Just bought a Samsung PN50A450 50" plasma, new to S3D.

[Anthony1]

The Saturday prior to Black Friday I bought a Samsung PN50A450 at Fry's Electronics. At that point in time, I really didn't know much of anything about 3D capabilities. I just needed a new TV for the living room, and the 50 inch Samsung was the best bang for the buck for my particular situation. When I got the thing home, I saw that it had a "3D' symbol thing on the side of the box. Also read about it in the manual. Still didn't pay too much mind to it.

Then a week or so went by, and I heard about a San Diego Chargers - Oakland Raiders game that was going to be the first live 3D broadcast of a NFL game. I read a bunch of stories about it, and it piqued my interest a bit. I also heard about some company called "Blitz Game Studios", making some announcement that they were going to have 3D video games on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 soon. That REALLY piqued my interest. So I started doing a wee bit of research on the 3D features of the PN50A450, and what I would need, in order to experience it. I still don't know all that much about it, and what I need to do. If the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 had a firmware update that added S3D support, and there were actual games running in S3D on either of those consoles, I'm sure I would jump on the bandwagon immediately. Or if the PS3 added S3D support for Blu Ray playback on special S3D enabled Blu Ray movies.

There are rumors that all this might happen sometime in 2009, but you really never know if any of this is going to come to fruition. There have been alot of rumblings in the gaming industry about 3D possibly becoming a factor sometime in 2009, but so far it's vaporware.

The other option is to try the PC thing. Problem is, I haven't been a PC gamer since the old 3Dfx Voodoo days. Back before the Dreamcast came out. I got tired of upgrading my PC every 7 months. When the Dreamcast came out back in late 1999, I left PC gaming and stuck with the consoles. My current PC is from 2005, and it's a bare bones, entry level budget PC. It's a Compaq Presario SR1750NX. Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor
1GB PC3200 DDR Memory
200GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
16x DVD+/-RW DL with Lightscribe Burner
AC'97 Audio
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Integrated Graphics with 128MB Shared Memory
v.90 56Kbps Modem and 10/100 Ethernet
Seven USB 2.0 Ports,
Two FireWire Ports and 9-in-1 Media Card Reader
Windows XP Media Center 2005


Obviously, I'm not going to be playing Crysis on this anytime soon, lol. I've never even played a serious game on this. I've played some emulators of old school systems and stuff like that, but that's about it.


So, that's basically my situation, and I was hoping I could ask you guys a few questions:


1. I've heard mixed things about the 3D capabilities of this plasma. Does anybody know if the 3D experience is comparable to the rear-projection DLP sets from Samsung and Mitsubishi? I'm wondering if I should even bother trying to check out the 3D.

2. I know that I would need shutter glasses, an emitter, and some type of source to provide a 3D video signal to the plasma. Obviously, until either the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 has a 3D firmware update, I'm basically forced to go the PC route, but I'm not a PC gamer, and don't have much of any money to upgrade to any kind of PC gaming rig. My PC's video output is VGA only. I do have an open 16x PCI Express graphics slot. Is there a really cheap video card I could get, (with DVI output I guess), that could give me a basic look at what some 3D stuff looks like?

3. Basically, I would like to somehow sample the 3D capabilities of this plasma without forking over big $$$ just to be dissapointed by it. I'm pretty sure that eventually the Xbox 360 or PS3 will have "some" support for S3D games. It might just be a couple of games here and there, or whatever, but I'm guessing that eventually there will be something, so I'm thinking if I buy some glasses and a emitter, they won't end up being a total waste, cause I can eventually use them for that purpose. As for the PC side of the equation, I wish I had a friend that had a super powerful gaming rig, that I could borrow and temporarily check out how 3D stuff looks on this plasma, but unfortunately I don't. I don't want to spend alot of $$$ investigating this thing, but I'm guessing at the bare minimum I would have to get a new video card just for the DVI output if nothing else. Any suggestions on a super cheap video card just to get a taste of the 3D?

4. I've heard that there are some old Nvidia drivers or something, that would allow me to check out some really old games in 3D. Because my computer isn't powerful at all from a gaming standpoint, I would imagine that I would have to look at some really old games to even have a chance of them running anywhere near 20 frames or more per second. If I got an old Nvidia graphics card, along with this old driver, could I play anything interesting on that computer to check out the 3D abilities?

5. Let's completely forget about the gaming side of things, and talk about movies. Do you need a super powered PC to be able to see any of the 3D movies? I heard this one guy talking about Beowulf being amazing in 3D on his home system. Is there anyway I would be able to check something like that out? Or would I need a super powered PC for that?


Basically, my primary goal at this point, is to see if I can somehow do a "test run" on the 3D abilities of this plasma before going too deep down the rabbit hole. I don't mind spending $50 or so on some decent glasses, cause I'm thinking I'll eventually need them for the 3D xbox 360 or PS3 games when they are eventually available. I just don't want to drop too much on anything else, not knowing if it's even worth bothering.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and tips!

