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Can we watch 3D movies on television?

Why can't you watch 3D movies on a regular television?

  • After seeing avatar in 3d at the movie theater (played on what i assumed was just a regular movie screen), I went home and checked to see if when it comes out on DVD, if I will be able to watch it in 3d at home (it made the movie 10x better IMO). I read that you will now need a special 3D tv, which will probably be on the market by the time avatar hits shelves as well. So why exactly do you need a special tv for 3d movies? I thought they just offset the picture and the glasses essentially trick your eyes into seeing it as 3d? Can anyone explain how it works to me, please?

  • Answer:

    Well yes there are two images of everything and one is only for the right eye and one only for the left. However they are not just the same exact distance apart all the time. They come closer together or further apart to look close and far away. This is to get your eyes to cross and uncross like when you look at a finger right in front of your face and then look across the room. They also flip around. The left eye image might be on the left side of its twin, or be on the right side. If on the right side the image will look to be in front of the screen. All this is done while each eye only sees one image. To do this you can use polarized 3d where all the left eye images have one light wave and the all the right eye images a second different light. Then the glasses block the opposing light wave. Or field/frame sequential with shutter glasses where the right lens opens while the other closes and they do this back and forth really fast while the image for the one eye flashes on screen while that lens is open. For field sequential your tv was not made to switch back and forth between two images, so it has to be made to do so. Or with polarized like in the theater your screen has to have a special coating so the top horizontal line has one light wave, the second line the second light wave. Then the 3rd line back to the first light wave and so on all the way down the screen. At the theater they have to buy a special projector that can project images with one light wave and images with the second light wave at the same time. Also the theater has to buy a special silver screen, not white, that can reflect the light wave back with the same polarization other wise they don't reflect back correctly. I should add that the only universal 3d format is anaglyph with the red and blue glasses. The images are red for the red lens and blue for the blue lens, the opposite color blocks them. So anything that can produce color can us that format. The other two 3d formats can not be done with just regular projectors or televisions or monitors.

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Remember how VHS never had 3-D? Now they are making you buy TV's so you can watch 3-D without glasses but A. Its worse 3-D and B.You have to buy a new TV JUST to watch 3-D movies. All in all, its just a money making scam

Matt

You can see 3D on regular TVs but the image quality is poor. The new TVs are going to make it so that you can isolate each left/right image to each eye with virtually no cross talk. With regular TV, you need some kind of red/blue for each eye, and that totally ruins any chance of color accuracy. Here's how the IMAX/Avatar movie works. There are two projectors hitting a regular screen with two images. So with the naked eye we all see a blurry mess on the screen. But what you don't see with your naked eye is that there is a polarizer in front of each lens. Each polarizes the light in different directions or orientations. Each lens on your polarized glasses is also oriented differently. So each eye has a slightly different perspective. This exact method could never be done at home. There is no TV technology that can polarize the image differently for each left/right image. So the next closest thing will be to flash both left and right images on a flat panel in turn. Then with active shutter glasses that you will wear, synced to the TV so each eye gets its own left/right image. This is all flashing so quickly you will never know it's happening. None of the DVDs or blu rays that have come out in 3D work this way, so don't confuse that with what's coming. So that's why there are going to be new TVs, and why just a few weeks ago an official 3D spec was laid down for blu ray, that way all the studios are on the same page. What's left now is for all the TV makers to get it together and stick to that standard.

Sound Labs

They are making 3D TV's but in the mean time old fashioned 3D glasses and the funny pictures work on normal TV's. There has been many DVD releases and TV programmes released in 3D recently

Guru

Ok, I guess I'm still confused (like many). Why does it have to be the TV's job to flip the scenes? DVD's are digital, so why can't they just program the dvd to do all the work. The TV is just a reciever for anything it spits out. Why isn't it that simple? In the end, its all just light signals coming out of the end of the TV. The TV will show anything the DVD sais to show. Right?

Sean W

I read that you need a blu ray player, not the tv. But I still don't understand this because I've seen 3d movies on dvd before (my bloody valentine). While the 3d in avatar was much more complex than that, I still don't get why they would even need a special player. Maybe it's just a deal between Cameron and blu-ray so they both make more money.

Public Enemy

I read in a magazine that with the 3D TVs that are going to be released soon will still require you to wear the annoying 3D glasses. I do believe that you can still watch 3D movies on your regular television but the quality would not be as good as the ones in the cinemas. Take the movie "Coraline" for example. It was released in 3D recently and has gotten complaints that the quality is poor and that only certain scenes can be seen in 3D. Those people had to watch the 2D version that came with it to avoid wasting their money. I suggest watching 3D movies at the cinemas or buying the new TVs if you can afford them.

SteroiD.

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