Quick guide to help choosing 3D TV type

What kind of 3D do you already have or want to get?

  • 4k Active 3D

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1080p Active 3D

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1080p Passive 3D

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1080p 2D is all I need/want

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    3
L

Latent

Full Audioholic
3D in TV's is slowly going away but for those still interested in watching 3D content at home on their TV here is some useful info.

First the types of 3D tv's available are as follows:

  1. 4k Active 3D: Which have fast refresh rates and support 1080p 3D sources in full detail but require heaver/expensive glasses and can suffer from flashing, ghosting and crosstalk in some situations. They could do full resolution 4k 3D in theory but there is no content delivery for this yet.
  2. 4k Passive 3D: Which lose half their vertical resolution to 1080p for 3D content and have cheap/lighter glasses and less ghosting/crosstalk issues.
  3. 1080p Active 3D: Which are cheaper since they don't have 4k but still give full 1080p 3D but with the same downsides as 4k Active above
  4. 1080p Passive 3D: Which also lose half their vertical resolution making them only 540p but still do 1920 horizontal resolution and have cheap/lighter glasses and less ghosting/crosstalk issues.
  5. 3D projectors: Most of these are DLP based and are comparable to Active TV's above. Resolutions vary. Passive technology projectors like those used in theaters often use two overlapping projectors that are polarized one for each eye but are a lot more expensive.
Different 3D TV types have different positive and negatives and I think it is helpful if we first start with working out what you will be able to see from your rooms viewing distance as this has a big impact on the choice you are going to make.

Here is an Audioholics guide done by Cliff Heyne last year:
https://www.audioholics.com/hdtv-formats/how-to-find-the-right-size-tv

And below is a useful image from that guide for reference:

So measure your viewing distance and Find the size of the TV you have or are considering purchasing to find what area on this graph you are. Based on this follow the section below that matches your area:

Lightest Area:
You are far to far away from your screen to get a very good 3D TV experience. Move closer or get a bigger TV! At this range a 1080P Passive screen would work the best as you will not see the 540p limitation of the Passive technology. 1080P active will also work well but has a few more issues and 4k is pointless.

720p beneficial:
You are a bit far away and may not get a fully immersive 3D experience. If you are not near the left side of this area then you may be able to see the 540p vertical resolution of 1080p passive screens which may show up as a loss of detail and jaggies especially in detail like text. But the effect will not be very noticeable for most people. 4k passive will give the best results but it may be hard to justify the price when you are still so far away and not able to enjoy 4k content. 1080p Active should work very well but you may still prefer a 1080p Passive for its advantages as you don't lose a lot of detail at this range. 4k Active would be pointless.

1080p Full HD beneficial:
You are now close enough to enjoy a great 3D experience. At this range you are very likely to notice the loss of detail from 1080p Passive displays even if you can't see the black horizontal lines yet. 4k Passive will give you the best results but 1080p Active may be not far behind and a bit cheaper. 1080p passive are a bit of a compromise but may still give ok results and 4k Active is pointless.

4k Ultra HD beneficial:
You are now at the ideal range to get a great level of immersion but watch out if you get too close as the 3D eye separation encoded in the content may not be as well calibrated for close distances. Also close distances can cause more crosstalk issues if you are not well positioned. Most 3D content has a max resolution of 1080p and you can see more than this at this range so you may notice a loss of fine detail. 4k Active may give more detail through upscaling but 4k Passive may still be better due to it's other advantages. 1080p Active will still give decent results and is still a good option but 1080p Passive will not work well this close. Also note you are now close enough for 4k 2D content to make use of a 4k screen.

Other things to note:
  • There are features like HDR to consider which may give you a reason to go 4k even if not recommend above.
  • Some TV's have been reported to not process 1080p 3D well and only provide 540p resolution due to how they do the processing even though they should be capable of more. This may be fixed with firmware updates on some models though.
  • Some of the options listed like the 1080p options especially are no longer available in current generation TV's and you may have to look for an older model to get it now.
The notes above are just my thoughts on the subject so please let me know if you fine any obvious mistakes for me to update.
 

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