There are many 3D TVs out there but most cost a bomb and can put a hole in your bank a/c and make you immediately poor , especially if you live in 3rd world where everything costs a multiple times of the USA prices. In India the prices (to the end user) are about 2 times the USA prices for any product.
One can only drool and imagine of buying good products here. I dont know why, when the economy is picking up and slowly the developed countries are slipping. Or is it a new form of colonialism so that western world is able to purchase at half the prices of the rest.
Any way , the AKAI 3D TV-L42N40-3D comes as a refreshing change.
When other 3D TV are costing around $1500 the AKAI 3D TV-L42N40-3D costs only $650 (3rd world prices).
It is a fully functional full HD 3D TV 42 inches. Its performance is unbelievable even though it is LCD. Personally I like LCD over LED as LCD has more natural picture whereas LED picture looks more plasticky. The LED is basically an LCD but with LED back lighting and i dont understand why people pay more than twice for only back light.
It is based upon the latest technology of passive 3D with polarized glasses. Four sets of glasses are free including one clip on set.
The first time I saw it, I could not believe, I asked the salesman again and again - it is full-HD 1920x1080 ? Is it Passive 3D ? are the glasses free? Is this the correct price?
The sales man also gave me a further discount.
At the price it is not just a bargain , rather it is like a gift. I never tested the Akai quality so I was skeptical and wondering whether I had played at a casino.
To my surprise the installation went smoothly and now my drawing room looks like a movie theater with added 2.1 Altec Lansing speakers.
The TV has a wide viewing angle , I did not find any problem at any angle except of course at the back, hah ha ;-)
The pictures are crisp. It has 2 HDMI ports , good, one for HD STB satellile connection and another could be used for several other purposes like blu ray player, computer etc. It also has VGA port just in case. One Coax port is also there , just to tell. There is also one USB port to watch movies, photos or music from pendrive or from external hard disk.
3D
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2D to 3D Conversion - TV converts everything connected to HDMI or USB in 3D if required. 3D is unbelievable. Due to the satellite receiver box with HDMI, the high definition TV channels such as Discovery HD & National Geographic HD can now be seen in 3D. Especially the wide open spaces look so wonderful. The parallax separation can be varied from 2 to 10.
3D Movies - The TV shines in 3D movie viewing. The viewers simply jump in their seats , children can be seen trying to catch objects in air. There is no need to go to a theater for 3D movie to watch Avatar & Cloudy with a chance of meatballs etc. The TV can display many 3D formats such as side by side, top bottom, line by line & frame alternative. There is also Left/Right switch. 3D movies can be watched from USB.
The glasses are easy , these have no battery.
Specifications :
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Panel Size : 42" Full HD LCD wide 16:9
Max-Resolution : Native 1920x1080 @60Hz
Pixel Pitch : 0.48 mm
Colors : 16.7 millions
Dimensions : 1014mm x 625mm x 115 mm
Weight : 19.5 Kg with base
Base : Swivel type transparent
Supported Systems : PAL+SECAM or PAL+NTSC
Channels : 199
VGA Display modes : WUXGA , WXGA, XGA, SVGA, VGA
Power : On <= 240W , Standby <= 1W
Items included : TV, Wall mount, Swivel stand, manual, remote, four 3D glasses (passive polarized)
Ports :
Back side-- 2 HDMI 1.4, one VGA in, one pc audio in, AV1 composite(YWR), YPbPr/YCbCr
On side-- AV2 , One S-video, one earphone socket
Remote : It has 3D on off button, 16:9 switch, and also buttons for playing usb movie/music i.e play, pause, stop, prev, next, rev,fwd etc. along with other usual buttons. It also has source button to select input source such as TV, Av1, Av2, S-Video1, S-Video2, YPbPr, PC,HDMI1, HDMI2, USB
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Conclusion : This is really good Japanese quality. Thumbs Up.