back to article Glasses-less 3D TV by Xmas? Not likely, says 3D TV exec

Toshiba may be gearing up to release a no-specs 3D TV in Japan by the end of the year, but Philips' 3D TV development partner reckons we will have to wait longer. It doesn't reckon any vendor will have one out before 2013. So says, Maarten Tobias, CEO of Dimenco, a firm founded by four former Philips people and which is now …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Annihilator
    Thumb Down

    Cool

    Call me in 2013 then when I will be interested.

    Presumably they're all forgetting about the 3DS? But I suppose that's easier to pull off with a small screen at a relatively fixed position to the eyes...

  2. Sampler
    FAIL

    Way to kill 3D tech

    Advertise that you have a better version up your sleeves to be relased in a couple of years - enough to put the majority of average punters off and only the hardcore or affluent will drop money on a relatively expensive 3D TV now (compared to a non-3D).

    Meaning with no return on 3D boxes firms will shelve future development.

    Still, it was a neat idea.

  3. Pinky

    Not worth considering IMHO

    Having seen the LG attempts at no-specs 3D imaging, I wouldn't even think about buying this kind of thing. The lenticular (why does FF offer testicular as a spelling?!?) lenses result in a multitude of sweet-spots, but if you're off by just a couple of inches, the effect is rather nauseating.

    Saying that, all these "3D" TVs are crap as far as I am concerned - I want some actual depth to the images, rather than the "magic eye" images that don't require you to cross your eyes.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Specless

    Right now, 3D tv is incredibly un-attractive. Who wants to buy one and have to spend another grand getting enough glasses to be able to watch things in 3d? At 200$ a pair, inviting friends over becomes prohibitive.

    Besides, the actual value-add is nowhere close to the premium they are asking for.

  5. BristolBachelor Gold badge

    3D TVs & Japan

    Was in Japan for 3 weeks over summer. There were lots of demos of 3D TVs, with active and passive glasses. Although people were having a look, there didn't seem to be any interest in buying from anyone. It wasn't the issue of the cost of the glasses so much, but the fact that you need them, and not seeing the benefits of 3D except the gimmick.

    Lenticular style glasses-free 3D displays were also shown, but the problem with them was the small sweet-spots where you actually got the 3D, and the lots of sh*t-spots where you got the same effect as the childrens moving image toys.

    I did see one demonstration of a glasses-less TV that was very impressive (partly because it wasn't overdone like the recent 3D films), but I don't think that it was near production.

  6. LuMan
    Happy

    We all know the solution..

    ..P0rn!

    Whatever media format Grumbleware picks will win out. We've seen it before with VHS and Beta. It's only a matter of time before Ben Dover's finest is thrusting into our living rooms and then we'll know 3DTV is here for good. Then, we'll be getting specless 3D monitors so we can download the stuff onto our computers and, before long, Apple will release the iPriapism for all company big-nobs to get a grasp of.

    Can't wait....

  7. Boring Bob

    Zoom in

    3D programs strike me as far to difficult to create to become main stream. For example, how can a 3D camera zoom-in? In 2D you just need a special lens to zoom-in and give the impression of getting closer to the object. But with 3D you will also need to change the angle of vision of both of the cameras, i.e. the cameras will need to move further apart by an impractical distance.

    3D will fail as soon as people realise that they have been had by the HD con. We've all forked out on new HD TVs, but the programs are still just as crap.

    1. CADmonkey
      Flame

      "...We've all forked out on new HD TVs,"

      LOL not all of us.

  8. D@v3

    glasses less

    Was at the British Film Museum up London a couple of weeks back and the had a glasses less 3D display. Admittedly it was only a demo unit with a loop of moving objects, but it looked pretty good.

    Better than Avatar anyway.

  9. Monty Burns
    WTF?

    What seems to have been missed by all the producers....

    is that most people have only just (in the last 2 to 3 years) just spanked there wallets upgrading to LCD .... and we have to replace them again? Jo Consumer won't do this. I'm a techie as most of us are here and I personal won't do it! Do I want 3d? Of course! Do I want to throw away a perfectly good £1500 LCD? F*&K NO!

    Now, the producers of these 3d TV's are asking non-techie, Jo Consumer to do this? Snow ball in hell chance!

    They rammed LCD down our throats, let them suffer the result of that....

    1. Carl Williams
      Thumb Up

      Ahem

      It's not as if they can pull support for it after 3 or 4 years is it.

      I don't know what it is with 3D anyway but it makes my eyes water, the odd cinema visit I can tolerate but am I going to subject myself to that discomfort every night of the week? Hell no.

      Carl.

  10. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    @Specless

    The only reason for the shutter glasses is that it's (mostly) just a firmware upgrade on an existing 120Hz TV - so the incremental cost to the maker is bugger-all.

    Then they can sell you a new 3D-TV at a nice price and screw money out of you for the $200/pair, only work with our brand, until somebody sits on them, glasses.

    Large screen polarizer TVs using the same light, cheap, comfortable glasses you have at the cinema are much more pleasant to watch, but they cost more to make.

    So you are selling your 3D TV at 2-3x the price and relying on the sales moron in Dixons/Best Buy to explain to the customer !

  11. MrT
    Thumb Up

    "Not likely, says 3D TV exec"

    That's a flat denial.

    Not psudeo-flat, interlaced with other viewpoints or positional dependant in any way.

  12. DEAD4EVER

    3d tvs without glasses

    how the hell does this work honestly this is not possible you will end up with more people complaining with bad heads than ever before. 3d will not take off end of you cant watch a 3d movie without glasses

  13. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Go

    Blatant plug...

    I have no doubt that at IBC in Amsterdam next week you will be able to see all the latest 3-d technologies. You can also see me, showing how nothing's changed since the Victorians invented the thing in the 1840s... Hall 10. Apparently I'll be the one in the top hat.

    As others have indirectly pointed out, the only real reason for 3-d displays is, basically, to sell more displays. It's stereoscopic, not 3-d (you can't see behind things), and it'll last as long as it did twenty years ago, forty years ago, sixty years ago, a hundred years ago...

    It does occur to me that one reason it's become suddenly popular with film makers could be that the cgi stuff - and particularly the animated cartoons - are made with virtual 3-d models. If you're going to render it once for a flat film, it's a piece of cake to render it again from three inches to the right.

    Bob, all a 3-d camera needs to do to zoom in is, er, to zoom in. You *might* want to move the axes of the lenses but it's not necessary. There's a whole question of the grammar of the image, of course, but I'm not going there.

  14. Christian Berger

    Trivially possible with existing equipment

    Just scale down the side-by-side image so the distance between both images is smaller than the distance of your eyes. Then just stare into the distance until those images overlap. There you go, there's the 3D image. No glasses, no special TV.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like