The Samsung C750 is the most reasonable 3DTV on the market in terms of price. Not only is the television fully 3D compliant with the new standards, it also is an excellent 2D LCD television as well.
The 3D aspects of the television are the most interesting and what separates it from most other LCD's (including Samsung's 650 model). Although there is not much in terms of content to try out, I have watched Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D, Played Avatar the videogame on the PS3, watched the Masters in 3D, and tried out the 2D to 3D Conversion on live TV, movies, and games.
Unfortunately with all 3D sources, I have experienced some "ghosting" which is a problem where you see a double image. That said, I did manage to configure my Samsung 3D Bluray Player to the correct TV size (by default it's 55 inches) plus I upgraded the firmware and that seems to have made a large improvement. I suspect the picture size spreads out the effect and will cause even more ghosting than normal. With Avatar the game, I left the 3D effect at 1, set the correct TV size and viewing distance, and chose side by side 3D (you have to set the TV to match this) and the effect was brilliant! I do still see ghosting during cut scenes, but during gameplay it looks fantastic. The Masters, was a bit of a mixed bag. It is also side by side 3D and at times it is brilliant (when the camera pans around the environment your jaw will drop) but the first time you see severe ghosting you are taken out of the moment. However, I think once Cable and Satellite receivers are more 3D ready, you should be able to configure for the screen size, depth, and viewing distance.
2D to 3D is unique and has its moments of brilliance but also has severe drawbacks. Let's put it this way, you won't confuse Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D in it's native 3D format for watching Monsters Vs. Aliens in 2D to 3D conversion. The conversion (you can change the depth) actually can be quite blurry with some material and most material isn't worth watching converted. Some movies like Star Trek are kind of fun but I wouldn't buy the television strictly for this feature.
2D content is fantastic. The color (even the black level since you can configure the backlight without having to hack the firmware), sharpness, and overall features (such as MotionPlus) are astounding for the price range. I actually have turned off MotionPlus simply because it gives non sports programming a "Spanish Soap Opera" effect. I did run into a bit of a strange issue that seems to have gone away by resetting the cable box where the picture bounced up and down using a Time Warner HD Cable box hooked via HDMI (you need HDMI to view the Masters in 3D). I really can't hold that against the TV, it was more the cable box but I've read of similar problems with some Samsung models so there does seem to be some buggy firmware with the box.
Overall if it wasn't for the ghosting issues still being present (it could be the content, but I cannot be sure, I'd like to test more 3D Televisions) and the 2D to 3D conversion being slightly underwhelming I'd give this TV a perfect score. As it is, if you are in the market for an affordable HDTV and want the 3D option, you can't go wrong. You have plenty of inputs (plus two usb slots) and the TV is a beautiful compliment to your entertainment room so I highly recommend this television (it's nearly $1,000 cheaper than the LED model of the same size).
Edit as of 5/12/2010:
I've had this TV now for a few weeks and gone through a firmware update, tested some more functions, calibrated it more, and updated the firmware on the Samsung 6900 3D Bluray Player twice.
I want to change my comments on 2D -> 3D conversion. I don't know if it's the firmware upgrade or what, but now I definitely see a difference in most scenes (I have the depth up to 10). Games like Uncharted 2 with a map like "The Village" look fantastic converted. I've also managed to get Avatar (The Game) on the PS3 to look great with side by side 3D with minimal ghosting. Since the firmware update and the 3D Optimize option for the TV, Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D also looks very good.
I did have a stupid moment where I noticed a huge lag playing something like Rock Band and finally realized there is a game mode. Since going to game mode, I have no issues playing videogames and the response time is virtually nothing now.
I absolutely love the TV, it does have some flashlighting (You don't see this unless the screen is ENTIRELY black) but 2D content looks fantastic and 3D is impressing me more and more. For a while it was even cheaper than it is now on Amazon but the price went back up. It's still worth it. I see some people bashing the TV simply because the glasses aren't included or it's not competing with the Panasonic 3D Plasma models but they obviously haven't seen it. Everybody that has reviewed this TV on Amazon owns the TV, some sites people are reviewing 3D Ready TV's without actually owning it. I've seen reviews based on a 5 minute demo and they couldn't even tell you the firmware level. Believe me this TV is awesome and once you experience a true 3D source, you will have little doubt 3D is the next wave in TV (it may be a few years until it reaches mainstream).
I'm also giving it 5 stars since the firmware update since ghosting/crosstalk has gotten a lot better (it's still not quite perfect but very impressive). Samsung LN46C750 46-Inch 1080p 3D LCD HDTV (Black)
Posted this on AVS forums and decided to post it here too since I bought the TV here on Amazon.
