Why People Should Stop Being Duped By the 3D Scam

Slashdot ^ | 4/23/11 | Soulskill

[Clint Williams]

Phoghat writes

"The entertainment and electronics industries keep trying to push 3D on consumers, even though a lot of smart people have caught on to the fact that it is a scam and not innovation as the industry would like you to believe. From the article: 'This is a bad experiment that the industry is forcing consumers to subsidize. And since they can’t create a better product, they’ve simply latched on to 3D as a marketing ploy that the entertainment and electronics industries can use to trick people into thinking that they are getting a superior experience. It’s only working because just enough people are falling for the scam to keep it alive.'"

[Artemis Webb]

Why should anybody care if 3D is a “marketing ploy” or not? If consumers want 3D it will be a success. If they don’t it will flop. It’s called the free market. This simply isn’t a big deal.

[Jonty30]

When I went to see Avatar, 3D, in the theatres, I got something for my money.

I got very dizzy in the forest scene where the guy was trying to control that big bird.

Otherwise, wasn’t really worth the money.

[Terpfen]

“Scam” is a strong word in this instance.

Now that HDTV adoption has crossed the 50% barrier, TV makers need something new to drive sales. They can’t say “our new TVs have better image quality than the previous line or competing products”, because the sad truth is that most people can’t discern image quality. Many people even buy HDTVs and hook them up to SD sources and think the resulting picture is automatically HD, even though it actually looks worse than the picture on their old SDTV.

When you have a market immune to improved quality, you have to go with new features. 3D is the new feature. Yeah, it’s generally useless. But what are the TV makers supposed to do? Allow their product lines to stagnate? Yeah, commentators would LOVE that.

[Baynative]

I watched a bit of a 3-D B-Ball game at Costco. It gave me a headache. I don’t think I could never watch that for long. A movie like Braveheart would be impossible, I think.

[Daveinyork]

3D is an optical illusion that works very well. I’ve seen 3D IMAX. It felt real. It was worth it. Tonight, my wife and I are going to see Rio in 3D.

[TexasCajun]

...not until I don’t have to wear one red and one blue lens over my eyes.

[Wonder Warthog]

"I got very dizzy in the forest scene where the guy was trying to control that big bird."

LOL. I'm subject to vertigo, and have enough problems with 2D.

3D.....no thanks!

[Dr. Sivana]

I'm still waiting for them to bring back Sensurround.

[edcoil]

Agreed - as opposed to the green movement that while trying to do the same is using the force of government on the market.

[TomGuy]

3D has popped up several times since the 50s.

It was ‘the current rage’ and then it disappeared, because the technology just wasn’t there.

Maybe having a 3DTV in the den will keep the technology around, but then you gotta keep up with those glasses, etc.

I would hold off jumping into the home 3D fad until there are plenty of programs/movies available to watch. Until then, it would still turn into another passing fad.

[Erik Latranyi]

The porn industry has not flocked to 3D, hence it will not become popular.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Do I really need to post a picture of my 55 inch Sony Bravia HDTV again?

For the past year no one yet has topped it.

[Alex Murphy]

I'm still waiting for them to bring back Sensurround.

Wait until you see Star Wars In 4-D!

[discostu]

Nobody has “topped” it because most of us get over putting our $%^&s on the table by the time we get out of college. You big TV, congrats, don’t care.

[discostu]

Why they should care is that a lot of money is being thrown around that might just go down the toilet. Movie theaters will need 3D to stay popular for the better part of a decade to make up for what they spent to upgrade their theaters. If 3D crashes tomorrow a lot of people that spent a lot of money on 3D TVs are going to be feeling kind of dumb. Just because it’s the free market doesn’t mean somebody might not get screwed.

[Dr. Sivana]

Wait until you see Star Wars In 4-D!

I swore off of the Star Wars franchise after seeing Anikin Skywalker portrayed as a less believable version of Will Robinson from Lost in Space.

[BufordP]

I'll never be in the market for buying any 3D TVs. But to say it's a scam seems kind of absurd. I wasn't much concerned about color quality and such when the family and I were enjoying Disney World's Muppet Vision 3D or Honey, I Shrunk the Audience programs. A lot can be said for having objects on the screen seem so close that you can reach out and touch them or better yet slap you in the face.

[Alex Murphy]

Do I really need to post a picture of my 55 inch Sony Bravia HDTV again? For the past year no one yet has topped it.

XBR9, by chance? I'm going to need the picture, or at least the model #, before I can agree or disagree with you :)

[FrankR]

My aunt took me and my cousin to see "Creature From The Black Lagoon" - in 3D - at the old Rialto Theature in Atlanta around 1955. It was pretty neat to me as a kid. After that several other movies came out in 3-D as well as 3-D comics and magazines.

It was a novelty and I enjoyed it, but I'm guessing the expense and work involved in producing 3-D whatever was not generating the return they had hoped for, and it died out. I suspect it will die out again with the TV things too.

A few years ago I found a video tape of the "black lagoon" movie, in 3-D. It's interesting to see it again, but you have to turn the color up way high on your TV to get the full effect. Then, my grandbaby punched out the red and blue lenses on the only pair of 3-D glasses I had, so I can't see it in 3-D anymore. ho hum.

Anyway, I looked at a 3-D TV demo the other day in BJ's, and I was thinking that there are a few 3-D movies out, but will the ongoing production of 3-D movies justify the addition cost of a 3-D enabled television...personally, I think not.

The 3-D fad will fade away again, just like it did in the 50's...that's my prediction and I'm sticking to it....