Freeband TV News

Samsung launches first 3D LED TV and gives away some DVDs

Written by Robin Hague

First 3D TV sets to market, nothing to watch

FreebandTVNews acknowledges it is in danger of becoming the Don Quixote of 3D TV, following a series of articles which, superficially at least, appear to cast doubt on the validity of 3 dimensional television. However, an attentive reader would have noted our position is more about questioning the timing of a new technology launch when there is little adoption of HD TV and even less 3D content.

This week, along came the first windmill, with Samsung announcing the launch of its full HD 3D LED TV. And, as if to magically illustrate the content desert into which it falls, Samsung is incentivising early 3D adopters with a 3D DVD of Monsters vs Aliens. And a couple of pairs of 3D glasses of course. Whoop and indeed ee. As if one would have expected to buy the glasses separately.

To be fair, Samsung’s also offering the first three Shrek films in 3D as an “expression of its strategic alliance with DreamWorks Animation SKG”.

According to DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, 3D TV is “quite simply, the entertainment revolution of our time. It’s as important as the introduction of sound or colour.”

Panasonic is also launching a 3D TV set this week, LG have a range and Sony will start selling its 3D TVs in the summer. They have yet to admit their promotional DVD offerings, which, with Shrek and Monsters vs Aliens gone, will presumably hail from that great archive of 3D movies such as International Stewardesses, Bwana Devil or Metalstorm: the Destruction of Jared-Syn.

This could be unkind. They may offer the excellent 3D version of Academy Award winning animation Up. Furthermore Avatar and eventually Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland will be available in DVD later this year.

However, the television content landscape remains unencumbered with 3D. It will be some time before TV producers will be persuaded to invest in the technology required to make meaningful 3D television.

It’s worth noting that Avatar has fixed the bar very high for 3D. This extraordinarily beautiful film has set the standard for compelling 3D watching and television content producers will have to work very hard and spend very large amounts of money to match the expectations of the millions of viewers educated in 3D by Avatar. The same for Up.

Whether 3D TV will be as important as the introduction of sound and colour very much depends on content. When film audiences first saw movies with sound, they were genuinely astonished. TV always had sound, so no magic there. And television audiences were long used to colour; they saw it at the movies.

Each advance was met with slightly less astonishment. It’s the same with HD TV. Last week, we reported on the huge gap between the sale of HD TVs in the UK and the much lower number of HD subscriptions.

At least, there’s plenty of HD content. There is virtually no 3D content of any note, apart from the aforementioned movies.

Now, when Avatar is first shown on movie channels in 3D, it will almost justify the purchase of 3D TV sets, the initial premium for which will not be very high, as the engineering is hardly more expensive than existing HD technology. Initial estimates put the cost of first generation 3D TVs between $2,500 and $3,000.

However, viewers will soon some to realise there is hardly anything of note to watch on television in 3D, other than some movies and a selection of sports. The 2010 World Cup will be available in 3D in some territories, as will the 2012 London Olympics. Many UK Premiership soccer matches and American football will be shown in 3D.

Nonetheless, the stock in trade of television – drama, crime, news, soap operas, tele novellas, documentaries, comedy series, reality shows and most sports will for a long time be in good old, unrevolutionary 2D.

Set piece period dramas, the kind of thing producers of content for the BBC specialise in may well be filmed in 3D in the future. However, such is the expense of new technology, editing and retraining, producers will be demanding premiums for this content and few channels will be able to afford this, especially as advertising revenues remain uncertain. Big, publicly funded channels such as the BBC may be the only ones able to afford a consistent 3D offer.

Perhaps technology producers and manufacturers like Sony and Samsung will have to help subsidise the initial cost of 3D television mass-production. It is in their interests to drive sales, so having witnessed the relative failure of HD, they will see putting money into productions as a way of fulfilling the 3D promise and selling TVs.

At least 3D TV is a much clearer advance than HD. Even if you need spectacles.

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