I got a few messages lately from people asking me which 3D TV to buy or what 3D technology to invest in to.Especially with the new Sony 24 inch 3D monitor coming out for 500 bucks, people may be tempted to take the plunge.

I've been experimenting a lot with 3D gaming and different types of displays and technologies, and I figured Ill write a guide showing one 3D setup solution very few people seem to be considering...3D projector home theater setup.

Ill keep it short and simple.

3D Projector to get:

OptomaHD66 (street price for brand new model - $600-$800) -  http://www.optomausa.com/Product_detail.asp?product_id=459&itemno=EPHD66

Acer H5360 (street price for brand new model - $500-$700) - http://www.amazon.com/Acer-H5360-Acer%C2%AE-3D-DLP-Projector/dp/B0036R9ZKA

Optoma GT720 (street price for brand new model - $700-$800) -http://www.optomausa.com/Product_detail.asp?productsubcat=27&productcategory=Game+Time&product_id=479&itemno=EPGT720

Projector Screen to get:

Epson Duet Ultra Portable 80 inch screen ($120 bucks) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824997039&cm_re=epson_screen-_-24-997-039-_-Product

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQoGaBSt5-A

3D Glasses to get:

Viewsonic PGD-250 DLP Link ($100 each) - http://www.amazon.com/ViewSonic-PGD-250-Stereographic-3D-Ready-Projectors/dp/B004LDG9IO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307631965&sr=8-1

Note - any DLP Link glasses will work, but these are the best ones for the money since they allow for Left/Right frame switching on the glasses by the press of the button. No other model has that.

HDMI 1.4 converter to get:

Optoma 3DXL ($350) - http://www.amazon.com/Optoma-3D-XL-Converter-Video-Gaming/dp/B0047ZH3CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1307632117&sr=1-1)

Note - This box allows for PS3, 360 and 3D bluray player support on the projector. If you're looking for 3D PC gaming only, and 3D bluray with the PC, this isn't necessary.

For $1200-1400 dollars you can have a complete package 3D setup ($800-1000 for PC 3D support), with an 80 inch screen, full 120 hz refresh rate display, best possible PS3 and 360 3D gaming image (zero ghosting).

And you won't be losing anything in return. 2D picture quality is great. Brightness is excellent and these projectors can be used during daytime. 720p resolution is maximum 3D TVs can produce for gaming for 3D anyways so projectors are perfect. Nvidia 3D support on PC, bluray, 3D cable, Ps3/360 are all supported with this setup.

So before you buy that 2000 dollar 50inch Panasonic 3D tv, or the dinky 24 inch Sony monitor...do some research about this 3D setup and see if it works with the space you have to work with.

@ the underlined

Thats the limitation of the game consoles correct?    The way I read it makes it sound like its the TV thats the limiting factor

No sadly. Every 3D TV available to this date can't do more than 720p @ 60 hz. HDMI cable has the bandwith but HDMI chip inside each TV is unable to process an image which is 1080p in size fast enough (to be exact, it needs to be running at 297 mhz to do this, and current HDMI chips run at 220-230 mhz) To do 1080p at 60 hz display needs a Dual-Link DVI plug, which none of the TVs have.

3D TVs support 1080p @ 24 hz(only for bluray 3D pushes HDMI bandwith limit to the max), 720p @30 and 60 hz, and various forms of 1/2 1080p resolution (side to side, over under, checkerboard).

Even PC gamers have to do 720p on these 3D TVs despite having 3D monitors capable of 1080p 3D for years now.

Thats interesting,  I wonder why they are so far behind.  It cant be cost thing since those TV are so expensive in the first place.  

I just could have sworn that I played GT5 in 3D @ 1080p,  thats why I questioned it,  but maybe I didnt see it switch to 720p.  

Yeah it was 720p...which s a great achievement considering its the only console game thus far to do 720p per eye 3D. Everything else is like 1/2 720p...

http://www.iwaggle3d.com/2010/11/guest-article-gran-turismo-5-3d.html

"It's a bit harder to determine resolution in 3D than in it is in 2D since there's so much more visual data for your eyes to process (depth) but I'm pretty convinced that we are looking at true unscaled 1280x720 resolution per eye."

Here is a thread which talks about this which I just quickly found - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=20546341

Nvidia forums has threads like this every day..."Why can't I select 1080p resolution when gaming on 3D TV?"...etc

Wish I had over a grand to spend. I would get this.

Buddy of mine at work though got himself a pretty decent 3DTV the other day for $680. I think it is a 42" Vizio.

42 inches is too small for 3D in my opinion... :)

But yes, those Vizios ae pretty cheap for what they offer. If they only supported 3D surround or 1080p 3D for gaming, I'd totally get 3 of them and set them up in  NVidia 3d surround.

I sit so close to the TV anyways that 42" would probably be good enough for me, lol.

However, once I get a bigger place I probably wouldn't mind a nice big 80" display!

Hopefully the price on a bad boy like that projector drops like a rock between now and March-April 2012.

They should drop in price as new ones coming out follow the HDMI 1.4 standard. So 1080p bluray, 720p everything else...where these are 720p for everything and need that 3DXL adapter to work with HDMI 1.4 devices. Sadly the starting price for these HDMI 1.4 seems to be 1200+ bucks thus far. And they really don't have a better picture than a 700 non hdmi 1.4 models...

You're kidding right?

Projectors suck ass in gaming (and everything else to be honest) , i don't care how big they are! , you are not trying to trick people so they end up buying inferior stuff to what you have.... are you? :-p