While we wait for more 3D on the way on Blu-ray or from Sony's 3D Net channel that will debut next year, add another option to the mix: PlayStation Network. A poster on AVSForum spotted the new category on their PS3 a few days ago, currently offering Monster House for rental at $4.99, while a Bon Jovi video and trailer for the previously mentioned 3D Net are free downloads. Curiously, only stereo audio is currently available on any of them, and the 720p Monster House file is only a 4GB download. The picture quality still seemed relatively sharp and without ghosting, but we'll need to compare it to the Blu-ray to see how much was lost in the transition.

If you're interested in being an early adopter of Google TV, for now you can choose a separate passthrough box like the Logitech Revue or Sony's Blu-ray player, or plop the whole experience into the display with Sony's new Internet TV line. We spent some time with the Sony Internet TV NSX-32GT1, and we're a bit surprised to find that it could feature the best implementation of the Google TV experience of them all. But is that enough? After you've digested our impressions of the platform as a whole, check out our review of the Internet TV to find out.


Hardware
Strictly as a display, the appearance of the Internet TV is different from most HDTVs on the market, with a white curved back and rather unique stand. Ultimately they're just aesthetic differences, though, and getting it set up wasn't terribly complicated, although the power cord's winding entrance into the back of the TV reduced its length to something slightly shorter than we were accustomed to. Despite packing the Google TV-standard 1.2GHz Intel processor, it's not noticeably deeper or heavier than a standard 32-inch LCD using CCFL backlighting, but relatively chunky compare to an edge-lit LED TV. We didn't pick up on any fan noise, and while there's some warmth at the upper left rear of the unit, we don't anticipate keeping things cool to be problem. As far as what you have to actually look at, the display performance is about average, with good colors and decent black levels. We didn't notice a lot of the bloom or uneven backlighting that can occur in edge-lit units, but negatives included relatively shallow horizontal viewing angles left and a very shiny, glossy, reflective finish. Even though it's a 60Hz display and not 120Hz like many newer TVs, we didn't notice any motion blur issues while watching sports or playing games. In general, the 32-inch Internet TV performs about where it's priced as a mid-range HDTV option, although it's frustrating that buyers who want more features in their HDTV -- faster displays, 3D -- can't get them from the Internet TV line.

Our Internet TV came equipped with four HDMI inputs, four USB ports, two IR blaster ports, optical audio out, integrated WiFi, and an Ethernet jack, plus a couple of elements unique to this hardware from other Google TV implementations: component ins and and coaxial cable jack with an integrated QAM tuner. One of the HDMI jacks includes HDMI 1.4's Audio Return Channel so you can pipe sound back down to a connected receiver while the integrated speakers continue the "adequate, not outstanding" theme. The included IR blaster used easily stuck onto our Comcast-provided DVR unit, but it's not intended to cover the input, so it simply hung over the top of the box, and performed its function adequately. Two of the HDMI jacks and all four USB ports are side mounted for easy access, along with a button for syncing the RF remote and a headphone jack. One notable quirk of this TV is the lack of hardware volume or input buttons on the unit itself. It's a minor omission, but that'll be missed when you can't locate the remote and a commercial starts blasting. The display settings app appears to be fully featured and integrated with Google TV -- it's accessible through the menu or through a function key shortcut on the control pad, and it also allows for the glowing "Sony" logo on the front to be disabled at will.

Oh and the remote, that many keyed monstrosity that has so been derided as 80s-ish, a Jaguar design reject, too complicated, too useless? It's actually pretty easy to get used to. One-handed or two-handed, it's light and well-balanced for a good feel in-hand, and features mostly familiar controls. We're still not in love with the optical trackpad at the upper right -- although we got better at using it to mouse around after a few days, we never got 100% accurate or experienced the level of responsiveness we'd like to see. As a universal remote controlling the cable box via IR blaster, it was still effective, however. The playback keys mapped naturally to the DVR and were very responsive, but we did find a few things that will probably prevent it from being your one and only remote on the living room table: jumping back to a previous channel was confusingly and unintuitively mapped to the Tab key, and while it was easy to use once we found it, there's no indication of what button does what during setup. We also were unable to find a way to replace certain functions of our cable TV remote, like paging up and down through the guide, so it's possible you'll need to keep that around for the time being. The keyboard itself had a quality, responsive feel and we were able to fly though text input when necessary. Unfortunately there's no support at this time for programmable or learning functions, so you're stuck with what it's capable of out of the box. There are no remote apps available currently, so we couldn't test out what control from a phone would be like.



