UPDATE: Refocusing MarketSaw - The State Of The 3D Industry - Your Feedback Is Appreciated!

Hi everyone! It's been awhile and I'm looking forward to posting daily and often. I'm going to kick things off by asking your opinion on where you'd like to see MarketSaw go in the future.

It's a sad fact that 3D movies have a couple of black eyes from the lack of native 3D productions being shot and that 3D home entertainment is practically dead. Sure, there are plenty of converted 3D movies out there but that doesn't translate to an optimal movie-going experience in the theater. Has 3D conversion improved over the years? Absolutely. Is it equivalent to a natively shot 3D production? No.

And no major manufacturer is producing 3D televisions anymore. Such a shame - just when LG just about nailed it.

So where are? Well VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) are certainly in play but there must be valid business uses for them. Gaming? Sure. But I'm talking mainstream entertainment - how can VR and AR add to our movie-going experience? I've seen some interesting demos and videos on various company's products that are certainly cool, but I'm not seeing how the industry can make money in a substantial and sustained way.

I'd like to include VR and AR with the 3D pedigree of this site because, well, 3D is a key component of VR. They're intricately related.

What kind of VR/AR/3D news, reviews and interviews would you like to see on MarketSaw? You can send me an email (it's in the contact me area at the bottom of every page), comment on this post, or call me on my cell if you have the number.

THANKS! I appreciate your reading loyalty over the years and I'm really looking forward to launching a new focus!

3D-At-Home Tech Shown at SMPTE Expo

Hi everyone, Michael here. Last week I saw an impressive demonstration of 3D-at-home tech at the SMPTE 2008 Tech Conference & Expo. TDVision, which makes a number of 3-D products, was showing off their 3-D media encoding/decoding technology on a Samsung 3-D ready DLP HDTV via shutter glasses. The 3-D footage--a combo of CG and live action--was vibrant, smooth, and immersive.

TDVision hopes to license their codec--which allows both 3-D and 2D versions of content to be stored on the same disc--to makers of DVD/Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. While their representatives were coy about giving a date when the first 3-D content utilizing their tech would hit the market, they did say that they have been having many discussions with the major studios and other 3-D content providers, as well as hardware companies such as Texas Instruments.

Above: Ethan Schur of TDVision (holding the TDVCam 3-D Camera) demonstrates TDVision's 3-D tech at the SMPTE Expo

Perhaps the most potentially revolutionary aspect of TDVision's presentation was their interactive 3-D virtual gaming world "AlterSpace", in which the "player" navigates around the environment using a controller and can choose to socialize with friends, surf the net, hold live video-conferences, view movie clips, images, and even play games. A 3-D version of the classic Pong which could be accessed through the virtual world was a particularly neat example of how 3-D can make something old new and exciting--and the stereo effect was quite pronounced and impressive.

I can't wait until 3DTV / 3D-At-Home becomes a reality...and it will have to become real soon if the studios want us to be able to purchase 3-D versions of big 3-D movies such as Bolt, Monsters Vs. Aliens, and eventually Avatar. There is a ton of movement in the industry towards this, so let's hope everything is worked out soon!

3D Geek Alert: Future Immersive 3D In A Cocoon?

I would love to have one of these in my living room! In a nutshell, the Immersive Cocoon surrounds a human body with a carbon fiber shell - a full 360^o of 3D heaven.

A former fellow of MIT's media lab, John Underkoffler designed the software which uses the motions of human body parts to manipulate images - which in turn inspired how the movie "Minority Report" used hand gestures to move screens around.

Initially these units will be available for corporations only (due to the high cost I would imagine) and ultimately would be available in public locations like airports and private use.

Reminds me of a mini-holodeck! Heck, if it is properly done you could well explore exotic locations from the comfort of home. It doesn't hurt to imagine that this will be the future of gaming, working from home and home entertainment.