A Neophyte’s Guide to 3D and HD Home Theatre

A week or so ago I took the plunge and bought a 3D projector to go with my newish 3D Oppo 93 DVD player, which also supports 3D. I’m going to split this post in 2 sections, the first one on the technical side of 3D home theatre equipment and the second on my experiences with the modest number of 3D films released on 3D Blu-ray that I’ve seen to date.

First up though, the technical stuff.

“The DLA-X3, a 3D Enabled 1920×1080 D-ILA Procision front projector lists a 50,000:1 Native Contrast Ratio, three D-ILA devices, 2x motorized zoom lens with motorized focus, HQV Reon-VX video processor, on-screen gamma control …..” and a whole bunch of other stuff that nobody understands.

Quite frankly, they’re all just numbers. Tech-heads love this shit, but most of us can simply ignore it and just buy what we like the look of based on the budget we’ve got to spend. Getting lost in the endless specifications of home theatre equipment is mind-numbing for most of us, but there are loads of options out there so I thought it worthwhile to focus on some of the more basic components, starting with the latest fad, 3D home setups.

There are two methods to create the illusion of 3D imaging on the market, passive and active shutter and they both require special glasses. Passive 3D glasses are the polarized versions we’ve all seen before. There’s a red lens and a blue lens and somehow we’re tricked into seeing depth. They’re cheap, easy to produce and clean, which is why this is the most common format for 3D theatrical presentations. Active shutter glasses are a little more complicated. These glasses act like shutters (hence the name) and open and close at a rate that’s aligned to coincide with the video frame rate, presenting an image for one eye and then for the other. The screen image is seen one eye at a time and somehow (likely using magic), this too creates the illusion of a third dimension. Active shutter glasses are expensive and require an IR emitter and batteries to operate.

3D Blu-ray releases are very limited to this point so buying a TV/Blu-ray system for the sole purpose of watching 3D movies is a bit of a waste of time and money right now. This demands that the primary consideration for any system you might consider be the delivery of the best 2D performance your budget will allow. This may seem to defeat the purpose of exploring 3D home cinema, but 99% of what you’ll end up watching will be 2D anyways, so that’s where you need to concentrate. In a nutshell, I’m going to try and outline the basic things you should consider when buying a new or upgraded home theatre setup. I’m sure I’ll get reamed out by some tech-head for missing all sorts of things, but for the technically-challenged (like me) there really are only a few key issues to contend with.

LCD, LED, Plasma and Projectors – The first three are “TV’s” that use different technologies to produce the image you see on the screen. Typically LCD screens are the cheapest, LED is in the middle and Plasma’s the most expensive. The sweet-spot for pricing is around a 42” diagonal screen. Projectors are worthwhile considerations if you have a room that can be devoted to viewing and you can control the ambient lighting in that room. The upside is the size of the viewing image increases substantially. A 96” to 120” screen size is possible with a throw distance (how far the projector is from the screen) of around 10′ to 14′, depending on the manufacturer and model. One of the obvious benefits of a projector is its ability to recreate the theatrical experience more effectively than even the largest and most expensive flatscreens.

Resolution – There are a range of resolutions available for flatscreens and projectors, but the most common are 720p, 1080i and 1080p. The number “720” refers to the number of pixels (dots that change colour) along the horizontal axis of the image. More is better, but a 720 pixel image produces a completely-acceptable, detailed image on anything under about 40” of screen size. The jump to a 1080 pixel image is worth considering if you have a screen larger than that. The letter “i” or “p” refers to whether the image processing is interlaced or progressive. Progressive is considered the better of the two, but the technical jargon associated with why that’s the case put me to sleep, so I’m just going to take their word on that.

Brightness – This is typically a measurement reserved for projectors and it ranges from 1000 to 2000 lumens, the latter being technically twice as bright as the former. Depending on your room and the control you have over ambient light entering it, you would typically want a brighter projector for those rooms with less light control. In a dark room, a 2000 lumens projector would likely need to be dialed back to reduce eye strain.

Frame rate – This is a doozy, so skip ahead if you want. TV’s manufactured to North American standards (NTSC) have typically had a frame rate of 30fps (actually 29.97 frames per second). European format TV’s (PAL) are 25fps. These differing frame rates require that the TV we watch them on translate and convert the frame rates to the proper input rate for the device. Film is generally shot and projected at 24 frames per second (fps), so when film frames are converted to NTSC video, the rate must be modified to play at 29.97 fps. During the telecine process, twelve (12) fields are added to each 24 frames of film (12 fields = 6 frames) so the same images that made up 24 frames of film then comprise 30 frames of video. Video plays at a speed of 29.97 fps so the film actually runs at 23.976 fps when transferred to video. Clear as mud right?

The only reason I bring any of this up is to identify that 24fps output (from certain Blu-ray players) and 24fps input (on certain newer TV and projectors) are starting to appear on the market. With no conversion of the images required, the expectation is a more “film-like” image is possible. For those interested in replicating the theatrical experience as close as possible, this might be worth considering. One of the processing problems that can occur between TV’s and blu-ray players stems from settings buried deep in the menus that screw with interpreting image frames and inserting “best guess” images in between the actual frames to improve look of motion onscreen. The result can be horrific and it’s often best to drill down and turn off any image processing and digital noise reduction settings on both the player and the TV.

The Skinny…..

Buy a Blu-ray player. Most are 1080p and they’re around $99 to $200 for a pretty decent one. Check the inputs on your TV beforehand and buy a player that has compatible connections. HDMI cables are best, component cables (red, green, blue RCA jacks) next best, and video cables (yellow), the least desirable. If your TV has an HDMI input, use it. Blu-ray is here to stay and the studios won’t support both formats (DVD and Blu-ray) indefinitely. You can play a DVD in a Blu-ray player, but not the other way around.

Bottom line: Buy one.

If you’re in the market for new TV, get one that can handle 1080p input, preferably with a 24fps input setting if you plan to watch film more often than TV. For an LCD, LED or Plasma flatscreen, buy as much screen acreage as your budget will allow. A rule of thumb for proper projector sizing is to have the horizontal dimension of the screen equal to approximately 1/3 of the distance to your viewing position. If you typically sit 9 feet from the screen, the horizontal dimension of the viewing area should be around 36” (which on an HDTV 16:9 screen equates to roughly 44” diagonally).

Next post….. 3D blu-ray titles – Industry savior or recurring fad?