Gadget review: Samsung Series 7 3D TV

Samsung's Series 7 3D-capable LED television is impossibly thin. So thin, in fact, that you wonder whether a child rushing past too close might generate enough wind to wobble the screen on its chrome perch.

Samsung's new 3D television lineup boasts the ability to not only show off wonderful 3D goodness, but can also turn a standard 2D source into 3D (not as good as native 3D content but impressive enough).

The TV uses a chipset that creates a "depth map" on top of the displayed content, be it a television show, movie or video game, adding depth to the content. You can then adjust the level of depth (over a range from 1 to 10) to suit your taste.

You still have to wear the dorky glasses to watch in 3D but the cardboard ones with red and blue lenses are now a thing of the past.

These days you wear stereoscopic active shutter glasses (Samsung is bundling a pair of glasses and a copy of Monsters vs Aliens when you buy a Samsung 3D Blu-ray player) and, after awhile, the feeling you look like a dork wears off.

The 3D adds depth and volume, and in Monsters vs Aliens you feel as if you could almost reach out and touch objects on the screen. In fact, I almost flinched when a patter tennis ball was hit my direction - it felt incredibly close to my nose.

A small but welcome feature of the Samsung 3D Blu-ray player was that using Samsung's Anynet connectivity, whenever you plop a disc into the player the TV automatically turns on to the correct channel. Just the ticket for technophobes who are unsure how to find the right channel for the DVD player.

Even without its 3D capabilities, the Samsung is a brilliant TV in its own right, showing just how much brighter and crisper the image on an LED-LCD TV is when compared to a standard LCD TV. It put my ageing Sony Bravia to shame.

The 2D to 3D conversion feature let me play Sony's PlayStation 3 games Killzone 2 , Motorstorm and LittleBigPlanet in 3D, which was pretty cool, but it doesn't look as good as content that's been created in native 3D.

I wouldn't want to watch content in 3D for too long, though, and even on its corporate website, Samsung highlights the dangers of watching too much 3D content: "We do not recommend watching 3D if you are in bad physical condition, need sleep or have been drinking alcohol", and "viewing in 3D mode may cause disorientation for some viewers. Do not place your television near open stairwells, cables, balconies or other objects that may cause you to injure yourself".

I think the concept of 3D on your TV is a neat idea, but having to wear glasses doesn't appeal that much to me.

There's also the issue of content - if you buy a 3D TV now, you're not going to have a lot of 3D stuff to watch on it. In fact, you're going to have very little to watch, actually, until 3D Blu-ray movies become more commonplace.

* Samsung UA46C7000 3D TV RRP $4799

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