Encounter of the 3D Kind

What is all this noise about 3D TV? Will it happen? Should you buy one?

Okay, this noise is loud. After all, the biggest announcement was in December 2009 when Fifa declared that the 2010 World Cup will be broadcast in 3D. Yes, 3D so you could see your best players actually shooting the ball into your homes, and the experience will be like never before. But wait, are we that close to 3D content? Is 3D the next big thing after the LCD, plasma, the LED television? Here is my lowdown on why you need to wait before you jump in to buy yourself a 3D television in India.

3D movies, including India’s first, Chhota Chetan (1984), have been around for quite a while, but far too few and far apart to make an impact. The recent Avatar in 3D has now got people wowed by this extra-dimensional presentation. In addition, the increasing adoption of CGI (computer generated imagery) and animation means more 3D content on its way, and with the World Cup kickoff round the corner, suddenly there is a splurge of 3D TVs. The excitement is similar to what we experienced when we saw our first 3D animated foot rulers, or pictures of our favourite cartoon characters. But there is a hitch.

Though there are multiple technologies to create 3D images, starting from the anaglyphic (using a passive red-cyan glasses, this is what was used in early-day comics), to polarisation (with passive polarised glasses), alternate-frame sequencing (needs active shutter glasses, and this is what one of the companies has chosen) and autostereoscopic displays (no headgear/glasses required), the problem is that the world of 3D is split into two major halves—one wants to build TVs that will not require viewers to wear special glasses (after all, just to watch TV you can’t wear a pair of spectacles), and the other set wants to make TVs that require you to wear spectacles.

Now, when we talk about glasses for viewing, these spectacles are not like your ordinary green and red filter ones that were handed to you when you watched Chhota Chetan, or picked up that odd comic book in 3D where the characters leapt out of the pages. These are active glasses, running on batteries (that means charging them), and a pair would cost you around Rs 5,000.

The other camp—3D TV manufacturers who don’t want to have you wear glasses—propose to use a technology which is very similar to what we saw on those 3D foot rulers. There will be tiny lenses slapped onto the screen and you will see the images in 3D without wearing glasses.

There are big players backing each technology. LG, Samsung, Sony and Panasonic have TVs that require glasses; Philips, TCL and Alioscopy have TVs that can show 3D content without having you to wear any kind of glasses. Who will win and which will become the standard technology is something we can only guess. For me, even thinking about having to wear something to watch TV is a bit uncomfortable. And I am not sure if I will be able to wear it for the duration of a film.

Anyway, assuming you are one of the early adopters of technology, and you must buy it, here is what all you will need after buying a 3D set: irrespective of the technology you choose, you will need to upgrade your DVD player to a 3D Blu-ray player (not yet easily available), buy a huge new library of 3D films (even though you may have the original film), and wait for a broadcast company to start providing 3D content.

Since 3D requires nearly double the refresh rate, even your DTH box and/or CAS box may need to be changed. But I could not get a comment from any of India’s DTH vendors if their boxes are ready for 3D content. So, that could mean buying everything all over again.Also, the wow factor of 3D is short-lived. When you go to a store to check out the TV or see it at a press launch, as I did, the immediate impulse is to get one home. But then, after a few minutes of watching, you suddenly realise that there is very limited content there, and you will not want to pay a premium just because 3D is one of the new buzzwords out there. For me, the experience of watching a 3D movie, such as Avatar in 3D, or getting to catch Shrek the Final Chapter in 3D, is best enjoyed in a cinema hall.

If you don’t mind wearing glasses while watching television, and are okay with a mild headache while you watch TV for extended time, also know that you may have to just change your television in another two years, depending on which technology becomes the standard, go ahead and buy it. For others, I would like to say, just as soon as we’ve bought the last technology, a new one is here, so you need to buy it all again, all over.

I like the technology, and I love the potential, but I will wait to decide on which technology succeeds, and also wait for more content to be made easily available. Right now we are at a stage where the future is unclear; I sense that in another two years, we will have a lot more 3D content. After all, with animation and CGI, this really is not far off.

The biggest benefit of the technology, I see, is that it will enable doctors to work interactively with radiology reports—if it’s a Cat scan, an x-ray or an MRI, or even a Doppler scan, they will be able to turn things around in a 3D world and be able to offer better diagnosis. But for you and me, I will suggest we wait.

The Samsung LED backlit 3D TV is already available in India against orders, and LG and Panasonic should be here around this month. Philips 3D TV is expected to be here around mid June, and TCL is available in China. Once most of these brands come in, we will see prices drop. Currently, Samsung’s 3D LEDs, with a screen size of 40–65 inch, cost Rs 130,000–435,000. Its 3D LCDs (46–55 inch screen size) cost Rs 129,000–186,900, and the 63 inch 3D plasma costs around Rs 300,000. Eventually, as more content becomes available and 3D technology becomes mainstream, we will see prices crash, as happened with LCD televisions.

The author is The Big Geek at System3.

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