I do not normally write about consumer electronics on GoRumors. But a recent article on HDTVMagazine made for interesting reading. In the article, the author has studied how the viewing angle affects the 3D viewing experience on LCD and Plasma television screens from Samsung and Panasonic.
Here are some notes from the study
Samsung 55″ LED TV
The 3D viewing is perfect when your head is held straight and at the ideal angle to the screen. However, viewers may experience slight ghosting as the viewing angle changes. When the viewing angle is tilted by as much as 80 degrees, the LCD screen is cancelled out by the polarizing angle of 3D glasses and the image may be completely dark.
Panasonic 50″ Plasma Screen
Unlike the LCD screen of Samsung, the Plasma screen on a Panasonic TV appeared to be free from any appreciable cross-talk and ghosting even when when the viewing angle was tilted by as much as 90 degrees. The brightness dropped by a little, but casual viewers may not even notice.
Sony 3D LCD TV
The performance deteriorates drastically with viewing angle on an LCD TV. This is because the LCD TV only makes use of one polarizer per glass lens thus causing much more crosstalk. On the contrary, the Plasma screens from Panasonic made use of dual polarizers that helped in minimizing ghost images.
The study concludes by saying that while Plasma shows marginal ghosting, the performance is significantly better than LCD or LED. You may expect even more improved performance when OLED TVs make it to the market. But that’s sometime away and so if you are going for a 3D TV now, maybe choose a Plasma.