Software
We found Sony's implementation of Google TV worked well, with a relatively easy setup process that anyone could walk through. The main adjustment we had to get used to was treating TV like any other app running on Android. Simply opening something else like Twitter or even Chrome instantly kills whatever you were watching, unless you had the presence of mind to take advantage of the Dual View button on the remote first to put things in picture-in-picture. It's a decidedly different approach to other smart TV platforms like Yahoo! Widgets that are designed to function as a sidebar to whatever is on, and right now, we're not seeing it as a better one. When we're watching TV, we want to keep watching TV until we say otherwise, and there's an extra step that gets in the way. Dual View should be the main selling feature of the Google TV experience, and it's great to have running -- we pumped Yahoo's Flash page of live updating fantasy basketball scores while also watching several games in PiP -- but it's also where we found our biggest gripe. When you hit the button, while it may not be a shift in resolution, it definitely takes a second or so to kick in, during which you're treated to no sound or video at all. It's not the longest pause ever, but it's incredibly disconcerting and breaks up the TV watching experience. After that, the inability to resize or reposition the window are our next major gripes, as well as that apps don't recognize when it's there and may position critical UI elements in a suddenly inaccessible area of the screen.

The Internet TV is unique among Google TV devices in its ability to accept video over component input and also via coaxial cable, though in practice, they're largely the same experience as operating with an IR-controlled set-top box. After letting the QAM tuner find the available channels from our cable company, pressing the guide button launched the integrated Rovi EPG app that asked for our location and service provider before announcing it would download guide data while the TV was off. It integrated into the Google TV search platform just the same way, although the software didn't automatically find and tune to our HD channels, since they're on subchannels (NBC is channel 4, NBC HD is channel 4-1), so we had to find them ourselves. Otherwise, PiP and overlays worked exactly the same on those inputs and with the same responsiveness as HDMI.

Pulling in content from the launch set of apps was largely the same as any other Google TV product, while Sony included its Qriocity movie service and a "Sony Recommends" shortcut. The included media player streamed music, movies and pictures from shared folders on our Windows 7 PC through DLNA and UPnP, and also played back a few DVDRips from a USB stick, although we couldn't manage to switch between two different USB devices when we had them both plugged in. Otherwise it's as barebones as can be: it displays album art, and multitasking allows for it to play music and do a picture slideshow together, but don't expect to create or edit playlists within the app. The other apps are as noted in our original review: we probably enjoyed NBA's GameTime highlights the most, although the heavy compression tended to obscure player faces once they got moving. If you're looking at this as a cord cutting opportunity, as we mentioned in our platform review, it all depends on how much you enjoy the available Flash video sources.


Wrap-up

Whether or not Google TV is truly the future of the television watching experience remains to be seen, but Sony's Internet TV specifically does a good job of leveraging what's there with an existing TV experience and quelled many of our installation fears due to its simple setup process. Unfortunately, the platform's current drawbacks and the television's middling display specs make it a tough one to recommend even to early adopters. If connectivity, web access and the potential of Google TV speak to you, we can see it as a worthwhile purchase. At about a $100 premium over Sony's similarly spec'd EX600 HDTV it's not too expensive of a bet to make if you're already in the TV market, but the problem with buying on potential is that it leaves precious little wow factor for you rely on right away.

If the discovery of down-to-the-cent leaked prices for Sony's Google TVs sounded too good to be true, you might have been partially right -- the publication that reported that the sets would range from $1,299 to $1,899 has now backed away from those figures. Sony Insider says that though its original prices seemed legit, the website's spooks inside Sony now claim they'll actually cost less when they hit the market, though the screen sizes and model numbers were apparently on the money. We don't really feel inclined to trust the new anonymous sources any more than the original anonymous sources, so we'll just leave it at that so as not to get you excited -- if they're cheaper after all, we'll celebrate, and if not we'll be forewarned.

