Can I use active shutter 3d glasses on a 2d television? (1 Viewer)

Can I use active shutter 3d glasses on a 2d television?

No. The tv and the content displayed on it have to be 3D and the 3D tv needs to be active not passive.

Well, you can if you want, they just won't do anything.

I have to admit curiosity as to the genesis of the question.

TonyD said:

No.The tv and the content displayed on it have to be 3D and the 3D tv needs to be active not passive.

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I'm not sure how active 3d works, but from my understanding: the tv shows a frame which is meant for the right eye and the glasses block the left eye from seeing it and then vice-versa. Why wouldn't it work? Does this mean that active 3d glasses and passive 3d glasses both require the same type of television? If so, what's the point of active if it's more expensive?

You're not going to get any 3D images from a 2D television, regardless of the type or presence of any glasses.

Charles Smith said:

I have to admit curiosity as to the genesis of the question.

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The first question most people ask about a 3D setup is "Can I save money and only buy ONE of the three pieces?"
(That's like buying a car by getting the tires first.)

retaeht said:

I'm not sure how active 3d works, but from my understanding: the tv shows a frame which is meant for the right eye and the glasses block the left eye from seeing it and then vice-versa. Why wouldn't it work? Does this mean that active 3d glasses and passive 3d glasses both require the same type of television? If so, what's the point of active if it's more expensive?

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Passive is half vertical resolution and you will also see dark lines visible in the image, just to be fair some people see flicker with active glasses, i do not, flicker is visible if you have any lights on and in your field of view with active shutter glasses.

The above refers to 1080p televisions, 4K televisions should be great with passive technology although i'm not sure if the dark lines will still be there, all competent reviews i have read of passive 1080p sets mention the half resolution and dark lines.

Active shutter glasses cannot turn a 2D television into a 3D one.

It has been already answered that you cannot but a reasonable question is why not? when your 2D TV does 120Hz. To me the answer is quite horrible. Because the TV manufacturers all build their TVs to a specific HDMI spec and tie it all together rather than separate the display from the decoder so that you could update the decoder quite cheaply as new HDMI standards come out. Many existing 2D TVs could have been upgraded to 3D but the manufacturers would rather force you to buy a whole new display. Same goes for today's digital projectors. My old Sony analog CRT projector, made before HDMI even existed was able to be upgraded to accept HDMI for just a few hundred dollars. It could also be upgraded for 3D although the results were not very good.