Reading never caught on because you have to wear silly, uncomfortable reading glasses

January 12, 2014 3DM 1 Comment

3D TV never really caught on because of one obvious flaw: You need to wear silly, uncomfortable 3D glasses to watch it.

via This High-Def 3D TV That Doesn’t Require Glasses Blew My Mind … But Its Origin Is A Mystery – Houston Chronicle.

The above has become quite a meme in the media. 3D is dead, they say, because of “silly, uncomfortable 3D glasses”, or “clunky 3D glasses”, or “3D goggles”.

We may as well say that reading died for people over 45 due to their need to wear “silly, uncomfortable reading glasses”. To illustrate, here’s a photo of my 3D glasses and a photo of my reading glasses. And by the way, the 3D glasses also come as clip-ons, like dark glasses, for those who wear regular glasses. Those with contact lenses just use the regular glasses.

3D glasses

Reading glasses

Guess at this point, we may as well hold the funeral for reading too. Makes as much logical sense as this nonsensical meme going through the media.

3D is growing, not as fast the media hyped it up initially, but it is growing. The main limitation has been and continues to be a lack of 3D content.

Vizio gives up on 3D glasses but not giving up on 3D

David Attenborough explores the world of macroscopic 3D

January 10, 2014 3DM

3D Streaming – STEREOSCOPY – Topic: Micro Monsters with David Attenborough on Sky3D (1/1).

We normally cannot see very close subjects in 3D because, when very close to our face, we can only see subjects with one eye. I like shooting macro 3D for this very reason – macro 3D reveals a world that we cannot see.

Red/cyan 3D anaglyph. Requires red/cyan glasses to see in 3D. Mushroom cap is about 1/4″ or 6mm across.

3D, Business

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

January 10, 2014 3DM

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.

3D Tech

Vizio gives up on 3D glasses but not giving up on 3D

January 8, 2014 3DM

Expects to ship 4k glasses free 3D TVs in 2016: Actually, Vizio hasn’t given up on 3D TVs, but on 3D glasses — Tech News and Analysis.

But wants to get it right, first. Truth is, most of the autostereoscopic displays (that’s Latin or maybe Greek for glasses-free) are not as good as today’s polarized passive displays. 4k may give them sufficient resolution to do implement multiple viewing angles that actually look good. But we are not quite there yet, except maybe with Stream TV.

Business, Cameras

Camera sales, in charts

January 8, 2014 3DM

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.