This poor guy, Satoshi Miyazak, was mentioned in the article as spending 2,000 Yen per month (not as large as a number as you think, look up a conversion before you condemn the guy) on cable adult channels and is quoted:

“I want to try it out,” he said. “I need something dramatic to justify replacing my TV. This could be the motivation.”

Ultimately, 3D televisions are going to depend on content to help push sales.  The reality is that the adult industry will likely have flooded the market (no strange pun intended) with adult 3D Blu-Ray titles before there is enough regular 3D content to fill a days worth of programming.  This is what happened with HD and definitely how the DVD market became popular.  Whatever your moral opinions are for adult content, they don’t factor in, there is a strong demand, and that demand drives technology.

We here at Third Magazine actually got to attend a 3D adult production (R-rated content) the other day and speak with the producers.  There is a lot of content in the pipeline (again, no pun intended) and as soon as the 3D Blu-Ray authoring is more accessible (right now it is dominated by two companies) the titles will be flying out.

We can’t say much about the production we attended yet, but we will be reporting on it soon.  So keep checking back!

Standards – 3D Television standard specifications have not been fully worked out. Yep, pretty much everyone knows this and we’ve been talking about it often.  I think this “issue” is soon to be a non-issue after the meeting between Sony and Samsung regarding 3D standards.

Content – Although consumers will expect quality similar to the blockbuster movie Avatar, achieving an equivalent immersive experience will depend on content availability, among other factors. Content is king.  But it is coming.  There is a lot going on in the 3D world outside of major studios and ESPN 3D.  For example, just look at PassmoreLab Productions, pushing out nature documentaries soon.  Or, if you are a little bit naughty, how about Bad Girls in 3D (NSFW).  Content is another non-issue.  Once 3D blu-ray rolls out, there will be content everywhere.

3D Glasses - Too expensive and compatibility..yep, we’ve been talking about that for ages too.  The price points will go down and compatibility is being worked through along with specifications.  The price points aren’t as expensive as the media makes them out to be, just look what people spend on a universal remote, or a single PS3 game, or any other gadget.

So it looks like Apply fanboy research company iSuppli didn’t break any new ground with their research.  But they did come up with a nice projected number for 3D TVs in 2015; 78.1 million units.  I have no idea how that came up with that number, but it sounds promising.

The last item that iSuppli noted was health concerns from watching too much 3D TV.  I don’t see how this is any different than the first round of health concerns regarding 2D television that I was bombarded with growing up.  I was often told that too much TV was bad for my eyes or sitting too close would give me permanent vision problems.  People love a good health hazard stemming from technology.  Aren’t we all supposed to worry about our phones giving us brain tumors too?

From the article:

“It’s mainly aimed at Sony rebuilding and consolidating its relationship with Samsung because its strategy of diversifying panel suppliers to the likes of Sharp has failed to ensure smooth supplies,” said Ricky Seo, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities.

“So, it’s like Sony coming back for more cooperation as it needs Samsung to meet its aggressive promotion of TV business, especially to get advanced panels for 3D TV production.”

Most importantly, the display requires no glasses.  Also, it is a “true volumetric image” which allows viewers to move around to gain different perspectives of the image.  Outside of entertainment, that concept alone has many applications in medical science and engineering.

The display doesn’t require any viewer dependent technology, such as eye-tracking or similar concepts.  It also uses something called “motion parallax” and “occlusion effect”, which are described as:

Motion parallax is the apparent difference in the speed or direction of moving objects produced when an object in the foreground moves relative to an object in the background. The occlusion effect is the blocking of one object by another opaque (non-transparent) object located in front, but where the hidden object can still be seen if viewed from a different angle, for example, in the side view. The combination of motion parallax and the occlusion effect eliminates the sense of imbalance and dizziness which can occur with polarized and shutter-type glasses and which are contributing to concerns over health and safety of 3D viewing.

This is the technology everyone is waiting for.  No more complaints about headaches or eyestrain or whining about wearing glasses.  The future of 3D is right around the corner.

