02:53
htc
Sony's demoing new glasses-free 3D TVs at its stand here at CES in Las Vegas, with early prototypes of an OLED TV, and three different sizes of LCD that were all able to display 3D without the need for glasses.
There was also a portable Blu-ray player that requires no glasses to use, and is closer to production than the other technologies. It can't be that imminent though, because Crave was told off for being "too close" to the sample.
So, what do we think?
The OLED screen was definitely impressive. We said at last year's CES that OLED has the potential to be the ultimate 3D display technology. It's bright, in a way that plasma TVs can only dream of, and it has zero crosstalk, a problem that affects all LCD 3D TVs to some extent.
The demo on Sony's stand was impressive, but we did have to stand in quite precise locations for it to work. The relatively small size of current OLEDs also presents a problem here, as a 23-inch screen really isn't large enough for an immersive 3D experience.
The LCDs all worked pretty well too. We noted that the smaller the screen, the more susceptible the effect was to breaking if you moved. As the screens got larger the movement issue became less severe, but there were other problems. The 46-inch model had quite bad crosstalk and we noted some pretty severe shimmering too, but without doubt, these are the most competent 3D TVs we've ever seen that don't need glasses.
The 46-inch TV also uses a higher resolution panel than a 1080p screen. Sony has opted for a 2k1k (2,048x1,080-pixel) screen, which makes up for some of the resolution loss that's inevitable with 3D LCD TVs that do not require face-goggles to work.
We also liked the glassless portable Blu-ray player Sony had on display. The 3D effect wasn't mind blowing, but it felt almost ready for launch. The question is, does anyone love 3D that much to spend loads of cash on a portable player? We're stroking sceptical cat about that.
Last year, we had some time to look at Samsung and some other, no-name technology that didn't need glasses, and the difference between these Sony TVs and that older technology is incredible.
For the first time, we think glasses-free 3D has a proper future, and with the Nintendo 3DS inbound, we really are starting to believe that this technology is viable. We don't think it will be this year though, but there's a chance by the 2012 Olympics, we'll start to see these screens on sale.
Love it or hate it, it looks like 3D technology is firmly entrenching itself as part of all entertainment formats. Whether it be in the movie theater, on your game consoles or even hand held gaming, 3D is popping up everywhere, but the most contentious proposition seems to be built-in to your TV sets. Well, evidence is definitely mounting that it is here for some time to come.
Consumer Reports recently ran an article that pointed out the fact that the price of including the technology into televisions is dropping rapidly. There is already a 46-inch Samsung LCD HDTV with built-in 3D support selling for $1500 on Amazon, depending on the brand, that isn’t all that much higher than for a set without the technology. There are 46-inch sets out there in the $800 to $900 range, but within a year or so, you’ll probably see the pricing difference becoming completely negligible.
3dglassesThe biggest complaint by far has been the cost of extra pairs of glasses. Currently most sets come with only one pair (apparently the companies feel these sets will only be bought by single men living in a bachelor pad?), and spare pairs of glasses run around $150. Well, give them a little bit more time and the prices will drop. As soon as these companies realize the glasses are damaging sales due to their pricing, the cost will drop rapidly. I would also imagine we’ll see some promotions where you get an extra pair or two as soon as this holiday season.
One of the biggest boosts to the technology will be the upcoming firmware update to the Playstation 3. Once we see the technology working its way into devices such as this, and numerous upcoming Blu-ray players, people will begin adopting it and more and more because it is just there, waiting for them. Remember DVD? How about the current onslaught of Netflix software showing up in every device imaginable? If you make a technology ubiquitous, people are that much more likely to begin adopting it.
The final reason 3D will eventually succeed? The scariest reason it will succeed? Two words: 3D Porn. I think all I’ll say on that is usually where the porn industry goes technology wise, consumers follow. And that’s enough on that aspect.
The thing is, I’m still not sure consumers actually want 3D, but for whatever reason Hollywood has decided that it wants us to have it, so they’re going to make sure we have it available to us at every turn. If it’s a good thing remains to be seen, but it looks like we might as well resign ourselves to the fact it’s going to happen. The Japanese porn industry is already readying its first titles according to Bloomberg.
