Jason Magder
Sun
Early adopters be warned: if you plan to buy a 3-D television, you better like monsters.
The DreamWorks movie, Monsters vs. Aliens, is the only programming available for viewing on 3-D televisions, which hit the market last month.
Other 3-D movies will be coming out by the end of the year, but in Canada, 3-D programming from cable and satellite providers could be months or even years away.
That doesn’t seem to stand in the way of projected sales, experts say.
Megan Pollock, the director of communications for the Consumer Electronics Association, said her group estimates about one million 3-D televisions will be sold in the U.S. in 2010.
“For the first year out, that’s a huge number,” she said.
She added that’s because Samsung and Sony have priced their 3-D televisions in line with 2-D high-definition televisions.
“I think they really hit the correct price point,” Pollock said. “At this point, no one is ever going to watch 3-D 100 per cent of the time. You can’t ask consumers to shell out a lot of money for something they’re going to do occasionally.”
Tracy Verrall, audio-video product manager for La Boutique Electronique in Montreal, said she’s selling 3-D as a bonus feature.
“If someone comes in looking for a really good TV, [the 3-D TV] is the one we’re going to sell them,” Verrall said. “We’re telling people, ‘This is the TV you should buy, and by the way, it has 3-D, so when the material becomes available, it’s a bonus.'”
Verrall said her store received 3-D televisions two weeks ago, and has already sold two units.
To make up for the lack of content, 3-D televisions from Sony and Samsung can convert any 2-D image into a simulated 3-D image, although Verrall said the quality isn’t as good as a program designed for a 3-D television.
That will have to do for now, because even though three television stations will be available in 3-D in the U.S. this year, Canadians will have to wait months or even years. Spokespeople for both Bell Canada and Videotron said they have no immediate plans to carry 3-D stations.
If lack of content is a hurdle, then so too is the cost of equipment needed for a three-dimensional viewing experience. A 3-D television requires a special Blu-ray player — a cost of about $400– and 3-D glasses, which run about $250 per pair. Some stores now throw in two pairs of glasses and the player for free.
The technology for 3-D televisions is equivalent to Imax movies. The glasses, which are battery operated, are like LCD screens that have shutters, which open and close 120 times per second — in sync with the television. Verrall said that’s superior technology to most movie theatres — which have glasses with polarized lenses — and should cut down on nausea that plagues some viewers.
Christopher Pack, an assistant professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute, agrees.
He said the technology will eliminate some of the problems associated with movie theatre 3-D technology, which has one lens polarized vertically and another horizontally.
However, he said there will always be a small portion of the population that will get a form of motion sickness when they watch 3-D television.
“In real life, you cross your eyes a bit as an object comes to you, and then each eye individually changes the shape of its lens,” Pack explained. “The problem is in a 3-D movie, the object isn’t really approaching you, so it’s natural to move your eyes, but you don’t want to adjust your lens, because that would cause the movie to become blurry. The two reflexes are in conflict with each other, and that causes a form of motion sickness.”
Pollock said some people can’t see 3-D at all, because of problems with their vision, while people who have had a specific type laser-eye surgery, where one eye sees distance and another sees close, also won’t see 3-D.
That’s why Verrall says people should try the technology out for a few hours before buying.
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