Japan Will Start 3D TV Programming This Summer

An anonymous reader writes "Japan HD TV operator Sky Perfect will start 3D programming this summer, with focuses on live events and sports events. As more Hollywood movies are shot in 3D, and 3D TVs are expected to come onto the market in the very near future, Sky Perfect is hoping that people will switch to 3D TV just like people switched from black and white to color. How about 3D TV in other countries?"

Comments

High Def, 3D, all meh!

[kimvette]

I've upgraded three televisions to High Def (all three panels are Samsung) and while I do like high definition, the high def aspect was not the primary motivation. The motivation is that the televisions are not 200lbs behemoths that take up a lot of space, plus I gain HDMI/DVI and reduction of the typical home theater rat's nest. Most "high def" programming isupscaled, or through cable, overly compressed, often completely negating any improvement in clarity. OTA broadcasts are horrible - you either get a perfect picture or nothing, or completely unwatchable random MPEG blocking and stuttering in the sound stream. I LOVE high def on blu-ray though.

3D? Existing systems require goggles; either polarizing glasses (which give you the 3D effect through psychological effects arising from how the brain processes video and gives "priority" to the eye which receives more light) which gives you 3D only when pans and other movement is moving in the correct direction, or red/blue glasses, which screws with color perception and is often not very convincing (and practically unwatchable without the glasses), or through shutter goggles which are cumbersome, prone to breaking, and expensive - or prototype models which feature prismatic screens similar to 3D photos, which depend heavily on being on-axis with the screen (sit to the side, for example, you will only see one side of the prism). For 3D TV to become mainstream, there really needs to be a monumental leap forward in display design. There needs to be a holographic or similar solution which isn't confined to a narrow field of view, doesn't require goggles, and doesn't become unwatchable (or degrade at all) when viewed on a conventional receiver.

Until then 3D TV is just a novelty only designed for early adopters to pay to be beta testers and lose out when a real standard is introduced (at which point your receiver proves incompatible) and to show off how you throw money away. IMHO of course.

Re:That means that within a year...

[chibiace]

ill wait for the holodeck thank you very much.

Re:Meh

[Trepidity]

Yeah, that's why it doesn't seem quite analogous to me. There's no real practical downside to a B&W->Color switch. There is some artistic interest in B&W over color, but it's fairly niche. But 3d TV requires glasses, which 2d TV doesn't, a big practical difference. And I think the number of people who find 3d annoying / motion-sickness-inducing / etc. to watch, and prefer 2d even just aesthetically, will be greater than the number who prefer b&w over color.

Here's what a 1997 review article (from Displays 17(2):100-110) concluded:

[A] broad range of fairly mature 3-D equipment is already on the market. The available systems, however, suffer from the drawback that users have to wear special devices to separate the left eye's and right eye's images. Such "aided viewing" systems have been firmly established in many professional applications. Yet further expansion to other fields will require "free viewing" systems with improved viewing comfort and closer adaptation to the mechanisms of binocular vision. The respective technologies are still under development.

...which is pretty much the state of technology in 2010 as well.

Re:Meh

[DrXym]

I remember going to some trade show some 15 years ago where a variety of 3D devices were on display and to be honest the state of the art has barely advanced since then. The displays may have changed from CRT to LCD / plasma / DLP but they still require special glasses to watch 3D.

The first manufacturer to produce a 3D display that works over a wide viewing angle without glasses is going to make a fortune.

Re:Meh

[Third Position]

If you have to wear glasses, will any bother?

Probably not enough to make it viable. Do you remember quadrophonic sound from the 70's? Another cute technology that turned out to have an unfavorable benefit to pain-in-the-ass ratio. Those kind of things don't tend to catch fire in the commercial market. Wake me up they figure out how to do it without the glasses.

Re:Meh

[JaredOfEuropa]

That's a good example... now that almost all movies on DVD or Blu-ray offer 5.1, and we've figured out how to get pretty good sound quality from small speakers, people are installing surround systems en masse. More and more people are opting for a Home Theatre rather than just having a TV in the living room.

Maybe 3d will go the same way. Unlike most other movies that tried 3d in the past, Avatar used the technology to good effect. If more content follows, and more programming is made available over the air, perhaps people will pick it up, since the technology is not as cumbersome as before. Especially if it's optional: either watch the same content in 2d, or put on the glasses and watch 3d. One thing that has advanced a bit is the technology used for the glasses. Circular polarisation (probably not usable for TV, but maybe dual beamers...), shutter glasses that are actually comfortable to wear, or Infitec glasses, which might be usable with televisions but are hideously expensive. I found all of these to be perfectly comfortable to wear even for an extended period of time.