{"id":7936,"date":"2020-06-14T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-14T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-didnt-3d-television-catch-on\/"},"modified":"2020-06-14T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T19:00:00","slug":"why-didnt-3d-television-catch-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-didnt-3d-television-catch-on\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why Didn’t 3D Television Catch On?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Why Didn’t 3D Television Catch On?<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

Ten years ago this month, ESPN 3D launched to great fanfare, offering sports coverage broadcast in 3D for viewers with compatible TV sets. \u201cESPN 3D marries great content with new technology<\/a> to enhance the fan\u2019s viewing experience and puts ESPN at the forefront of the next big advance for TV viewing,\u201d then-ESPN President George Bodenheimer raved when the channel was announced.<\/p>\n

Except \u2026 it wasn\u2019t the next big advance. ESPN 3D shut down three years later \u201cdue to limited viewer adoption of 3D services to the home\u201d \u2014 though ESPN vowed to be ready \u201cif or when 3D does take off.\u201d The following month, BBC announced it would be suspending its 3D programming due to a \u201clack of public app<\/a>etite.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what happened? Why did 3D television die a slow death?<\/p>\n

For one, viewers had to have a 3D television set to enjoy 3D content, and manufacturers had a hard time persuading consumers to shell out extra money for a feature that wasn\u2019t universally supported \u2014 especially when so many U.S. consumers had just purchased new televisions a couple years earlier to accommodate the shift from analog to digital TV broadcasts.<\/p>\n

The technology was far from perfect, too. 3D glasses were typically expensive and brand-specific. The 3D image often appeared too dim. Some 3D televisions had a narrow viewing angle. Many viewers suffered eye strain while watching 3D televisions. The market was saturated with movies<\/a> and TV shows retroactively converted to 3D in post-production or even in real time, with jarring results. And frankly, many people watch TV passively, multitasking with the TV on in the background. In a 2019 obituary for 3D television, Wired<\/em>\u2019s Brian Barrett argued that the 3D television industry \u201csteadfastly ignored how human beings actually use technology, because doing so meant companies could charge more for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2013, industry watchdogs were declaring that the fad was over \u2014 and rightly speculating that 3D TVs would soon be replaced by 4K, 8K, and OLED TVs. LG and Sony, the last two holdouts in the 3D TV biz, dropped 3D support in 2017, following in the footsteps of Samsung and Vizio.<\/p>\n