Moving into the 3D era

Rik1254

Rik1254

Rik1254

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Abertillery - S.Wales
Found some dollar in my car seats and want to go 3D.

I have £200 to spend and found 2 monitors I can pick up today, which are:

Acer 23" GR235HA

or

LG 23" D2342P


Now Im new into this, so can this turn anything my computer puts through it into 3D? or will it need special 3D stuff like Bluray player+3D movie?
If I want to game (say Portal or something) will I need to buy the Nvidia 3D kit/ AMD compatible kit?
 
After having a little look (I dont understand any of the 3D terms, so I could just be pulling at straws here), both converts to 3D, but the LG is passive, which Im taking as a good thing?
 
I had a read through that, didnt really answer any of my questions, hence this thread.

I slightly understand the 3D nature now though through that thread, in terms of a 120hz 3D monitor is better though DVi/ DP that HDMI.

Thanks anyway.
 
Hi there, Hopefully I can answer a few of your 3D/monitor questions.

First, may I ask are you mainly focusing on 3D movies, or is gaming in 3D going to be a big priority?

As for which monitors to go for, since you have a HD 6970/50 then you can only do 3D via HDMI 1.4 or Displayport 1.2 (3D via DVI is only practical with Nvidia graphics cards). Between DP and HDMI, Dispalyport 1.2 monitors are much better for 3D as they can recieve a full 1080p@60Hz (per eye) signal, while with HDMI 1.4 bandwidth restrictions mean that you are limited to only 1080p@30Hz (per eye) or 720p@60Hz (per eye). For playing videos (which usually run at 24fps) then this is no issue, but for playing games 1080p@30Hz is far from ideal so you will be forced to drop the resolution down to 720p to allow for playable 3D gaming.

As for playing movies in 3D you will not only need a 3D monitor that is compatible with HDMI 1.4 or Displayport 1.2, you will also need paid-for video playing software that can handle 3D Blu-rays. Examples of these include PowerDVD 10/11/12 Ultra, Win DVD pro and Totalmedia Theatre 5.

For playing games in 3D you need paid-for middleware that works with AMD's 3D system. The options are either Tridef 3D or IZ3D.

That said, I would personally suggest skipping the 3D fad and go straight to a 2560x1440 resolution IPS panel "2D" monitor.
 
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Thanks andi, thats exactly what I needed :)

Im looking into going into everything, movies, images and gaming. Any serious gaming however will be entirely 2D, casual will be 3D for the gimmick :)

Im not exactly a serious gamer, so a high res (2560x1440) monitor will be useless, Im happy troddling along at 1080p :).

I will, however, use my xbox with the monitor to get some 3D action :)


Out of the 2 in my OP, which would you deem as best (albeit, probably complete tosh at £200).
 
I have heard people have been happy with the LG passive 3D monitors, but in my mind you are paying a fair amount of money for a non-ideal 3D experience (due to the restrictions caused by HDMI 1.4 I mentioned earlier) and you don't get the benefit of a 120Hz mode when using the monitor in "2D", as these panels on passive 3D monitors can only refresh at 60Hz.

Therefore, I would either go for one of the nice DP 1.2 3D monitors (like the S23A750 from samsung) that use the active technology (so you get 120Hz "2D" as well as full resolution 3D) or invest in a nice quality IPS monitor like the Dell U2312HM, Dell U2412M or ASUS ML239H (one of these won't give you 3D or 120Hz, but the superior image quality will be nice for all your planned uses).
 
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