Technology is advancing faster and faster these days. In my relatively short lifetime, we’ve gone from UHF/VHF to cable/satellite to digital cable to high-def to Internet TV. The next big step is nearly here. No, I’m not talking about smell-o-vision, as Looney Tunes predicted would happen in the “future” in the 1990s. I’m talking about 3-D television.
We’re already seeing it in movie theaters, and a handful of people actually care about it. It’s like TV companies are following the cues of the movie industry. They do widescreen, we do widescreen (decades later), they do digital projection resulting in a sharper image, we do high-def.
When we heard a bit over a year ago that 3-D movies were coming to theaters near us, we all laughed, picturing the blue and red glasses. We were wrong, instead its glasses that look just as bad but are the same color. And it’s ready to make its way into our homes.
How stupid is the idea of a 3-D TV? I’m going to go out and buy a TV that costs even more than an HDTV, technology that has been around for the better part of a decade now, and get something that allows me to experience Seinfeld re-runs in 3-D. It’s like Kramer’s sliding through Jerry’s front door and into my lap.
Let’s think about this for a minute. There are no channels in existence right now that broadcast in 3-D. Sure, ESPN plans to have one, and when it does, it will broadcast things in 3-D once in a while, and there are probably one or two other 3-D channels in the works somewhere, but none of them exist at this point.
On top of that, we’re just now re-stocking our movie collection with Blu-Ray discs. You’re telling us now we have to get all new ones so we can see Spider-Man swing right at us? We have to wait until all of our favorite movies are not only converted to Blu-Ray format, but then upgraded to 3-D, assuming that is even possible?
This is all assuming that the 3-D thing will catch on, and if it does, it will take years for the upgrades in the industry, technology, and creation of a new market to get up to speed, like we all eased into HD. We’ll have to wait for new channels, new movies and new video game systems that will support 3-D technology. By the time that happens, more advanced TVs will be out there, and hopefully for under $3,000.
My point here is that it’s a huge gamble to buy a 3-D TV. You’re not only betting on a new, unproven TV technology, you’re betting on a technology that has tried twice in the movie industry and failed miserably, and we aren’t even sure if the third time is the charm yet. Put on the goggles, I bet it will feel like this text is popping out at you.