We’re over halfway through the year and many retail outlets are a-buzz with the launch of 3-D TV. Samsung was first to market, and with other major television manufacturers set to release their own 3-D TV sets before the year is out, Australia is watching to see which form of active-technology 3-D TV they should be buying. My answer is simple: none of them.
Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly think that 3-D TV has its place in the world (just have a look at my recent blog post on the awesome potential future for the tech), but it’s not quite there yet. While a fantastic 3-D Blu-ray transfer such as Monsters vs Aliens (and assumedly the upcoming release of Avatar) makes this new dimension of event television a joy to behold, it’s still at the expense of having to don those goofy glasses.
Huge strides have been made in making the active 3-D glasses practical and ergonomic, but they’re still a deterrent when I think about upgrading to the expensive land of 3-D entertainment. And then along came the recent announcement of the technology behind the upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld console.
The 3DS is scheduled for release some time in the next nine months and will include autostereoscopic 3-D as one of its main selling points. In lay terms this translates to the ability to play games and watch movies in 3-D without the need for glasses: all of this on a 3.53-inch screen! Autostereoscopic 3-D isn’t exactly new but, for most intents and purposes, has been left on the drawing board or prototype models; particularly as it relates to television.
The big television manufacturers aren’t looking to ship autostereoscopic TV products to consumers anytime soon and yet Nintendo is pushing out a handheld console that will allow users to carry around this same 3-D tech in their pocket. Because of the research & development time/costs that have been put into the current active 3-D TV technology, you can bet your bottom dollar that we won’t be seeing autostereoscopic consumer TVs for at least a few years.
Does anyone else think that active 3-D TV technology (glasses) has been superseded by the impending release of the autostereoscopic 3-D Nintendo 3DS handheld console?
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YES!
You really should have phrased that differently Pending because i have nothing else to say except for:
Of course it has! any tech that doesn’t require extra tech to make it work is better. Wireless supercedes non, Rf and Blue Tooth superceded infra-red. Internet TV will supercede cable.
The 3DS is used by one person sitting directly in front of the screen. they can make a tv like that right now but it isnt practical. creating 3d without glasses for a tv isnt impossible with existing tech. the problem that needs to be overcome before it is viable is viewing angle. the 3ds isnt an evolution in 3d. we are stuck with the glasses for tv for quite a while yet.
@ DJ - Welcome and thanks for commenting. I guess what I’m getting at is stereoscopic 3-D as a sort of roadblock to we consumers seeing autostereoscopic TV sooner rather than later. Considering the way that 3-D TV sets are being plugged at the moment, one would expect that they’ll be pushed as exclusive 3-D tech for longer than they should. I understand the problems with autostereoscopic 3-D at the moment, but I hate the thought that we’re expected to accept stereoscopic 3-D as the only tech option for the immediate future.