3D Converter for Legacy HD Displays?

Unless the set has 3D circuitry built in and a minimum 120hz refresh rate it will not work. It's almost like asking for an adapter that will make a standard definition TV HD.

I came here thinking this thread was about legacy a-v receivers, as in HDMI 1.3. Any chance of changing the title to
"3D Converter for Legacy Displays"?

RealD sells converters that might work, not cheap though.

http://www.reald.com/Content/PODS.aspx

Unfortunately no, and there are a number of recent topics in the 3D forums about this.


The big problem is refresh rate capability. To do 3D, a set needs to be able to accept and display signals at 120Hz. As evidenced by the latest LCD sets, displaying a 120Hz signal is no big deal, but having the ability to accept a 120Hz input is another matter entirely.

It's analogous to wondering if a legacy NTSC TV will display HDTV signals.

At least the NTSC set can accept a downconverted HD signal for viewing, while a non-3DTV displays a 3D signal (the Side-by-Side used by cable & DBS) as two different images on the screen at the same time. See some of Lee Stewart's screen scrapes for examples.

I am not aware of any 3D HDTV that accept 120 fps input over HDMI 1.4
They accept frame packed 1080/24 input or 1/2 R formats such as 3D SbsS 1080i/60 over HDMI 1.4.

Well, Samsung or Panasonic will claim that it is only about a $400 premium, but that they are starting out by only adding the feature to their most top of the line models, which would have been expensive without the 3D circuitry, and now are just more expensive. With Panasonic, I can kinda understand that line of thinking, since the VT25 series is very high end from the 2D side of things, but the Samsung C7000 series isn't very high end at all, and the PN50C7000 goes for about $1600, and if I was spending $1000 on a plasma strictly for 2D quality, I could probably get a better 2D picture than the PN50C7000. Thus, the premium is quite a bit more than $400.

Unfortunately, it's just the price you pay to be an early adopter.

Both the Samsung 3DTVs and the Panasonics are almost the EXACT same price as last year's 2D equivalent. So while you might think that the VT25 costs $1000 more than the G20 just for 3D, Panasonic sold plenty of the V10 for a $1000 more than the G10 last year and 3D wasn't even on the table. All that being said, I do wish Panny would've offered 3D as at least an option on the G20. Maybe next year.