Strange tides for home 3D

January 12, 2012
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French media giant Canal Plus says it will put its 3D television service into “hibernation” at the end of January, which might signal the beginning of the end for living room 3D but it could be a mighty boost for Blu-ray 3D.

It began so well back in 2010, when the Canal Plus French subscription service announced a regular schedule of 3D transmissions starting with World Cup football. The “soft launch” of sports events and the occasional feature film, which would build to a full-scale service, seemed like a good strategy, and give both technical staff and consumers plenty of time to learn about the new format. Now, the vision of ubiquitous stereoscopic TV is in doubt, as on Jan. 24 the leading French Pay TV provider will pull the plug on its 3D programming.

In the year that followed that launch announcement, the big consumer electronics events – CEATEC in Japan, IFA in Europe and CES in America – showcased the hardware that screen manufacturers confidently expected to boost their fortunes. Almost everyone assumed that an abundance of stereoscopic content would surely follow.

The early TV product ranges concentrated on the quality of the 3D picture – Full HD 3D – which meant the use of active shutter glasses able to deliver true high definition images to each eye. They were heavy and expensive, had limited battery life and featured darkened lenses that would not have looked out of place in sunglasses on a Caribbean beach. No matter that the picture so lacked contrast that the 3D image resembled the English Channel on a foggy day, at least it was sharp!

The CES show last January majored on the imminent stereoscopic revolution and some commentators proclaimed 2011 as “The year of 3D”. By the end of the first quarter, however, it was clear that 3D had failed to make the expected impact on the public.

Although CE companies blamed lack of content, the popular press was full of stories about the arrival of “glasses free” passive screens. “Consumer champions” asked why anyone would spend several hundred pounds on four pairs of active glasses for their family when they would clearly be obsolete by 2012. There was even talk of a conspiracy to press obsolete technology on an unsuspecting public with headlines such as “The great 3D Con” Clearly, these people had never seen the two technologies side-by-side.

The US consumer  research company Nielsen published a study in which 57% of those surveyed said that glasses were the main reason they would not buy 3D TV and almost 90% cited “the difficulty of multi-tasking whilst wearing 3D glasses” as an insurmountable problem.

As if to confirm the imminent obsolescence of 3D glasses, Toshiba at IFA in September unveiled a 55-inch “face tracking” screen that allows up to nine people to view “good 3D” from different angles around the living room. Priced at €7,999 (£6,600), the screen did not stimulate the anticipated stampede of potential customers who had been waiting for glasses-free 3D TV.

Consumers had other things on their mind as Christmas 2011 approached, such as tablets, Kindles and Connected TVs, not to mention the economic downturn. Previews of CES 2012, which runs Jan. 10-13 in Las Vegas, barely mention 3D screens although manufacturers will likely confirm the adoption of a unified standard for active shutter glasses. The market will focus instead on bigger, brighter and cheaper displays, many with an internet connection. Some believe that the 3D wave might have passed, at least in the US and Canada.

The quarterly TV Design and Features report, released by NPD DisplaySearch on Dec.28, 2011, provides data on the penetration of 3D receivers as a percentage of all TVs shipped. In North America, this figure actually declined from a peak of 11% in Q2 2011 to around 7.5% in Q3 2011, the only region of the world to show a fall in demand. It seems from the NPD research that US consumers do prefer large, inexpensive TV sets to fully featured and pricier 3D devices.

NPD DisplaySearch Director of TV Electronics Research Paul Gray says, “We were surprised to find that 3D appears to be a far more popular feature in China than North America. Our report also indicates that North American and Japanese 3D penetration is lower than the Middle East.”

The data reveals that the increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumer is enthusiastic about sets with 3D, LED backlighting and smart TV capabilities. In fact, the penetration figure of almost one in five 3D-capable TVs shipped in China in Q3 2011 placed second by a small margin to only Western Europe. The figures available do not break down shipments for individual EU countries but it is possible that the Canal Plus decision to shutter its 3D channel was because it discovered that French viewers were not keen to follow their British and German counterparts and acquire 3D capable TVs.

Another year-end announcement from a French-owned company seems to point in a different direction. YouTube competitor Dailymotion has teamed with France Telecom’s Orange to launch an online 3D video channel that will offer short films, trailers, advertising, documentary clips and consumer content in both anaglyph (cyan/magenta) and full stereoscopic versions (for suitably equipped PCs and games consoles). Users may specify that they intend a clip for the 3D channel when the video is uploaded.

From February onwards, the online 3D channel also will be available on hand-held devices, a sector in which glasses-free display works well. Could it be that short-form 3D video will find favour over long-form 3D feature films? Research suggests that consumers soon tire of watching stereoscopic 3D particularly when the no-glasses technology reduces the picture quality. Some sources say that the 3D glasses are quietly put away when the battery starts to fail, as users tacitly decide to go “back to 2D”.

For Vivendi’s Canal Plus, the year-end was the right time to put out the lights on its 3D channel. The company blames transmission costs, the limited range of compatible devices and a shortage of available content. The decision did not please the 30,000 current subscribers to the 3D channel, of whom many spent several thousand euros on the necessary hardware. Some disgruntled subscribers have signed an on-line petition to demand reinstatement of the service for which they signed up but Vivendi is unlikely to yield to pressure, especially since there was no premium charge to access the channel.

Here in the UK, Sky celebrates its fourth 3D collaboration with David Attenborough in a spectacular three-part documentary on the Galapagos Islands to be broadcast later this year on the Sky 3D channel. “Galapagos 3D” is the first film to be produced by Colossus Productions, a joint production venture between Atlantic Productions and Sky formed to create original 3D programming for both domestic and international audiences.

According to the company, “The commission is part of Sky’s commitment to increase its investment in UK-originated content by 50% to £600 million a year by 2014 to cement its position as one of the biggest investors in the UK’s creative economy.” Unfortunately, one potential sales avenue across the Channel has just closed to them.

Premium stereoscopic sports content for Sky 3D subscribers includes the “World Darts Championship” final and Premier League football, while the January 3D film schedule features “Gulliver’s Travels”, James Cameron’s “Avatar” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”.

Deprived ex-subscribers to Canal Plus 3D in France can turn to Dailymotion for 3D film trailers but if they want to watch full-length Johnny Depp films in 3D from now on they will have just one option: “Pirates des Caraïbes: La Fontaine de Jouvence” (pictured) will be available only on Blu-ray 3D.

And it will look much better for it.