“Eight to ten years away” says Avatar’s James Cameron on Glasses-Free 3DTV
It’s fair to say that when talking 3D movies thus far, easily the most successful so far is Avatar. In fact, box office stats have Avatar as the world record holder of any movie, raking in a mega US$2.7 billion worldwide. So when its’ creator, James Cameron talks 3D, its’ not the worst idea to listen to him.
Speaking at yesterday’s Blu-Con 2010 conference in California, James Cameron told audiences that true uptake of domestic ‘autostereoscopic’ (aka. glasses-free) 3D TV was “at least eight to ten years away”. And that’s in America! So even though Toshiba have already announced the release of the first of them in Japan (due for release before the end of the year), it seems as though it will be quite some time until they are common place in Aussie homes.
Much of Cameron’s talk though was dedicated to the behind the scenes of Avatar, as well as the proliferation, or lack there of, of films actually filmed in 3D. Most of the 3D films you see in the cinemas today are filmed regularly in traditional 2D, with 3D effects added in post production. Such films have included Johnny Depp’s Alice In Wonderland as well as the newly released Clash of the Titans and Jackass 3D. This way of 3D film creation is, whilst more cost effective, in our opinion no where near as impressive for the viewer. Cameron believes that not until studios move towards actually filming in 3D will the public really take 3D Television into their living rooms with open arms.
For the record, the glasses-free Toshiba TVs set to hit Japan by the end of the year are going to be available in 2 sizes; 12″ and 20″. These small screens are set to cost around US$1450 and US$2900 respectively. A fair whack for a tiny bit of kit!
