Tip UsIs 3D TV ever going to replace 2D or is it just an expensive novelty?
Nowadays, you may find yourself surrounded by hundreds upon thousands of different technological fads and gimmicks that just make you want to scream. When I’m faced by this problem, I like to pretend I’m a world famous entrepreneur sitting in the Dragon’s Den, waiting for the next set of inventors to walk up the stairs and tell me why their idea is so important.
Think of your living room, and possibly your bedroom. These are likely to be the two most gadgiest places in your house, unless you have an office or are really classy and have a game room, but anyway, just think about the gadgets in those places. Chances are you have two televisions, a large one for the living room, and a reasonably sized one in the bedroom. These are usually hooked up to Sky or some other cable/satellite entertainment service. And as for gaming, you may have a console, from the Family Favourite of the Wii, to the casual Xbox 360, or maybe you use a PS3 as an entertainment center.
What else then, a computer? Maybe it’s a state of the art laptop with a quad core processor and a HD graphics card, or maybe it’s just a dusty old desktop that can get the job done without all the fancy frills. How about some handhelds, you might have some of those lying around. A PSP? Or maybe you opt for the DS? And you will most likely have a phone.
Now think, how many of these would you want to be enhanced by the power of 3D?
Of course, we’ve had it all before, and many believe it’s still as much a fad today as it was back then. They do have a point however, we’re still forced to wear bulky glasses that can only take away from the experience, and the glasses-less technology isn’t really ready yet.
Toshiba are the first people to produce such technology for televisions, I guess that’s why,”Leading Innovation” is their tagline. However, they recently announced that these TVs aren’t selling too well.
They began to sell the TVs in Japan in late December, and are apparently behind schedule seen as though they estimated 1,000 units sold per month, but have only succeeded in selling 500 of the 20-inch models and less of the 12-inch set. From this, Toshiba have deduced that it’s a size thing, and that once the larger models start hitting shelves, sales will shoot up.
Unfortunately, those larger models happen to be one 56-inch model and a 65-inch model, so if you thought that $2,940 was a bit much for those 20-inch sets, get ready to really pull out your wallet for these, although there is no price set as of yet, Toshiba can’t even work out how to make them yet, so expect one hell of a price tag when they eventually come to Europe.
If you’re wondering why they’re having problems, Toshiba use a Parallax barrier on their TVs, just like the 3DS’, in case you didn’t already know, this consists of a layer over the top of the screen which allows each of your eyes to see a different image, it puts them together, and sha-ting! there’s your 3D. However, Toshiba engineers say that they don’t really know how to stretch that across a larger screen, especially when viewed from the side. So far, unless they give up on quality, they’ll have to go for glasses, both of which they are reluctant to do.
So how about them glasses, how are they doing?
Well, the figures are better, even if that is only because there’s more of them in more places, but the there seems to be many more complaints.
From headaches to bad quality, people have found a million different ways to have a bit of a whinge and moan about 3D in general. These people found a fantastic outlet for their complaints when Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times received a letter from much respected Walter Murch (which you can read here: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/01/post_4.html, it’s also a good place to read other people’s opinions on the matter)
From that then, I’ll let you draw your own opinion, but if you want mine, it is as follows.
3D is a wonderful niché that many people will probably enjoy. However, I don’t think that it is the future of TV, more a sidegrade. Film and TV producers shouldn’t rush out to buy more 3D equipment straight away, leave it to the big boys such as Sky and James Cameron. If you’re looking to make your way into the TV or film business, do not worry about 3D.
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