Posted on 6/24/10
Finally got the Samsung from Amazon after almost 2 weeks. Slowest shipping I've seen in a long time. I'd rather pay a few bucks than wait weeks for free.
Initial impressions:
Picture Quality: Out of the box the picture/brightness/backlight is very "bright" but varies greatly depending picture mode. Movie mode adjusts the picture settings to very close to the calibration settings for the C650 for movie watching (lcdbuyingguide calibration). I only took 3-5 mins calibrating each input for the devices I use and it took me a few mins to find game mode as it's not in there with the picture modes. Very extensive picture settings and 5 Auto Motion Plus modes with a Demo mode if you're not sure. Overall the picture is pretty jaw dropping with my HD Cable not to mention Blu-ray.
Head to Head with Bravia EX700:
Don't have a preference in TV brands and wanted to try a Sony this time around. I still have the Bravia but it's going back to Best Buy this weekend. To our eyes, textures and colors on the Sony appear more realistic and probably more accurate but it's pretty dull looking. The Samsung is more alive and side by side with the same movies playing from the same source everyone here picked the Samsung no matter how much I brightened the Sony. The dark scenes on the Bravia don't compare. Even with the backlight all the way up, it starts to wash out and just doesn't have the same WOW. That's the only way I can describe it. I also get bad contrast loss on the Sony if you move just 2 feet away from the center in any direction but I thought that was normal. I can't detect it on the Samsung until you view from almost the side of the TV. Huge viewing angle. I only watch from the middle anyway.
I could go on listing the features I like and dislike but this is getting long so I'll just tell you my favorite one so far. I play tons of HD movies from my PC across the room. The streaming from my wired network to this tv works better than my 360 and PS3 hands down. There is absolutely no loading time. I have about 80 MKV's (close to 1TB) in one folder and it loads instantly and streams them perfectly. This has to be seen to be believed. The streaming options are like that of a DVD/Blu-ray player with many nice functions. The Sony does not compare in this category at all. It wouldn't stream mkv's and it degrades the quality of anything it CAN stream. I just thought maybe these tv's added DNLA for kicks but no REAL functionality. Not the case on the C750. The internet options and the AP news ticker are sweet too. I"ll leave it at that for now and maybe review the 3D if anyone is interested. So far I'm very happy with this tv and still looking for flaws. If you have any questions feel free.
UPDATE on picture quality 6/29/2010
Quick tip I've found that most people don't do: For HD content, especially HDMI, turn your Sharpness down to 10 or less to get rid of jaggies. You will see a tremendous amount of jaggies out of the box on new tv's as they set the Sharpness way too high. You only need to turn it up for SD content.
I've had enough time with the tv to properly test things out and I'm still very impressed. There is definitely a little contrast degradation at wide viewing angles. It's not detectable unless you watch tv from the side of the room or you're looking for it. One thing I didn't like was how they named the Auto Motion Plus. Instead of Custom, Low, Medium and High, they call it Custom, Clear, Standard and Smooth without telling you what's high and low. You have to figure it out through testing it and that just added to the learning curve when testing the tv's functions on different stuff. I also noticed that if you set the Auto Motion Plus to high on some cable content you get some kind of judder/smoothing effect you don't get on low or medium. I personally love the Auto Motion effect on most content though. At minimum, I use the low setting on everything except videogames and it brings the picture to life.
If you play games online you MUST use game mode and there's virtually no detectable lag. All the picture settings are adjustable in game mode except Auto Motion. When you first turn on Game mode the picture will look horrible as the default Sharpness is set to 50. Turn it down to 10 or less to get rid of the jaggies and the picture is pretty perfect. The TV can pull off some good visual tricks but the processing adds lots of lag so don't turn any of that eye candy stuff on like Auto Motion Plus unless you're playing offline.
I can only imagine the horrible laggy, jaggy experience people are having if they don't do minor calibrations. Sharpness alone can kill your HD picture but with game mode turned off, Auto Motion on and other smoothing techniques on, the lag is almost unbearable. Game mode fixes all that. Fine tune it if you can or get help.
UPDATE on 3D 6/29/2010
5 Day update: 3D impressions: I intentionally waited a few days get some experience with it. Where do I start? First I will discuss the effect 3D has on my eyes, then how it looks. I've been playing with the 3D a lot for the past few days and the results were very mixed. If you've seen the Monsters vs Aliens in 3D in the Best Buy setup then you know what to expect from animated 3D Blu-rays for the most part.