Toshiba might have abandoned OLED, but that doesn't mean the company is lacking ambition in the display-making field. Today it's using CEATEC 2010, Japan's biggest electronics expo, to make official that 21-inch glasses-free 3D prototype we've been hearing about. It's lost an inch in becoming a retail product, with the 20GL1 offering a 20-inch diagonal, but the important multi-parallax picture transmission (employing a lenticular lens setup as used in Philips' Dimenco) remains the same. The new set, accompanied by a smaller 12GL1 model, will be shipping in Japan this December, and if it really does what it promises, the rest of the world should not be far behind.

Update: Japan's Impress Watch has more details for us, listing a 720p resolution for the 20-incher and a funky 466 x 350 on the 12-inch GL1. Prices are estimated at ¥240,000 ($2,885) and ¥120,000 ($1,443), respectively.

















 

LG is touting its plasma PX950 as the first THX-certified 3D HDTV, and while we didn't run into it at IFA, the company held a press gathering this week in New York to make up for it. So if this set meets THX's rigorous demands -- 400 bench tests and 1,000 data points spread out over 30 test categories -- how does it look to the average consumer? Well, LG certainly has done a lot to prevent ghosting -- that is, image doubling from sync issues with the glasses -- and we were able to enjoy some pretty extreme horizontal viewing angles. What did bother us, however, was the 600Hz sub-field refresh rate; though not an issue with slower-moving footage (a camera-loving fish from "Under the Sea" comes to mind), any quick movement felt jarring to our vision. Can't say for sure if it was the content or the display, but we'd like to presume LG would showcase with only the top-notch visuals. The tech is still young, but when you're asking $200 to $300 more over the 2D equivalent (and that's before having to pick up the requisite glasses separately), the benefit of 3D still isn't quite as prevalent to us yet.

The 2009 BCS National Championship game showed us the potential of 3D sports broadcasts but now it's 2010 so while Sam Bradford and Tim Tebow have taken their game to the NFL, ESPN 3D has made it a reality for viewers at home. Last night's Boise St./Virginia Tech matchup was the first of 13 the network plans to air including the next BCS Championship game so we didn't waste any time plugging in a 3DTV and taking a look. Check after the break for our impressions and a bit more explanation on 3D technology.

Getting ready for the game was the first hurdle, luckily calling Comcast and getting 3D services added to our account went through without a headache, and since we were already using an HDMI cable all we needed to do was plug in a 3DTV here for review and get things set up. The honors were performed by Mitsubishi's massive 73-inch WD-73838, which is 3D ready but requires the company's converter unit to convert ESPN's feed into one compatible with its display. ESPN has opted for a 720p top/bottom compressed format that squeezes two 1280x360 resolution frames (one for the left eye and one for the right) into one as pictured below:


Mitsubishi's 3DC1000 converter takes that single frame (and other forms of compressed 3D) and converts it into the checkerboard format supported by its televisions, which combine with the IR emitter and active shutter glasses included in the 3D starter pack to produce one 3D image. The only complication here is that our older cable box doesn't support HDMI 1.4 for automatically adjusting things to the correct setting, so besides connecting the HDMI passthrough and sync cables, we had to take the extra step of manually finding the proper setting, and switching the HDTV to 3D mode before we were ready. Once we passed those hurdles, all that was left was switching on the battery powered glasses and sitting back on the couch to watch some football. ESPN clearly spent a lot of time figuring out what camera angles at Fed Ex Stadium worked best for 3D, and when Boise State took the field it was pretty hard to remember the players weren't actually rushing directly into our living room.


The main highlight of a 3D broadcast over the HDTV version is definitely a generous amount of lower broadcast angles and with the added depth clearly on display, it was the closest thing we've felt to actually having tickets to the game, except these seats are always 5 rows up and perfectly positioned for the current play. Many of the issues we noticed during last year's production weren't present here, we're not sure if it's ESPN's choice of broadcast technology or what, but the ability to capture fast motion like a pass moving quickly across the screen or Va. Tech QB Tyrod Taylor taking off on a designed run was completely smooth without any blurriness. Watching a punt get blocked live from the end zone was indistinguishable from being at a real game, except the beer was cheaper. The colors were also vibrant, while the glasses do dim things slightly; the TV compensated with extra brightness that helped Boise State's blue helmets pop right off the screen.


