Why You Want A 3D TV

I won't bury the lead, so I'll say this: You can watch ALL your favorite movies you have on dvd (and blu-ray) in 3D. Think of your favorite movies. Got it? Now, imagine being able to watch them in 3D. You don't *have* to watch *all* of them that way. But I bet there's quite a few you'd get a real kick out of.

Today, I decided to try out the 2D-to-3D conversion. If you're worried about price, just know that the tv I demoed this all on is the best 50" in-store tv Best Buy has and it retails for $1,249. That's cheap enough to get some 3D glasses too! I actually got giddy watching. True 3D can extend pretty far, but simulated 3D starts with the screen and creates depth to everything behind it. From what I saw today tho, it gets closer than expected! It still can be flat by comparison, but it's amazing to think you can watch a 30 year old movie in 3D at the push of a button. I don't know how the technology works but I can tell you it does work surprisingly well. Esp considering it hit every curveball I tried to throw at it (more on that later).

I knew it was gonna be a slow day, so I brought about 8 dvds with me to test. The results were... astonishing. I didn't bring any blu-rays with me btw. And yet these all looked very good because of the upconverting. I'm not sure my brain could handle all this in blu-ray! Here's a quick break-down of what I tested:

First up! Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - The first couple scenes I selected were cramped and didn't allow much depth. But then I found Aragorn & Theodin preparing for a battle. I couldn't believe it! The extras walking in front of the cameras were really close! And the extras in the back gave it all some real depth. The camera pans about, surveying the dozens (or hundreds) of extras, and it was quite expansive. Best was when they looked down from a mountain top and you could see the whole battleground stretched miles away!

Next! X-Men - I think I would've liked this one had I sat down to watch from beginning to end. Some things stood out, but nothing to write home about (except for perhaps the landscape Logan's Winnebago drives through where the trees start close and stretch out to the horizon). Also, one moment had trouble focusing on Rogue. Again, prob best to watch beginning to end.

Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith - If I have a 3D tv by the time this comes out in theaters in 3D, I will not need to go cuz this does the job! The opening space fight is primo demo material, and it did not disappoint. Prob my fave scene out of everything I watched. I'm telling you this movie was designed to be in 3D... and I never realized it! At one point, the camera zooms head first into an exploding ship and the fire gets closer to anything else that I demoed. I may keep this one on-hand just to wow customers.

Empire Strikes Back - If I had to pick a 2nd place for demo (ROTS being 1st), it'd be the AT-AT attacks on Hoth. The A-Wings are flying all over the place taking down giant scale models (). Interestingly, the cockpits are some of the most effective 3D effects. Prob cuz the hull reaches close to the camera and you have the pilot sitting back with the added element of stars, space, and spaceships behind that:


Back To the Future - This worked waaay better than I expected it to. First, the dvd is actually kinda murky compared to the clean-up done for "Empire", so I thought that'd make it hard to work with. Nope. This had the most close-ups of any movie I demoed. When Marty is late and Doc Brown goes into his "Damn... Damn Damn" part, he is quite close to the camera which makes him stand out considerably. But of course, I wanted to see the climax in 3D. Easily the best 3D conversion I saw for the movie. That, and the very end:

"Where we're going, we don't need... roads."

Then I tested a home movie from 2003. Yep. It worked. Surreal.... and cool!

Finally, I tried a Donald Duck cartoon. Wasn't sure what would happen. It was mostly flat. So then it occurred to me: Of course! The animation cells were still 2D but raised from the painted backgrounds. These are layered cells, so of course that's the dimensionality it took! Gotta bring in "Fantasia" for the Ava Maria scene. Best use of multi-layering animation ever done. Should be interesting to see all the layers there.

Next chance I get (hopefully tomorrow), I'm gonna try a 1950s b&w, some home movies from the 80s (and 70s, if I can find some), an old sports event, and a tv show. And for everyone else, ask your local Best Buy home theater rep if it'd be ok to bring a movie or two from home to test it out for yourself! :D