- Anthony

[cybereality]

I wouldn't hold my breath for stereo3d on the console systems. Right now its pretty much just on the PC side of things. You don't need the best machine around, even an older rig with an nvidia card might suffice. You could still run Unreal Tourney 2004 at a decent speed. In terms of the plasma, I've never seen one so I can't comment on the quality. But the bottom line is you need a capable PC if you want to experience stereo3d gaming.

[Killigath]

I am curious as well to see how good the plasmas are with 3D. A 42" for a computer monitor would be sweet 8)

Your PC should play old 3D games ok. You may have to run them at lower resolutions though. Also need to make sure the Samsung will support computer resolutions below 720p just in case. You will definitely need a video card with a DVI (white) output though. Have to buy a DVI to HDMI cable/adapter. Monoprice.com has good prices on longer cables if you need them.

As far as movies go, can you play regular DVD's smoothly on your PC? If so, then 3D dvd's should also work. Know going in that you will need a Stereoscopic Movie Player (StereoscopicPlayer, Tridef, IZ3D MPC) and also you have to buy special S-3D dvd's. Also, selection isn't fantastic but its slowly getting better with titles like Journey and Polar Express.

You already have the 3D monitor, you will need a dongle and some glasses. Tridef.com is about the best package you can find. Nvidia also makes one now, there should be a recent review on the forums.

[Okta]

There are reviews here and there. Apparently the plasma's have bad ghosting issues so not really worth it.

[Anthony1]

Killigath said:

"As far as movies go, can you play regular DVD's smoothly on your PC? If so, then 3D dvd's should also work. Know going in that you will need a Stereoscopic Movie Player (StereoscopicPlayer, Tridef, IZ3D MPC) and also you have to buy special S-3D dvd's. Also, selection isn't fantastic but its slowly getting better with titles like Journey and Polar Express.

You already have the 3D monitor, you will need a dongle and some glasses. Tridef.com is about the best package you can find. Nvidia also makes one now, there should be a recent review on the forums."



My PC can definitely play regular DVD's smoothly. So I don't need a super powered PC to be able to watch these movies?

You have to buy special S-3D dvd's?

I'm normally somebody that rents movies, I don't buy them.

So, I can't get the regular 3D dvd version of movies like Polar Express and Journey to the Center of the Earth and Beowulf and stuff like that? I thought that the software would take the anaglyph movies and convert them to S3D somehow.

Where do you buy these movies?

Can they be rented anywhere?


I was thinking of getting the Samsung glasses package. Somebody has it for like $117.99 or something like that. Comes with one pair of Samsung shutterglasses, an emitter and some basic Tridef software. I'm not sure what all is in the package in terms of the software. I just figure the glasses are better quality than the TriDef package.

Basically, my goal at this point is to just sample this 3D experience the cheapest way possible, so if I can watch a movie without having to upgrade my computer, then that would be cool. Obviously I would need:


1. A new video card with DVI output

2. the Samsung glasses and tri-def software package.


Any recommendations for a specific video card that would be cheap? To be able to play say a game like Half-Life 2 in 3D or something?

[Killigath]

My PC can definitely play regular DVD's smoothly. So I don't need a super powered PC to be able to watch these movies?

Any recommendations for a specific video card that would be cheap? To be able to play say a game like Half-Life 2 in 3D or something?

No super computer required. Just something with a DVI port. What kind of video card slot does your PC have? PCI-Express or APG(old). If APG you are going to be more limited on what kind of card you can get. But the good news is you can get a good card for under $200 either way. 8800GT's are really cheap and good cards. Here's a good cheap PCI-Express card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127328

You have to buy special S-3D dvd's?

I'm normally somebody that rents movies, I don't buy them.

So, I can't get the regular 3D dvd version of movies like Polar Express and Journey to the Center of the Earth and Beowulf and stuff like that? I thought that the software would take the anaglyph movies and convert them to S3D somehow.

Where do you buy these movies?

Can they be rented anywhere?

Yes, they have to be special High Quality Field Sequential (HQFS) DVD's.
Some companies claim to have software that converts 2D movies to 3D, but they don't work as advertised. There is no on the fly player that converts anaglyph to stereo, but I've heard that it can be done if you have special software, know-how, and time.

Most places do not rent them, I would be skeptical if someone claims they do.
Amazon.com has several IMAX movies in 3D plus, Sky Kids and a few others.
I buy my 3D movies from http://www.underground3dmovies.com/index.htm, but I'm sure there are other places. You will most likely not find them to buy in a retail store, online only.

Here is a good list of 3D movies, with a chart that says if they are available on DVD http://www.3dmovielist.com/list.html