And the more I thought about that, the more apparent it became that 3D’s failure is a fiasco of colossal proportions in which the film industry is at least as culpable as the TV makers.
Before getting into that, though, let’s first just confirm that 3D really does seem to be in serious, potentially terminal decline.
via 3D Can Be Brilliant – When Hollywood And Your TV Aren’t Messing It Up.
The reasons 3D faded:
- Lack of good quality 3D content
- A bad story in 3D is still a bad story
- Poorly filmed 3D movies – technically bad 3D; and the related use of poorly converted 2D to 3D, turning 3D into a marketing gimmick
- Poor use of 3D – turning existing 2D scenes into 3D misses the opportunity of using depth cues
- And of course, lack of 3D porn…
- Other technologies are now in competition – namely 4K (eventually 8K), 48 and 60 frame per second video, “RAW” and HDR video – which mean fewer resources to pursue 3D now
4K 3D may resolve some of the technical issues with greater resolution for passive 3D glasses or glasses-free displays. I have seen some spectacular 4K 3D glasses-free displays – they do exist in prototype form.
For now, the new technologies appear to be larger opportunities for the industry – 4K and high frame rate, in particular. These technologies are likely to be the focus on the industry for some time to come before interest – and investment – returns to 3D. The Return on Investment in pushing 4K and HFR probably looks better than the ROI of further 3D work right now.
