What's Holding 3D Back? (ARTICLE LINK)

[HDTV1080P]

This was an interesting article to read about 3-D.

http://www.avrev.com/home-theater-feature-articles/video-related-articles/whats-holding-3d-back.html

[steve1971]

Good post and interesting article. Sorry to say this but I think the 3-D idea is gonna go the way of HD-DVD: A failure! I believe this due to a couple of things. 1-The Economy. People just dont have the funds anymore to buy brand new equipment and alot of us are happy with our current setup. I know I am. 2-To much to soon. I think the powers that be should have allowed the Blu ray format to grow for a few more years before they introduced the 3-D idea. Blu ray is catching on no doubt but you still have some people hanging on to standard dvd. Get rid of the dvd format first and try to get the Blu ray format into more home's then think of the 3-D idea.

I like Mitsubishi's idea of the black box thing. Instead of replacing my tv I would go for this idea. Just hook up the box via HDMI to my tv and presto I am 3-D compatable!!! I would much rather do that then spend another $1500 or so for yet another tv just so I can get 3-D. Also give me a firmware update for my BDP N460 that allows me to access 3-D content. If they would go the route I just mentioned I would have no problem adopting the 3-D concept. But buying a new tv and Blu ray player fro 3-D is a no go for me because 1- I like my current setup very well and 2- I dont make the kind of money to keep replacing my setup just because something new comes up. This is all just my view and others can do what they like, their choice and their money.

[lDlisturb3d]

Originally Posted by steve1971

Good post and interesting article. Sorry to say this but I think the 3-D idea is gonna go the way of HD-DVD: A failure! I believe this due to a couple of things. 1-The Economy. People just dont have the funds anymore to buy brand new equipment and alot of us are happy with our current setup. I know I am. 2-To much to soon. I think the powers that be should have allowed the Blu ray format to grow for a few more years before they introduced the 3-D idea. Blu ray is catching on no doubt but you still have some people hanging on to standard dvd. Get rid of the dvd format first and try to get the Blu ray format into more home's then think of the 3-D idea.

I like Mitsubishi's idea of the black box thing. Instead of replacing my tv I would go for this idea. Just hook up the box via HDMI to my tv and presto I am 3-D compatable!!! I would much rather do that then spend another $1500 or so for yet another tv just so I can get 3-D. Also give me a firmware update for my BDP N460 that allows me to access 3-D content. If they would go the route I just mentioned I would have no problem adopting the 3-D concept. But buying a new tv and Blu ray player fro 3-D is a no go for me because 1- I like my current setup very well and 2- I dont make the kind of money to keep replacing my setup just because something new comes up. This is all just my view and others can do what they like, their choice and their money.

People i do believe if you own a Samsung Plasma TV your TV is already 3-D capable so whats with all the fuss, hopefully you purschased a PS3 for you blu ray player because if not you will have to get a Blu Ray player that can support 3-D. I love the PS3 all it takes is a Firmware update and now we have 3-D

[steve1971]

Originally Posted by deeman54

People i do believe if you own a Samsung Plasma TV your TV is already 3-D capable so whats with all the fuss, hopefully you purschased a PS3 for you blu ray player because if not you will have to get a Blu Ray player that can support 3-D. I love the PS3 all it takes is a Firmware update and now we have 3-D

Whats with all the fuss? All the fuss is that is if you dont own a compatable 3-D tv you have to go out and buy one that does! It dont matter if the PS3 carries 3-D if your tv is not set up for 3-D. Now if you own a Samsung plasma tv and it is 3-D compatable then I guess your all set.

[Packerfan75]

Q: What's holding 3D back?

A: 3D, because it's just not that good.

[mjbethancourt]

If a firmware upgrade will do it for a PS3, then I would imagine that it is just a matter of time before a number of other players do the same (not all, of course, but probably many of them).
Just because something hasn't been officially announced, doesn't mean it never will be. That also holds true for the aforementioned Samsung televisions: customer support said they did not have a firmware upgrade for those televisions, he didn't say they never would.

