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Getting Started With 3D TV

BY READERS DIGEST

1st Jan 2015 Film & TV

Getting Started With 3D TV

Bring your favourite actors, football players or animals to life by setting up a futuristic 3D TV in your living room.

 

HOW LONG WILL IT BE BEFORE WE SEE EASTENDERS IN THE ROUND?

Don’t hold your breath, because the BBC is cautious about the merits of 3D. Sky thinks differently: its 3D channel currently screens programmes from Sky Sports, Sky Movies, Sky Arts, Sky One, Sky Atlantic, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel, MTV, and the History Channel. In fact, film fans are spoilt for choice. Virgin offers pay-on-demand 3D movies or you can see them on Blu-ray discs. With ever increasing releases, now is the time to get on board with 3D viewing an dexperience television like never before.

 

What Will I Need?

Now for the hardware—and you’ll need more than a 3D TV (the cheapest are about £350). According to John Lewis’s vision buyer John Kempner, you should budget for an HD box (free if you sign up to Sky) and a 3D Blu-ray player or Play Station 3 if you want to play discs. The drawback is those clunky 3D glasses. Cheap cardboard specs won’t do—you need to spend around £50 a pair to synchronise signals from the TV.

By now you’ll have spent around £1,000 luring the family into your front room, so why not splash out another £1,000 on a Panasonic 3D Camcorder so you can film them all? Or maybe you’d rather put the money into an ISA and watch them in all-natural 3D. It’s how we see the world, after all. It may be a long time before 3D home technology such as photographs and camcorders become affordable and refined, it's best to leave it to the experts for the time being and enjoy the spoils through a good home entertainment system with good company.

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