The 3D scam: Reject and repeat
By Jason Hiner | April 22, 2011, 7:00am PDT
Summary
The entertainment industry keeps trying to push 3D on consumers. A lot of smart people have already caught on to the fact that its scam, and its time for more consumers to join the boycott.
The 3D gimmick has sadly infiltrated movies and television and is now threatening to infect video games and smartphones as well. Theres only one reason why the entertainment industry keeps relentlessly pushing this at consumers its a transparent attempt to bleed more money out of people. And, while a lot of consumers have caught on to the scam, not everyone is doing enough to stop it.
3D definitely NOT about innovation, as the industry would like you to believe. In fact, adding the current 3D effects to a movie or video of any kind subtracts from the picture. It muddies the colors and unsharpens the images, and it has to slow down the action shots because it makes people sick if things go too fast in 3D. In fact, optometrists estimate that up to 25% of people get headaches or nausea from simply watching 3D at all.
Photo credit: iStockphoto.com/4FR
My first hint at the 3D scam was in October 2009 when Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were re-released in the theaters as 3D movies. My kids were excited to see Toy Story on the big screen for the first time so we gladly ponied up the extra money to see the 3D version of the double feature. We werent very far into the first movie before I realized that the quality of the colors and images were actually worse in 3D. That was a big disappointment. Even my kids said that the 3D wasnt as exciting as they thought it would be. There went an extra $24 down the drain ($3 extra for 3D for four people for two movies).
Of course, the Toy Story movies were standard 2D movies that were converted to 3D (which is actually the way most 3D movies are still handled). So, what about movies that are natively shot with special 3D cameras, such as Avatar? Ill admit that when I first saw Avatar in the theaters I was impressed at how well it wove in the 3D effects. But, my admiration wore off once I saw it on Blu-ray on a 240Hz LED T.....
Go read it fully here
By Jason Hiner | April 22, 2011, 7:00am PDT
Summary
The entertainment industry keeps trying to push 3D on consumers. A lot of smart people have already caught on to the fact that its scam, and its time for more consumers to join the boycott.
The 3D gimmick has sadly infiltrated movies and television and is now threatening to infect video games and smartphones as well. Theres only one reason why the entertainment industry keeps relentlessly pushing this at consumers its a transparent attempt to bleed more money out of people. And, while a lot of consumers have caught on to the scam, not everyone is doing enough to stop it.
3D definitely NOT about innovation, as the industry would like you to believe. In fact, adding the current 3D effects to a movie or video of any kind subtracts from the picture. It muddies the colors and unsharpens the images, and it has to slow down the action shots because it makes people sick if things go too fast in 3D. In fact, optometrists estimate that up to 25% of people get headaches or nausea from simply watching 3D at all.
Photo credit: iStockphoto.com/4FR
My first hint at the 3D scam was in October 2009 when Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were re-released in the theaters as 3D movies. My kids were excited to see Toy Story on the big screen for the first time so we gladly ponied up the extra money to see the 3D version of the double feature. We werent very far into the first movie before I realized that the quality of the colors and images were actually worse in 3D. That was a big disappointment. Even my kids said that the 3D wasnt as exciting as they thought it would be. There went an extra $24 down the drain ($3 extra for 3D for four people for two movies).
Of course, the Toy Story movies were standard 2D movies that were converted to 3D (which is actually the way most 3D movies are still handled). So, what about movies that are natively shot with special 3D cameras, such as Avatar? Ill admit that when I first saw Avatar in the theaters I was impressed at how well it wove in the 3D effects. But, my admiration wore off once I saw it on Blu-ray on a 240Hz LED T.....
Go read it fully here
