Cory Doctorow wrote in the Guardian this week on why 3D movies won’t be the norm any time soon.

This chimes with my recent post on the subject, but he makes the point much better than I did. Until we have 3D televisions 3D movies can be nothing but a gimmick because most of the money made from a movie is made after it’s cinema run. It comes from DVD (or should I now say Blu-ray) sales and rental and TV rights.

While 3D at the movies is relatively easy (technology wise) – you “just” need to project the left and right eye images separately and with the correct eyewear you have 3D. I’ll admit that the practicalities of generating live action 3D have limited it’s use and it’s only with the advent of computer generated movies has it become relatively easy to produce, but the technology was first developed in the 1950s.

No, the real problem is 3D TV. There was a recent episode of Chuck (well recent in the UK) that was broadcast in red/green 3D, and there have been others in the past, but these will never be anything more than pure gimmicks. Until they can broadcast full colour 3D that can be viewed without glasses then films will have to be viewable in 2D without any loss of quality or story.

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