Not so long ago, high-definition TV was cutting edge.
Now HD is so last year. The next big thing is 3-D HD.
The entertainment industry has been predicting for some time that three-dimensional viewing would be the next logical step after bigger, better screens. Now, they say, it’s coming sooner than you think.
In this economy? Really?
Seeing is not only believing but coveting a little, too.
At last week’s cable expo held at the Colorado Convention Center, I lined up with other visitors who slid on the plastic red eyewear in Panasonic’s display truck. Facing the big screen, I had to fight the impulse to reach out and catch falling confetti during one demo.
I felt like I was in the midst of the musicians on the field at the Beijing Olympics, I was on a treacherous slalom course with a skier, on a racetrack with outrageous speeding robot cars. I was in the middle of James Cameron’s aliens in his new 3-D movie “Avatar.” The sensation was thrilling.
Three-dimensional entertainment has come a long way since the dorky cardboard glasses of the ’50s. In fact, Panasonic’s chief technical officer won’t even discuss the evolution of those cardboard glasses.
“Horrible. They gave 3-D a bad name,” said Panasonic’s Eisuke Tsuyuzaki.
The goal now for the industry is “immersive” fun. Mitsubishi, Samsung, Hyundai, LG Electronics and Sony are also in the race. Expect a new generation of TVs ready for 3-D next year. The Sony Theater display featured resolution so sharp, it claims to be “slightly more than four times greater than high-definition.”
By immersive, they mean entertainment so pleasing to the senses that you feel you’re actually there. It’s not about spears coming at you in the gimmicky style of vintage 3-D movies. It’s about being surrounded and being part of the action, at home, thanks to 3-D HD television.
Panasonic is working with Hollywood studios to develop a 3-D HD standard. The new “shutter” glasses blink electronically somehow, alternating the left and right eye views in sync with the content. Don’t ask.
Of course movies have played with 3-D for years, from “The Polar Express” (2004) through “Chicken Little” and “Up” (2009). The home theater is next.
The usual chicken-and-egg dilemma applies: consumers won’t buy 3-D HD systems until there’s enough 3-D product out there to watch; content-producers won’t create enough 3-D HD content until there are enough consumers with the systems in their living rooms.
Videogaming is adopting 3-D, but it’s slower going for TV.
The believers, and there were many of them at the Colorado Convention Center this week, can’t say enough about this next great leap forward, said to be the next killer app.
“Digital 3-D in the home: the day is coming,” according to David Broberg, VP for Consumer Video Technology at CableLabs.
Clearly, the push is on to get cable operators to believe in the power of 3-D delivered via cable to consumers’ homes.
The cost to produce 3-D is 10-15 percent higher than normal. But consumers are said to be eager for new technology now that more than half of U.S. homes have HDTV.
Panasonic’s HD 3-D technology will be available in 2010. They won’t specify a price, but you’ll need a couple of thousand bucks to cover “Plasma technology and a prototype Blu-ray Disc player to deliver true 1080p Full HD 3-D entertainment in the home.”
Work continues on “auto- stereoscopic” 3-D, meaning without glasses.
I expected the cable convention to be full of talk about Internet-on-TV. At a time when the world is racing ahead with mobile products, the cable business seems focused on nagging concerns from yesterday, like customer service. Much of the talk at the closing luncheon was about what lessons cable can learn from Apple and NetFlix. There weren’t a lot of new ideas from the cable folks themselves.
Online video streaming is hot, cable is not. As the trade report VideoNuze observed, “YouTube delivers almost three times as many streams (10 billion) in a single month as Comcast delivers Video On Demand sessions (3.6 billion) in an entire year.”
Maybe next year cable will have something to say for itself beyond the half-hearted mantra, “the customer is king.”
For now, 3-D HD is the best hope.
I wonder, will people really sit for hours wearing big clunky glasses once the novelty wears off?
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