Here’s what they have to say about content:

“There are content distribution companies that own content and that are simply running demonstration events early in the evolution of 3D,” Strickland said. “These early events seem to be aimed at the viewers who just went through the  challenge of getting the best HD sets. Some content owners have elected to specifically exclude Verizon and other competitive distributors from carriage of these 3D events in an effort to advantage their distribution businesses.  Others have fixed ridiculously high prices for the content. Verizon’s position is that integrated operators should not withhold programming options from the marketplace, and that consumers should have the freedom to choose the distributor that best meets their needs.”

Q: Ingemar, thanks for answering this. You are building a Laser-LCoS based 3D TV. Can you tell us a bit about the technology? Who are your business partners? (for the lasers, LCoS panels, etc)?
Yes we are building laser/Lcos stereoscopic 100″ display, it is our own developed technology both with the lasers and the Lcos chip.

Q: You are using Polarization-technology for the 3D. How does that compare with Active-Shutter 3D?

We are using dual 1920X1080 Lcos, full 1080 per eye all the time means passive glasses. We do not like active “flicker” glasses. The big boys are hostage to their own technology LCD and Plasma which requires Active “expensive flicker glasses”, they have no other choice.

Q: In December 2009 you said that the Laser TVs will cost $10,000 to $15,000, with first units available in May. Is that still on track?In 10K volumes the cost is correct, sample units are available in June.

To read more of the interview head over to 3D-Display-Info.com

- 1080p HD (obviously)

-240hz refresh rate

-3D Ready (I would hope so) using active shutter glasses

-4 HDMI Inputs, 2 USB Inputs

-Ethernet AND Wireless internet connection

-Internet@TV widgets for BLOCKBUSTER, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, AccuWeather, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, Vudu, and more

And here is what you were waiting for….it is 1-inch thick.  You read that right, it is only only 1″ thick.  The new mounting system  also allows it to be mounted very close to the wall.  So, it is actually thinner than hanging a framed piece of art on the wall.  Hopefully, we will get a chance to review one of these very soon.

Lets face it, pretty much everyone knows that if you are going to be in a non-fixed entertainment setting (pretty much anything outside of a Movie with no commercials) that glasses don’t seem like an appealing option. Of course soccer is one of the rare sports that don’t have commercial breaks every 5 minutes. However people are considerably more social in a pub environment. Often times people are not close enough to the TV for the 3D experience to be of any real value.  What all of this means is that the glasses are just going to be a burden to deal with, unless you are seated at the perfect spot in front of a high quality projector screen.

In my opinion, the current non-passive 3D experiences will be successful in dedicated movie and gaming settings where the screen size take up a fair amount of a person’s direct point of view. This may seem obvious to most people, however in their excitement to promote new products I have a feeling 3D media companies could be shooting themselves in the foot by getting bad press for these staged events that don’t represent an environment where today’s 3D technologies really shine.

Once passive 3D screens start rolling out over the next 3 to 5 years, 3D will start to really take on a different meaning.  An autostereo screen in a bar will look more like viewing the game through a window.  Depth is key here, and as you may know already, depth is something we cannot emphasize more. 3D on a television really should be compared to looking through a window, with only a slight effect of “things coming out at you”.

So my basic point here is, the smaller the screen is in front of you, and the more social distractions around you, the greater the chance that you will be taking off your 3D glasses and asking the pub owner if there is a non-3D TV that you can view.

Although their goal seems valuable,they make some interesting assumptions. One of the three technologies is holographics, which when talking about a “3D TV” shown from a “2D source”, made me wonder if 3D TV standards should really be called  ”3D projection” standards.  Anyway, maybe that’s not important but when we start talking about displays and displays that adjust based on your point of view and potentially use multiple sources to give you a 3D image in a given spot, we are in a way taking the “TV” totally out of the room all together.  The article also assumes until we have holograms that we won’t need glasses.

Which leaves with with a final question for you.  Is a stereo 3D image that does not require glasses no longer “s3D” but a type of Hologram?

Source: RegHardware