before you splash out.

As well as the Nvidia technology, there is the Zalman Trimon monitors that use a different technique for 3D - passive polarised glasses. Also, AMD/ATI are expected to demonstrate their own 3D system soon.

As will all 3D technologies at the moment - you will need to put on glasses, put up with TN panel monitors and suffer colour and brightness losses due to the glasses. For the time being (until they sort out glasses-free 3D) most of these drawbacks will remain (though hopefully they will start making some 120Hz IPS/VA panels soon).
 
i dont really want to go down the Nvidia route as i have 2 nive ATI cards in at the moment. i currently play on my 42" TV so ideally i wouldnt want to go too small, maybe even replace it with an LED HDTV that 3D capable, or do they use another technology again?
 
Yes, the 3D TVs use a different implementation of the same technology, so from what I hear they will not be compatible with the current Nvidia tech. This is similar to how shutter glasses from one brands TV will to work with a different brand 3DTV - there really isn't a standard yet.

If you have ATI cards and want to run 3D they I think you may be able to use 3D drivers like "iz3D" , but i'm not sure about the details. Also, ATI are expected to releases their own version of 3D soon, so it may be worth waiting to see what they come up with and how much it will cost.
 
i believe you can set up two projectors to do this. around £1k each projector so that you get good contrast (higher is better as its less dim through glasses). You pretty much line the images on top of each other using 3dIz drivers. Think you need to project the image onto a silver filmed screen and you must add filters to the projectors which you can buy from specialists (google this). The glasses are dirt cheap though. This would solve thhe size issue but costs £10k up for a complete system. Real question is wether you will use it to warrant that much. if you had the money spare id say go for it! If you dont like it you could then dual screen the two projectors hehe...
 
yet in the cinema you wear these cheap paper glasses with red blue lenses......why not just make the games work in the same way?
surely the games will sell more this way too.
 
The PS3 has a 3D update out or coming out soon.

That may be the cheaper option for 3D gaming.
 
Amnesia said:
yet in the cinema you wear these cheap paper glasses with red blue lenses......why not just make the games work in the same way?
surely the games will sell more this way too.
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Really? I haven't seen the red/blue ones for years - every cinema I have been to in recent times have used passive polarised lenses. They look a bit like cheap sunglasses.

The effect from these is MUCH better than the red/blue ones are the colours are not all off.

It is possible to run red/blue 3D on an Nvidia 8800 or newer card and a standard monitor. This is called Nvidia 3D vision discover and works in most games. However, the effect is not great in my opinion and the colours look really awful, it also cuts your framerates down by 30-50%.

The PS3 has a 3D update out or coming out soon.

That may be the cheaper option for 3D gaming.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but the cost of a new 3DTV (compared to getting a decent new standard HDTV) makes the PC 3D upgrade look pretty good. Also, due to the relatively low computing power of the PS3 (in relation to a modern gaming PC), the resolutions of PS3 games are reduced significantly to be able to achieve the 3D effect and playable framerates (30fps).
 
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Joebob said:
The PS3 has a 3D update out or coming out soon.

That may be the cheaper option for 3D gaming.
Click to expand...

i sold my ps3 and xbox360 when i bought my new build as they were both no where near the same standard for gaming, and the multimedia potential was also lacking in the consoles so this route isnt really the way i want to go, and im guessing it will use the blue/red glasses, which i personally thought was shocking quality.

this is what i got from cyberlinks website as like i said, this is the software that made me look into it. the 3D would probably be 90% for films, but games would be a bonus.

3d.png
 
AMD's 3D tech is released (IE the cards are compatible), and have made an "Open 3D Initiative" for devs and hardware companies to work from. The drivers would be either iZ3D or TriDef. The TriDef drivers are more hit and miss in that they either work with a game or don't, but give better quality in the ones that do (essentially).

You don't have to use NVidia's shutter glasses, Samsung have their own, and there are others around too. The other method is the horizontal polarization method (as used by the Zalman 3D monitors, and by the cinema). The second's advantage is the glasses are very cheap, but the vertical viewing angle is not great (between 10° and 30°).
 
so any LED/LCD/Plasma TV claiming to be '3D Ready/Compatible' would do? is there anything special that links the GPU to the TV or would it word via the normal HDMI lead?
 
I don't think HDMI can do 1080p and 3D - it doesn't have the bandwidth. Only the newest spec HDMI does. Therefore you'd have to look at DVI-D.
 
HDMI V1.4 can do 120Hz, 3D at 1080p, as it has enough bandwidth, but I don't know what the HDMI adapters in the 5xxx series are.

EDIT: They've got 1.3: Link
 
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Marvin said:
HDMI V1.4 can do 120Hz, 3D at 1080p, as it has enough bandwidth, but I don't know what the HDMI adapters in the 5xxx series are.

EDIT: They've got 1.3: Link
Click to expand...

thanks for that, so without getting a new gfx card i cant use it with a tv as i cant seem to find any with hdmi, or would a dvi-hdmi do the trick?
 
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