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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: 3D TV is officially dead as Sony and LG stop making sets
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 02-02-2017 02:11 PM
Frank, you are not alone -- I read somewhere that 4 or 5% of the population don't see 3D for a number of eye issues. I really feel for you because that extra feeling of space between objects for me is quite a spectacular experience, not only on the screen but just the way one sees in real life. I think it is a beautiful thing that most people take for granted.
The best way to explain it to someone who has never felt it would be, if you are listening to music on a system that allows you to select MONO or STEREO, like some of the older receivers used to do, put on your favorite classical music, I would say a full orchestral piece would work best, and listen to it in MONO for awhile, then punch up STEREO -- you are hearing the same exact music that you heard in MONO, but now all of a sudden the whole space in front of you opens up. You can FEEL the placement of the instruments and the space between them and in a really good recording, you can FEEL the space behind and in front of them as well. Nothing has changed from what you were hearing in MONO, except now you hear it with the spacial information that your brain interprets as a unique and quite separate from the sense of sound. That happens because -- and this is putting a very complex process much too simply (it's much more complex that this given the shape of your ear and the way sound gets into it) -- but your brain gets two different angles of sound and by some magic of our evolution, is able to use that audio differential to interpret it as another sense of space totally separate from the sense of hearing. You hear the same music when the MONO button is pressed, but you get this wealth of incredible spacial information when you switch to STEREO.
Binocular vision does the same thing but with sight. When the brain gets slightly different visual information from your eyes, it is able to interpret it as a FEELING of space. Two eyes...two ears -- some biologists also say, two nostrils at one time probably gave us a 3D sense of smell too; dogs and probably many other animals have 3D scent. Granted, depending on how a 3D movie is shot, that feeling of space can be exaggerated and I think some people are not comfortable with that, but for me, it is the same as stereo sound. And I can tell you, the first time I ever heard stereo I was maybe 12 or 13 and I went apeshit. I couldn't believe my ears...it was such an awakening.
It was WQXR in NYC -- probably in the late 50s, -- did a stereo experimental broadcast of The Overture of 1812, PIT, with one channel (Left ear) broadcast on their FM station and the other channel (Right ear) on their AM station. Our FM turner was built into a big combo piece of heavy furniture with a 10in RCA TV and an AM/FM radio and record player. The thing had a decent 12in coax speaker in it down close the floor. The thing was a behemoth and couldn't be moved so I had to put our small table AM radio on the floor so I could lay between them, FM in one ear, AM in the other. The announcer said, "This ladies and gentlemen is stereophonic sound!" al la Lowell Thomas's bit in the Cinerama opening. For me, it was like my ears had awakened for the first time. Even with the ridiculous disparity between the two radios, one FM quality with a decent speaker and an AM quality sound coming out of a 5in speaker, still, I was enthralled...it was a revelation -- the feeling of space totally overshadowed any problem with the sound quality because stereo is 3D sound and that is separate and distinct sense relative to the sound itself.
I couldn't listen to this new experience for more than a few minutes...I had to let someone else hear what I was hearing. I jumped up and yelled for my mom to come into the living room, running into the kitchen, grabbing her by the arm, her hands wet from something she was cooking; I was so excited for her to hear this stereo. I made the poor woman who had chronic back problems to get down on the living room rug with her head between the two radios. She was not nearly as impressed as me, but she did say it sounded very different and good.
From that time forward, I knew stereo was the only way to ever listen to recorded sound again.
THAT's what 3D is like.
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Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 02-18-2017 05:44 AM
I doubt the extra cost to show 3D is $4 per person (what the local Sillymark is charging extra for 3D showings of "The Great Wall" alternating with 2D showings on the same screen). They could easily net more in the long run without such a big upcharge- and since they're also showing it in 2D in a 3D-equipped auditorium, that means the 3D equipment they've spent money on is sitting there doing NOTHING. If you've got noticeably more empty seats in your 3D showings then it's likely at least some of those are because of the upcharges. Based on the attitudes of the average viewer, I would bet that many of them don't even care whether it's in 2D or 3D as long as it's starting at the time they want to see it. That's how it seemed at the theater I ran 35mm at when we'd have a movie on one screen with digital sound and another with only analog sound since that's all it was equipped for (there was no price difference between the two.)
If few people "give a darn" about 3D, how do you explain the "September Storm" restoration in this same forum- that was funded by DONATIONS from average Joes, and I didn't even contribute to that due to lack of funds yet they were able to raise the amount of money needed to do it! Despite the limited audience for older movies in general, Bob Furmanek has said that he's been satisfied with how his classic 3D titles have been selling- I doubt more would be coming out of he or the labels were losing money on them.
But a lot of people have complained about the pricing of 3D Blu-Ray discs- Most of the ones I have I waited for sales and got them at decent prices, and now I make enough that even paying $30 for a 3D Blu-Ray movie is worth it to me, but a lot of people have been turned off by the high prices. A prime example was a couple weeks ago when Target had the 2D versions of some popular titles on sale for $10 each, but the 3D editions were still at full price ($30 or so). If the studios are happy just selling a small amount of 3D discs at premium prices then that's fine, but when there's that much of a price difference then they shouldn't complain about low sales (I heard that Disney was "very unhappy" with the sales numbers for their 3D titles, and theirs have usually been priced the highest.) Meanwhile the smaller labels haven't even been putting out separate 2D and 3D editions; if they put it out in 3D then that's the ONLY edition available, and usually they don't even price them higher than their other titles!
If 3D discs go away however, they can forget about me paying premium prices for their movies in 2D. If it's released in 3D in theaters but only 2D on disc then I will not buy or watch it AT ALL, and if it's made in 2D to begin with I'll likely wait til the price drops if I bother with it at all. They can also kiss my interest in crap like "Transformers" goodbye completely.
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