According to this Hollywood Reporter article, ESPN and Discovery announced plans to start 3D broadcasting as early as this summer.
And yes, it does mean buying new technical toys to go along with it, plus the channels will probably cost a premium.
I’ve been wondering how long it would take for true 3D TV. The technology has been around for a long time, and there are lots of patents for 3D TV. The articles don’t give details, but I would imagine this uses the liquid crystal alternate-eye blocking method. This avoids the many problems of polarized or anaglyphic glasses and gives you full 3D color and definition, and it ought to be easy for the makers to switch the programs to “Mono” if they want.
The movie theater industry: “Goddammit!”
I don’t think 3D TV will ever really fly until they find a way to get rid of having to wear the glasses. Nobody wants to have to wear those glasses to watch TV all the time. They have a hard enough time finding the remote.
Plus, it will be really expensive to buy the channels, you’ll need the special TV and box, and the content just really isn’t that compelling (soccer matches, sharks).
If they can find a way to use this technology for porn, on the other hand…
They already have. I’ve seen 3D porn movies that use the LC alternate-eye glasses, complete with hookup box for the system, all available at a standard, unremarkable adult products store.
Outside of lab software, I’ve never seen such a 3D system used for any other type of 3D viewing.
Yet another example of my thesis that porn viewing and horny engineers drive progress.
3D tv is kind of pointless anyway isn’t it?
In a movie theatre it’s impressive because of the scale of the picture compared to the viewer. You sit 30-40 feet away from a 20 ft high screen where the 3D f/x move off the screen 15-20 feet towards or away from you.
Scale that down to home viewing and you’re watching a little 3D diorama even on a big 50" screen.
LC shutter glasses were used on the Nintendo Famicom and the Sega Master System/Mark III for a few video games in the 1980s, as well as on the Amiga and a few arcade games over the years (Continental Circuit is one that comes to mind). They’ve also been around for a while for non-adult home video purposes in Japan and the US; Googling “field sequential 3D” will yield a number of sites specializing in such videos. (I’m disappointed to see that Robert Rodriguez’s 3D kids films are OOP in field-sequential versions, though).
Interesting. I’ve never heard this called “field sequential”, nor have I seen any non-porn examples before (aside from a demo disc I have).
I’m surprised how inexpensive the DVDs are.
Yeah, I never remember the term “field sequential,” and always have to do a bit of Googling to recall it.
The “field sequential” crop of commercial LC glasses/videos/games really only work with CRTs, so the market has pretty much died in the last couple of years. They’re interesting, and cheap, toys though, and the VHS and DVD titles extant don’t require special players. Many of the movies out there are dupes of Japanese VHD releases, though a number of indie efforts have made it out more recently, including Robert Rodriguez’s stuff.
There have been some shutter-glasses products for DLP HDTVs (and a few for plasmas, etc.) but the movies available are mostly amateur efforts or glorified demos.
I don’t think so. I have watched plenty of movies in 3D at home, with a DLP data projector scalled to about 100". (Also nice for “slide shows” of some of my own stereographic stuff.)
I watch these converted to red/blue anaglyph because I am poor, but I lust for an 240hz LCD projector that’ll work with shutter glasses. I can’t wait until passive polarized glasses are an attainable option!
3D TV might be “pointless” if you have a 19" CRT, but this is becoming less common. High Def 3D on a big ol’ LCD screen is still going to look pretty sweet.
In my opinion, every major technological advancement that has hit main stream was because it could be used for porn. I.e. printing, photography, movie making, internet, VHS, cars (to get you there), and the list goes on.
The only thing is getting the technology affordable enough for late teens to early 20 yr olds. Since they are going for sports and “educational” shows as ice breakers, I can see 3D being main stream by 2020.
Hopefully, Count Floyd will be there.
It doesn’t have to be all the time. I think most people would be quite happy to wear the glasses for things like sports games and 3-D movies and stick to regular 2-D TV for the rest.