Imagine watching Sunday night football in 3D.
You’ll get the front row seat to your favorite games, where every throw of the football looks like it is coming right at you.
This dream is becoming a reality as more and more people are purchasing 3D TVs.
First introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, 3D TVs are now available in the U.S. with most major TV manufacturers producing them.
But this new technology is not cheap: early adopters will spend anywhere from $1,700 to $4,000 to be one of the first with a 3D TV, hundreds of dollars more than consumers would spend on a comparable non-3D TV.
All of the 3D TVs currently on the market require glasses to be worn when watching 3D programming.
Most TVs come with one or two pairs of these glasses, but additional ones will usually run you over $130 a pair.
Marcus Cooper, a UT senior, explains, “I think it is ridiculous that the glasses cost so much. It’s not right. I probably will never buy a 3D TV unless they are worth the cost.”
There are not many programs broadcasted in 3D, so it is important to note that all of these TVs also support 2D high definition programming without glasses.
The technology behind the 3D TVs is complicated. The polarized glasses work to allow only one polarized image into each eye.
Your brain combines these polarized images into one 3D image.
The technology is different from the ones used in movie theaters, so cheap glasses will not work on these TVs.
Christina Ou, a Univeristy of Tampa senior, does not plan on immediately buying one of the 3D TVs, but may consider it when the 3D TVs do not require glasses.
“It is a really cool technology, but I wouldn’t purchase it, personally, because I don’t want to wear glasses. If I want to see something in 3D, I will open my eyes because people are in 3D.
Toshiba unveiled the first 3D TV that does not require glasses on Monday, October 4, at the Ceatech IT show in Japan.
Other TV Manufacturers are working hard to catch up, so it may be worth it to hold off on buying a 3D TV until ones that do not require glasses are introduced in the US market.
Justin Cauchon can be reached at jcauchon@spartans.ut.edu.
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