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.



(c) 2010 www.ramseymohsen.com – Ramsey Mohsen; web consultant, DJ, video blogger, lifecaster, Kansas City blogger & internet addict.