3 reasons why 3DTV is stupid.

marketing and business, tech news & insight — Tags: , , — ramseymohsen @ Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 - 11:38 pm

I have one more thing to say about CES 2010 that somehow I didn’t cover in 1 out of the hundreds elevendy +plus video blogs I posted :)

3DTV at your house is stupid.

No really, it’s dumb. Ok, I’m being a bit Jersey Shore dramatic, but I viewed the best 3DTV’s in the world at CES this year from every major manufacturer (Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, yade-yada) and I’m telling you it’s over hyped and it under-delivers.

Consider my 3 simple reasons:

1.) Imagine you’re at home, the sun is out on a gorgeous weekend- and you’re watching your favorite college team play football. John, Susie, Lebron and Kim who are all best friends are sitting on the couch having beers and snacking on some food. You’re watching the in game in 3D on ESPN and you turn to John and high-five him after a big touchdown. You then scan the room and look around and realize all of you sitting on the couch are wearing big black bulky 3D glasses.

Can you picture that? I have a hard time believing that John, Susie and Lebron and Kim are going to be cool with wearing 3D glasses comfortably and watching the big game, don’t you?

2.) No one looks cool in 3D glasses. Period. Look how dumb I look:

CES 2010 - Las Vegas (7)

Annnnnnnnnnnd this is why I’m proud to announce my start-up “designer” 3D glasses company (just kidding, but seriously- someone should).

3.) At CES there were several varying sizes of 3DTV’s. I demo’ed the 42″, the 60″ the 50″ and even the 20″ and 8″ TVs. I came to a realization that fundamentally sets apart 3DTV in the movie theater vs. 3DTV at your house.

3DTV’s are too small.

The reason why Avatar looks incredible in the theater, is you’re watching it on a huge screen that engulfs you into the movie. When you watch 3DTV on a 50″, the experience doesn’t compare. And you can forget the small 3DTV’s, it’s not worth the hassle of wearing the 3D glasses for what you get out of it.

IMHO, 3DTV at your house is simply a novelty at best and I would argue it will never go mainstream. In retrospect, I do think that movie theaters are the appropriate place people want to experience 3DTV, primarily because you’re focused on nothing else in the room but screen …not to mention the lights are off and it’s pitch black.

There was one type of 3D that did catch my attention at CES that I do think will be a hit. That’s 3D gaming for your computer and XBOX 360. I played Avatar on 360 at the NVIDIA booth and that experience was incredible. If 3D has any kind of chance, it’s the gaming sector that will benefit the most from it.

You can forget seeing a 3D movie at your friend’s house anytime soon. It’ll be a fad before you can say “Sony Mini-Disc“.

Am I crazy to think that 3DTV at your house won’t ever be the norm? What do you think? Is it just a fad? Make a comment.


  • Brent
    You know people say the same thing about every major change in technology. I think it's just a stepping stone to get to 3DTV's without glasses. One thing that you don't mention is that most of the 3D is kind of the "puppet box" effect, that it just gives you depth and not things actually coming out of the screen/television. I'm not sure if television is in a dead in market right now like computers, where most consumers who want or can afford an HDTV have already bought one, but maybe these manufactures need this sort of gimmick to get people interested in buying new tv's. Kind of like geotagging digital cameras might help the digital camera market.

    The mini disc just wasn't big in the USA, like laser discs. Yet they were huge overseas, and we wonder why we are always behind when it comes to things like cellphones.

    You forgot to mention that besides video games the porn industry could probably help out 3DTV as well!! haha
  • bfos7215
    3DTV may not be used frequently in the homes, but it is going to be included on every HDTV very soon. It's just too easy for the manufactures to implement to not included it as an option. That doesn't mean you have to watch everything in 3D. But, if there's a big game or new version of Planet Earth, it's a safe bet that people with newer TV's will be inclined to watch in 3D.
  • Steve
    I agree with the glasses thing, but if you search the net you will find that there are manufacturers that produce 3DTV without glasses,Philips is one of the main stream companies, the TV is called WOWvx, and I am disappointed that they were not seen at the ces show, I did not attend the show but I have been reading about it and have not seen a single post describing glasses free TV. At home it needs to be glasses free or there is no point.
  • Ciara B.
    I wish there were a "like" button on here. I'd hit it five times.
  • Matches, there was one company at CES that claimed to have developed a technology that didn't require glasses. I checked out their booth- and to be honest, it sucked.

    From my understanding, the technology requires the maximum pixel count of TVs to be at least 20x times more than what it is today. Which appears to be at least 5 years out...
  • I know of at least one company working on 3DTV without the need for any type of glasses, so, that takes away two of your three concerns....
  • Pat
    I agree. Avatar took 7 years to make and achieve the great 3D quality. A live sporting event for example will have all sorts of glitches because they can't edit the content. Also, the glasses were rumored to be about $250 at CES, so that's pretty expensive if you want to watch a game or movie with a group of people.
  • julia_gulia
    You know this is the one post I was waiting to read. I work for Best Buy and we have been hearing about 3DTV for a while now. Everyone that I work with is saying the same thing, it'll never make it in a home atmosphere. Personally, I have a really small head and have to buy children glasses at the store. 3d glasses for me, in general, are uncomfortable and don't seem to work right since I don't have an average size head. So, your idea for designer 3d glasses -- amazing!

    OH, and the TV show Chuck did a whole episode in 3d. It was kind of cool but again... homes aren't the avenue.
  • The D, great point! I didn't even think of that. I will share with you- looking at a 3DTV screen without the glasses isn't pretty.
  • What happens when you have 5 people over for a big game and you only have 4 pairs of glasses?

    I agree 100% 3D TV is just a fad for regular TV, but it will be big with gaming.
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(c) 2010 www.ramseymohsen.com – Ramsey Mohsen; web consultant, DJ, video blogger, lifecaster, Kansas City blogger & internet addict.