If you have to wear glasses to watch 3D tv, why not look good doing it. Companies from Gucci to Oakley are making stylish 3D glasses so you don’t feel like such a dork while hanging out watching a movie. Hasbro even has some sweet transformer helmets for the kids (and über fan adults) with built in 3D glasses. So if you were holding off on getting a 3D tv because the glasses didn’t go with your Gucci handbag, you now have one less excuse.
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It may still be 3 years out, but this is a great move in the glasses free 3D TV scenario. Samsung showed off a prototype of their new 55 inch, glasses free, 3D HDTV at FPD China 2011. It actually uses two LCD panels. One displays the 3D images and the other acts like a lens that only lets you see certain images at the right time…giving you glasses free 3D! It can also be used in a 2D mode for viewing non 3D content. If this works it could be a game changer in the 3D TV world.
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The key word here should be experience. Now that I’ve had my own 3d tv for a few weeks, I can honestly say I have a pretty good idea of what the 3d tv experience is like. What I’ve suspected for a while, I now know is true. Watching 3d at home is an experience. It’s not meant for casual viewing, unless you’re watching 2d content.
3d requires an investment of your time and attention. It’s active viewing instead of casual viewing. I’m a very hyperactive person, especially at home. I’m always multi-tasking and usually whatever’s on TV is in the background. Almost like white noise and ocassionally something gets my attention or there’s a particular show I want to watch and then I focus a little more. When I go to the theater, all my attention is focused on the movie. 3d TV requires that sort of attention.
Once you put on the glasses, you need to sit down and enjoy the movie. That’s a good thing. If you’re going to shell out big bucks for a TV, you might as well enjoy it to its fullest. The TV I bought is a 50″ Panasonic Viera 3d Plasma TV. I chose plasma over LCD because I feel it has less ghosting issues (double image created by the 3d effect). Let me first say the picture is amazing, the colors are bright and the definition is amazing. So just watching HD content is great on this TV, but the 3d is beautiful.
So far I’ve seen Ice Age 3d, Coraline and Resident Evil 3d. Resident Evil was particularly fun. I brought a couple of friends over and they had a great time. Glasses are expensive, but I found some great deals on Ebay. I managed to buy 4 pairs for around $60 each. I don’t have any 3d channels yet, maybe I’ll sign up for that soon, for now I’ll download content from the internet, watch my own 3d stuff and buy 3d bluray movies.
So far the 3d TV experience has been well worth it and I hope more people get to try out these TVs. By the way, I’m still surprised how many people think that 3d TVs are only meant for watching 3d. Manufacturers need to do a better job of educating the public. These are 3d capable TVs or 3d enabled TVs. They are high end HD TVs with great features including the capability of watching 3d content.
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Jay Jays is a discount youth fashion retailer from Australia. They have a site featuring dancers wearing their clothing line in 3d. It’s a great way to draw attention to their brand. The site lets you interact with the content by freeze framing on any particular dancer and the clothes they feature. This is a great way to provide a fun brand marketing experience without resorting to the same old catalogue shopping format. The 3d is done well enough and is good use of anaglyph stereography.
http://danceoff.jayjays.com.au/
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Hats off to DirecTV for stepping it up. The need for 3d content is great and is critical for 3d TV sales to rise. On Feb. 13, DirecTV will launch 3net. It’s a new 3d HD channel produced as a joint venture with Sony, Discovery Channel and IMAX. It will begin airing around the clock 3d programming.
The channel will feature premieres of new, one-hour 3d progams, produced in 3d (not converted). Some of the programs include “China Revealed”, “Forgotten Planet” and will feature the world 3d television premiere of “Into The Deep 3d”. 3net will try to have “the largest library of native 3d entertainment content by the end of 2011″.
Thank you DirecTV for doing your part to keep the future of 3d at home bright. I have recently purchased a Panasonic 3d 50″ TV and have been concerned about having enough to watch. I will buy a few 3d bluray movies and watch some of my own 3d movies, but I am now considering getting DirecTV 3d. I will post a review of my 3d TV soon.
