3-D TV - Don't Believe The Hype

A few years I read an interview with Jeffrey Katzenberg in which the Dreamworks chief executive officer proclaimed that 3-D will be the future of movies. His rationale was that the 3-D experience makes cinema something that cannot be replicated at home. It seemed fanciful at the time. But since then major studios have poured money into developing 3-D technology as have TV manufacturers.

This drive to 3-D appears to be gathering pace this morning with Sky’s announcement that it has created a system for delivering 3D pictures to one of the new screens using an existing HD box and satellite dish”. Charmingly, to get the 3-D effect viewers must don glasses of the kind that were a staple giveaway of comic books.

All very exciting I’m sure but I can’t help feeling that this isn’t what the world is waiting for. When 3-D first appeared in the 1950s it singularly failed to catch on. 50 odd years and countless other fads later, why should things be any different this time around?

Once you’ve watched a few movies or the odd sporting event in 3-D, the novelty will wear off pretty sharpish. And with the new sets which are equipped for 3-D set to retail at £2,000 and above the tech is a big investment for something that will be used very little. Even more pertinently, with bills soaring and peoples’ financial circumstances getting worse by the day, who currently has the money to shell out for something with such limited appeal?

I’m sure some saps will sign up for 3-D TV. But they’re likely to be the same ones who fell for the BBC’s 1965 prank when it ran a news item with a cove who claimed to have invented smellovision for TV. He then made a coffee and chopped some onions. Amazingly, some people phoned the station to say they had smelled the aromas. Proof if any were needed that now more than ever 3-D should be left to B-movie nostalgists and crazies.