The first thing we checked out with the UE40D6530 was its 3D capabilities, by running our own 3D resolution test chart. Simply put, it doesn’t do well in this area at all, showing the lowest resolution out of any active-shutter 3D TV we’ve tested. It does seem that Samsung has felt compelled to shoe-horn 3D capabilities into a panel that’s not really suited to it, and the result is what looks like halved vertical resolution. Everything in 3D mode – the image you’re watching, and the 3DTV’s own on-screen menus – displays with jaggedness. This is likely to be even more obvious than any 2D errors might have been, given that it’s advisable to sit closer to the screen of an extra-dimensional television for a more immersive experience.
The vertical resolution check area of our test pattern appeared as a solid grey smudge (it’s supposed to be alternating black and white lines), and the diagonal “stipple” pattern did, too. Unfortunately for Samsung, there is a large “FULL HD 3D” logo displayed prominently on the UE40D6530′s box, which, we’re sorry to say, simply isn’t true. Given that Samsung has publicly denounced its cross-town rival LG over the latter’s usage of the term “Full HD 3D” to describe its passive Cinema 3D displays, this is more than a little ironic. We can only assume this is a promotional mistake of some sort, or that in these early days of 3D, a lack of test patterns (we had to made our own) means that TV makers may simply not be entirely or collectively aware of such limitations.
The Samsung UE40D6530 isn’t the only 3DTV promoted as “Full HD 3D” to actually not be – none of the 2011 Panasonic Plasma TV panels we’ve reviewed have been able to reproduce all 1080 lines of the 3D image, although they’re very close and the limitation is nowhere near as extreme. In fact, the only TV manufacturers we haven’t seen slip up in the resolution area so far have been Toshiba and Sony (although we’ve not seen all of their 3D range). This is unfortunate, because one of the greatest strengths of the active-shutter 3D system that Samsung promotes against the Passive system (which LG are proponents of) is… resolution. With this resolution limitation, we’re only left with the down-sides of the active-shutter 3D method – namely expensive glasses, and some flicker visible in bright areas.