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On April 29th, Prince William and Kate Middleton will wed. It will most likely be a huge broadcast event. And what better way to have people really feel like they are there then to broadcast it in 3D? If the royal officials give the go ahead, BBC, BSkyB and ITV are expected to gather together their resources and give the world a spectacular 3D broadcast. This move may bring 3D tv’s into the homes of people that might have been reluctant to try one due to available 3D content. So, if you haven’t already, get out and get a 3D TV so you can see the wedding at Westminster Abbey in all it’s glory.
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Now I’m not sure that the 3D TV “honeymoon phase” is over, but lately I’ve been seeing a trend that points to 3D becoming more common place. In the past manufacturers were shouting 3D TV, 3D TV, 3D TV! But recently I’ve seen a lot of companies advertising their new 3D TV’s as “3D capable”. For example, Sony recently announced 27 new HDTV models for 2011, with 16 of those being 3D capable. One, that’s a huge amount of TV’s that will display 3D content, two, the 3D is a being sold as a capability and is not the main focus. A main reason I see for this new approach is to ease consumer confusion, because some people think that if you have a 3D TV, you have to wear those glasses all the time and watch everything in 3D. This marketing tactic says, “Hey, this is a really great TV…and by the way…you can watch 3D content on it…when you want to”. The other reason I see for this is that 3D is around to stay and companies are incorporating it as a feature that will become standard part of a TV. If you disagree, when’s the last time you saw a company call out their latest and greatest TV as a COLOR TV…it’s pretty standard nowadays for a TV to be color and soon it will be for it to be 3D capable also.
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Consumer 3d camcorders are here. Could this be just what the doctor ordered to boost 3d TV sales? There is not enough 3d content out there and that’s hurting 3d TV sales. I guess it’s up to Joe Consumer to come to the rescue. Consumers can now buy a 3d tv and a 3d camcorder and shoot their own stuff. It will be a marriage made in 3d heaven that will give birth to lots of bad 3d videos. Shooting good 3d is not as easy as point and shoot. It would be great if a “stereographer’s permit” was required to operate these things. Not knowing a thing about basic 3d shooting could lead to tons of bad home videos and headaches for viewers. I’m hopeful that consumers will take the time to get good at shooting 3d. I also think that it will be mainly 3d hobbyists and some professionals that will be the first early adopters.
Panasonic, Sony and JVC each have new consumer cameras that are coming out or are already on the market. JVC says its GS-TD1 consumer camcorder uses two camera lenses, two 3 megapixel CMOS sensors, and a high-speed imaging engine to simultaneously processes the two full 1080 HD video streams.
The camcorder has a optical 5x zoom, and automatic parallax adjustment to optimize the 3D-video “comfort zone.” I like that it has parallax adjustment, it worries me that it’s automatic. The $2,000 camcorder also features a round iris diaphragms that enable beautiful bokeh effect (background blurring) for video and stills, the company says, and biphonic technology for dynamic 3D sound. The 3.5-inch touchscreen also displays 3D images without glasses; cool feature.
JVC also has a cheaper consumer model which will retail at $950, called the GZ-HM960. It doesn’t have two lenses, but it converts 2d footage into 3d. I would have to see that to believe it. My guess is that it wouldn’t do it right. It also has a 3.5-inch 3D display. The JVC 3d camcorders will be available in February.
Sony has the HDR-TD10 which retails at around $1,500. This camera records in full HD 3d, via two lenses and two CMOS image sensors. This allows it to capture to 1920 x 1080 video from each lens. Playback is compatible on 3d TV’s, Playstation 3 or in 2d on standard TVs. The camera will be available in April. This one may be the most promising of the three cameras and offer the most features for the price.
The Panasonic HD-SDT750K was the first of the consumer 3d cameras to come out. It’s available now and retails for around $1400.00. It’s a nice HD consumer camera with great features for the price and size. However, most of those features are not available once you put the 3d lens on. It does not shoot full HD 3d. If you want to shoot 3d home video for your own amusement or to amaze your friends this might be good enough. However if you’re a 3d hobbyist or are looking for something with a few more features or at least zoom capability, then you might want to pass this one up.
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One of the barriers to making 3d TV’s more consumer friendly has been glasses. 3d glasses are still very expensive and work only with the TV you bought them with. Also, many consumers say they don’t want to put on glasses every time they want to watch 3d content. Or if they want to go grab a beer from the fridge, they have to take them off, for example. What a hassle, huh? Please. Or maybe they’re too cool to wear glasses while watching TV.
