Today I received the fifty inch Panasonic plasma 3D TV. Obviously I’m doing reviews, so most of my observations belong to those, rather than here.
But I would like to note that using the same test disc, there is much, much less (but still a very small amount of) crosstalk than the LCD TV I wrote about here.
The TV comes with two Blu-ray 3D discs: Coraline and Ice Age 3. I have just watched the latter, and much to my surprise it is genuinely amusing. And the 3D is rather well done for the most part.
Ice Age 3 is a Fox production, and I haven’t watched a Fox Blu-ray for well over half a year (since the company seems to want to have a veto over what I write). Coraline is a Universal production. I thought it was interesting how the two companies have taken a different approach to presenting their content.
I have the Panasonic Blu-ray 3D player set to ask whether I want the disc to play in 2D or 3D. Both discs invoked this question. Having done so with the Fox Blu-ray, it worked just like a regular Blu-ray disc in every way, until you choose ‘Play Movie’ from the main menu. Then it asks you whether you want to watch the movie in 2D or 3D. Choose the latter and you get the fine 3D version mentioned above.
The Universal Blu-ray, though, runs in 3D all the way through if you select 3D at the start-up point. The copyright screens are flat, but the menus are 3D, as are the two trailers that launch before you even get to the menus.