Category Archives: Business

3D, 3D Tech, Business

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.

Advertising, Business, Videos

Is YouTube losing hobby video producers?

Back in 2012, views of my hobby videos on YouTube collapsed. Views that had low thousands or occasionally tens of thousands of views were no longer being watched. I hypothesized then that this was due to a flood of new content on YouTube, diluting the views, some sudden change in viewer habits or that YouTube had changed something.

Mostly this is due to YouTube changes. Starting in 2012, YouTube changed its search algorithm to reward videos that had more viewing time. Consequently, search results are steered towards the videos that YouTube thinks you will watch the longest.

A possible side effect of this change, also, is that short form videos may be likely to get higher rankings. The ideal YouTube video length has long been said to be 3-5 minutes. Longer videos get abandoned before they end.

To get seen on YouTube requires a combination of search engine optimization strategies, short videos, some specific types of content, and at least a weekly video release. I suspect that videos that enable advertising are ranked higher (all of mine have advertising disabled by me), which makes sense because ads pay the bills for YouTube.

This has impacted a great many, mostly small hobby producers. I went through my video subscription list yesterday and began pruning out those that have not posted a video in more than a year. I found dozens of content producers who stopped posting content over the past 1-3 years. Looking at their uploads list, it was apparent that their recent videos were no longer getting the views they once had for their older views – and not surprisingly, they gave up posting videos on YouTube.

This result is probably the “right result” for YouTube but not a desirable one for hobby video producers. This turns YouTube away from the serendipitous viewing of funny, independent little videos, to focus increasingly on sophisticated productions. Many of our favorite “channels” may still look like a guy or gal standing in front the camera in their bedroom, but in reality, many now have full production staff behind the scenes.

Today’s announcement doesn’t come as a total surprise. Earlier this year, the company already explained its focus on ‘watch time.” When it updated its suggested videos algorithm, YouTube noted that it did so to “better surface the videos that viewers actually watch, over those that they click on and then abandon.”

Source: YouTube Changes Its Search Ranking Algorithm To Focus On Engagement, Not Just Clicks | TechCrunch

Meanwhile, Facebook is now hosting videos, although its search and organization of videos is terrible. Facebook is also faking high view counts by making Facebook hosted videos play automatically in Facebook news streams while YouTube auto play is disabled. Further, Facebook counts any video that plays for 3 seconds as a “view” while YouTube only counts 30 seconds or more as a view.

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Business, Gear, Photos

Gear Acquisition Syndrome – always needing the next best camera or lens

Fascinating first hand story:

I used to be a real photography gear head, I bought and sold cameras right and left, I was left broke and miserable, here’s what you can learn from my ordeal

Source: Confessions of an ex-gear addict

When I stopped at a beach overlook recently, I was surprised at how many very expensive cameras and lenses I saw being carried along the trails. Then I saw a photo, shared on Facebook, of a crowd of people in Yosemite, with very expensive cameras, sometimes several of them, all taking the exact same photo of the annual Horsetail Falls orange-lit “fire fall”. The last time I was in Zion National Park, I saw a long line of tripods and expensive cameras and long lenses set up to take the same photo of the sunset. Same thing in Yellowstone – and worse, where individuals were carrying professional video gear, including RED cameras.

What struck me was just how much money so many people have (or had!) that they can afford to spend tens of thousands of $s on cameras and lenses. Sure, some are professional photographers, some are semi-pro (a hobby that sometimes makes money), then serious amateurs and then those who just buy really expensive gear.

The linked article is well worth reading – its a self confession by one photographer who suffered badly from Gear Acquisition Syndrome, buying and selling one or more cameras, lights, reflectors, after another, after another.

The greatest fear for camera makers is that at some point, a whole lot of people decide to downsize their camera and lens arsenal!

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3D, Business, Virtual Reality 360

VR needs compelling content to succeed

Consumer 3D faded due to:

  1. Lack of content, lack of content and lack of content
  2. It was launched in the midst of economic depression
  3. The 2011 quakes and tsunamis damaged manufacturing plants (as well as later floods in Thailand), after which manufacturers eliminated their consumer 3D camera products

VR faces a similar challenge of lack of content, plus VR gaming requires top of the line computing gear that few people own just yet.

Which leads to words of caution:

Early optimism that virtual reality is about to blossom into a new mainstream medium could collapse into despair

Source: Lessons from CES: How VR Can Avoid the Fate of 3D TV – IEEE Spectrum

VR seems likely to achieve success in gaming and specialized applications (engineering, science, medicine for example).

Will VR be a big story telling medium?

How will consumers react to the need to wear VR helmets?

Virtual reality uses multimedia content. Appli...
Virtual reality uses multimedia content. Applications and delivery platforms of multimedia are virtually limitless. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(I use the term “VR helmets” since they are …. Consumer tech reporters said 3D required wearing “3D goggles that no one wanted to wear” – the same writers now enthusiastically endorse VR helmets because … well, wearing a helmet is simpler than wearing glasses?)

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