November 06, 2009

Virgin demonstrating 3D TV

Be still my beating heart...
According to Digital Spy, Virgin are demo-ing 3D TV to the great unwashed today (Friday) at the new Oxford Street store. Details here.

(I know it's not HD and I think in future I'll be keeping this blog just to HD posts from hereon rather than general Virgin news - I just haven't got the time to be honest and other sites cover this in sufficient detail now.)

6 comments:

Afront said...

Whith all the new HD channels now I agree, there's probably enough in that alone for this blog.

I've been thinking about what the HD in BBC HD stands for now: guesses include:

Hardly Defined
Horrible Disaster
Hopeless Detail

Perhaps you could have a new survey..? ;)

Nialli said...

I'd go for Hardly Different-from-BBC1

Unknown said...

I went into the Virgin Media store on Oxford Street earlier to have a look at their 3D demo, and it was so-so.

It had a major flaw in that you had to be standing pretty much dead in front of the screen (distance didn't seem to be a factor though), for the 3d effect to really work. Any movement that put you at even a slight angle to the screen completely messed up the image.

It's reasons like this that are gonna keep 3D a niche product as far as i can see, right now the requirements for it to work well are so specific that it's just not worth investing the time and money to get right when HD is still really just taking off in a big way.

That should still be the main focus for broadcasters IMO, until they get that right why bother messing around with 3D?

Mark said...

I'd only add to Gavin's comment that watching TV is usually a pretty static pursuit and so losing the effect by moving around is not really an issue at home rather than seeing it from a shop display!
I'd agree 3D will remain a niche product, but Virgin need to provide for such or they risk alienating some of their highest paying customers. It's that kind of attitude which has resulted in Sky's HD services far outstripping the Virgin alternative!

Unknown said...

The problem wasn't me moving, it was from being at anything other than directly in front of the TV.

I was at something like a 45 degree angle to the screen and the 3D effect was completely ruined. It would appear for the Virgin TV demo at least you have to be at a very specific angle for the 3D effect to work, soemthing that isn't guaranteed if more than 1 person is watching

Nialli said...

Here's a review of the 3D demo at the Oxford St store: http://www.techradar.com/news/television/hdtv/virgin-media-s-3d-tv-tests-a-success--647971?src=rss&attr=newstelevi