Although the monitor technology shown off at CeBit was reasonably dissapointing in the quantitative sense there was an interesting showing from LG. The LG D2342P is being dubbed by the firm as a ‘Super 3D’ monitor – superflous naming aside this is a little different to most other 3D computer monitors as it uses a passive rather than active approach.
The monitor works on the principle of ’3D FPR’ (film-type patterned retarder) which is a posh way of saying ‘polarised light’ as employed in some of LG’s 3D TVs. The D2342P is bundled with two pairs of ‘passive’ polarising glasses and software to convert 2D sources (i.e. normal films) into 3D. You can learn more about FPR technology, including a bit about the projected future direction of the technology and the contention between ‘passive’ and ‘active’ 3D technologies over on TFT Central.
The French technology website Les Numeriques got their hands (and eyes) on the monitor but weren’t overly impressed by how the technology was implemented. The biggest criticism was that the 3D effect only seems to work properly from over 1.5 meters away – this is a huge drawback for a PC monitor which you tend to sit much closer to. It may have now been refined further from this pre-production unit and other reviews should follow after release.
Other than this ‘Super 3D’ technology, the monitor itself is a fairly standard 23-inch TN affair with a Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, 5ms stated grey-to-grey response time, maximum stated luminance of 250 cd/m2 (125 cd/m2 including glasses), D-Sub (VGA), DVI and HDMI (of ambiguous specification) and an LED backlight. This monitor supports ‘TruMotion 120Hz’ frame interpolation but does not feature a true 120Hz refresh rate as this is not necessary for the passive 3D technology and would add additional expense to the monitor. The D2342P is due to launch in the UK June with an expected RRP of around £280. A 25-inch model, the D2542P, is also on the way and is due for release in June – price currently unspecified.
Update: The Cinema 3D monitors, as they are now dubbed, will consist of two series. The D42P (below) and D41P both use a Film Patterned Retarder (FPR) system to deliver a 3D experience to the user but it is unclear what the differences between the two series will be. The D42P is now available in the US and the UK. £260 is the current RRP for this model in Blighty.