Consumer Reports First Look: The first “passive 3D” TV, from Vizio

Here’s the bottom line on the Vizio VT3D650SV “passive” 3D TV:

Pros:

• Provides a high-quality, comfortable 3D viewing experience;
• Minimal ghosting, comparable with the best plasmas;
• Very comfortable, lightweight, low-cost polarized glasses;
• Bright 3D image.

Cons:

• Vertical resolution cut in half (from 1080 to 540 lines);
• Visible video artifacts, such as jaggies and moiré, in some scenes;
• Very fine details that fall within a row of pixels tend to “shimmer” since each eye is only getting half the image;
• 3D broadcasts transmitted in “side-by-side” mode diaplayed on the Vizio will have a resolution of 960×540, one-quarter that of full 1080p;
• Unlike prior Vizio models with wide viewing angles, this one has a more limited viewing angle, comparable to that of most LCDs.

You can read the entire evaluation here: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2011/02/first-lookfirst-passive-3d-tv-vizio.html