I disagree with the idea that they need to "more fully establish" blu-ray before they add more features like 3D. From their point of view, they need to continue adding new features exactly for that purpose, to "more fully establish" blu-ray, (which, by the way, has a lot more market presence than some folks here seem to realize). 3D and other new features just help them to stave off the competition for now. I'd like to see blu-ray have a long lifespan, and I don't think that "taking it slowly" is the way to accomplish that, not with the current pace of technological innovation. If they wait for a more serious challenger to blu-ray comes along before adding new features, it will be too late. Consider DVD: if they didn't update to two-layer and anamorphic and upscaling players, etc. then HD-DVD probably would have been rolled out sooner and maybe would have been the immediate successor to DVD (and we would have no blu-ray); instead, DVD remained viable for a few more years, and we were spared from a bad intermediate stage of upgrade.

None of us can see the future, stop beating them over the head on 3D, none of us knows the market any better than those who make their living on it.

[mjbethancourt]

People in the business of selling TVs and media players will always want us to "buy new ones"... that's their sole objective; and, they will always come up with new products and features to pursuade us to "buy new ones". The hypothetical model of "release a product, wait for sales to dry up, and then release the next generation", that is an unworkable model of expansion and contraction, which won't work with the long-term finances of very many customers.

The real issue there is, who do they expect to "buy new ones"? If you think they expect people who just bought a TV to buy a new one, then you would be mistaken. The people they expect to buy new products in the immediate future are those who are currently ripe for an upgrade. If you own an old SD-CRT or even a first-gen HDTV, then a new 3D-ready, HDMI 1.4 compliant LED set would be right up your alley. If you're content with your big Pioneer Kuro, odds are you're not going to be interested in buying a new TV for a while, and in a few years when it is your time for a new set, you will probably be buying something that blows any 2010 TV out of the water.

To the point of the original question of the thread:
Nothing is holding 3D back, it's coming along just fine. 3D products have been out for a while now, and every year they put out newer and better 3D stuff; and I really don't think compatibility is nearly as sticky as it has been blown up to be.

This blast, after mentioning the format wars? Look, you might take some time to match this statement - "...none of us knows the market any better than those who make their living on it..." with the absolute marketing disaster that HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray caused for manufacturers, content providers, and equipment distributors. Nobody knew what they were doing, and it stunted Blu acceptance for nearly two years, even after HD-DVD was dead and buried.

... well, I'm not saying mistakes are never made, what I'm saying is that Monday-morning quarterbacking is cheap, and that those who make their living based on long-term market projections in electronics are more experienced and qualified than any of us critics.

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

Manufacturers have been treating 3-D like a free-fire marketing zone. The current mantra is that you need a new television, and a new player, to get the "full 3-D experience". The PS3 compatibility angle still hasn't been fully explained by Sony, leaving people wondering if it will be full 1080p.

The manufacturers rushed this out, and very poorly. Their interest is in trying to reboot the entire market to buy new sets - extremely unlikely. Since broadcasters, interested in streaming media, may use a different standard than hard media like Blu-Ray, the picture is even fuzzier.

Broadcasters don't have skin in the game for 1080p. They have advertisers to please, who don't want to wait until the 71 million people who bought HDTV's in the last four years, toss them out and by new, "compatible" models.

Unless all of the industry groups do something fast - the BDA, manufacturers, broadcasters, and media developers - 3-D is going to be viewed with intense suspicion by the general public for a long time. Suspicion is the rule now, not the exception, and the main enthusiasts for 3-D are those with discretionary income that can manage discarding or "cascading" older equipment to get the newer gear.

Almost all the points you raised are insightful analyses of the situation. I view 3-D with suspicion as a consumer who bought into Blu-ray as soon as it was available. The market has not fully adopted Blu-ray yet and now the display manufacturers want to change up the market. They really should have waited until Blu-ray and HDTV had become more common in the U.S. The cart does not go before the horse.

[liquidice]

a friend of mine who works for a Chicago based engineering firm has some info on the new upgraded 3D tv's. This company is largely engineering the technology used for the newer tv's we'll see on the market. He did tell me that they are also upgrading current tv's, mostly LCD technology sets. He said the only thing needed to take a current LCD and make it ready for 3D is a software upgrade, and an extra IR, which is costly them nearly nothing for the upgrades. He said this is currently being demonstrated in their engineering lab.

With the minimal costs, it would seem silly to rush out and buy a new tv anytime soon.

I personally will not make any movement towards 3D anything for the next couple of years....at least. It's nothing that really excites me at this time, and we all now how prices for these types of new information will drop so drastically after it becomes more widespread among all A/V companies.

