I’m starting to sound like a broken record.
Technology is a funny thing. Sometimes it’s revolutionary and changes the way people’s lives operate. Sometimes it changes so much the average consumer can’t keep up, constantly being stuck with last week’s model. Sometimes people invest a lot of money in a current trend just to lose support for it a few years down the road.
So, like I said, I’m starting to sound like a broken record.
As many patrons venture over to their local movie theaters, buy their overpriced tickets and snacks and hunker down in their seats waiting for the big, theatrical debut, a majority of them will be wearing something I was constantly patronized for wearing when I was younger — glasses.
As 3-D is sweeping the nation, everyone is trying to jump on board this big marketing bandwagon. Movies such as “Avatar,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “How to Train Your Dragon” had a lot of success in the box office in the past few months.
While all three were great movies, much of their box office success can be attributed to the third dimension.
However, it seemed like the movie theater was just ripping me off further by charging an even more ridiculous price for a ticket than the immersive movie experience I was promised.
Since the former two movies are now out on Blu-ray, I was more impressed and had a much better viewing experience watching these movies at home on Blu-ray in 2-D, away from all the gimmicks.
However, just when I thought I was getting away from all the hype and nonsense of the 3-D cinema, my home space is now being invaded by the new technological advancement of 3-D televisions, and leading the way is one of my favorite channels — ESPN.
With the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicking off tomorrow, ESPN is fulfilling its promise made at the beginning of this year by launching an “ESPN 3D” channel.
At first, ESPN promised a minimum of 85 live events broadcast in 3-D to those rich enough to purchase the required hardware. However, the network recently bumped that number to 100.
The first of these events is the opening game of the World Cup pitting Mexico against the host country South Africa.
While this may be my cynicism speaking, I don’t really see how this will take off like ESPN hopes.
Not many people know this, but 3-D glasses are expensive. Not only do they cost $150-200 for one pair (yes, I said one pair), but they are proprietary to each company. The glasses for your Samsung 3-D TV only work for Samsung, and the same goes for Panasonic. At least Panasonic throws in a pair for free, but I digress.
Now, I’m not a very big soccer fan. But if it’s anything like LSU football season for me, I like to have as many friends as possible surrounding me to cheer on the Tigers.
While I’m sure it would be great being immersed into the depth of the field, making it seem like you’re in South Africa with the rest of the soccer hooligans, it’s not financially practical.
On top of spending around $3,000 for the TV itself, if you want to invite 10 friends over, that’s another $2,000 for the glasses so everyone can enjoy the game and not watch a blurry screen for three hours.
Then you’d have to trust your drunken, belligerent friends with an expensive piece of hardware on their heads, which doesn’t seem like the greatest idea to me.
Sure, you could save money and watch the game by yourself, but then I’d just feel sorry for you.
As a huge fan of watching technology grow and seeing others enjoy it, this 3-D push is still just a fad to me. When engineers can figure out how to get the same 3-D effect without having to wear expensive glasses, then we may be on to something.
—-Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected].