Will 3D TVs Live Up to Promises of Being the Next Big Thing?

Things are definitely looking bright for 3D programming that may be seen at home via a 3D television set.  At least if you look at it from the standpoint of 3D movies.

Year 2009 has been the year of big 3D movie releases, with a 3D movie opening the very prestigious Cannes Film Festival.  Along with ‘Up,’ this year has also seen the release of other notables like ‘Final Destination 3D,’ ‘Monsters vs. Aliens,’ ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,’ ‘Coraline,’ ‘G-Force,’ and a lot many others.

The next year, 2010, is seeing a more veritable list of notable three-dimension movies with Avatar, Smurfs and even Titanic joining the fray.  Moviedom’s big names like James Cameron and Peter Jackson are hailing 3D as the next big thing.

However, the question remains whether this would translate to a successful transition when it comes to having 3D programming at home.  For one, it seems that both consumers and TV manufacturers alike are biding their time.  The current crop of 3D TVs are not selling as much as their manufacturers would like.  And although Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung have come out with their own prototype of what their version of 3D TV would be like at the recent CEATEC show in Japan, they are not saying just how much these units are.

There are two reasons why manufacturers are not releasing 3D TVs one after another and why buyers are not snatching them up, as soon as they come out on the shelves:  price and the need for those special glasses.  A recent study conducted by the n-Stat has revealed that while interest in 3D programming is high at 64%, only 25% of these people are willing to pay more for a 3D TV set.  A lot of people are also turned off by the thought of having to wear those goofy glasses at home.

Not that there are many reasons to wear them anyway.  3D content at home is at best very minimal at the moment.  There are channels in some market that have 3D content now available, like the United Kingdom’s Sky 3D service, but generally 3D content is quite hard to come by.  Aside from this cable and digital TV channels, all you could watch in 3D are movies that come out in the format on Bluray.

What’s more, the lack of standards when it comes to 3D devices is also depressing what should have been a buoyant mood for anything 3D.  More than two years into the current renaissance of 3D, the manufacturing and entertainment industry has yet to come up with a set of standards that would make various 3D devices work with one another.  These standards are important in dictating what technology – whether stereoscopic or auto stereoscopic – should be used in producing and then viewing 3D content and programming.  So right now, people are having second thoughts about buying any 3D device, thinking that it will use technology that is not standardized.  Also, it is these standards that would dictate whether people would be using those glasses or not.

So will 3D take off?  It is yet very early to tell.  Without widespread adoption that is still impeded by the lack of availability in content and the lack of standards set, it is still too difficult to gauge 3D TV’s success or failure.  Admittedly, the technology is very much in its infancy.

However, as Japanese TV manufacturers have found out, there is no way to go but 3D.  Current flat panel TVs are as thin as they could get, while consumers see no point in buying larger sized TVs than what is available now.  TV manufacturers need a new technology in order to sell more TVs, or at least as many TVs as they are selling now.

Optimism for the new technology, however, is not hard to come by.  Almost every week, a new TV manufacturer is coming out with a new 3D TV.  A new broadcaster is announcing plans to offer a channel with 3D content.  And new technologies and devices are adopting 3D into their systems.

In time, 3D TV might just become the next LCD or plasma TV.  In time, 3D might just be available in almost every other home.