I was surprised to see such extensive settings while in 3D mode. The 3D itself has depth and optimization options along with another set of picture settings just for 3D and the ability to use Auto Motion in 3D to fine tune your experience. Again, turning down the Sharpness, especially while playing 3D games has improved the picture quality greatly. Overall I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise to see so many adjustable settings because this is the most customizable TV I've ever seen.
I don't wear glasses normally but my girlfriend does so getting used to that is taking some time for me. The glasses bothered me a lot the first day watching cable TV while not bothering her at all. It was similar to the feeling I got watching Avatar 3D in imax. I feel the eye strain after 10 mins or so of sustained viewing causing me to remove the glasses every few minutes to rest my eyes. After 5 days though, I must note that I'm starting to get used to it and it bothers me less and less. However, while playing 3D games this is not the case. I've played for 30-60 mins straight multiple times. It does not bother my eyes at all (very happy about that). More on the games in a min. Monsters vs Aliens 3D and 1080p videos didn't bother my eyes either, essentially proving the theory that the majority of eye strain from 3D comes from the source of the video you're watching. In my case this was very true. Low reolution sources like 2D to 3D cable is a problem for me while 3D Blu-rays and 3D games and 1080p vids DO NOT have the same effect on my eyes even after 30 or 60 minutes. I haven't watched a whole movie yet but will soon.
First thing I tried was the 2D to 3D conversion for SD and HD cable. Not as good as real 3D content on Blu-ray by far but not bad at all. At far camera distances, the effect is not as high as when close up. Close up it looks pretty good. Looks like a "light" version of what Avatar 3D looked like to me in imax. The SD stuff seems to be such a low resolution that it's probably only worth attempting to convert 2D-3D for HD stuff. I didn't notice any artifacts, ghosting, crosstalk or whatever but I must note that we have the rechargeable glasses and not the battery ones and I've read that the glasses alone can change your whole viewing experience. In my opinion it's not worth skimping out on the glasses after you've gone this far and bought the tv. Get the good glasses and avoid any silly issues others are having.
Next I tried a few of my 1080p mkv and m2ts files. We can't detect any resolution loss here. Very impressive compared to cable in 3D. Still looks full HD and the 3D effect is much more evident. Tried Alice in Wonderland, LOTR, Matrix and a few others. Turn on Auto Motion Plus with it and it's even more amazing looking to me. Not as "3D" as Monsters vs Aliens and there's no off screen effects on anything I'm converting but this is far beyond what I imagined when I heard "2D-3D conversion". We will definitely watch these 1080p movies like this on a regular basis now. It's very refreshing to look at my large movie library with renewed excitement after seeing this in action on my favorite movies like Lord of the Rings and The Usual Suspects which I've seen at least 5 or 6 times.
Lastly, I played some games on PS3 and 360 in 3D. Sony has put a couple 3D demos out so I tried MLB The Show 3D and Motorstorm Pacific Rift 3D demo. Both looked great but Motorstorm was exceptional. I liked it so much I went out and bought a used copy of this 2yr old game assuming there'd be an update to play the full game in 3D. Not the case. There's no 3D mode on the update I was prompted to install. I was baffled that they would put out a demo of something you couldn't buy and I'm still upset about their trickery but this gave me the opportunity to test the 2D-3D vs the 3D optimized demo. I'm almost certain that all the demo does is essentially put your tv in the proper optimized 3D mode and makes some camera adjustments because side by side, the 3D demo was almost the same as the full game running in 2D-3D. The demo however was optimized to extend the bottom of the screen out into your living room a few feet so at times, dirt and passing cars pop off the screen and fly towards you in a cool way. Very nice. I then tried a few 360 games this way. I tried Battlefield Bad Company 2, Blur, Red Dead Redemption and Modern Warfare 2. Blur didn't have as pronounced an effect as the others. BF2 and MW2 were insanely better than I could have imagined going in to this. I'm playing the BF2 campaign over again and it's really like a new experience. For lack of a better description, it feels much more like you are there moving with your characters in the dense jungle. There's nothing popping off screen or any of that but the depth of the environments and characters make it hard for anyone to argue if this is the future for gaming or not.
Reserve your judgement of 3D until you really see it because if there wasn't the barrier of buying ridiculously high priced glasses, this is all most people would need to see to be sold on this technology. To have a TV that can do this stuff to 2D content at this price is just plain sweet as hell. Maybe my expectations were low but bottom line is if I knew the conversion was this good on 1080p film and games, I would not have been so worried about it. I guess seeing IS believing. - Samsung Lcd - 240hz - 1080p - Hdtv'
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