TV in 3D: To Be or Not to Be?
By Harry McCracken | Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 8:08 am
I’m not at the IFA consumer-electronics exhibition in Berlin this week, but Sony Chairman Sir Howard Stringer is–and the Financial Times is reporting that he’s going to announce an ambitious initiative to build 3D products–everything from HDTVs to laptops. It’s the latest bit of 3D boosterism from an entertainment and electronics industry that’s increasingly gaga for the technology.
Me, I’m instinctively skeptical of anything that’s in 3D except the real world–the effect fails to work for me as often as it succeeds, and the glasses give me a headache. (I blame the fact that I wear glasses anyhow, and must jam the 3D ones over my normal specs.) I’ll believe it’s the next best thing when it stays popular for more than, oh, nine months.
But let’s use this as an excuse for a T-Poll:
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September 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 am
It WILL be the biggest thing since colour! If they can agree on a format and all proceed with a standard 3D will take off big time.
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:40 am
I’m holding off until Angelina Jolie re-shoots her Beowulf scene….
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:41 am
This fad has been around before. Not sure if it will stick around long enough this time to become permanent, but potential is there. The quality of the specs makes a big difference – decent movie theatre specs are so much better than cardboard ones from a cereal box, for example. The availability of cheap (free?) decent specs, and the availability to watch in 2D instead if preferred, would do a lot to encourage adoption.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:03 am
Maybe combined with the likes of xbox 360’s natal it could work.
September 3rd, 2009 at 3:06 am
Unless they ditch the goofy glasses it’ll never become very popular. right now, I even avoid 3D movies in theatres because I just hate those glasses!
And even if by some breakthrough you don’t need glasses any more, it doubt we’ll ever se it become mainstream. video suddenly has to include multiple angles, making streams and video files A LOT bigger, which takes a long time if you see how long HD is taking to become standard.