June 13, 2008 | posted by Michael Baxter in New Media |

Last Christmas, cinema theatres saw the release of Beowolf.    It was an animated movie, and should you watch it on DVD, or download it from the Internet, it might leave no impression at all.   But if you had queued up at the cinema, suffered the indignity of having to wear special glasses – albeit quite smart glasses – you would have been treated to a real roller-coaster of a movie – Ray Winstone quite literally as you have never seen him before, and Angelina Jolie as well; not even Brad would have seen her looking as she did in this film.

Actually, with the glasses on it was an extraordinary visual spectacle; with them off, well, it was pretty ordinary.

But the great and the good of Hollywood have latched on to the idea. Stephen Speilberg is reported to be working on a 3D version of the Japanese creation, “Ghost in a Shell”.   Rumours have been circulating that Peter Jackson considered doing a 3D version of The Hobbit, and James Cameron – he who built an only slightly smaller than life-sized version of the Titanic, seems to be the biggest convert of the lot.

“When you are viewing in stereo, which is what we do…more neurons are firing. More blood is pumping through the brain.”

“Stereo production is the next big thing,” he was reported as saying last month.  “We are born seeing in three dimensions. Most animals have two eyes and not one. There is a reason I think.”

But Cameron doesn’t think the future of 3D is the cinema. No, he sees it in the home with TV programmes and video games.

And it appears one famous Dutch company agrees.

Philips has never been shy at trying to trailblaze – not always successfully.

It doesn’t always get it right. When we talk about the format war of the 1970s between Betamax from Sony and VHS  from JVC, Philips with its video 2000 gets forgotten.    The giant seemed to misread the market with its CDi player too.     Despite years of hype and mountains of free publicity in the press, it died a death.    But then it has its successes too, including the joint collaboration with Sony for the CD and before that the good old compact audio cassette.

But now the company is turning its attention to 3D TV.  But it’s 3D without the need for the glasses.  3D TV Philips style means the 3D generating screens are embedded on the actual TV.

The company unveiled its Dutch masterpiece a few days ago, but it’s not available yet.  It won’t hit the shops for some time, and when it does it will carry a price tag of £6,000 – ouch.  But, then again, we all know the price will fall. 

It might not be here for the 2012 Olympics, but it will be here before England win the World Cup.

But it comes with a downside.  Ben Nicholls, business development director at Picture Production Company (PPC), was quoted in the Telegraph as saying, “If you are a big fan of EastEnders, you will feel as if you’ve been invited into the homes of your favourite characters… You’ll feel as if you are actually in Pat Butcher’s kitchen.”

This terrible prospect aside, it does seem that 3D will be the next big thing.  Whether Philips can corner the market – and develop the de facto standard, remains to be seen. (Did you like that subtle plug for Defaqto, there – ed?)  Samsung has recently announced its plans for 3D too.   But, for the winner, the riches could be huge indeed.