Late in 2010, we reported on a new line of LG LED TVs that the company was calling Nano TV. The LG nano technology uses an extremely thin film with a printed light dispersion pattern to more evenly distribute light across the screen.

Previously the Nano TVs, consisting of the LW9500 and LW7700 in 60 and 55-inch sizes, were planned to use active shutter glasses for their 3D TV feature. However, LG says that due to the popularly of the company's Cinema 3D products, which use passive polarized glasses, the Nano products will now be produced with the companys FPR technology like the rest of the Cinema 3D line (read a review of the LG LW5600).

The previously announced products were expected to carry THX 3D certification. It's not known whether the move to Cinema 3D passive technology changes that. The current Cinema 3D TVs, including the 55LW5600, are not THX 3D certified.

This move means that the only 2011 LG TVs that will use active shutter glasses are the company's plasma TVs, though an LG representative suggested that the company is also working on a way to integrate FPR with plasma technology.

The use of passive polarized glasses takes away some of the pain of purchasing a 3D TV. The glasses are inexpensive (about $10 or free if you walk out of a 3D theater with them on), so a family can easily get enough for guests and won't worry about replacing broken ones. Passive technology is nearly free of crosstalk and flicker as well; however the technology does reduce the resolution of the 3D image—an issue that will be more apparent on lower-quality video such as cable TV or VOD.

As far as we know, the other features of the Nano TV products remain the same, including the 288 zones of local dimming provided by the full array of LEDs. Also built-in is LG's Smart TV platform which includes a number of streaming media apps and DLNA for accessing locally-stored PC media.  The 55- and 60-inch models will use 480Hz refresh processing.

The LG Nano TVs are expected to hit dealers in August.

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