3D is coming to your living room.
I know. There have been the occasional shows that broadcast in 3D, and you got your glasses from TV Guide or 7-11 or some other promotional sources. Meanwhile, as far back as the 1950s, film producers from Roger Corman to Alfred Hitchcock have been bringing 3D films to the theaters. Thirty odd years ago the IMAX system came out but it originally offered no more than short travelogue films. Over the last decade IMAX has also been offering 3D versions.
Of late, cartoons and some features, like “Avatar,” have been produced in both 2D and 3D versions. Now we are seeing such films as the recent “Alice in Wonderland” and “Clash of the Titans” advertised as being in 3D, and, as a footnote, also in 2D. Some, like the last “Superman” film, had 3D scenes pop up in selected parts of the story.
Now Hollywood has gone full throttle. The next “Harry Potter” film as well as the next “Batman,” the next “Superman” and maybe the next James Bond film, will come out in 3D.
So what good does that do you and the family when the movie comes out on DVD? None, until now.
Last month, in Rancho Cucamonga, Mitsubishi introduced a new 82” flat screen TV (with glasses) that showed a true, clean 3D effect. The demo show included a rock concert and a football game. The new technology presented a stunning look. (Samsung has also come out with their 3D set based on the same technology.)
According to the Mitsubishi press release, “We’re proud to lead the way by providing consumers with an affordable line-up of 3D-Ready TVs, in very large 60, 65, 73, and 82-inch screen sizes,” says Frank DeMartin, vice president of marketing, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “3D represents the highest level and most advanced form of home entertainment available today, and we expect consumers will embrace this special, event-based experience.”
As for the hard techie details, the new sets utilize “the same core technology that is used in the vast majority of 3D movie theaters. Mitsubishi 3D-Ready TVs bring the 3D DLP Cinema experience home. With multiple 3D movie titles scheduled for release this year and next, Mitsubishi is well poised to deliver fully immersive 3D adventures to consumers in their homes.”
And that is where the trouble will begin. Actually it might start before things get to the home. The battle will rage in the TV departments of Best Buy and Wal-Mart and Target.
Two months ago I reported on the domestic strife going on regarding the HD flatscreen TV itself. Men just think it’s natural to want that big screen in the middle of the living room. Women don’t get it. They are screaming in the shopping aisles and the parking lots. “The movies are the same, the ball games are the same. The endings are the same. Why spend more money for a 60-inch screen when three years ago a 29-inch screen was just fine.”
And then there is the argument over 1080 vs. 720. I explained that the last time, but the problem remains. The issue has not been resolved.
If anything, it will get worse. The 1080 sets are better equipped to handle the Blu-ray DVDs. And the new 3D videos will be coming out on Blu-ray.
Let the domestic battles begin.
By the way, do not think that there will be a lack of product for the 3D sets. Back in the 1960s networks didn’t want to commit to color programming until there were enough sets out there in TV land to justify the production cost. Consumers didn’t want to buy color sets until there was enough programming.
Today, that won’t be a problem. ESPN and Discovery are both about to launch 3D channels. All of the new cartoons and features being released in 3D will come out on 3D Blu-ray.
Meanwhile, up at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, the technology is being reverse engineered to recreate such films at the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” series into 3D Blu-rays. No doubt Lucas’s friend Steven Spielberg will convert things like “ET” and “Close Encounters” and maybe even “Jaws.” (Looks like you’ll have to buy them all over again.)
Unfortunately, I am told those old classics from Hitchcock and Corman are too old to be converted.
Oh, did I tell you that there are new 3D glasses that you will have to buy? The initial cost is $200 a pair. That’s a lot for something that may become a doggy toy or something for the kids to lose or break. I have been assured, though, that the price on them will come down almost immediately.
The XpanD X102 DLP-Link 3D glasses are battery powered and hard plastic. They are much heavier than the old theater cardboard things that you got when “The Blob” came out. They even come with a handbook.
The handbook reads: “When you see the world through both eyes, you are actually looking at two pictures merged into one. Your right eye and your left eye each deliver a separate image to your brain, which meshes these two images into one three-dimensional picture.”
Most movies in the past were only able to provide one image on the screen. Thus 3D effects have to be simulated by other means. Your XpanD 3D glasses, however, are able to provide a different view for each eye, more closely simulating true 3D vision.
Each scene of your 3D content has two images, one drawn from a right eye view and the other from a left-eye view. Your display shows these alternating views so fast that your eyes cannot see the change.
Your XpanD 3D glasses are equipped with shutters in each lens. So, when the right-eye image is displayed on the screen, the left lens of your XpanD 3D glasses is closed, allowing only the right eye to see the image. When the left-eye image is displayed, the process is reversed and only the left eye can see the image. These images alternate so quickly that the eye sees only one smooth picture, making it look like you are actually inside a 3D environment.”
There is also a sociological thread here.
What used to be the “parlor” in many homes became the living room as the fireplace got replaced by the console radio and then the TV as the center of the room. Now we are talking about the Entertainment Center (including the multi-channel Dolby sound system) and there is even new furniture designed for it. Check out the lounge chairs and curved sofas with cup holders and built in refrigerators.
Your Entertainment Center is built around the big screen TV that doubles as the monitor for the video games attached to the Playstation or Wii or whatever. This leads to another event on that day in Rancho Cucamonga. The new 3D “Avatar” video game was also introduced.
This is something for the kids to fight with the folks over. And they tell us that TV has killed family conversation.