What say you? Are you excited for 3D technology coming to your TV?
This December, Toshiba will be one of the first companies to release a 3D TV without glasses, but don't get too excited yet.
The problems that plague glasses-free 3D in television sets -- limited viewing angles and high costs -- are alive and well in Toshiba's model. And they're not going away any time soon.
Toshiba's glasses-free 3D TV takes a similar approach to Nintendo's 3DS handheld, which launches next year. As with current 3D televisions, your left and right eyes receive slightly different images, but instead of being parsed by glasses, they arrive through a "lenticular sheet" of magnified lenses, sent out at multiple angles.
As you might expect, the viewer must sit in a specific area for the lenses to hit properly. In the case of Toshiba's glasses-free 3D TV, the recommended viewing angle is 40 degrees (20 degrees on each side), and a distance of three feet for the 20-inch model, and two feet for the 12-inch model. Generally, manufacturers can improve viewing angles by packing more lenses into the lenticular sheet -- Toshiba's TV has nine of them -- but I'm not sure how much higher they can go.
Price is also an obstacle, as it is with all 3D televisions. According to the BBC, Toshiba's glasses-free 3D television will cost roughly $1400 for the 12-inch model and $2800 for 20-inch model. Right now, you can get a 50-inch Samsung 3DTV from Best Buy, with two pairs of glasses, for $990. There's just no comparison.
There's also one other potential hurdle that glasses-free 3D TV faces, and it's a big one: 2D. In January, Engadget looked at a glasses-free display from Magnetic3D, and found that the lenticular sheet makes 2D viewing "a messy blur." Unless the world decides that nightly news and cheesy sitcoms are better viewed in the third dimension, 2D will always be important. I'm not sure whether Toshiba's glasses-free 3D TVs are unable to accommodate 2D, but if they can't, they'd best be avoided. (Not that it matters; Toshiba's sets won't be available outside of Japan anyway.)
Perhaps these issues are why Samsung has scoffed at the idea of glasses-free 3D, and why Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute said LCD 3D TVs without glasses won't be commercially available on a global scale until 2015.
There was also a portable Blu-ray player that requires no glasses to use, and is closer to production than the other technologies. It can't be that imminent though, because Crave was told off for being "too close" to the sample.
So, what do we think?
The OLED screen was definitely impressive. We said at last year's CES that OLED has the potential to be the ultimate 3D display technology. It's bright, in a way that plasma TVs can only dream of, and it has zero crosstalk, a problem that affects all LCD 3D TVs to some extent.
The demo on Sony's stand was impressive, but we did have to stand in quite precise locations for it to work. The relatively small size of current OLEDs also presents a problem here, as a 23-inch screen really isn't large enough for an immersive 3D experience.
The LCDs all worked pretty well too. We noted that the smaller the screen, the more susceptible the effect was to breaking if you moved. As the screens got larger the movement issue became less severe, but there were other problems. The 46-inch model had quite bad crosstalk and we noted some pretty severe shimmering too, but without doubt, these are the most competent 3D TVs we've ever seen that don't need glasses.
The 46-inch TV also uses a higher resolution panel than a 1080p screen. Sony has opted for a 2k1k (2,048x1,080-pixel) screen, which makes up for some of the resolution loss that's inevitable with 3D LCD TVs that do not require face-goggles to work.
We also liked the glassless portable Blu-ray player Sony had on display. The 3D effect wasn't mind blowing, but it felt almost ready for launch. The question is, does anyone love 3D that much to spend loads of cash on a portable player? We're stroking sceptical cat about that.
Last year, we had some time to look at Samsung and some other, no-name technology that didn't need glasses, and the difference between these Sony TVs and that older technology is incredible.
For the first time, we think glasses-free 3D has a proper future, and with the Nintendo 3DS inbound, we really are starting to believe that this technology is viable. We don't think it will be this year though, but there's a chance by the 2012 Olympics, we'll start to see these screens on sale.
