The Times reported today that ESPN is stopping their 3D channel, since 3D TV hasn’t ever caught on. Industry analysts have said that this would be the kiss of death for it.
Does anyone watch 3D? Is it over in terms of programming?
I’m not interested at all in it, so I don’t know.
Put here since it is about the TV - but move to GD if the mods want.
I knew 3D was a gimmick from the start. I’ve only felt its presence was worth it in a very very few instances, and even then it’s no loss to subsequently view a good 3D experience in 2D when you get it on DVD.
3D TV requires not just goggles and a narrow viewing area, but dedicated concentration; any attempt to move, such as to the fridge, or to look down at your lap or around at anyone else nearby, or just to stand up, requires additional hassle. Much easier to give up on the whole deal and go back to 2D, where it’s a straightforward and familiar arrangement of positioning yourself wherever you want, and doing whatever else you like at the same time, with no extra hardware attached to your face.
There’s no 3D TV where I live, they’re still playing everything in Standard Def as they haven’t turned analogue off yet and don’t have the bandwidth to spare. The only HD channels waste it on old sitcoms and Reality shows.
Probably not a coincidence that this is happening at the same time that 4k sets are shipping.
Yep, I spent $75 on a pair of glasses that I probably only used 4 or 5 times.
It’s a cool novelty but it wears off rather quickly.
I’ve always suspected 3D was pushed to prevent people recording movies in cinemas.
The 3d TV sets are priced to to high, for the current available programming. If they can figure out how to make 3D TV work without glasses, people might favour it more.
Actually, I didn’t even want 3D. I just wanted 1080p/240hrtz.
3D has pretty much become a standard for HD TVs these days. (At least with the above mentioned specs.)
I still use my 3DTV from time to time. I do have a couple BluRays with a 3D option and it’s pretty good for video gaming in 3D. That I bought a passive set plus some clip-ons for my glasses helps. (Those clip-ons are also great for going to the movies.) I did subscribe to the TWC 3D tier for a while, which was supposed to get some additional channels besides ESPN but never did. Even then, I might have been willing to pay the $10 a month for ESPN if there had been a lot more programming. Heck, even just Monday Night Football in 3D might have kept me. But when it became clear that there were going to be no other channels and ESPN wasn’t going to get any better I dropped it.
The programming they had on the ESPN 3D channel was pretty lame as well. X-Games (skiing, skateboarding, and biking mostly), boxing, and college football with teams I never heard of. It was certainly pretty, but I couldn’t get interested in the actual event. It would have been better if they’d been able to show some NFL football or something.
NBC ran a 3D channel during the olympics, that looked really good, but for some reason had no announcing, which detracted from the experience a lot.
I still watch 3D movies on my TV though. Drive Angry has the best 3D cinematography out there IMHO.
We talked about this after coming out of Man of Steel (in 2D; wasn’t attracted to the movie enough to pay more than double for IMAX 3D). For all the hoopla and false starts and flawed technologies that came before, the essentially perfected 3D video process doesn’t really add much to most films. When not grossly overused (as mostly in prior eras), it’s a very mild evolution of the experience and not the wondrous revolution we believed it would be. 3D seems to be the Wankel engine of the film world.
ETA: It’s possible that an immersive 3D system, where the characters and action appear to be within a space in the room, would be a game-changer. But even that would be limited and quickly fade against the usual qualities of story, plot, casting, etc.
I have no particular use for 3D, and I’m not too surprised to see that it is going the way of most gimmicks. I have seen one movie that I thought was absolutely worth the 3D experience - “Avatar” in Imax 3D was spectacular. The rest of them would have been just as good in regular old 2D. Plus, for people like me who wear glasses, 3D is a pain in the ass, putting those stupid glasses on over my regular glasses. Imax 3D gives me a splitting headache, too.
We actually saw a preview of “World War Z” in 3D last night, and the 3D was distracting rather than adding anything to the movie. I would have much preferred regular 2D.
I bought a 3d Viera plasma because they said it had superior graphics for 2d as well but I never once used either of my 3d glasses. Just really not in the slightest bit interested.
Not superior graphics I don’t think, but superior hardware that is somewhat more robust. Though I have found the SD upscaling (which may be a combination of player and TV) to be excellent.
I really want a 3D TV, but solely for videogame use. While it’s gimmicky and not great for extended use, I’d love to occasionally get that boosted immersion.
But, even more than that, I want it for the option to play “split screen” games with a full screen, one for each player. My wife and I play split screen shooters a lot, and getting a full screen apiece would be really nice.
This thread is about 3D *television *sets not catching on, not 3D movies in theaters. 3D movies are making a shit load of money, they are not going away any time soon.
Oh. And I read the thread and everything. 
Well, I don’t like 3D tv either.
Oh well, I guess I can use the money I have been saving for a 3D television on a new 4K one - and save money on glasses too!
Cough I hear echos of the 50s. cough
When ESPN 3D was first announced, my sports bar clients asked about it, if they should upgrade their TVs and projectors to it, and frankly if it was going to catch on. And even though it would have been a lot of work for me, I had to tell them my honest opinion - that it would not catch on.
I figure I’m probably in the category of finding 3D TV really neat as a novelty, but it wears off quickly. I just haven’t gotten that far with it yet.
I recently got a TV that came with 3d glasses, and I checked out several of the available 3d offerings from the SmartHub thing. I thought it was really cool, and put the few tolerable-sounding 3d things I found on Netflix on my queue. I’m not sure where else I can find 3d stuff, as I’m not really into the idea of buying movies on Blu-Ray.
I really like the idea of 3d gaming, but I’m a PC-only, Steam-all-but-exclusively gamer, and it would be really awkward to shunt my desktop over to my TV. Plus, I read somewhere that the graphics quality would seriously drop if I use my TV as a monitor.
What would it take to get a good 3d gaming set up going?