Tag Archives: Samsung

StereoStitch Introduces Real-Time 3D VR 360 for live 3D VR

Source: StereoStitch Launches a Real-Time 3D 360 Video Stitching Software for VR Live Streaming

Samsung said to not include 3D on 2016 TV models

Samsung continues to sell prior years models that include 3D but their newest TVs,
introduced for 2016, are said to not include 3D:

According to data from the NPD Group, 3D TVs have accounted for a diminishing share of US flat-panel TV sales every year since 2012, and the same goes for 3D-compatible Blu-ray players compared with 2D-only models. 3D TVs fell from 23 percent to 16 percent in that period, and 3D players from 40 percent to 25 percent.

“In terms of purchase motivators, I think 3D is pretty low on the list at this point,” said NPD analyst Ben Arnold. “There was a lot of interest in the feature from consumers early on, but most reports were the experience was not worth the hassle of wearing 3D glasses or finding content.”

Source: With a bullet to the head from Samsung, 3D TV is now deader than ever – CNET

The lack of 3D content is THE problem. With Youtube killing off their multi-format 3D player, there went the crowd created content too. VR headset “helmets” will provide 3D viewing capabilities but doubt that one will wear one of those helmets to watch a 3D movie.

With so much dreariness on 3D TV, I am now shooting 2D: 2D stills and 4K video in 2D, but still shooting 3D still photography. Phereo.com remains the best place for sharing your 3D still photos with others.

Flickr Releases 360º Photo App – but no 3D yet

Since 2005 Flickr, a Yahoo-owned photo sharing site, has supported a relatively large community of 360º photographers with “tens of thousands” of 360º photographs uploaded to the site. So it came as no surprise when they announced an upcoming VR app in September. Now, three months later, Flickr has released Flickr VR for the Samsung Gear VR, but from my initial impressions it probably could have done with a little more time in the tank.

Source: Flickr Releases 360º Photo App for Gear VR With a Massive Content Library – Upload VR

Does not – yet – support stereoscopic viewing

#CES2013 #CES Report on consumer 3D cameras

Consumer 3D cameras are not selling.

The Lumix 3D1 is still being sold but I picked up word that sales are slow and it might not be continued, perhaps later in 2013.

Fujifilm is no longer manufacturing the Fujifilm W3 (confirmed) but is continuing to sell from existing inventory. I was told by a Fujifilm staff member who knows the issues well, that sales have dropped off sharply on the W3 – if demand were to ramp up, they can immediately run another production run. However, reading between the lines, its not ramping up – to illustrate, B&H Photo and Walmart.com both listed the camera as discontinued. At least from their sales. But if two huge vendors discontinue selling the product, then sales volumes will not be ramping up.

Toshiba has no cameras on display at the show and no one had any information on the Toshiba Z100, which is pretty much half priced at Amazon and B&H right now.

The Sony Bloggie 3D is no longer being made, but they are showing the new Sony TD30 which updates the TD10 which updated the TD10 video cameras. These uniquely record two full 1920×1080 video streams, producing very high quality 3D video images. Sony is also showing their digital recording binoculars, which view and record in 3D. They were also showing a prototype of a new model that is smaller and lighter and which will be available this coming year – no info on time or price.

 

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The big announcement though, is Samsung’s NX300 and the new integrated 2D/3D lens. The 3D images I saw looked very good. Here’s a view of the camera with the dual 2D/3D lens in place:

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The camera can output a live 3D video over HDMI, and they were using that to show live pictures of convention goers. The Samsung reps I talked to felt that the other 3D cameras on the market were too low end (my thoughts too). The early adopters for 3D are not low end consumers, but the semi-serious amateurs who buy $500 to $2000 cameras and look for quality.

The NX300 is an APS-C sensor, a very high quality camera system, and the world’s first single lens 3D camera. The parallax is quite good based on what I could see (both naked eyes and using active shutter glasses on their monitor). Here is what the parallax looks like – click on the image for a bit bigger version (due to being on a cellphone link, I’m using smaller picture sizes than usual):

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I am very impressed with the NX300 3D image quality. If a wider angle lens version of this became available, I could see using this as a primary 3D still and video camera.

GoPro is the other vendor that continues to have a 3D solution. They have a package that combines two GoPro Hero cameras and a sync cable between them, plus some 3D alignment capabilities in their Cineform Studio (free and pro versions).

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Consequently, a mixed bag on 3D consumer cameras – sales are confirmed as not being great at the low end.

But Samsung might have figured it out, though. The 2D/3D lens is a darned good 2D lens and will likely be bought just for that. If sales are decent, Samsung will introduce more lenses featuring the 3D capability.

Everyone is showing 3D TVs, including 4K 3D TVs (I don’t know where you’ll get 4k content for a while yet – there will be a new Bluray spec for 4k but its not done yet.) I really liked the Samsung Ultra 3D TV (4K) – wonderful image quality. It seems that the extra resolution enables some very fine parallax to be used – something to think about. Such fine detail would be lost in lower resolution renderings.

3D is being shown, but its not all over hype at this point. It’s just 3D. Stream TV, an R&D firm from Europe was showing the best, hands down, glasses free 3D display. They also have a tablet glasses free 3D display.

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The technology pieces are coming together. I don’t think the marketing has been where it needs to be yet, on consumer 3D image capture.

I cross posted parts of this to two 3D related photo groups on Yahoo.

Other items of interest

LG had the world’s largest 3D video wall. Their sample video made outstanding use of “theater space” projecting images 20 feet or more in front of the screen and at times, nearly over the viewer.

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The Winbot is a great idea – it is a window cleaning robot. I think the price quote was $299.95. Considering the bother of cleaning windows, this is an amazingly well targeted product. Cleans an entire window like this in a few minutes.P1000784

 

 

This year’s new thing is giant smart phones – how big is too big? I have no idea. But 5 inches and I think even 6 inches are being shown in places.P1000795

 

 

Sony has a lot of software accessories now. Some, not all yet, are beginning to understand how software can add value and differentiate their products from competitors. Another example would be Nokia, who is adding a large number of software-based features, available only to owners of Lumia phones.P1000773

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