LG ditches glasses with new 3D TV line up

Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 10 May 2011 11:37

Opinion and Analysis

2010 was not a fantastic year for manufactures trying to sell you a wiz-bang 3D TV.  It seems many just have not cottoned on to the extra dimension of entertainment offered by paying out large amounts of money to wear embarrassing eye-wear and watch a handful of 3D content.  With its new range, LG is hoping to tackle at least two of these concerns by introducing 2D - 3D content upgrading and throwing away the fancy glasses.

With some hands on time, LG recently stepped iTWire through some of the features of the new range of Cinema 3D enabled Smart TV's.  And they are quite a departure from the 2010 series.

On show for this demo was the top of the LG line LW6500, which according to LG ''¦boasts superb picture quality in 2D and 3D along with all the advantages of LG's Smart TV technology. Via a simple Home Dashboard, LG's Smart TV provides access to LG Apps and a range of premium content via top global providers as well as popular locally sourced shows. Smart Share makes it easy to share content between the TV and digital devices, and TruMotion 200Hz ensures super-fast screen processing for a silky smooth picture.'


Whilst LG has made huge inroads in dashboard design - more on that later, the real changes between 2010 and 2011 3D TV's are in the glasses technology and 3D content.

LG is attempting to cover these bases because, as Tim Barnes, Senior Marketing Manager at LG Australia puts it; '[last year] 3D TV under delivered on expectations, it was very flat'.


The dropping of Active Shutter powered 3D glasses is the biggest change.  Each LG TV package now includes four 16 gram Cinema style 3D glasses, replaceable at AU$20 each and not requiring recharging, this nails the 'buying a 3D TV for the family' issue where some powered 3D glasses can cost up to AU$200, greatly increasing the spend on an already expensive TV.

The glasses are light, though I never really had a problem with the original set.  For comparison, LG kindly supplied a 2010 model 3D TV with active shutter glasses.  I didn't notice the weight, but certainly the difference between glasses on and glasses off when it comes to picture brightness was evident between models.  The 2011 LW6500 (AU$4,999) is noticeably brighter(using a tech LG are calling 3D Light Boost) and perhaps almost too shiny when viewing the 3D show reel.

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