103 inch 3D Plasma TV and More: CES Days 3 and 4
13 01 2009By Joshua Koopferstock
After having done an initial walk-through of most of the show floor in days 1 and 2, the remaining time was left to go back and see the gadgets that were getting the most buzz. Any time I had mentioned “3D” to someone at the show, I would consistently get the response “Have you seen the Panasonic theater?”. I hadn’t. So I went back on the last day to their booth and checked it out.
A small corner of the hockey-rink-sized Panasonic booth
If I wasn’t a believer in 3D displays before, consider me a convert now. Seeing their 10-minute 3D demo on a 103″ Plasma TV using active shutter glasses, I was blown away. In particular, they had clips of a Lakers basketball game and a football game that were truly amazing. The Lakers game looked convincingly similar to what you see if you’re actually in the stands, except you have the advantage of the best seats provided by multiple cameras and professional production crews.
A crowd watching the first-ever NBA game broadcast in 3D, in Dallas.
The 3D clips of live sports and other events (such as concerts) really impressed me. Movie theaters may be in a prime position to capitalize on these events, since the large screen + 3D gives a truly “immersive effect”, and having a crowd for these kinds of shows is a plus, too. In what I’ve seen so far, 3D adds a lot to the feeling of immersion, and this effect grows exponentially as the display size increases.
They were playing this at the (I think) LG booth on a 3D display. It was amazing.
Thus, small displays may not benefit significantly from 3D, but in the higher-end display market, 3D will make a big splash. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say “percentage of field-of-view,” rather than big or small, since 3D gaming on a 20″ display, sitting up close, is quite convincing. Either way, expect at-home 3D displays for movies and gaming to start making more buzz come fourth-quarter 2009, and especially approaching next Christmas season.
Overall, what impressed me most during CES was the same thing that struck me during day 1: how much people are excited about 3D. Perhaps more than anything else, this is a great sign for the new generation of 3D entertainment.
One thing that always deceived me when I was going to IMAX 3D theatres was the “forced focus point”. If you don’t look at the right spot at the right time, the scene is blurred and does not look natural. Loosing all the 3D immersion feeling just because you look “where you want to look” instead of “were the filmmaker want you to look” was, to me, a downside of the 3D displays.
Did you feel this kind of limits on those new displays?
Vincent, I’d say there was some of that, but it wasn’t too bad. I was noticing on some of the displays that it made quite a difference if you were directly in front or off to the side. One thing I wondered as I saw these 3D clips on 3D displays was how much a good 3D effect has to do with the display and how much it has to do with the content being well produced. Specifically in terms of things like blurriness, too weak or too much 3D effect in some scenes, and getting headaches.
I imagine if you ask the content producers, they’d blame the hardware manufacturers, and vice-versa