Glasses free 3d tv is considered the “holy grail of 3d”. If someone could figure out how to do it right and not cost a gazillion dollars, they could ..make gazillions. I thought we were at least 5 years away from glasses free 3d TV. Toshiba is getting close or at least closer than any other barrier based glasses free TV I’ve seen.
There was a long line at CES to check out Toshiba’s glasses free 65″ TV. It was worth the wait. Each of the display monitors had three sets of footprints where we were supposed to stand to watch. I tried all three spots and even outside the spots. The attendants didn’t like that.
I did notice some ripple distortion and a bit of ghosting, when I was outside the sweet spots, but not as bad as other glasses free 3d displays I’ve seen. Toshiba has figured out how to reduce those artifacts to a minimum. However, I feel some of the depth I expect to see in good 3d was lost. The 3d is very comfortable to watch, but not impressive. The resolution is still not great and you still get vertical lines around the edges of objects as a reminder that you’re seeing the image through a lenticular filter.
Toshiba, you’re very close, but no cigar. Consumers, if you want to watch good 3d, you still have to use either passive or shutter glasses displays. The search for the “holy grail of 3d ” continues, but Toshiba is leading the way.
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Case study Tron: Legacy
I saw Tron this weekend and the movie. The original Tron came out in 1982 and also starred Jeff Bridges. That movie was a moderate hit, but had groundbreaking visual effects for its time and gained a strong cult following. In this sequel, Sam Flynn, (played by Garrett Hedlund) son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself trapped in the digital world his father created.
This bizarre world is visually stunning and the gladiatorial games look amazing. Although there is lots of eye candy in this one, it is less than groundbreaking. That’s pretty hard these days, especially after the bar being set so high by Avatar. The expectations were high on this one and I personally was hoping for a visual feast with lots of 3d seasonings. I was disappointed.
The movie had a somewhat plausible plot and fairly believable characters, for this type of movie. Now let’s get into the 3d and how it relates to storytelling. In a previous blog I discussed the concept of 3d as a storytelling tool. 3d adds one more element or tool to the filmmakers toolbox. It also adds more money to the producers pockets. So is it a storytelling tool or a box office gimmick, or both?
In this movie, I’ll have to say this was a box office gimmick from the producers point of view and a storytelling tool poorly used. The 3d will sure to draw filmgoers in to the theaters. They expect a 3d thrill-ride and most will leave the theater disappointed in that regard. I must add, however that the friend I went to see the movie with, did enjoy the 3d. So maybe I’m getting very picky with the 3d, but so far the 3d enthusiasts I’ve talked to were also disappointed.
There was one major problem with this movie that didn’t lend itself to good 3d. It was very dark. Many 3d filmgoers already complain about how dark 3d movies are and this one is already dark in 2d, so the 3d probably made it even darker. What made the movie more problematic for 3d were the dark backgrounds.
Sometimes all you had were the neon lines (prominent in the movie’s style) as a visual reference for the 3d. I should also add that a good portion of the movie was shot in 2d and shown in 2d. All the scenes set in the real world were in 2d and the digital world scenes were in 3d. I guess the filmmakers were going for a Wizard of Oz concept here, or they were running short on time or money to make the whole movie in 3d. There was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie telling the audience to keep their 3d glasses on at all times, even in the 2d scenes. I would take them off in the scenes that were 2d.
As an avid 3d fan I have been recently caught up in several discussions with fellow 3d enthusiasts regarding this movie. The debate amongst us has been the use of 3d negative space (stuff coming out of the screen). This movie had little or no use of that. I don’t recall any shots where there was something breaking the screen plane. For that matter even the use of positive space (space behind the screen plane) was conservative.
At this stage of the game, 3d movies should still have at least a few 3d “wow” moments thrown in just to keep the audience happy. They are paying extra for the 3d experience after all. If the filmmakers want to use the 3d very conservatively, that’s their choice. 3d should be a primarily filmmaker’s storytelling tool. However, do we pay extra for great use of lighting or sound? No, we don’t, so the movie industry can’t have it both ways. If they want to promote 3d as the next great storytelling tool and not a novelty box office gimmick then treat it as such. Don’t charge extra or if you want to charge extra then make sure you include at least a few “thrill” moments.
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