LG D2342P 23" Passive 3D LED LCD Monitor

LG D2342P 23" Passive 3D LED LCD Monitor

I've got one on order at the MSRP $349. Due to arrive in a week+-.

Didn't see a thread for this one yet.

The user manual says for 3D HDMI it supports:
Frame packing 1080p 24Hz, 720p 50/60Hz
Side by Side and Top/Bottom 1080p 1080i 720p 50/60Hz
Top/Bottom 1080p 24Hz, 720p and 1080p 50/60Hz

Good entry level price to view 3D without expensive glasses.

I wonder what it will do when plugged into my Sony TD10 3D camcorder.

Indeed - 1080i/60 3D is not listed as supportable by this monitor. This is the method used for recording by the Sony HDR-TD10.

However, the HDMI 3D output setting in the Sony HDR-TD10 menu provides Auto, Frame Pack, and also Side by Side. So I am thinking that at least the Side by Side HDMI 3D selection will work.

Since this monitor is vertically interleaved Left / Right, this might result in a double loss of resolution when used directly with the TD10 in 3D mode.

I'm thinking that software could frame pack the 60i to 24p for transport at 1080p24-3D, geting around the need for SBS mode.

My order for this monitor, placed several days ago, is listed today as "in stock, shipping soon," by the well known USA based retailer.

LG's web page has a monitor model number D2342P-PN, with the "N" added to the model number I had previously seen.

The manual I took the HDMI specs from comes from the following link, at page 20.

http://www.lg.com/us/support/product...lTab=documents

To use the above link, it can be clicked on or copied using "copy shortcut"

As of today, at this link there is the pdf manual and some other activex control that I did not choose to install yet.

It states at the following link near the end of the description,

"Interface is supported to connect 3D devices with LG's CINEMA 3D monitor. This makes it possible to view any 3D contents even without a PC. Direct connection is available with Game console, Blu-ray player, Set-top box"

http://www.lg.com/ae/it-products/3d-...ors-D2342P.jsp

At link above press the, "explore product features" button

It does say, "any 3D contents" and specifically lists "set top box"

Today I see this monitor now being advertised for sale at several national electronics retailers, though I haven't found any in stock yet.

I meant that the national electronics retailers that show this monitor on their web page did not have one I could pick up immediately from their local store.

Today, Sunday, I got a UPS tracking number from the retailer I ordered from last Monday.

When it arrives, probably Wednesday or Thursday, the 3D sources I can connect and test with include PS3, PC, and Sony HDR-TD10.

It arrived.

First impression - I like it. I adjusted the brightness lower, from default 100 down to 30.

As a computer monitor, the 1920 x 1080 native mode looks crisp for 2D, with 3D glasses off.

When connected to the Sony HDR-TD10 via HDMI, must set the TD10 to output SBS mode for 3D. Frame pack mode doesn't produce a correct image. Can view both playback and live camera through the monitor in 3D.

RealD 3D glasses from the theater work.

I have the monitor face tilt set so that with one tilt setting 3D looks correct when sitting at normal monitor distance of approx 3 feet or when standing about 9 feet away.

Lots more to try out...

PC - The "Tridef 3d" software that comes with the monitor certainly shows off the 3D. Stills and videos in 3D provided on that CD disk look great, like Disneyworld 3D. This included player in the monitor pkg will not play my MVC 3D files from the TD10 in actual 3D like the monitor does when I directly connect it via HDMI to the TD10 camcorder playback.

I have an SBS mode 3D segment from the animated "Chicken Little" that I played in 3D using the freeware VLC player by selecting the 3D mode on the monitor. Looks good. 3D both pops out of the monitor and has depth. Images are bright.

A note about my intended reason to select this monitor is that aside from the fantastic viewfinder on the Sony TD10, I have no other display for 3D yet, and wanted to get something 3D going for my PC, especially to review home video from my Sony TD10, while I figure out which of the larger TV displays I'm going spring for it. This passive LG seems to be an economical stragihtforward all in one solution without dedicating to particular hardware. I have a list of 3D movies I missed at the theatre that I've delayed watching in 2D until I have a good 3D display going.

Got bogged down trying to use TMT5 for playing MVC files. The TMT5 trial did not work at all for my set up. Spent time uninstalling and updating drivers to no avail. When opening any file with TMT5 trial, after a few seconds, the TMT5 window turns black and the rotating progress bars freeze, but no video appears. When frozen, TMT5 terminates easily with task manager. Will be working on solving that. I want to get some sort of method to play MVC 3D hidef files working, and am disappointed that TMT5 freezes for me, with no useful error message displayed.

For the PS3, I heard there was a demo of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit bluray 3D on the PSN. That could be good. Are there particular titles of games and or videos you'd like me to download a demo of from PSN to evaluate?

