LG Cinema 3D Smart TV

Finally a 3D TV minus those cumbersome viewing glasses that make you groan

While I like watching 3D content, I have a few problems with 3D TVs. First, I hate wearing heavy glasses. I don’t wear them to read or to use my computer, and I sure don’t want to wear them to watch TV. Next, after charging two cellphones, a tablet, MP3 player, GPS and handsfree, charging TV-watching glasses is too much of a chore. Finally, there’s hardly any 3D content out there.

While I love 3D, I am no fan of 3D TVs. So what has changed to make me talk about 3D TVs again? For starters, the glasses have changed. The new glasses weigh just 16 gm, and because they don’t have LCDs to function as active shutters, they don’t need any power. The new Film Patterned Retarder (FPR) glasses are like the ones you get to watch 3D movies in cinema halls. These I can wear, though I still don’t like wearing any at all. And lthough they cost Rs 1,000 a pair, they are cheap compared with active shutter spectacles (up to Rs 8,000 a pair), which were being touted as the in-thing till last year. 

What has made these glasses possible is FPR technology. This technology requires only circular polarised lenses, instead of LCD-based active shutters. The lenses show only the left and right images to the respective eye, which are processed in the brain to create the 3D impact. With FPR, the image is sharper and flicker free. This means less dizziness and eye fatigue compared to active shutter glasses. The words to note here are ‘less fatigue’, not ‘no fatigue’. You still can’t watch 3D content for long hours.

So, while this TV allows you to watch 2D content in 3D, you would use it mostly as a regular HDTV—a function that it performs admirably. Will I buy it then?
While I love 3D, I am not buying this TV set yet. I’ll wait for one that lets me see 3D without glasses.

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