Of course, like any early technology, there were still a few issues. On our end we noticed occasional flickering from the broadcast feed, as though it went completely black for a frame or two, which was also noticed by other viewers posting on AVS Forum. With so many elements between our eyes and the action on the field it's hard to tell if ESPN, Comcast, or any of the equipment on our end was at fault, but it was definitely an issue. Also, while ESPN kept the motion clear and the picture remained sharp, even with the reduced amount of vertical pixels, particularly in the first half we noticed issues with the cameras occasionally losing focus on the action. Another issue was a lack of 3D menus on our old cable box, when run through the converter, it's impossible to navigate them or switch to another channel while watching the game. Though it recorded on the DVR without issue, given the amount of setup required, once you start watching, you're pretty much locked in. All in all, Virginia Tech's poor first quarter performance was a bigger issue than any of these, once the game got more competitive down the stretch, those problems started to fade away.


It's obvious that in 2010 3D is still an early adopter's product, with exclusive broadcasts and movie deals still ruling the day, but once it spreads out we'd suggest grabbing a pair of glasses and checking out broadcasts in your area -- for sports the experience is a worthwhile one. A new TV setup might be a bit pricey, but at a fraction of the cost of lower bowl tickets to a big game and the ability to catch the action from all around the field, we're already looking forward to a premiere Ohio State/Miami game Saturday afternoon.

Insanely thin LCDs not enough for you? LG is doing some wild stuff with plasma as well at IFA this week, with its new PX950N (pictured) to supposedly be the first to nab the new 3D THX certification, and a monstrous 180-inch plasma prototype nearby to devour any other unimpressed eyeballs. Unfortunately, details are super short on the 180-inch display, which would be the world's largest if LG is really doing this with one panel (it's hard to tell from LG's scant PR), but there are a few extra PX950N scraps to hold on to. The 600Hz Max Sub-field Drive plasma will support the Multi Picture Format for plugging in 3D cameras and camcorders, and has wireless AV link, DLNA, and NetCast as well. No word on sizes or prices just yet, but IFA kicks off on Wednesday, so there's not long to wait.

You're sitting alone, your house is quiet. You turn your phone off and reach for a novel -- your favorite novel. You run your hand along the book's well-worn spine, then crack open the yellowing pages to the spot you were at last. Suddenly you put the book down. Where are you? You stand up and take off your glasses, looking around frantically at your surroundings. Where are you?

Well, you're not in Berlin, Germany between the dates of September 1st and 7th, attending IFA. ViewSonic just announced, no, threatened an onslaught of 3D product for the upcoming tradeshow, including a 720p 3D camcorder that will pack a built-in 3D display for a mere $300 (we're sure it will be delightful). Details are scarce, but our guess would be that it'll utilize a glasses-free 3D display akin to Nintendo's 3DS or the Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W3. Other 3D members of the brood will include a 3D handheld TV, 3D stills camera, and a 3D photo frame -- all of which will undoubtedly scream quality. As if that wasn't enough, ViewSonic will also be showing off a 7-inch Android tablet dubbed the ViewPad 7, along with a 10-inch tablet that can dual boot to Android and Windows. PR is after the break, we'll let you get back to your book.

Update: Does that 3D camera (the two images on the left) look familiar? It should, it's almost certainly a rebadge of the Aiptek i2. Poor Viewsonic, what happened to you?

Hot news out of Japan if you're an eager 3D beaver: a report from Toshiba's home nation indicates that the company has three models of glasses-free 3D displays in the pipeline, which are being prepared for launch "before Christmas" at prices of "several thousand dollars" each. As you might recall, we got our first inkling about Toshiba Mobile Display's multi-parallax technique back in April, which is when the above 21-inch panel was being touted along with promises of eliminating eye strain and widening 3D viewing angles. We suspect that by now Toshiba has put a slinky bezel on the thing and started thinking up alphanumeric product names for it, though do bear in mind that queries to its press office were deflected with the boilerplate "no comment" response.

Home theater PC fans will tell you that one of the reasons they do what they do is because of the flexibility that comes along with a roll your own home theater PC. And so of course the latest HTPCs need to be able to play 3D movies, games and broadcast content. Now NVIDIA has been bringing 3D to PCs for years but the latest 3DTVs don't share as much in common with 3D PC displays as you might think. Some think this is as simple as getting a video card with an HDMI 1.4 port, but in regards to 3D it is just a spec and your existing video card you've had for years might just work. In fact what HDMI 1.4 means to 3D is simply that a device is capable of outputting specific 3D formats (all common 3D formats used less bandwidth than 1080p60 2D). Sure the hardware must be physically capable of transmitting the signal, but what we're really talking about here is software, not hardware. That's where NVIDIA 3DTV Play comes in. This little piece of magic will be free for those who already own an NVIDIA 3D Vision kit, but for the rest of us with NVIDIA video cards, it'll be $40. What's interesting is that 3DTV Play doesn't really help those with the 3D Vision kits, because it is specifically for 3DTVs; which require their own 3D glasses. Now if you really want to know exactly what 3DTV Play does help with, and how well it works, well you'll just have to click on through for that part.

