3dTV Wars [[about to begin)

[Gannon]

Just when most of y'all were comfortable replacing the old Trinitron with the new-fangled High Definition Television, my insane industry introduces a nice dose of technological confusion.

Now the magazines are all abuzz about 3dTV. You heard that right...the 3d permeating the theaters is attempting an invasion of your living room.


I have kept away from it all, even missing Avatar in the theaters in 3d, for basic philosophical reasons...but dropped into a local pro-audio and video distributor last week for a peek at what JVC is doing along the production end of 3d.


What I saw was nothing short of amazing...one of their engineers had filmed his Jamaican vacation with JVC's new HD camcorder...then fed it into their 2d to 3d studio processor...and then onto the same 46-inch LCD monitor used to make Avatar.

It was truly unbelievable...although we all still had to wear cheap sunglasses...which made ZZ Top's song become my noggin's internal theme throughout the demonstration.


After seeing a dual-view LCD from Sharp roughly five years ago at a trade show...where they were proving they could play two images offset like one of those tilt-a-view postcards...I began to wonder when this technology would make those sunglasses go away.



Today, Breitbart news service was used by Toshiba to steal the thunder from one of their competitor's introduction of a no-glasses 3d set...and I say this specifically because of the timing and wording of the news article. It was likely a reprint of a press release, I've seen this too often.

http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?i...116c57cb2d.531



So, my guess is that Toshiba is trying to trump the Sharp introduction...which may be delayed until the CEDIA trade show later next month. I'll be there and will certainly be up on this...since I just HATE format wars, and this whole damn 3dTV roll-out already smells of one.


Cheers anyways, I'll keep up on this as best I can. If you are on Facebook, come visit a new webzine's gestation: www.facebook.com/AudioVideo INsanity. Please join us if you are interested in clearing up the consumer confusion and curing the craziness caused by my favorite industry!


Sincerely,
John

[Gannon]

Sorry, here is the link with text:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

[Gannon]

I'm not sure that Facebook link works, but this one might:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/...00000419251585

[Johnlodge]

I'm not worried, as usual this will have all worked itself out and be onto the next technology battle before I even get around to buying one. I still haven't picked up a Blueray, and that format war worked itself out quite awhile ago.

[maxx]

Thank goodness 3-D TV is at hand. Watching those old 2-D war movies in technocolor was getting so boring. At least I'll be able to experience the full catastrophe of war right in my own livingroom without, of course, getting hurt by all the flying shrapnel and body parts.

[Gannon]

JL,

Exactly. The marketplace is hindered by the rush of technological 'advances' which barely serve anyone...excepting those like Maxx, of course!

[[and you just know they're working on shrapnel-o-vision, just as soon as they get the bugs worked out of smell-o-vision, only one sense can be added to the illusion at a time apparently!)

[jiminnm]

Can't consider this until someone develops prescription 3-D glasses, or clip ons for my regular glasses.

[Gannon]

Jim,

I think that is an issue for tons of potential viewers, and with the rushed release of Toshiba's news that they will have three 'glasses-free' 3d solutions this fall..."in time for Christmas", I think the press-release inspired article said...I'm sure there'll be nothing necessary in the near future.

Don't know about the movies, though. Reflected off a large screen for many viewers...they might not be able to get past the glasses.

Cheers

[Ray1936]

I dunno. When they came out with "Bwana Devil" and that other 3-D flick with Vincent Price in the fifties, it just died a natural death. I don't think it will ever be a big seller. The glasses are nothing but a pain, as they were in the theatres.

[Papasito]

3D tv makes me think for the commercials for
.......... feedthepig.org

[Gannon]

Ray,

That 'pain' was deeper than many realize.

The OLD 3d technology used a red/blue differential to trick the brain into seeing different things off the screen.

Too many people went back into sunshine with headaches or worse.


The industry tried harsh horizontal and vertical polarizing of the light, but it was too much for the eye/brain to handle.

Now they commonly use circular polarization, with each eye getting either a clockwise or counter-clockwise filtering of the image.


Some of the home systems are using a flickering of interleaved lines with active glasses, they tried flickering frames [[entire collections of lines) but that also proved too much for the human perceptual system to take without launching into some seizure.


Now that we've got total control over each DOT that makes up the old lines of image, which over time add up to the collection of frames which make up the illusion of a moving picture, it is inevitable that this form of broadcast will be more prevalent in the future.

I've heard they are experimenting with shooting sports in 3d, then playing it in theaters or stadium...so entire crowds could enjoy the virtual game. I'm in touch with one cameraperson from Europe whose sole work is now in 3d.


So, I'm with YOU, and don't feel any want, need, or desire to have my entertainment reach into my head...but see this fascinating trend as it develops.


Cheers

[Meddle]

Not interested.

When my last [[analog) LCD TV died, I bought a new one with a DTV tuner and HDMI with full 1020 resolution. But DTV reception is flaky out here in the sticks and Primetime network TV is essentially useless drivel, so I really don't watch much of it. I'm primarily on DishTV , but an older non-HD receiver. That all means I rarely watch anything in HD even though I have a TV that will handle it.

I can't imagine I'll have any use for 3D either.

[checkraisej]

Not interested.

I bought a new one with a DTV tuner and HDMI with full 1020 resolution.

You got ripped off.

[checkraisej]

It's good to see that someone came out with a TV that doesn't require glasses because no technology that requires the user to wear speacial glasses is going to take off. Not in America anyway.

[Ray1936]

Got to agree totally with Gannon that it will be most fascinating to see technology develop in the years ahead, even though it has no appeal for me.

Heck, I don't even know how to text.

[Gannon]

You got ripped off.