Love it or hate it, it looks like 3D technology is firmly entrenching itself as part of all entertainment formats. Whether it be in the movie theater, on your game consoles or even hand held gaming, 3D is popping up everywhere, but the most contentious proposition seems to be built-in to your TV sets. Well, evidence is definitely mounting that it is here for some time to come.
Consumer Reports recently ran an article that pointed out the fact that the price of including the technology into televisions is dropping rapidly. There is already a 46-inch Samsung LCD HDTV with built-in 3D support selling for $1500 on Amazon, depending on the brand, that isn’t all that much higher than for a set without the technology. There are 46-inch sets out there in the $800 to $900 range, but within a year or so, you’ll probably see the pricing difference becoming completely negligible.
3dglassesThe biggest complaint by far has been the cost of extra pairs of glasses. Currently most sets come with only one pair (apparently the companies feel these sets will only be bought by single men living in a bachelor pad?), and spare pairs of glasses run around $150. Well, give them a little bit more time and the prices will drop. As soon as these companies realize the glasses are damaging sales due to their pricing, the cost will drop rapidly. I would also imagine we’ll see some promotions where you get an extra pair or two as soon as this holiday season.
One of the biggest boosts to the technology will be the upcoming firmware update to the Playstation 3. Once we see the technology working its way into devices such as this, and numerous upcoming Blu-ray players, people will begin adopting it and more and more because it is just there, waiting for them. Remember DVD? How about the current onslaught of Netflix software showing up in every device imaginable? If you make a technology ubiquitous, people are that much more likely to begin adopting it.
The final reason 3D will eventually succeed? The scariest reason it will succeed? Two words: 3D Porn. I think all I’ll say on that is usually where the porn industry goes technology wise, consumers follow. And that’s enough on that aspect.
The thing is, I’m still not sure consumers actually want 3D, but for whatever reason Hollywood has decided that it wants us to have it, so they’re going to make sure we have it available to us at every turn. If it’s a good thing remains to be seen, but it looks like we might as well resign ourselves to the fact it’s going to happen. The Japanese porn industry is already readying its first titles according to Bloomberg.
What say you? Are you excited for 3D technology coming to your TV?
This December, Toshiba will be one of the first companies to release a 3D TV without glasses, but don't get too excited yet.
The problems that plague glasses-free 3D in television sets -- limited viewing angles and high costs -- are alive and well in Toshiba's model. And they're not going away any time soon.
Toshiba's glasses-free 3D TV takes a similar approach to Nintendo's 3DS handheld, which launches next year. As with current 3D televisions, your left and right eyes receive slightly different images, but instead of being parsed by glasses, they arrive through a "lenticular sheet" of magnified lenses, sent out at multiple angles.
As you might expect, the viewer must sit in a specific area for the lenses to hit properly. In the case of Toshiba's glasses-free 3D TV, the recommended viewing angle is 40 degrees (20 degrees on each side), and a distance of three feet for the 20-inch model, and two feet for the 12-inch model. Generally, manufacturers can improve viewing angles by packing more lenses into the lenticular sheet -- Toshiba's TV has nine of them -- but I'm not sure how much higher they can go.
Price is also an obstacle, as it is with all 3D televisions. According to the BBC, Toshiba's glasses-free 3D television will cost roughly $1400 for the 12-inch model and $2800 for 20-inch model. Right now, you can get a 50-inch Samsung 3DTV from Best Buy, with two pairs of glasses, for $990. There's just no comparison.
There's also one other potential hurdle that glasses-free 3D TV faces, and it's a big one: 2D. In January, Engadget looked at a glasses-free display from Magnetic3D, and found that the lenticular sheet makes 2D viewing "a messy blur." Unless the world decides that nightly news and cheesy sitcoms are better viewed in the third dimension, 2D will always be important. I'm not sure whether Toshiba's glasses-free 3D TVs are unable to accommodate 2D, but if they can't, they'd best be avoided. (Not that it matters; Toshiba's sets won't be available outside of Japan anyway.)
Perhaps these issues are why Samsung has scoffed at the idea of glasses-free 3D, and why Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute said LCD 3D TVs without glasses won't be commercially available on a global scale until 2015.
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