Let’s say you’ve started lusting for a 3-D television.
Never mind that when you get to the store to sample 3-D TV, you discover that World Cup soccer in 3-D may not grab you like a scene from the 3-D animated film “Monsters vs. Aliens.” The soccer match seems disappointingly flat in its wide shots. “Monsters vs. Aliens” immerses you in its animated antics.
You’ve just learned a basic lesson of 3-D: It isn’t all the same.
But when it’s good, it’s very good. It sucks you in. It’s in your face, you’re in its face. Or so it seems. No wonder you’re picturing one of these sleek, wide-screen beauties in your own living room.
That’s what visitors to the Sony 3-D Experience at CBS’ consumer research center in Las Vegas are saying, according to preliminary polling results. Two-thirds of the visitors to this exhibition at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino say their next TV will be 3-D-capable, reported David Poltrack, president of CBS Vision.
Maybe much of the public is pre-sold by now.
“3-D is a form of content that people not only like, but are willing to pay a significant premium at the box office for,” Poltrack said.
“We’ve very fortunate that ‘Avatar’ was done so well and was such a big hit,” said Dan Schinasi, senior marketing manager for HDTV product planning in Samsung’s Visual Display Product Group.
“That 3-D theater experience captivated millions of people and made them realize, ‘There’s a new dimension that I’ve been missing,'” Schinasi said. “The result is, they’re saying, ‘I want to experience that at home.'”
In these early months of 3-D-mania, jolted by the December release of “Avatar,” a growing number of manufacturers (including Samsung, Panasonic and Sony) are wooing you with mirror-thin 3-D models whose screens stretch 40 inches and beyond, and whose price tags start at…