3-D TV sales are up double from last year –

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/03/19/elam.3d.tv.cnn?hpt=C2

On Tuesday, the same day Samsung unveiled the pricing and availability of its new lineup of 3D TVs for the U.S., Sony revealed that its 3D sets will arrive June 10, at first in Japan and soon after in other regions. Rival Panasonic’s first 3D TVs begin selling Wednesday in Best Buy stores in the U.S. LG’s 3D lineup arrives in May, while Vizio’s is set for August.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10466032-260.html

In the last 48 hours leading up to the CES hype-a-thon, a constellation of companies has announced plans for the third dimension:

* The ESPN 3D network will premiere in June at the FIFA World Cup, and will carry at least 85 live events in the first 12 months, with Sony as a key sponsor;

* Discovery Communications, Sony and IMAX will jointly launch a 24-hour linear 3D service to launch in 2011 with movies, documentaries, children’s programming and other content;

* DirecTV plans to debut three 3D channels in June that use RealD’s video-encoding format and will be sponsored exclusively by Panasonic;

* CE companies including Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, LG Electronics, Toshiba and Vizio announced 3D televisions and 3D Blu-ray Disc players-with Panasonic bragging about its world-beating hugest HD 3D plasma display with a gargantuan 152-inch screen size.

Obviously, the availability of 3D content will be a key driver for people to buy 3DTV sets in the first place. About 25% of U.S. Internet users surveyed plan to buy a 3DTV within the next three years, according to a recent survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association in conjunction with the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center. Of those, 67% said they will be more likely to buy one if they can watch 3D television programs over the air or through cable, satellite or telco TV service.

But is all this just a gimmick?

HD more clearly applies across the board to all video, while 3D doesn’t lend itself as naturally to every type of programming. Sports and movies are events, but does anyone want to see, say, Headline News or Seinfeld reruns in 3D?

On 3D, seeing is believing, according to the CEA/USC survey. Before experiencing 3D firsthand, roughly 16% of U.S. Internet users surveyed had the impression 3D was “gimmicky.” However, only 8% thought so after seeing 3D for themselves.

In addition, 43% of those who have seen a 3D movie or event in the last year say they would prefer to watch movies and television shows in 3D instead of 2D, according to the CEA/USC survey.Still, that’s hardly a groundswell of excitement for 3D. Someone might argue that they don’t need HD, or don’t care about it, but you would probably be hard-pressed to find someone who thought HDTV was a parlor trick.

In any case, it will certainly take a while for 3DTV to hit mass-market status, and one of the gotchas could be the cost of the 3D glasses, said Bruce Leichtman, president and Principal Analyst of the Leichtman Research Group. Consumer uptake will be inhibited if they cost $50 or more apiece, he said.

As Leichtman noted, Discovery and ESPN were the first two networks to dip their toes into HD — and it took several years for viewers to arrive in significant quantities.

“Did they have tremendous success [with HD]? Not necessarily at first,” Leichtman said. “But when it started taking off, they were in a position to succeed. Those companies learned that being the leader has its advantages.”

Some other data points from the CEA/USC study:

· 33% of those who have seen a 3D movie or event in the last 12 months report they would like to watch all television programs in 3D, while 36% say the primary reason to buy a 3DTV is to play 3D video games in their home and 65% say the primary reason to buy a 3DTV is to watch 3D movies in their home.

· 69% of those who have seen 3D movie or event in the last year believe a 3DTV should have a screen of more than 40 inches (compared with 49% for those that haven’t seen a 3D show/event in the last year).

· 57% of those planning to buy a 3DTV within the next 3 years consider themselves an early adopter of technology.

It’s really going to be here shortly.  Start saving your money s0 you can buy a 3D TV too!

The Singapore government has created the 3D cinema support fund. The sum is over $6,5 million.

3D Disney World

3D Movie Festival

On the 3D movie festival opening the information minister Ly Bhun Yan has commented the initiative in following way – “We are intended to support appropriate movie projects, creating of 3D infrastructure, manufacturing process and special training programs during next 2 years”.
On minister’s opinion the 3D industry potential is not just in cinema. Such technologies can be applied in military, medicine and so on.

Shanghai citizens are lucky to be the first Chinese people to watch 3D TV programs. The 1st of May is the day, when Shanghai TV company “Wenguan” is opening the first digital channel, which will open to the spectators the higher reality of sensation.

As the company workers said the new channel’s principal topics are documentary films about nature and animal world, entertaining news, like celebrity life, and sport events.

All these programs are developed using special technique, and for obtaining stereo effect the subscribers will need to use special glasses.

Editor’s Note:
Glasses needed…but let’s face it.  We won’t have 3D televisions in houses until we have quality 3D TV programming.  Let’s see how quick it develops in China now that they have their own 3D TV channel.

FogScreens technology allows creating an image in air with the help of liquid drops. It was developed by scientists from Santa-Barbara University. They invented the new variant of 3D image creating with no use of stereoscopic glasses. 3D images, created by special devices, will just hang in air and one can easily walk it around and take a look from different sides even walk through it. The scientists used already known FogScreens technology, by means of which 2D images are created in the air on the thin layer of liquid drops.

Applying 2 devices – FogScreens and projector, which run the motion of 2D images, 2 flat pictures, transforming into 3D, can be obtained.

Phillips managed to create 3D TV with no special glasses to be used to see 3D image. Its 3D TV needs a special signal — two similar, but a bit out-of-position images in each frame, a color one and a background one – in gray tints. The lenses, located on the screen direct the image to the left and right eye of a spectator, that results in stereo effect. To see 3D image a spectator must sit in single position, that is the disadvantage of the technology.

3D Glasses - No longer required?

The specialists from Berlin Institute by the name of Genrich Gerts in collaboration with scientific groups from Britain, the Netherlands and Czech work on the salvation of this problem within the project, financed by European Commission. They managed to create the system, following the spectator’s look and adopting the image on the screen accordingly.

The first 3D TV entered the Japanese market. It is based on TriDef technique, which builds an image for each eye. The kit includes special glasses, combining the image and providing 3D effect. Without glasses the image doubles. The TV provides 3D image not only in special 3D programs, Japanese television started to produce, but, as developers said, in general 2D programs. In this case the 3D effect is not so noticeable.

The special 3D programs are translated by several cable TV companies. They are released 4 times a day and shot considering 3D viewing. Despite 3D technique is known for a long time already, this is first full-grown 3D television project in the world. The price of such a TV is $3960. the producer is Hyundai company.

The most famous Hollywood producers, such as James Cameron, Jeffrey Katzenberg and John Lasseter, have announced, that soon all the movies will be shoot in 2 formats – general 2D and the new 3D.

3D Computer Games

This tendency is assisted by the growth of 3D cinema popularity and significant progress in stereoscopic shooting. The TV industry has both high-speed 3D-cameras and powerful software allowing practically avoid optical distortions during demonstrations. 3D-cinema is, in fact, the reincarnation of good old stereoscopic cinema, with the difference of not showing the 3D image, used to cause headache and nausea at times, but the full-fledged presence effect.

Katzenberg Says 3D Will Be A Landmark In Cinema History

Due to this, Jeffrey Katzenberg has sad the conversion to 3D to be a landmark in cinema history, comparable to sound appearance only. This landmark is not overtaken yet, and the entertainment industry is defining the new, more ambitious, task – provide 3D technology not only to cinema visitors, but for TV auditory as well. Furthermore, the records of sport events and shows of celebrities are becoming as popular as blockbusters.