3D transmission vs display

Just like other video formats, 3D is transmitted one way and usually displayed another. The best example of this in the 2D HD world is 1080i; there are lots of 1080i channels, but good luck buying a new HDTV that is 1080i. 3D is a bit more complicated because it is almost never transmitted the way it is viewed. It is usually transmitted by packing both the left and right image into either a standard HD frame, or a jumbo frame that is twice the size of its 2D counterpart (for example, 3D Blu-ray is transmitted via HDMI in a 2205x1920 resolution). While all the latest 3DTVs use active shutter glasses to display the two frames sequentially, and not one of the other or side by side.



So the HDMI specification sets the 3D transmissions methods that are required and that lists includes many formats, but not the sequential format that 3D PC displays use. This is why you can buy a PC display capable of 120hz input and add your own NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses and emitter to it and watch 3D, but still can't use those glasses on a 3DTV (120hz HDTVs can't accept more than a 60hz input). This is also why 3DTV Play is required, it empowers your supported NVIDIA video card to output the frame packed 3D formats your 3DTV expects.


The experience
After running the installer, at first it appears that nothings happened. If you dig in the NVDIA control panel you'll discover the 3DTV Play logo under the Stereoscopic 3D section. This includes a few settings for 3D gaming as well as a very useful 3D test to see if everything is on the up and up.

Upon pressing test, the 3DTV will automatically detect the 3D signal and let you know it's receiving a 3D  signal and notify you to put your glasses on. At this point if you try to play a 3D game, view 3D pictures, or use the included 3D playback software, you can watch it in 3D with manually selecting anything on the TV. It is pretty simple really and other than a few beta bugs that NIDIA quickly fixed for us, it just works -- still no word on when 3DTV Play will be available to all. Although this all does just work, it also seems like something that should be included with your video card and while $40 is a small price to pay to 3D enable your video card, we expect this to be included with new cards eventually.


PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D Mark II adds support for 3D Blu-ray playback and when combined with NVIDIA 3DTV Play it still didn't just work. We had to contact support and learn that we are required to manually select a 3D Display type in the 3D Display Configuration who's name makes no sense to us. What's worse is that when this wasn't set properly it caused the PC to blue screen.

Obviously this is all cutting edge software so we don't want to harp on it to much. In fact we half expect that when we're giving early access to software that it won't be quite ready for prime time. The bottom line though is that once we got it working, PowerDVD was able to play our 3D Blu-ray Discs at the same level we've come to expect from 3D Blu-ray players. So home theater PC fans looking to build a one box that does it all won't have to go without their 3D Hollywood flicks.



HDMI 1.4 vs 1.4a
The biggest knock against 3DTV Play for a 3D sports fan is the fact that it only supports the required 3D formats in HDMI 1.4 and not all the ones that were added in HDMI 1.4a. Those omitted include 1080i side by side as well as 720p top bottom, which are the formats that all the 3D broadcasts, up until now, have been transmitted in. This means that your 3D HTPC won't be able to natively output the 3D formats currently in use for broadcast content. Of course this could change and right now there isn't much broadcast 3D content available to 3D HTPC users, but if this doesn't change, it would seriously put 3D HTPCs at a disadvantage to the POS 3D set-top box your cable company would love to gouge you for on a monthly basis.




Conclusion
The cutting edge is a fun place to be for HTPC enthusiasts, and while 3DTV Play and PowerDVD 10 do play 3D as you'd expect, if your patience for things that don't just work is low, you should wait. How long is hard to know since at this point you have no choice but to wait for NVIDIA to put the finishing touches on this software. With any luck all these bugs will be worked out by the public availability, which will be sooner rather than later. And in the end we are just glad that at least some companies are stepping up and are willing to cut the 3D trail for HTPC fans.