Article Blog #4

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/18/3D.home.television/index.html

Support: http://www.ce.org/Press/CurrentNews/press_release_detail.asp?id=11686

TV makers are in the process of creating a three-dimension television that you can watch anytime you want in your own home. The article talks about how Panasonic and Sony are creating new televisions that can show two-dimension or three-dimension picture. You will of course have to wear special glasses in order for the 3-D to take effect, but the experience is very realistic. Switching to this new technology is not easy as one may think. It requires a new television, broadcasting content and 3-D glasses specifically for the television. The price for this bad boy has not released, but is expected to be just a little bit higher than some high-definition televisions on the market now. The idea behind this wonder can be complicated, “Two images, one for the right eye and one for the left eye, alternate quickly on the TV. Shutters on the 3-D glasses swap the viewer's vision from right eye to left eye at the same rate: 120 hertz, or 240 hertz for the images together” (cnn.com). It is unclear how society will feel about this transition, or whether or not it will be a hit. CNN reports that 3-D broadcast would require twice the data of regular HDTVs, and gobble up an unworkable amount of television bandwidth. You will see 3DTV in stores by 2010

I think the idea of 3DTV is interesting, and I myself would love to purchase one after they derail all the kinks. I could not even imagine having one of these TVs in my house and experiencing the realistic images coming out of the screen. I can see why people may be opposed to it because who really wants to wear 3-D glasses every time they want to watch 3-D TV. In addition, what would people watch other than sports? It would not make sense to try to watch your eleven o’clock news in 3-D (although it would be cool). This can be hard for some to soak in, but it is bound to happen, “Perry (executive VP at Panasonic) compared the 3-D transition to the switch from black-and-white to color television and the shift from standard- to high-definition images” (cnn.com). I do not think that this is going to be as successful as HDTV is/was, but I do think that people will be open to it once they get used to seeing it. “The more experience people have with 3-D technology, the more interested they are in having more 3-D options, according to a new joint study from the Consumer Electronics Association” (ce.org). Technology is changing so rapidly that it is impossible for us to predict where television will be in 10-20 years, and we should welcome this change and embrace it. This is only the beginning of a new television era.