[RadThad]

Originally Posted by Packerfan75

Q: What's holding 3D back?

A: 3D, because it's just not that good.

Pretty much sums up this whole thread.

[typ44q]

Originally Posted by Packerfan75

Q: What's holding 3D back?

A: 3D, because it's just not that good.

I agree 100%

Most people I have talked to about 3D (many of which are just getting into blu-ray and HD) see 3D as a passing fad and have no interest in getting all new equipment for something that may not exist in a few years.

[Canada]

Plus what happens if you happen to get a Samsung 3D TV and then two years down the road Sony come out with a 3D set that blows the Samsung out of the water. The $100/pair 3D glasses you have for the Samsung will as far as I know be useless with your Sony TV.

[kareface]

I really don't think this is a passing fad. The problem is content right now. People said the PS3 was a bad decision before it had games and 3d is horrible now because there's almost nothing to use it with. If you look at the box office 3D movies have held the top place for 12 of the last 16 weekends. There is enough of a market, but people aren't going to pick it up right away much like a gaming system that has no games. As new TV's come with the features already available more and more people will adopt them even if they didn't intend to upgrade for 3D. As big box office 3D films make there way to the bluray market there will be an increase in demand as people want to recreate the experience at home. 3D will become the next THX or pro logic, one of those additions that's gimmicky at first but becomes more of a standard as it progresses. You can say what you want about 3D now, but you'll be like all the people who said the Wii kicks the pants off the PS3 when it was first released. It's bleeding edge now, but don't make the mistake of thinking that slow early adoption equates to a failed product.

[dboyle]

I agree with many of you but I would like to add that the industry've gone a bit too fast in introducing 3D from the perspective that there is a BIG shortage of 3D-content out there!

[brewp13]

Originally Posted by brewp13

I just went and looked at the 3D display at Best Buy, it looked really good to me. I didn't notice any of the shutter effect that people have been talking about. I asked an employee several questions about it and he said there will be 86 3D movies availiable to purchase by the end of the summer. He also said the the Monsters Vs. Aliens movie was not exclusive to the Samsung package, he said I could by the movie by itself right then if I wanted to.

I just posted this in another thread but I'll post it here too as it relates to the last post.

[Kyzer the Medic]

I bought a 3D tv just because I wanted a new TV this year anyway. Wanted to switch to Plasma and was able to get a 58" with 3D. I admit I didnt need the 3D Bluray and glasses that came free with the purchase of both. Had I not needed (ok WANTED) a new TV this year anyway I would not have made the jump to 3D. Although, with companies like Samsung and Panasonic giving away glasses (2 for samsung with TV and Bluray, 1 packaged with Panasonic TV's) If anyone is buying a new TV, why not get 3D.
That is probably what the companies are hoping for, that there are lots of people getting new TV's and think "why not", end up having it and using it every once in a while.
With the success of Avatar and now Dragons ( I haven't read yet how Titans has done to include it) studios will keep churning out 3D movies. 3D in theatrical releases has changed from the schlock movies of the 50's where they have 1 or 2 gimmicky 3D scenes to movies with an actual plot and use 3D to make the experiance more immersive rather than cheesy. Yes most will suck for sure, but there will be blockbusters as well.
Then there is the whole "keeping up with the Jones's" aspect .. If Bill buys a 3D tv, Bob will want one etc etc etc. Major manufacturers have stated that soon most if not all TV's will come with 3D. I for one think its here to stay, it will absolutely be slow to take off but with market saturation I think it will do fine in the future.

[qwknuf6]

Originally Posted by Packerfan75

Q: What's holding 3D back?

A: 3D, because it's just not that good.

And it gives me a headache

[cawgijoe]

People who are buying a new big screen set this year will consider 3D if it isn't much more than the same size "regular" set.

What will hold 3D back is the cost of extra glasses. Even if the set comes packaged with a couple of glasses, you will need to buy more to accomodate family and friends. At $120 minimum, it will add up very fast.

[Mordir]

Originally Posted by cawgijoe

people who are buying a new big screen set this year will consider 3d if it isn't much more than the same size "regular" set.

What will hold 3d back is the cost of extra glasses. Even if the set comes packaged with a couple of glasses, you will need to buy more to accomodate family and friends. At $120 minimum, it will add up very fast.

qft

[CLIFFO_83]

I was thinking same thing