Not wanting to miss out on all the excitement, I decided to stop by Best Buy this morning and check out the Panasonic 3D demo. The tech guys were just finishing fixing it up as I arrived. It was in a dimly-lit area of the Magnolia HT dept. I stood about 8-10 feet away. I don't know which model I watched, but the screen size was about 50-54" with a 58" Samsung plasma right next to it for comparison. I excitedly donned the glasses, held down the power switch on the left side of the frame, and prepared 
Initial impressions: I was not "wowed" right off the bat. Slightly headache-inducing. Dim, muted colors. Very much like watching Alice in Wonderland 3D in the theater (terrible film btw). When turning on the glasses, the picture became darker, colors got a little washed-out, and I had a smaller perception of the screen size. I also had difficulty focusing on the 3D images that were designed to pop way out. They were often blurry. It certainly was not natural, especially for my eyes.
Picture quality: Like I said, the picture became dimmer and colors weren't as vivid or accurate as a result. It's like watching TV with a very weak pair of sunglasses. If you're a PQ maven like I am, then you probably won't like it. Black levels were nothing special--they seemed only slightly darker than the Samsung next to it. Nothing approaching a Kuro, for sure.
Specifics: I watched a few clips of jugglers, flame spitters and other circus performers, a Grand Canyon demo, then the Astroboy trailer. The 3D was most impressive during the circus demo, more impressive than the grand canyon or Astroboy demos, which I found pretty lackluster to be honest. The juggler throwing pins in the air was actually very cool. Some of the 3D images were never quite in focus though. For example, when the fire-eater spit flame at you, it was just a blurry explosion of light. Weeds or trees in the foreground of a train sequence were blurry, while the train itself was crystal clear. Not fun for the eyes. Also, I had issues with some parts of the images being 3D, while others were not. For example, a tree in the foreground may jump out, but then you find yourself looking at the tree instead of focusing on the movie. A mountain peak may pop out in 3D, but the rest of the grand canyon looked like a fake 2D backdrop. I found it distracting.
Conclusion: I really had no expectations going in. I wanted to like it, but I unfortunately did not. Your eyes have to work SO MUCH harder. After 20 minutes, I had a slight headache and was feeling uncomfortable and claustrophobic. Add to the fact that I was getting a little nauseous during the 3D intensive moments, particularly when focusing on multiple 3D "layers". It wasn't regular nausea, but a gross feeling in the pit of my stomach that came and went. I cannot imagine watching a 2+ hour movie like this, enduring waves of nausea while going cross-eyed trying to focus on everything. For the record I don't get motion-sick easily, so this was unexpected.
As this is not so much a professional review than a collection of my thoughts and experiences, I encourage you to visit your local BB to try the demo for yourself. Make sure you watch it for 15 minutes to ensure that it doesn't make you ill. As for me, I was not impressed. Count me out of 3D.
Initial impressions: I was not "wowed" right off the bat. Slightly headache-inducing. Dim, muted colors. Very much like watching Alice in Wonderland 3D in the theater (terrible film btw). When turning on the glasses, the picture became darker, colors got a little washed-out, and I had a smaller perception of the screen size. I also had difficulty focusing on the 3D images that were designed to pop way out. They were often blurry. It certainly was not natural, especially for my eyes.
Picture quality: Like I said, the picture became dimmer and colors weren't as vivid or accurate as a result. It's like watching TV with a very weak pair of sunglasses. If you're a PQ maven like I am, then you probably won't like it. Black levels were nothing special--they seemed only slightly darker than the Samsung next to it. Nothing approaching a Kuro, for sure.
Specifics: I watched a few clips of jugglers, flame spitters and other circus performers, a Grand Canyon demo, then the Astroboy trailer. The 3D was most impressive during the circus demo, more impressive than the grand canyon or Astroboy demos, which I found pretty lackluster to be honest. The juggler throwing pins in the air was actually very cool. Some of the 3D images were never quite in focus though. For example, when the fire-eater spit flame at you, it was just a blurry explosion of light. Weeds or trees in the foreground of a train sequence were blurry, while the train itself was crystal clear. Not fun for the eyes. Also, I had issues with some parts of the images being 3D, while others were not. For example, a tree in the foreground may jump out, but then you find yourself looking at the tree instead of focusing on the movie. A mountain peak may pop out in 3D, but the rest of the grand canyon looked like a fake 2D backdrop. I found it distracting.
Conclusion: I really had no expectations going in. I wanted to like it, but I unfortunately did not. Your eyes have to work SO MUCH harder. After 20 minutes, I had a slight headache and was feeling uncomfortable and claustrophobic. Add to the fact that I was getting a little nauseous during the 3D intensive moments, particularly when focusing on multiple 3D "layers". It wasn't regular nausea, but a gross feeling in the pit of my stomach that came and went. I cannot imagine watching a 2+ hour movie like this, enduring waves of nausea while going cross-eyed trying to focus on everything. For the record I don't get motion-sick easily, so this was unexpected.
As this is not so much a professional review than a collection of my thoughts and experiences, I encourage you to visit your local BB to try the demo for yourself. Make sure you watch it for 15 minutes to ensure that it doesn't make you ill. As for me, I was not impressed. Count me out of 3D.
