[By Natalie Shoemake, PC Magazine]

While monitor manufacturers have been more reluctant than their HDTVcounterparts to make the leap to 3D, some companies are embracing the trend. That includes Acer, which has released two 3D displays: the 23.6-inch HS244HQ and 27-inch HN274H.

Gamers looking to enhance their media experience will likely move more toward the 27-inch HN274H model, as it supports Nvidia 3D Vision as well as HDMI 3D, which allows you to hook up a Blu-ray or TV set-top box to watch movies or regular programming in 3D. It displays in a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution, has a refresh rate of 120Hz, supports LED backlighting, and boasts a 100 million:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Connection options include a DVI-DL port, three HDMI ports, and VGA. There’s also a built-in IR emitter for those spiffy Nvidia 3D active shutter glasses that are thrown in.

The 23.6-inch HS244HQ takes a step down in size and features, being that there’s no Nvidia 3D Vision support—just HDMI 3D—and it lacks LED backlighting. It also has a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, but a lower 12 million:1 contrast ratio. A pair of Acer’s own 3D glasses are also bundled in (there’s also a built-in IR emitter). Connectivity options are less than what the 27-inch model offers; only one VGA and two HDMI (cables included).

The Acer 23.6-inch HS244HQ and 27-inch HN274H are available now and are priced at $449 and $689, respectively.

Last month, Nvidia announced major changes to its consumer 3D Vision kit for adding stereoscopic 3D capabilities to home PCs, including a lower price and longer battery life. Earlier this week, Nvidia announcedthat it is making its 3D Vision video player technology freely available to Web developers, with the intention of simplifying the process of creating Web sites that stream 3D content to 3D Vision–equipped PCs.

See the original post here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383571,00.asp

[By Mike Snider, USA Today]

Naysayers about the importance of 3-D in video games just lost one to the other side: EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich.

After spending April 7 at Sony’s Analyst Day and seeing updates of upcoming games such as Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (out Nov. 1), Resistance 3 (Sept. 6), Twisted Metal(Oct. 4), Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One (fall) and Infamous 2(June 7), Divnich issued a report today announcing his defection to the 3-D side.

“I’ve personally never been fond of games in stereoscopic 3-D,” he writes. “Sure, Killzone, Gran Turismo, and MLB: The Showlook great in 3-D, but I’ve personally never felt that 3-D added anything significant to my gaming experience. Now that I have had to chance to experience Uncharted 3 in 3-D, that opinion has changed. … With a core focus on cinematic, story, and action, Uncharted 3 is the prime candidate to convince the naysayers that 3-D belongs in video games—it certainly has convinced me.”

Divnich went on to say that Uncharted 3 “could do for 3-D gaming what Avatar did for 3-D movies. However, given the significant difference in cost to experience Uncharted 3 in 3-D over Avatar in 3-D, one certainly shouldn’t expect a mad mob rush of consumers to drop $3,000 on a 3-D television just forUncharted 3. Instead, Uncharted 3 will solidify 3-D’s legitimacy in the interactive entertainment landscape, just as Avatar did for the 3-D movie experience.”

More of Divnich’s outlook on Sony:
— Sony is “well-positioned for continued software growth on the PlayStation 3” with its release schedule for second half of 2011 (Resistance 3, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, Uncharted 3, and Twisted Metal) and its third-party share continues to grow worldwide.
— The Next Generation Portable (due out later this year), he says, “will likely have stronger market success than the PSP. … The key to the NGP’s success, like that of all other gaming platforms, is third-party support. While Sony has currently only announced one third-party title (Call of Duty by Activision), we expect all major third party publishers to announce support at E3 2011.”
— The PlayStation Network has over 75 million registered users and has had more than 1.4 billion pieces of content downloaded globally.

See the original post here: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2011/04/video-game-analyst-uncharted-3-could-do-for-3d-gaming-what-avatar-did-for-3d-movies-/1