Was 3D TV actually poo?

3D TV was poised to be the NEXT BIG STEP FORWARD for home entertainment, but as quickly as the zeitgeist began, it disappeared. What happened? Was at home 3D really that bad? To find out, we take a look at two 3D Displays using the two most prevalent technologies. The Active 3D PlayStation 3D Display and the Passive LG OLED Signature G6.

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:28 Brief History of 3D
3:32 How RealD 3D works
4:40 The TVs
6:00 PS3D Display / Active 3D
9:14 SimulView
11:07 LG Signature / Passive 3D
15:22 A Detour
16:01 Reacting to 3D Movies
17:26 How 3D Content works
18:36 Problems with 3D
19:46 3D LIVES ON!
21:15 Outro

[peppyrobo]

The hype machine for 3D was so strong that it made Nintendo create a whole console based off of it which is wild.

[Sidecutter]

One of the big things for me that absolutely makes or breaks 3D is: Was it shot/rendered in actual 3D, or was it post-processed 3D? Because the latter always causes an extremely noticeable cardboard cutout effect for me and I hate it with a passion. But some things, like Ton Legacy, it's amazing because it was shot and rendered, and also because they use the 3D as a way to help separate the real and digital worlds.

[piccilo]

Linus forgot to mention one of the major killers of 3D was the proprietary format wars with TVs. Companies had different formats for how they did 3d movies in the beginning, they then either bought or already owned the rights to specific movies which they released as exclusives only in their specific format. This meant that not everyone could watch their favorite movies on their device.

[jonmre]

As someone who used to do 3D mapping, we wore a set of active 3D goggles 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Having that experience, I can point out a few other issues with the set up for repeated long time wear. The biggest one.... build quality of the 3D goggles/glasses, especially for active systems.

1: The nose piece. It always seemed whomever made and designed the plastic of the nose piece, had never worn glasses in their life. Tapered and nice soft and just the right kind of material is what you see on prescription glasses. This material and these edges make contact with your sensitive bridge of the nose every waking moment. They need to be comfortable. Whoever designed the 3D goggles, and the subsequent glasses models, used a hard plastic, with sharp edges.... This alone could bring on a headache, want to see how it feels, press your fingernail into the bridge of your nose for 25 min, see how you feel. I wanted to have some very strong words with that materials expert for the sets we had.

2: Weight. Our goggles used large medical batteries, think 0.75in in diameter, 1/8 in thick. Added into the frame of the goggles, the emitter receiver... we're up to almost 1 lb... That is heavy for hanging on your face, ineffective ear pieces wrapped around your head.... also made out of the cheepest plastic. They barely stay on. Got a slippery nose? good luck. Long hair getting into the ear pieces.... add on that weight.... never enjoyable past 30 min. You start to feel the weight on your nose and ears, your whole head feels extra heavy... then you realize a gap in the plastic is tugging on your hair, now you need to get your hair untangled while the entire thing falls off your face with the weight of a box of crackers. Try taping a box of crackers to your face, then use some extra tape and Popsicle sticks to hold it on.... that's what it feels like. Why didn't they just hire the people who make real glasses dammit!

3: Over glasses retrofits: I wear glasses.... so take every issue from number 1-2, and then multiply it. Just watching this video, I could only imagine the discomfort our glasses wearing host was experiencing. There was a reason we got a 15 min break every hour at that office... so we could avoid wearing a brick over glasses.


Even the passive systems never fit over glasses.... and there are so many points of failure that a paralax can encounter. One biggie is how the glasses and individual lenses sit in front of your eye or added glasses lenses. Like a fighter pilot can have multiple axis, yaw roll pitch.... there are multiple axis for those lenses over your eye and/or glasses. If your own prescription pair is out of wack, it hurts... but factor in the build quality of the 3D set, and have one lens 1mm too close and the other 1mm too far... or up and down, or front to back... tilted as well... No fun... I spent an entire 3D movie once just testing out 20 different pairs of passive 3D glasses to see how they fit.. and only 1 set really even came close to tolerable.

4: Low power When that battery or internal power supply goes on an active set.... it hurts, your eyes start to feel overwhelmed... you don't notice it right away either, it sneaks up on you. And you better hope you have a good supply of batteries if they are battery powered.

5: Power switch. Some genius, decided to put the power switch in the temple piece. Idea was.. you can't leave them on.. so let's have a power switch. But I bet people will forget... so let's make it part of an automatic.. or semi-automatic process. People will take off the goggles, then fold up the ear pieces.... great, they turn off with a little switch that is physically moved with the temple piece. But.. let's make it out of cheap plastic, and since it's technically a moving part activated by a moving part... it'll hold up for.... oh about 55 days.... and slowly get more and more loose and twisted. Suddenly, your glasses won't be active... then they are... then not... as that damn switch now is a wobbling mess. Replacement = a full new set of great.... 50ish days.

