The Future of Radio/Television-2

For the second blog post for the future of television is the 3-D TV. This technology is absolutely amazing and will make the television companies a ton of money, or so they are hoping. Cablevision will be airing the first live sporting event next Wednesday night for a hockey game on MSG. This is a very interesting move that they chose hockey to start this 3-D programming with because it is not one of the more popular sports to watch on TV. Cablevision is obviously being very cautious and wanting to test it out in smaller markets before going to Disney and ESPN, both of whom are interested in airing programs in 3-D. The catch for the consumers is you have to buy a 3-D television, which I just saw a commercial for one for the first time yesterday. These televisions, as you can imagine, are not cheap and in economic times like these you have to wonder who would want to spend that extra money when a normal HD television looks great. This could revolutionize the industry because normally people think of 3-D as a treat, something you do on vacation or see in a movie theater. This can really help the movies that look better in 3-D if people are willing to buy these special televisions. However, the question that comes to my mind is can you watch normal programming and is the quality of the picture the same as a normal HD television. How complicated is it to switch to 3-d mode? These are questions that will slowly be answered as the television starts being sold and consumers start complaining, because that is what consumers do. This also takes away from watching programs on the computer like we talked about in class, no computers are compatible for 3-D pictures so the programs who makes 3-D shows or movies would really enjoy that part of it. You have to watch it on TV. In my mind the channel that would benefit from this the most would be the channels like Discovery and Animal Planet and things that have to do with nature, that would be a mind-blowing experience to watch in 3-D. I am just interested to see how sporting events will look in 3-D and if people will be able to watch TV with those annoying plastic glasses. Speaking of which some video consoles who are looking into 3-D are trying to find ways to make it 3-D without the glasses. That would be a major feat for the entire industry, lets hope they come up with that because I got laser-eye surgery so I would never have to wear glasses again.

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