Saturday 15 May 2010

OMG3DHDTVFTW!!!


Today i got my arse down to the 'World Cup Show' tech trade event to see just what all this fuss over 3DTV is. It was held in a giant exhibition hall in the middle of nowhere, luckly i was loaded up on expressos and dextros so the cycle ride was quite nice, i guess they don't ever expect cyclists there as there was no provision for parking up the human powered device so i chained it up next to an ice cream van.

Once inside, after diverting around a security guy giving me shifty looks, i got to gaze upon the wonderment of a hall full of more technology than you could dream about. I was there to compare the two sets i guess most gamers would be getting if they opted to go 3D and that was the Samsung and Sony 40" sets, both specced out the same and both around the £1500 mark.

My first stop was at the Samsung area where they had the sets up on the wall at head hight, the booth monkey was all to happy to get me a pair of glasses and let me loose. All you do is hit a small button on the glasses and they auto sync to the set, no hassle, also they charge via a usb mini port and you get around 30+ hrs on a full charge. The picture on the Samsung was nice and clear though i did notice some edge blur on one particular thing, it was the blue blob alien (i was watching Monsters vs Aliens) when he came 'close' to the front of the screen, but it only happened the once and i put it down to me looking at other sets and throwing the sync out.

The most impressive thing they had up and running was a set doing 2D to 3D conversion, this was another point i needed to explore as just think about all those games you can hit up with a new dimension. They were running a standard 2D input (wirelessly streamed from a remote server!) and the 3D image was full of depth, not a bit but deeeep. You could adjust the parallax depth via a sub menu and setting it to 7 gave the most natural feeling to the picture, setting to 10 and it felt you could reach into the picture. Very very impressive.

After 20 minutes with them i went over to the Sony zone where they had the 'natural enviroment setting' rigged up (a big tv and a sofa plus a few homely bits and bobs) First thing was that they were running the rig off a PS3 Slim and the booth monkey there seemed pleased to meet someone who wasn't a cluelessfucker. We chatted a great deal about 3D gaming mostly and i soon took over the sofa as he fired up some 3D demos, and what were those demos you may ask little ThreeSpeechers? the first was Wipeout3D and i was all 'woah dude' as the ships actually floated over the track and raced into the mindbending distance, i don't think you're gonna be disapointed. The next demo was a Killzone one, not really playable but a reworking of the Bullet Time interactive advert, it showed great promise.

The most impressive, surprisingly, was MotorStorm PR, it was not like the same game i played and discarded all those months back, the depth of field was the deepest of the lot with the tracks winding and bending into obscene depths of the screen and racing around judging the corners felt soo soo good and totally natural to judge rather than having to go off braking/turning cues like you do in 2D, if it was running at an upscaled sub-hd resolution you couldn't really tell.


If i had to choose between the two manufacturers sets i would have a hard job, i loved the Sony TV with it's now familiar XMB menu system, the Samsung impressed with it's 2D convertion demo, both had built in wi-fi and a whole host of other tricks up their sleeves, both used active shutter glasses and had beautiful quality images, the Samsung glasses had the better design, but Sony's seems brighter. I guess at the end of the day you and you fifteen hundred beer tokens are going to have to decide for yourselves. The only true way to decide this would be to use the Harry Hill school of logic. FIGHT!

Other sets on display were some LG kit and some Panasonic jobs, a point of note was the glasses supplied with the Panasonic screens are designed to be used with perscription glasses and more adjustable so both adult and children can wear them comfortably.

[mobiletone] has seen the future and doesn't want to look back

*goes off to watch Evil Aliens it has Emily Booth in it*

9 comments:

  1. forgot to add, while grilling the guys on the Sony booths it transpired that to run the PS3 in 3D you'll need to upgrade your HDMI cable to a 1.4 version.

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  2. special mention goes to the video of two red pandas walking over a rope bridge towards the viewer. that was full of fluffeh.

    also, the skip next to the Sony booth that was painted white and was full of CRT sets to promote the 'scrappage' deal, yes, they would take a shitty old CRT and give you £200 for it towards a 3D Bravia.

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  3. ppppps: i fixed my tower system, the HD was borked.

    ppppppppppppppps: damn energy drinks!

    *twitches nervously*

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  4. you lucky git Tone! I wanna get me some 3D action! You should have asked the dude if he had anything "under the counter" to demo for you. 3D pr0n will be the killer app + jus wait n see ;-)

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  5. Respect for the update Tone, sounds like a successful journey. Reakt you are a naughty boy, does this missus know what's under your bed?

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  6. @jimmy - yeh, but not what's in the black bin liners behind my shed!

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  7. I have a puppy in a bin bag at the back...does that count?

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  8. ahhh Emily Booth,
    *looks off into the distance wistfully*

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  9. EA is worth watching just to see the Booth get impregnated by aliens.. oh, and getting both of her legs ripped off :D

    classic brit/welsh gore fest, 4* and it's free to watch on BlinkBox

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