At a recent London shindig to promote its
3D television sets, Samsung revealed that the
active shutter glasses used to view its glorious, mighty, breathtaking 3D content are based on the same technology as Panasonic's, only they're reversed. That is to say, using your Sammy 3D specs to view Panasonic's 3DTVs won't work -- unless you flip them upside down. You read that right, the two companies have opted for different implementations of the same technology, resulting in the farcical outcome that glasses will be interchangeable between their sets only if you're happy to wear them upside down. How that's gonna help the 3D takeup effort, we don't know, but Samsung R&D chief Simon Lee does see a light at the end of this dim, poorly focused tunnel, stating that manufacturers are likely to agree a common active shutter glasses standard "as early as next year." You might wanna look
XpanD's way if you want universal compatibility before then, or away in disgust if you're
already tired of all the absurdity surrounding 3D.
posted May 5th 2010 3:43AM
You're gonna look stupid enough with 3D glasses on all day. Being upside down isn't gonna make of a difference.
@Waltah
Picture win.
@Waltah If you see glasses, they blew it..
It's only a matter of time before some third party comes out with way cheaper glasses and renders these horseshit $150 rip-offs irrelevant.
You're better off using two projectors and polarized glasses anyway.
@Information Central
When you're able to get two projectors and a screen for less than 150, let me know
@LeJay 2 of these http://amzn.to/bjlMbH done and...*white blanket* done.
/s
@LeJay
Because all you need are the $150 glasses and nothing else, right?
if you wear it upside-down you'll look like a tool.
@Coke If you have to wear it upside down...you blew it!
This is appauling. And they expect success? Why not come out of the gates with things that work for both or many companies and leave the difference to branding and TV design? Don't cry for mama when your 3DTV push fail (I hope you don't)
@hero785 They'll just say that Piracy killed it. Because obviously every human requires an intake of a certain number of movies per day, so if they're not buying them, they must be getting them somewhere else.
I sense a battle for 3D format/standard looming...
@msunardi
I agree. 3D is NOT as "must-have" as a movie disc format (and even then, blu-ray vs HD-DVD wasn't that significant to consumers given all the other movie choices). They'd be shooting themselves in the foot and killing whatever momentum 3D has gained to this point if manufacturers start a war.
Another reason to skip the 3D revolution. Call me when there are holo-tvs or whatever like we see in sci-fi movies.
@Anatidae
Okay, then we'll likely all have to buy Samsung/Panasonic full encompassing helmets.
I think 3d should stay in the imax until we don't have the need for the glasses.
3D is crap unless you have a large screen (ie projector) anyway. I wish this 3D nonsense would just hurry up and die.
@Nate Dogg Totally agree. I was in a store on the weekend and saw a 3D picture frame that didn't require glasses, it was rubbish. The eye strain was painfull even after a couple a seconds. Then I saw Samsung's 3D tv, put the glasses on and it looked great. But everything around flicked like a bad flourescent light had been installed in the room.
@Fat Wombat
I saw the 3D picture of the VT2 (VT25 in the US) at the electronics store in Osaka the other day. It feels like you're looking inside the TV, as if it were hollow, with stuff popping out of it. It reminded me more of those kids' 3d pictures that come in cereal boxes, and it's DEFINITELY NOT something that would make you buy a TV right away.
It's just an extra feature, and nothing more. If this becomes the wave of the future I'll be disappointed because it's not even as immersive as a ViewMaster children's toy.
3D is best left to the big screen, so it looks like you are there in the movie. It's not the same on a TV, whether 50 or even 65 inches.
OMG i was going to say first but when the site asked me to input my password and then it refreshed there was like a boat load of comments already! whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! just once i want to experience the euphoria of being the first! Anyways 3D sucks when they get the prices to lower and 3D doesnt make my 1080p look like 480p then im in. but until then COUNT ME OUT!!!
@pfernando27
Wait until no new comments are being added.
Type "first"
Turn screen upside down.
You could always turn the TV upside down
@davedrastic
Can you sit upside down on your couch?
Nice name.
Obviously you need the $1000 Monster glasses with the dilithium crystals.
3D is the answer to a qn no one asked. The whole thing is a mess -
- incompatible formats and hardware
- there's no content to watch (movies or tv)
- the 1st ed tech is immature
Holographic 3d without glasses is not happening anytime soon, but its way too immature to adopt now.
@ExtraCrispy "3D is the answer to a qn no one asked" - I personally blame James Cameron and his messy, nonsensical film that was Avatar.
@ExtraCrispy
I'm actually more concerned about content. It's like giving me a Gumpert Apollo that only runs on 98+ octane unleaded whereas only up to 95 is available.
