Posts Tagged ‘3D TV’
3D TVs Really Worth Buying or Not
With an expensive new TV set and a $150 pair of funny glasses, you can watch 3-D movies and some sports from your sofa. Next up: nature shows, reality TV, and even game shows. Why the evening news likely will stay in two dimensions.
Taking a cue from movie studios that have goosed their box-office take with 3-D films like “Toy Story 3″ and “Alice in Wonderland,” the television industry is betting TV viewers will splurge to watch more-lifelike versions of their favorite athletes, wild animals and, potentially, sitcom characters.
This month, ESPN launched a 3-D channel designed to broadcast sporting events including 25 World Cup soccer matches. ESPN will offer close to 100 sporting events in the coming year. Turner Sports and Nascar will make the Coke Zero 400 available in 3-D on July 3. Fox Sports and DirecTV will provide the Major League Baseball All-Star game next month.
“We may be seeing BYOG [bring your own glasses] at the bottom of Super Bowl party invites,” said Chuck Pagano, ESPN’s executive vice president of technology.
This month, DirecTV and Panasonic will launch several joint 3-D channels devoted to movies, concerts and sports. Next year, Discovery, Sony and Imax will introduce a 24-hour 3-D venture focused on movies, nature programs, and other shows. The network may also air popular documentary series like “Man vs. Wild” or “The Haunted,” about paranormal activity, and will have access to Imax movies like “Hubble.”
Sony Promotes 3D Gaming Aggresively
At their E3 press conference yesterday Sony made it very clear to the world that 3D Gaming is high on their priority list. Every PlayStation 3 out there is 3D compatible and after a simple firmware upgrade, it’ll allow you to enjoy 3D games.
Off course you’ll still need to own a 3D TV in the first place, something that as of now costs an arm and a leg. It’ll be years before technology like this becomes mainstream but if you’ve been lucky enough to be born with a gold spoon wedged up your butt here’s the full line-up of games that will be 3D ready:
• MLB 10 The Show
• MotorStorm: Apocalypse
• Killzone 3
• The Sly Collection
• Gran Turismo 5
• Crysis 2
• Mortal Kombat
• Shaun White Skateboarding
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
• Tron Evolution the Video Game
• NBA 2K11
Sharp to Join 3D TV Battle with Advanced Display
Japan’s Sharp Corp said it would begin selling 3D-capable LCD TVs in Japan this summer, the latest consumer electronics maker to enter the market for what is expected to be the industry’s next hit product.
The maker of Aquos brand flat TVs plans to launch 3D TVs in China, Europe and the United States by December, joining larger rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Sony Corp. Sharp’s new products will be the world’s first 3D TVs using four-primary-colour technology, which utilises yellow on top of the three conventional primary colours of red, green and blue, enabling the TV sets to offer brighter, more vivid images. “We are now one step closer to such things as 3D displays with the world’s best quality or the ultimate display,” Sharp Executive Vice President Masafumi Matsumoto told a news conference on Monday.
Consumer electronics makers are scrambling to launch 3D TVs this year, betting the technology will be as big a boost for the industry as the transition to colour TVs from black and white. Panasonic Corp and Samsung have already released 3D models, while Sony plans to start offering 3D TVs in June. Electronics makers have high hopes that growing interest in 3D movies sparked by the sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar” will drive 3D TV sales. Demand for 3D TVs will likely grow more than 10-fold to 27 million units in 2013 from an estimated 2.5 million units this year, according to research firm DisplaySearch. Sharp expects 3D TVs to account for 5-10 percent of its total LCD TV sales in the business year ending March 2011, Matsumoto said. He did not disclose how many LCD TVs Sharp aims to sell this financial year, but he said the company had achieved its LCD TV sales target of 10 million units for the year that ended March 31, and plans to boost LCD TV output substantially this year.
LG Aims at 25 Pct of Global 3D TV Market
LG Electronics, the world’s No.2 TV brand, said on Thursday it was aiming to sell nearly 1 million 3D TVs this year to take one-fourth of the market, joining a growing number of global tech firms betting 3D will become the next hot product.
Many manufacturers hope the technology will be as big a boost for the industry as the transition to colour TVs from black and white, although a lack of 3D content and the need for special glasses may keep people from adopting the technology outside the cinema. South Korea’s LG Electronics said on Thursday it wanted to increase market share in 3D TVs more aggressively, hoping to keep its lead over close rival Sony and fight falling prices with premium models. “Our goal is boosting market share in 3D TVs and you can clearly see that, as our target for 3D market share is 10 percentage points above our LCD TV sales target,” Havis Kwon, LG’s vice president and head of the LCD division told reporters.
LG, which competes with local rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Japan’s Sony Corp, said it expected the global 3D TV market to grow to around 3.8 million units this year and to more than 13 million in 2011. The maker of the Infinia TV brand showcased 3D TVs with LED-backlit LCD screens that are 22.3 millimeters thick and said its 47-inch LX9500 model would cost around 4.7 million won ($4,134) including two pairs of glasses. The product will go on sale next week in South Korea ahead of a global launch around May. At 0535 GMT, shares in LG Electronics jumped 6 percent to a one-month high of 115,500 won, with trading volume rising to almost three times the average 30 day volume. “Shares have really been beaten down lately amid concerns about its smart phone performance, and on new worries that its strong television business may face a slowdown in the second half, after the World Cup,” said Kim Kap-ho, analyst at LIG Investment & Securities. “But as its sector peers have rallied in recent weeks, LG Electronics shares at the current level offer attractive valuations.” LG, which wants to increase its global market share in LCD TVs to 15 percent this year from 11 percent last year, said it sold around 5.2 million LCD sets in the first quarter versus a 2010 target of 25 million sets.
3D Displays May Be Hazardous to Young Children
3D is all the rage right now, with cinemas and home theatre equipment both beefing up with glasses-mandatory viewing. Even gaming on-the-go is heading that way too with Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS handheld.
While 3D gives us a neat effect while watching Toy Story 3, taking the kids to see that one over and over again, and eventually when it’s on Blu-ray Disc, isn’t a good idea at all.
According researchers who have been examining 3D video for years, the exposing children under the age of seven could affect their vision in a bad way. You see, our 3D human vision relies on our two eyes sending an image to our brains, which then makes stereoscopic sense out of it. This gives us depth perception – something that our brains only fully develop by the time we hit six years old.
Some of us aren’t able to fully develop stereoscopic vision due to malaise in children called strabismus, sometimes known as lazy eye. This condition is treatable by training the nervous system to ‘learn’ stereopsis.
More than 15 years ago, Sega was toying with a VR headset that would give the wearer 3D images near the eye; but following a test by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) at Palo Alto California, Sega was warned that the peripheral should not be given to kids – a tough order given that the video game market at the time was catered to a younger audience. The project was ditched, and 3D VR headsets slowly disappeared from the market.
Now that 3D is back, bigger than ever, the risk is even greater for young viewers. Adults are believed to be mostly safe from 3D effects, though most will likely find that they reach a point of fatigue before long anyway.