back to article Punters to favour Smart TV over 3D TV

Telly buyers are keener on Smart TV tech than they are on 3D, but both features are going to be taken up more enthusiastically than televisions in general over the next three years. So says market watcher the Topology Research Institute, which reckons 52.9m Smart TVs - televisions with internet access for IPTV services and the …

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  1. dogged

    uh, no...

    Big advantage for iPlayer-enabled TVs, not app-enabled. Nobody cares about Angry Birds but the ability to catch up with that thing I saw Gene Hunt in last night on a decent screen - now that's a selling point.

    1. dotdavid
      Thumb Down

      Apps

      Not sure I agree.

      Games, even casual ones, I think might be likely on TVs - like having a console but without having to buy one. I can see there being a market for gaming apps.

      Similarly if the platform is powerful enough apps might be able to provide functionality the typically somewhat-unimaginative developers of consumer electronic firmwares won't ever have dreamed of. Who knows what they might be.

      No, I think apps are a good idea for TVs. What I fear is that they're going to use horrible proprietary formats (Samsung) or badly-designed "open" efforts (the rest).

      1. annodomini2

        The key will be if they get the online gaming system working, playing full console possibly if PC class games directly from the TV.

        However I do agree with the original post in that apps in the smartphone and tablet sense will probably be overkill.

  2. ganymede io device
    Holmes

    W I D E screen

    52.9m Smart TVs

    versus

    48.2m 3D TVs.

    well the screen is 4.7metres bigger so it's no contest.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sigh

    So much energy to create a giga-tonne of pointless plastic and glass so people can watch a few decent films and a couple of good series a year. What a waste. They probably have perfectly good TVs or computers that'll do the job already.

    It's Friday. It's a nice sunny day, I'm off out for a walk.

    Ned Ludd.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      You'll definitely be wanting to get into that sun after all the time you spend squinting at your 14" vga monitor, which still works quite adequately for looking at web sites ans so on.

      Wait, what's that? You -upgraded- since then? Well, I never. The carbon alone...

  4. The Jon

    >> Telly buyers are keener on Smart TV tech than they are on 3D, but both features are going to be taken up more enthusiastically than televisions in general over the next three years."

    This is shipment forecasts, so I would infer "forced upon" rather than "taken up"

    I still can't see any attraction to 3D tv. iPlayer / 4OD / ITV player is a reasonable bonus if making an upgrade.

  5. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Smart TV

    Does that mean it will not show cr*p like Big Brother, X Factor etc.? I'm all for it, then.

    Or does that mean that you will have to login to Facebook when you turn it on?

    1. Tom 35

      Facebook

      And it will post what you are watching.

      1. Arctic fox
        Trollface

        RE: "it will post what you are watching."

        As well as demanding "likes" with menaces for certain selected programmes.

  6. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    Oh dear, another survey.

    "Telly buyers are keener on Smart TV tech than they are on 3D, but both features are going to be taken up more enthusiastically than televisions in general over the next three years."

    Translation: the market for TV in general is saturated, that for 3D TV isn't quite yet, and that for the next big marketing push hasn't even got off the ground yet.

    If I buy a TV in three years time and it happens to have features that I will never use, do I count as "keen" on that feature?

    If I can't even be arsed to reply to the survey, does someone else who can be bothered to reply get to say what my opinions are?

  7. Joseph Lord
    Holmes

    Strict subset?

    Virtually all (if not all) 3d TVs will have network capability but not the other way round. Adding an Ethernet port costs almost nothing and most of the other requirements for network video are required for digital TV anyway. There are real costs to supporting 3D in terms of the panel and processing.

  8. Dropper
    Thumb Down

    No.. not facebook

    But when you hold you're 52" LED LCD TV up to the radio, your jelly trouser app will have dancing jelly trousers.. also an annoying woman will constantly tell you to "Turn right on Sunset Blvd, then turn right"

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I couldn't care less about 3D or Smart TV...

    ... I am not going to wear stupid glasses to further darken already muddy films (ones which necessitate me digging out contact lenses to be even remotely comfortable) and I have a Windows 7 PC attached to my TV which will be light years ahead of any "Smart" features.

    What I want and want I don't see anywhere is a stylish, small bezelled TV with ZERO extra features, just FreeView HD + FreeSat HD and a good picture quality please, couple of HDMI and an optical sound out. Ideally it would have no speakers , all I need is the screen and tuners!! If computer monitors came in 40" with a couple of HDMI sockets I'd buy one of them and just use the PC tuner!

  10. Anon the mouse
    Facepalm

    hmmmmmm...

    3Dtvs generally include SmartTV features. But not the other way around.

    So really they are looking at 4.7m smarttvs being sold that don't incorporate 3D

    Connecting the TV upto the network is a simple but fantastic move. Iplayer, 4OD, and also your large collection of ripped movies and music at the touch of a button (well okay 2-3 presses).

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    FWIW...

    ...3D is phenomenal for gaming, if you play the right stuff and set it up carefully. Sit a bit under a meter from a 55" tv, fire up LFS or iRacing or rFactor, and -hot god damn- is it ever spectacular. And the glasses I use (for a Sony something or other) have little ghosting and really don't cut light much at all. Early glasses seemed to take 60 to 70% sometimes, but these 20 to 30%. Subjectively, of course.

    I can't imagine watching movies with them, though - the color is horrific out of the box, calibrating color is nearly impossible, and if you tilt your head even a couple of degrees you shift the white point by about 2000 degrees kelvin. Like to lie down on your right side and watch TV? Better hope you like everything to be red and orange and doubled.

    But... with he right content and the right setup... hot damn, is it ever good.

    (All of this, by the way, was done as part of my job - lest someone feel it necessary to point out that I overpaid. We were on a tight deadline, tested it among few other options, and decided it was the lowest risk, since the others sucked and going base on reviews would have risked several hundred grand in exchange for a thousand bucks. There may be better choices that would save 10%, but selling price is not of huge importance, within some biggish range.)

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