It's to the point now... if you want me to look into a paralax on an active or passive 3D... you better be paying me an hourly wage and full vision and health coverage.

[BluePachyderm]

3D could have been amazing AND the next big thing, but all the companies making cheap 2D to 3D conversions and the theaters not having the required brighter bulbs killed off interest. I will never forgive them for this. Watching Avengers (2012) in 3D in the theater was a wonderful experience and I'm glad I was able to see it that way.

[stu]

Just from my own experience, Tron: Legacy's 3D wasn't so much about giving a pop-out 3D experience, but rather depth to everything. In some of the establishing shots, The Grid stretches for miles and miles on that flat screen.

Also, my favorite 3D experience was Up, where a actually jumped out of the way of one of the "Dog"-fighters. And yes I was embarrassed by it.

[TheNiteNinja]

The face tracking 3D on the new Nintendo 3DS was actually pretty impressive.

[MattWhiteMattWPBS]

The movie which had the best use of 3D for me was Dredd.

Filmmakers clearly thought about 3D as part of the way they shot the film, and the SloMo drug sequences are incredible. Nothing is 'WOW LOOK AT THIS FLYING OUT AT YOU', it's all properly there for a cinematographic reason. The focal plane stuff Linus talks about is used with that, and it's an absolutely gorgeous experience. Seriously made me consider sticking with my old 3D TV just for that film.

Seriously, was so bummed LTT didn't have that as one of the films they tried, particularly when they even scrolled past it at the end...!

[ultramegax]

The New 3DS fixed many of the OG 3DS' pitfalls. Not the resolution problem, but the head tracking is quite good on the New 3DS, which fixed the viewing angle issue.

[prisonpriest]

You could do the simulview thing with LG passive tv’s too but with any console or hdmi source. there was a button on the remotes that would split the screen and put one half of the image on top of the other. Then you had to pop the lenses out of two pairs of glasses and swap them. So one pair had two left lenses and the other had two right lenses. As it was a tv based function it worked on every split screen game not just the ones that supported simulview

[SparkRattle]

When I worked in Sony's tech support, I recall that Active 3D glasses were a real pain to troubleshoot. It went to the point where if anyone asked about what TV to get with 3D, I would recommend one with passive glasses instead.

[officialnickname]

I think it's kinda sad that 3D died, considering that we have high refresh, high resolution displays everywhere now. I would at least like having the option to play my favorite games in 3D. And as a game developer, I would also love it if the engine I'm using had a stereoscopic viewport.

[Taylorek]

I had a 3D monitor back in 2012 or so (still do in my closet lol) . I am incredibly disappointed the tech didn't stay around. Some games in 3D were unmatched, like the Metro series, Alien Isolation, and Crysis.

[FROZENFRLIFE]

One of my favorite ways to watch 3D movies is actually In VR. There are a few VRChat movie worlds that use material shaders to define which display per eye gets each camera angle. In turn allowing for a clear watching experience and not dealing with having polarized filters in front of your eyes. It does take a minuet for your eyes to adjust to it, of course, but after that its really good.

[VCobrakid]

For content not designed for 3D, it sometimes helps to turn the depth settings down.

For gaming you can create a double left and double right pair of glasses... or buy a L and R set. Dual screen is best for vs gaming.

[TheNeovaderIII]

As someone with a passive 3D TV, I love it. It's a shame it never really took off. I will be super sad when my 3D TV stops working and I have to hunt down a used one...because I love it.

[stuc.]

Here in the UK you had to buy the top Sky package to get 3D, which at the time, was just shy of £100 a month. So yeah, no-one bought it.

[bryannguyen]

After having a VR headset and rewatching some older movies in 3D, man do I want 3D content to come back and be done properly. Especially with things like the Playstation splitscreen, even though they might be niche, not only is it cool but could actually be useful.

Movie theaters rn could really utilize that 3D splitscreen to play a 2D movie, but with/without captions at the same time, so everyone can watch in whichever way they prefer.

[bitterbitterbitter]

I personally like the 3d experience on my TV. For me the problem isnt the 3D, its the lack of 3D content thats the issue.

[mindlesswriter]

It depends on what your preference is for 3D as well. For this you guys seem to love the pop off the screen 3D for me I really love the depth of 3D. Stuff like Titanic doesn't pop off the screen but it has some incredible depth that I just love and cinematically pulls me more into the story