Comcast picks up ESPN 3-D

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Comcast picks up ESPN 3-D

POSTED: Thursday, May 13, 2010, 8:57 PM

Filed Under: TV

3d-tv-technology.com

This is not what my home theater system looks like.

Comcast signed a deal with ESPN 3-D to broadcast the 2010 World Cup in three dimensions. Of course, you can't see it if you don't have a 3-D TV (... unless ... hey super rich new friend! Wanna invite me over? I make a mean popcorn), but it's an interesting step in the TV landscape. Philly-based Comcast is the first cable provider to jump on the 3-D ship, while DirectTV decided to go with ESPN 3-D in March. So what does this mean for you, you peon with a regular 2-D boob tube? Nothing as of yet, but the proliferation of 3-D throughout various media soon will mean something to you. I'm gonna level with y'all: I hate 3-D. But I also can't see 3-D. Not all of it anyway. I have an astigmatism, which means every once and while something cool pops up but, for the most part, it just gives me a headache and weird indents on the sides of my head. So while everyone else was oohing and aahing during Avatar, I couldn't tell if they were wowed by the bodacious visuals or even more eye-popping moments I couldn't see. So, yeah, part of me is just super jealous at all you sighted people, but I also hate it because it cheapens movies, making them a spectacle when, in fact, they're just covering up a shitty movie (I'm looking at you Clash of the Titans). It's a marketing gimmick. Nothing more. In his excellent essay for Newsweek, Roger Ebert decries the wide-spread usage of 3-D in film, saying (bolds mine):

There seems to be a belief that 3-D films are not getting their money's worth unless they hurtle objects or body parts at the audience. Every time that happens, it creates a fatal break in the illusion of the film. The idea of a movie, even an animated one, is to convince us, halfway at least, that that we're seeing on the screen is sort of really happening. Images leaping off the screen destroy that illusion.

Granted, when it comes to sports on TV, you don't need to be convinced the action you're watching is real because, well, it is. But will you be that much more invested in a game if the ball is flying right at you while you sit on your couch wearing stupid glasses? Seriously, sports fans, I wanna know so tell me in the comments. If anything, it's a distraction, breaking down the communal experience of drinking a Lager and watch the Phillies pummel whoever they are playing. Also, most of what I watch on TV I don't want to see in 3-D. Believe me, I don't need to feel any closer to Michael Scott than I already do. And while a show like Planet Earth would be amazing in 3-D, watching in it 2-D is pretty badass in and of itself. Going back to Ebert's point, will 3-D serve to make the real look more, for lack of a better word, unreal? At the same time, this could be great for people like me. One of Ebert's points is that when the movie industry feels threatened, it reverts back to technology — to this idea that you can't get a theatrical experience anywhere but a theater. Now that 3-D television exists and — like HD or BluRay — will at some nebulous time in the future be a big ticket item, Hollywood can't make that claim and they'll stop berating me with all of this 3-D crap. Although, with the recent FCC ruling that studios will now be allowed to bypass theatrical releases and send movies directly to people's homes, maybe they won't. So what do you guys think? Would you spring for a 3-D TV if it wasn't crazy expensive? Am I just a Luddite who needs laser eye surgery? Have at it in the comments below.

Posted 2010-05-13 16:34:25

I'm holding out for 4D.

Drew Lazor

Posted 2010-05-13 16:09:01

I can't wait to see Lee Corso in 3D!!!

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 8:57 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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