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3-D Glasses

 

 

 

At the end of 2009, there was an agreement reached to standardize the format for 3-D Blu-ray's. This deal was critical for the technology to be able to advance. Otherwise, there was the chance that every studio and manufacturer could have their own 3-D Blu-ray format. That would have prevented the technology from ever getting off the ground. Unfortunately, when standardizing the format for 3-D Blu-ray's, another key 3-D feature failed to be standardized that could greatly hinder the growth of 3-D technology. That is 3-D glasses.

 

 

At CES 2010, the talk of the show was 3-D technology with every major television manufacturer there debuting 3-D televisions, and the leading computer graphics card maker unveiling new 3-D graphics cards. To go along with this debuting technology were 3 different types of 3-D glasses. Most television companies stuck with the traditional passive 3-D glasses that have one blue lens and one red lens. Those glasses alternate which eye they project the image into, to create the illusion that the wearer is seeing a 3-D image. However, NVIDIA and Sony went in a completely different direction.

 

NVIDIA as can be read about in the summary of their CES Press Conference here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2010/1/16/nvidia-ces-press-conference.html Is using their own proprietary glasses. They are active glasses that only work with NVIDIA graphics cards and a transmitter. These active glasses produce a superior quality image. That is because the active transmitter in the glasses allows for the image to be projected in 3-D into both eyes at the same time, rather then alternatively in each eye. The issue here is that if a person bought an NVIDIA kit to play the Avatar game in 3-D on their PC, those glasses would not work with their 3-D enabled Samsung television for example.

 

Sony has done something similar to NVIDIA, as can be read in a recap of their CES Press Conference here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2010/1/22/sony-ces-press-conference.html (There is also some expanded talk about it in the long CES thread on THE BOARD at f4wonline.com that starts here: http://forum.f4wonline.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=82448&start=0) Sony's 3-D televisions are only going to work with their special brand of active glasses. The same holds true with their Blu-ray and PS3's. The issue of Sony only having their branded glasses work with their televisions and regular Blu-Ray players is not really much of an issue. The issue is when it comes to the Sony PS3.

 

Via the PS3, Sony has become the dominant force in the Blu-ray player market. Sony is going to release a firmware update this summer that will make all PS3's work as 3-D Blu-ray players. That should give them an immediate home install base of roughly 30 million 3-D Blu-ray players. As of now, the rest of the industry has a combined home install of exactly zero 3-D Blu-ray players. No one will be able to use these devices as 3-D players, without the specialized Sony glasses and transmitter. The Sony glasses should work with other companies' televisions. That has not been tested, though. That is because, there are no other 3-D televisions on the market for Sony to check. However, the lack of standardization runs the risk of giving Sony a monopolistic style control of the 3-D market. Sony televisions will come equipped with built in transmitters.

 

People who want to own a Samsung enabled 3-D television, a PS3 to watch 3-D Blu-ray's and a PC powered by an NVIDIA graphics chip to play 3-D PC games are going to need to buy at least 2 extra transmitters and end up owning 3 different styles of 3-D glasses. That is ridiculous. This problem needs to be corrected quickly, otherwise Sony could end up with a monopoly or the technology could stall before it ever gets going.

 

 

 

This pretty much concludes our CES coverage. We are going to return to normal boxing coverage over the next few days. If you have any feedback on our CES coverage, please let us know via the email address at the bottom ZurRoadie@aol.com We intend to go to CES in 2011. (The LG Electronics Press Conference will be at 8 AM on January 5, 2011.) Our goal is to improve our coverage every year. To do that we need as much feedback as possible.