Hell, I have absolutely no idea where I can get 3D content at the moment. I'm guessing 95% of the people who buy 3D TVs will think regular 2D content will automatically 3D because I've personally seen many people return their HDTVs to the store complaining that it doesn't look as good as in the showroom. Mind you, I'm not in the US and HD broadcast isn't available widespread here.
@ExtraCrispy
"1 incompatible formats and hardware
2 there's no content to watch (movies or tv)
3 the 1st ed tech is immature"
Let me help you out here...
1 - Not true. There are different methods, side by side, top/bottom and sequential, but within sources its the same standard, some can auto switch between, other times it's just a case of hitting a button to change settings.
2 - Maybe its limited at the moment, but films are being made, and converted, converters are available, and obviously games is a big one. It's still in the "early adopter" stage, more and more will become available.
3 - This is perhaps true. It is difficult to say at this point, we'll just have to wait until theres more sets, more content and what exactly the next standard is and how they compare, convert and are compatible.
Read the HD 101: 3D FAQ on Engadget, I'm sure it'll help a lot. I'm not having a go at you or anything, just trying to help out.
Now this is the story all about how my 3D glasses were flipped upside down, and I'm just going to take a minute to sit right here, and try to come up with a valid excuse to why I'm wearing these.
@jappleng Damn, when I read your comment it even sounded like Will Smith in my head...
DVDs were successful because all the players with few early acceptions played all dvd's, all brands of dvd players worked equally well on any tv brand of tv, and all bluray players even play equally well on different brand of TV. I have seen the 3d demo on the samsung, and i have no problem wearing the glasses if they were more reasonable on the price, but if the tv makers wanted this 3d thing to be a success, wouldn't they put aside their deep hate for eachother for one moment and work towards a standard for 3d technology.
"sing your Sammy 3D specs to view Panasonic's 3DTVs won't work -- unless you flip them upside down"
Wrong, the Panasonic can saw left and right simply selection this option in the 3D settings menu....
The only thing you can´t do is watching in a group MIXING glasses of both brands (everybody Panasonic or everybody Samsung glasses works)
Another reason to wait for polarization
Making them compatible would be too easy and convenient for consumers, so let's make a useless technology even more annoying.
Can't you just disassemble them and swap the lenses to the correct eye?
@thejared Yeah, that sounds more simple than getting manufacturers to do it right the first time. No, seriously, it does sound more simple!
It's this kind of stupidity that will slow the acceptance of stereo 3D TV.
Why not just set ONE standard? All these sets pretty much work the exact same way.
Why confuse consumers even more than they are right now?
So, a third party set of glasses with a switch on the side could be compatible with both?
@neonpolaris MadCatz 3D.
Well they've got to think of a reason to get peopleto buy there own at £100 pair
You failed to mention that I don't intend to buy either one of them.
...which is another way they are similar.
This is the problem with these industries.
Standardisation is key to everything, the whole industry has dug itself a massive ditch, filled it with sh*t and jumped head first in when it comes to framerates and now they're doing the same thing with 3D, 3D is great and many people enjoy it, it will make a great option on all TV's eventually but why do these companies have to do this, in the end it's probably gonna cost them more.
I dream of a day when these companies can form a standard and agree to a goal on framerates, refresh rates, resolution, wired connectivity, wireless connectivity, 3D technology and so on. By simplifying things it'll work out great for companies and consumers in then end.
Everyone needs to pull their fingers out, cut their losses and move forward, trying to be backwards compattible but without compromising on a unified goal in the near future. The ditch is getting deeper and the companies and industry is pulling us all down with it.
@Kromatik
You can either have the open market decide what is best by getting the early adopters to duke it out and get the products earlier, or you can have the companies bicker behind closed doors and get the products much later.
Either way the standard (whether defacto or official) comes out at roughly the same time. But this way the early adopters at least get to watch 3d tv. And if you complain, then you aren't really an early adopter.
"Away in disgust" I think.
Why not just hang your TV upside down?
@Pizzaboy192 Why not just sit on your head?
@bakertony WTF? Are you 12?
All it would take is a firmware upgrade on either Samsung's or Panasonic's part (or both) to make the glasses compatible with one another's sets. I predict you will see this happen before the end of the year.
Instead of wearing them upside down you can just turn away from the TV and watch it through a mirror. I saw this a few weeks ago and wondered why it worked. Now I know why. Prolem Solved.
@dazd The Panasonic unit at least let's you swap the eyes with a menu setting. So you could make them work with Samsung glasses. Just not with both Samsung and Panasonic glasses at the same time. Like others have said though I assume this means that they can fix this with a firmware update.
This is just stupid.