The Future and Challenges of 3D TV
3D TV has proved to be the biggest technologic trend in 2010. But the question remains that who wants to buy it? The technology is already a hit in the theatres with almost half of the top ten highest grossing movies of 2009 were 3D.
This means that the 3D technology can be perfectly implemented for domestic use. Also the current technology is widely agreed to be superior to the red/blue anaglyph method used throughout the middle-to-late 20th century. There are 3 reasons which will make it challenging to bring this technology home.
Upgrade Fatigue
In 2008 a PlayStation 3 cost $400, which also included a Blu-ray player. In 2009 a 50-inch plasma TV cost $1,600. Both the products are extremely good even though they are a lot cheaper now. Watching TV or plying games on the great big screen is really a good value for money. Two thousand dollars is a lot of money and very few people will like to spend more to upgrade to devices with 3D features. It is true to a certain extent when majority of people paid big bucks to upgrade to HDTV in the past decade. Those who are still waiting to go HD will be more likely to go for ever more affordable entry level big screen models, not premium-priced 3D models. The same goes for home video. Even if Hollywood does convert a lot of movies to 3D, are people really going to be happy about paying for yet another version of “Star Wars”?
Lack of 3D Content
Hollywood is surely advancing towards the production of 3D features. But even if all new movies are produced in 3D, they would still be only a small percentage of the overall catalog of available films. Various studios are now trying to transform older movies (Toy Story and Toy Story 2) into 3D, but it’s an expensive and time consuming process. New 3D TV channels which will be broadcasted from Direct TV may solve the problem a bit. But till the time broadcasters and production houses start investing in producing 3D TV shows and covering major games in 3D they will be looping “Avatar”, Pixar’s “Up”, and the Beijing Olympics Ceremony for a whole day.
The glasses
The new 3D movies will be much more superior to what were produced in 1950s or the 80s, but the viewers will still need to wear the glasses for the 3D effect. This concept will work out perfectly fine for a 2 or 3 hour movie like Avatar, but wearing those glasses every time while watching your favourite programs or games for a long stretch will make it irritable.
