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Why People Should Stop Being Duped By the 3D Scam

2011-04-24 07:45:45

"The entertainment and electronics industries keep trying to push 3D on

consumers, even though a lot of smart people have caught on to the fact that it

is a scam and not innovation as the industry would like you to believe. From

the article: 'This is a bad experiment that the industry is forcing consumers

to subsidize. And since they can t create a better product, they ve simply

latched on to 3D as a marketing ploy that the entertainment and electronics

industries can use to trick people into thinking that they are getting a

superior experience. It s only working because just enough people are falling

for the scam to keep it alive.'"

Typical geek blither-blather. "I don't like it therefore everyone who does is

an idiot who's being duped." Here on /. I've seen this argument used against:

Apple, craft beer, very spicy chiles, tablets in general, 3d film and TV,

hybrid cars, wind power, solar power, drug laws, Democrats, Republicans and

organized sports.

Just accept that people like different things and move on. I realize this is a

strain to the borderline Asbergers types who are rife around here, but come on.

Sometimes there isn't a "right answer" for everyone.

3D is just a scam, I didn't really watch Avatar in 3D and enjoy it far more

than when I watched it in 2D, nope, that was all just part of my imagination.

Really, this is one of the more fucking retarded Slashdot stories I've seen in

a while, the article can be summed up entirely as:

"3D is a scam, because I, Mr Random Nobody, says so. End of."

Sure 3D isn't brilliant everywhere, some attempts at it are pretty naff, sure

sometimes it's misused, but so is audio particularly the likes of surround

sound, so are special effects, so is colour. It's a tool, and like any tool,

when used right, it can be pretty effective. But a scam? That's like saying a

hammer is a scam because you can't screw screws into the wall with it when you

try. It'd help if there was anything in the article other than his mere

reiteration of his personal opinion that it's a scam and absolutely nothing

more than that backing up his point.

The guy is a douche of the highest order, but the Slashdot editors moreso for

letting such utter shite through. If someone is going to suggest something is a

scam, they at least need to explain why. People spouting unfounded shite

without an ounce of evidence to back up their point is what I expect from the

comments, not the story... I know, I must be new here.

Want real 3-D? (Score:4, Insightful)

Go to a play. All the actors are right there on stage in living 3-D!

Will I buy a 3D TV? No.

Actually, you probably will. I don't like 3D movies and I ended up with a 3D

capable TV just because most of the really good new TV's have this capability.

If I could have bought the exact same model without 3D, I would have.

The effects are self-evident, there isn't some unfulfilled promise of what it

is or some sort of placebo effect making people think things look different, it

just is different. It's a feature that one can evaluate and decide for

themselves what they think. I personally am waiting because I recognize the

flaws in the current system and will see if they get better.

Now he does hit upon some points of interest:

-Adding 3D after the fact. For rendered movies, it's not too hard to do right

(add 'camera' with offset, re-render), but live-action stuff is indeed awkward

and I hear the biggest source of complaints about headaches.

-Less defined picture. With polarized lenses, this is true. You are effectively

halving the resolution of the screen. On the other hand, shutter glasses will

preserve the resolution at the expense of refresh rate, but that's compensated

by 240 Hz displays. However I do find shutter glasses a tad awkward with the

battery and cost. Instead of 1920x1080 displays with 240 Hz and shutter

glasses, I'd prefer 1920x2160 with 120 Hz and polarized lenses (or double the

column count).

However, his gripe about TVs supporting 3D is off the mark. A TV isn't

magically 3D only if it has the *capability* of doing 3D. You can still do it

fine and sometimes the requirements for 3D drive enhancements that up the

quality standard for 2D viewing. An exception to this could be

auto-stereoscopic displays, which would cause me concern depending on how much

resolution they provide.

A big problem with "3D movies" is Disney "Real3D(tm)", which is Disney Fake3D.

The image was delaminated in postprocessing, and reassembled with shifts to

simulate depth. That stuff sucks, and it sucks worse if the 3D producer

overdoes it. (Ref "Pirahna 3D").

"Avatar" is good 3D. It was really shot and animated in 3D, and Cameron put a

lot of effort into getting it right and not overdoing it. At no time in Avatar

is something positioned in front of the screen plane. Few other directors are

that good.

Even so, film 3D is inherently fake, because of the scaling issue. In the real

world, there's no noticeable stereoscopy beyond a few meters of range. Our eyes

are too close together. 3D distant shots with wide separation are a cinematic

convention, not visual reality.

TV 3D is far worse, It can't be watched casually. If you're off-axis, or lying

on your side, the effect is totally wrong. Having to wear glasses or sit in the

correct position is too restrictive. I'm curious to see how 3D sports bars work

out.

My guess is that after a while, 3D will be scaled back, and it will only be

used for content worth showing in Imax.