[mythtv-users] OT: Why 3D TV won't work.

[Raymond Wagner]

On 05/26/10 13:26, Douglas Peale wrote:
> You do realize that everyone spends all day every day viewing 3D
> content. Real life is in 3D.

That's correct, it's actually in 3D, it's what we're used to viewing. 
It has nothing to do with your eyes, and everything to do with what your
brain expects.  You are getting the separation cues, but without having
to refocus.  It's conflicting data that your brain has not been trained
to handle.  If 3D content becomes common, and your visual cortex adapts
itself to the new way of interpreting false 3D, it will be at a direct
detriment to real life vision.  Do you actually want to lose your
ability to judge distances just for TV?

> The saving feature of 3D TV is that you can turn off the 3D, take off
> the glasses and watch it in 2D.

Except you're sending double the video, at the same bitrate.  Quality
will visibly suffer.  People already complain about cable companies
re-compressing stuff down to 12-14Mbps, 3D content will end up being a
full third less per view.

> So far, every new technology for entertainment has suffered an
> avalanche of haters and dire predictions of its demise at its
> inception. I personally think that 3D TV will be great for video games.

We tried 3D at work.  We bought a Sharp parallax monitor (no glasses
required).  We bought a pair of DLP projectors, with circular
polarization.  We bought a Planar dual-monitor setup, where the images
are overlayed with a linear polarizing combiner.  In the end, the only
thing we keep them around for is the 'gee wiz' factor for people who
might pay for research.  Everyone here would rather just stick with
their 30" Apples and HPs for all their 3D visualization and post processing.