Easy on the guy, Check.

It is all too common to get lost in the barrage of numbers thrown out at the average consumer.

Too early the marketeers got stuck on a resolution specification, thinking that because something in the box was able to do 1080 resolution that was all the buyer had to think about, although for a long while 720p was the superior format.

I am now studying up on colorspace...a friend wrote an article that explains it all more clearly than anyone has in the past. Too often these tasks are left to engineers who often don't speak the same English as the rest of us.


Peek at this article, and see if and when you get lost. For most people it is the first paragraph. My industry seems to always forget that the bulk of the population merely wants to turn something on, switch channels and/or sources, adjust the volume, and then turn it back off when they're done.


What do they deliver? Products which require constant updating of the latest firmware for proper operation. I am certain that the majority of people never want to know anything about whatever 'ware' is delivering their entertainment...hard, soft, or otherwise.


Makes me wanna scream sometimes...

[Gannon]

I'm back to my original theory that good equipment gets purchased totally by mistake.

It is more rare to have good equipment used properly and often. Even more so for it to get connected and setup well.


I'm venting here, but it may have a positive effect at some future point.


Cheers

[Meddle]

There was no ripoff at around $400 or so delivered for a 32.

[Gannon]

Meddle,

He was teasing you on the confusion with the numbers. HDTV is commonly referred to by the shorthand of either 720p or 1080i...and now 1080p. Even the professional writers I used to edit would get them confused regularly.

Cheers

[checkraisej]

There was no ripoff at around $400 or so delivered for a 32.

Maybe not. You must have left the other 60 scan lines in the box.

[Gannon]

Heh...actually that would be pixels in the digital display world.

Lines went away with the old Cathode Ray Tube [[still my preferred way to view, but I've got some of the best old-school stuff ever made).


But my honking-huge Princeton Graphics AF-3.0HD scares the beejezus out of anyone who comes into the studio. Biggest 30-inch CRT ever made...shielded enough to be fit into a nuclear submarine...yet made for home!


Mine is one of the rare Unity Motion-badged units manufactured for them by Princeton back when the usual suspects refused to make hardware for a marketplace with no broadcasts yet! Unity Motion actually had a satellite broadcast system AND the hardware to view it all...those were the days.


Cheers

[checkraisej]

Heh...actually that would be pixels in the digital display world.

Technically you are correct, but I still call a row a pixels a scan line. Whether it's progressive scan or interlace scan, we're still talking about how the "lines" are "painted".

[Gannon]

Yeah, but there is no scanning going on at all in fixed-pixel systems...either at the camera capture or living-room delivery ends. Some video processing algorithms do a sort of scan, but mostly in nine axes [[including a number of sequential frames) to catch any errors in motion interpolation and/or MPEG decompression.

But you are right, a vertical or horizontal collection of picture element dots, or pixels, does indeed make a line of 'em...and any set that only had 1020 horizontal lines of pixels would be sixty short of a full image resolution.



I didn't realize the can of worms I was opening with this thread. I lost much of my day getting up to speed on both professional and consumer 3d applications...and quite frankly am happy I've kept myself out of it for the while.


The format war exists in theaters, too, with at least Dolby Labs and Technicolor battling it out. From their website, there are NO Technicolor theaters in SE Michigan, but there is one up in Petosky...and I'll be up there with my ladyfriend next month, so I'll be sure to do some research.

I hope they're playing a movie I'm at least somewhat interested in...I surely don't want to add to Hellywood's accounting for mere curiosity, and chalk up one or two more paid tickets for something that doesn't deserve it!


More I think of it, more I realize that Toshiba's press release which sparked this whole thread [[combined with last week's JVC demonstration where I yearned for some form of 3d minus the funky glasses) probably gave most of the manufacturers of active 3d systems [[the one which requires purchasing $150 powered glasses which flicker off each eye rapidly with LCD 'shutters') heavy heart palpitations.

The passive systems, too, but those are considerably less expensive to share with the rest of the family.


Yeah, Toshiba's announcement of glasses-free 3dTV for home viewing was not unlike a bomb being dropped in someone's punchbowl.

Sharp cannot be far away from introducing theirs, either. This may burn out before it matures.


Already Hellywood is shaking in their shoes because none of the other 3d offerings have had the same effect on viewers as Avatar. Perhaps the Academy shouldn't have shunned James Cameron so solidly. He is one of the only directors making stuff that really excites people into going to the theaters! [[and that without any sequels, right?!)



Cheers

[Gannon]

LOL, I go searching on James Cameron sequels...and get almost a page full of information on his upcoming Avatar sequel...scheduled for sometime in 2014, provided we all survive the 2012 pole shift...or whatever the ancients tried to warn us about.


He worked the Terminator story to DEATH with sequels...and probably the Alien one, too.


But TWO more Terminator stories are in the works now, if Wikipedia is correct. So scratch that comment on Cameron not needing sequels. He knows how to milk a cash cow as well as the rest of 'em.

[Gannon]

Here's what the man hisself has to say about 3d, prompted by a reporter from Entertainment Weekly:

There seems to be a backlash building. The whole 3-D market kind of overheated. Everybody got a little ahead of themselves. The studios were taking movies and just slamming them into 3D with slapdash conversions that didn’t live up to a standard of quality that would justify charging extra for the ticket. So people started feeling ripped off…. I think we’re in a period where it’s recalibrating the market. But even now, even after all that, the 3-D movies are still performing well above their 2-D versions.

Read the full article here: http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/08/16/ja...urt-locker-3d/


I guess I have to go look at the numbers, and factor in the differences in ticket pricing. It is getting sickly expensive to go to movies nowadays.