The "Tridef 3D" package was not needed to play in 3D the SBS format 3D file segment I tried. I used VLC video player, with no special drivers and no particular 3D setup to play in 3D an SBS file.

Also the Sony HD10 camcorder displayed 3D in SBS mode when directly connected to this monitor.

The SBS mode of 3D is selected from the LG D2342P monitor menu. In this mode, the monitor interprets the input signal as an SBS mode 3D signal, and arranges the display so that the passive 3D mode works.

This means that the monitor will play 3D content from any video player for SBS mode media. Though I have not tried it, I suspect it would work in SBS mode with Mac, Linux, and other 3D camcorders where the content source was SBS. It also has an option for top / bottom mode which I have not tried yet.

Other 3D I have seen on this monitor where while connected to the PS3. The PS3 recognized it as a 23" 3D capable monitor. I downloaded several free 3D game demos and 3D movie demos from the Play Station Network. These 3D demos looked excellent on the monitor.

I read that PS3 3D movies that are not from bluray are in MP4 "frame alternate" mode.

I will post results of other sources and content that I am able to generate 3D success with.

After lacking any progress with the TMT5 player, I am having initial success with the PowerDVD 11 player for 3D mode with this monitor.

More testing to do and report.

The manual is correct for only being able to select SBS 3D when using the HDMI input connection on the D2342P.

The video card for all my testing done thus far only has a DVI-D output and no HDMI. When I used a DVI to DVI input on the D2342P monitor, I could not select SBS. So I switched to using a DVI to hdmi cable, going to the monitor's HDMI input. That input connection allowed the SBS selection through the front panel menu buttons on the D2342P. All of my 3D testing since then has been via the HDMI input on the D2342P monitor.

I have not used the L/R change option.

The front panel menu allows selecting 2D mode of display, though when an SBS signal is input to the monitor in the monitor's 2D mode, the two side by side images appear on the monitor.

Here's how I have mine adjusted for optimum 3D. I used the adjustment screen and 3D still photos in the tridef3d software that came with the monitor to minimize ghosting and maximize detail.

With my nose aligned with the center of the screen 28" away, the face of the monitor is tilted (using the adjustment of the stock mount) so that the top edge of the monitor is 3" further away from me than the bottom edge is. I used a level and ruler to measure this to reply to your question.

Is that consistent with your observation?

With VLC, I used an SBS 3D Panasonic demo file. It has video in 1920 x 1080 format containing SBS left & right eye images, so that the image for each eye is 960x1080. I made the selection for 3D SBS in the monitor menu. VLC did not perform any 3D conversion process. VLC simply output L & R image together, and the monitor converted it for 3D viewing.

With Sony Vegas 10d I did a still 3D photo capture with a selection of SBS 3840 x 1080 of a frame from my Sony TD10 camcorder file. I then used the PowerDVD 11 software to output line interlaced 3D mode, and PowerDVD did the conversion from full SBS to line interlaced. I say that PowerDVD did the conversion since I do not need to set the monitor to SBS mode, and the 3D image appears whether I set to "line interlaced 3D" mode, or let the monitor select the mode. I have not tried this with video yet, only 3840 x 1080 still SBS images, though it should work with video if PowerDVD 11 allows that.

Next time I connect the LG monitor is to my PS3, I will play a 2D 720p file that is a network lip sync clock, and make a comparison to another HDMI monitor I have. Are there other methods you like results for?

Is there a particular setup you'd suggest for PS3 or PC based lag measurement?

Here is my setup for the test:

• PC with Nvidia 8500GT graphics card
• Component out to two monitors:
  1) Unity Motion CRT monitor UHD-3200
  (original HDTV from 1999, near zero lag)
  2) Magnavox HDTV
• DVI out to HDMI in on LG 2342P monitor
• Lipsync test HDvideo circular clock and click every 4 sec.
  The video is 720p, but monitors were in 1080i mode.
• VideoReDo plays video with real time audio delay adjusment

Results
The lag in the LG2342P was too small for me to measure, perhaps 1 frame.
The lag in the magnavox was about 3 frames. The magnavox TV wasn't the subject of this investigation, though having it in the setup allowed a reality check that I could in fact determine if a monitor had lag in this setup.

Conclusion:
In 1080i 2D mode, the lag of the LG2342P was too small to measure in my test setup.

On the PC, the "Stereoscopic Player" software player seems to give me better results for playing the TD10 3D files than directly connecting the TD10 to the LG monitor. I think that this is because when the monitor is connected to the TD10, the SBS mode of playback has to be used, which limits horizontal resolution, while when "Stereoscopic Player" is used, the option for "Row Interlaced" is selected, which perfectly matches the monitor.

With "Stereoscopic Player" I do not need to select "Line Interlacing" on the LG monitor, though if I do, the image looks a bit different, though is still 3D.