Category Archives: Business

About 80% of the top 20 movies in the U.S. for 2013 were in 3D.

The same is true for the top movies globally.

The 15 Highest-Grossing Movies Of 2013

2015 CES will be all about HDR – high dynamic range – TV

January 10, 2014 3DM Leave a comment

This year’s CES is all about 4k TV – a technology that does not deliver a lot of benefits to typical home consumers with modest size TVs (most cannot tell the difference between 2K HDTV and 4K Ultra TV on a typical home sized screen):

“Any new 3D technology has to be sufficiently different, and I believe that this means High Dynamic Range HDR Ultra HD. I saw HDR video from Dolby, and it blew me away.”

via CES: 3D TV Needs Glasses-Free, High Dynamic Range Reboot.

HDR video is coming and can deliver eye catching value when it gets here. But consumers do not upgrade TVs every few years. That’s the problem that hit 3D and will impact 4K and HDR too. Everyone just upgraded to digital HDTV and most do not have disposable income to run out and buy a new technology gizmo – and certainly in the midst of the recent economic downturn.

3D’s problem was not 3D glasses but lack of content. No one wanted to watch old re-plays of sports on ESPN 3D, shot with just a few cameras. There are only so many odd cartoons and documentaries people will watch in 3D. Netflix’s 3D pickings were slim. And not everyone wants to buy Blu-ray 3D discs. The problem is lack of content.

User created 3D content via Youtube and the growing 3D production capacity of China may change this. I expect it will.

Business, Cameras

Camera sales, in charts

January 8, 2014 3DM Leave a comment

Vitaliy has posted some great charts on camera sales over on his web site: Camera sales, including Novemer 2013 reports – Personal View

You can readily see the drop off in camera sales from year to year. I think the December data point is bogus as the caption says through November 2013.

Second charts shows that DSLR unit sales are down slightly but mirrorless sales are up quite a bit.

3D Tech, Business

Vizio is not “ditching” 3D, sees glasses-free as the future of 3D

January 8, 2014 3DM 1 Comment

Vizio not giving up on 3D

Vizio is striving for competitive pricing and as they introduce their 2014 models, including Ultra HD (4K) TVs, they have stripped 3D features to keep their price down. They continue to sell older edition 3D TVs.

Vizio sees “glasses-free” technology as the future of 3D and is showing a 4K glasses-free demo/proof of concept with 14 separate viewing angles. Last year, several companies showed proof of concept glasses-free 3D TVs but only one (Stream TV Networks) had sufficient quality. Glasses-free displays that look really good are expected to hit retailers in Q2 of 2014.