3D Tech

Scott: In the third row back, it looks like President Obama was enjoying a retro 3D movie experience. Is this a subliminal product endorsement within specific political demographics?

LOL Big L, it does look exactly like him!!

OMG you guys are right, although it looks as if he put on a few pounds.

The original picture, which has been widely reprinted, has been put thru photoshop, and the original woman sitting there has been replaced by Obama! One reference for the original picture is the book Amazing 3-D by Morgan and Symmes, page 55. The picture was taken in 1952 at a screening of Bwana Devil.

Wow, I didn't notice that at all! What sharp eyes our readers have! All I wanted was a picture of an audience wearing 3D glasses.

Thanks for starting this new blog. I look forward to reading more in the future. One thing though I need to comment on. Most of the 1950's 3D movies were originally shown polarized, not anylglyph. This is a popular misconception that is constanly being propigated in the media. Comic books and such were anaglyph then, but not the movies. There were some that were converted to anaglyph in the 70's and 80's to be easily shown in theaters, such as Creature From the Black Lagoon, but they were originally shown polarized. This is where I think the misconception started. One of the big problems at that time was keeping the film sychronized between the two projectors. Digital projection has been the biggest help in that area. I am looking forward to seeing the new home variations of this to come. Please keep us updated as you have started to do now.

I saw KISS ME KATE, with Howard Keel, and Kathryn Grayson in theater when it came out (more years ago than I care to think about) it was amazing filmed and screened in 3D, the projectors lost sync for a couple of seconds, but I think it would be films like this that would ultimately sell 3D, not the hoarer stuff, Avatar aside (although it will help the inital sales)

Recently, I saw a Samsung 3D demo and I was unimpressed. I wear eye glasses and so I had to put the 3D glasses over mine. Light was coming from the top of the glasses which hindered the 3D effect, but when I put my hand over the top of my eye glasses and eliminated the ambient light, I could see the 3D effect clearly. But, I quickly tired of the novelty and it started looking unnatural and gimmicky. This is a technology that I could easily live without. It just lets me know that televison has reached the state of the art with these new LED/LCD televisions, and 3D is just a gimmick to improve sales. No new improvements in the plasma or LCD technologies exits. In fact the best televisions are the defunct Kuro from Pioneer, and the xbr8 from Sony. They could not improve television technology over these two models so they give us 3D. But, not for me.

I agree i was not impressed with demos from panasonic and samsung. over the past few years electronics makers forced flat pannel/hd tvs into out homes.. and we liked it. we saved space, put it up on the wall and enjoyed hd programing. that was was great for consumers and tv makers. .but now comes a time where they want to force us to buy expensive glasses and re-buy our movie collection from 2d to 3d. well here i stand and say NO!. first i'm happy with my current blu ray movie collection, my denon avr-5308 receiver, epson 8500ub projector, ps3 and denon 4010 bluray player. not upgrading to hdmi 1.4. second i already have glasses i have to put on my face every day, so second pair on top is just not going to happen. ..third no content and i'm not replacing my bluray collection like i did with dvds again. but bottom line is that the biggest problem with 3d is GLASSES and until those are eliminated 3d will never take of like "they" think it will. by the way word on the street is that ps3 slim is

hello scott, i do enjoy your podcast and you as a guest on leos show. i'm happy you finally have your own much needed podcast. if i may make a sugestion with your hometheater podcast...you have very smart and interesting people on th show but in my humble opinion you spend way too much time on said person(s) life history. its in some cases 50% of the time on the podcast. i would like to hear more about todays technology and where its heading, your guests opinions and reviews of a/v components and setup edvice. also i know you're an "audio guy" but its been a lot tv/video reviews but no audio stuff, in fact i think your last receiver review was about a year ago. what i do like is how you explain how technology works in simple terms. this is just my 2 cents. maybe you can do one podcast where you explain watts vs. ohms, speaker sensitivity, audio formats, wires/guages, binding posts, dac 32bit vs. 24 bit, bit rates, high res audio bluray 192 and 96 khz which discs have it, power line condition

Rudy, thanks for the kind words! I disagree that I spend that much time on each guest's history; I haven't timed it, but I would be shocked if I have spent anywhere near 50% of the time on any guest's history, and sometimes I don't ask about it at all. Also, I consider myself equally an audio and video guy, and I try to balance the guests between audio and video as much as possible. As for reviews on UAV, I don't do many these days due to severely limited resources, but I still do them whenever possible, and I will keep your request for more audio reviews in mind. I'll also consider your request for a podcast that covers some of the basics you mention. If not on a podcast, I'll certainly write explanations on HomeTheaterMag.com.

Unimpressed: I completly agree with your lack of desire to purchase a 3D TV. Unfortunately the TV guys decided to make 3D the next big thing rather than advance OLED, which is a true leap in video quality. Try to see an OLED display - I bet you will be very impressed. I know that I am going to want one to replace my 60" Kuro FD when they become available.