Discovered at the CES: 3-D TV, no glasses! Also neat high-end audio..

Which company did Claus represent? Or is he a dealer?

 

Wow! I wish I had gone there now.

 

Yeah, it was pretty cool overall. You wouldn't have guessed that there's a recession goin' on.

 

I was just talking about this after the thread in visual arts. If only we didn't need the glasses. Great news! Please let us know if you find out the company name. Thanks for the breaking news.

 

Might have been these guys:

http://www.magnetic3d.com/

 

Yeah, Sony will deliver "perfect video forever" ha ha ha ha

 

AR amplifiers bright? I've heard them in a few salons and LeeS has a nice setup.
Despite his Magnepan speakers the setup was not too bright for me.
(this coming from a Maggie owner).

I've never heard bright playback with Audio Research gear.

 

It could have been the speakers...

 

Yeah, Wilson is just bright and forward....
The latest ARC stuff is great

 

Presentation

Steve, I really enjoyed your presentation on Friday afternoon in the Silicon Arts Design room . I thought the equipment that was in use in that room was awesome.

G.R.

 

Steve... I have heard the Sasha speakers with Meitner SACD transport and McIntosh amplication at my dealer. The room acoustic (see the picture of the large studio) is perfect.... with a very good set-up the Wilson Sasha never sound bright. I think it's one of the best "small" speakers. I would never judge audio gear in a hotel room. That's the reason... why I don't care about the sound at High End shows.

I even haven't heard good demonstrations at the High End in Munich... which is the biggest High End show in the world: http://www.highendsociety.de/english/highend/highend_trailer.php

 

Yum. Nagra home audio. Now there's marketing genius (for those of us of the age to remember Nagra and presumably also being at the age to be able to afford it.) I didnt even know they made CD players, amps and the rest. Thought they just did recorders. Love that amp!

 

Have the same experince with Sasha using my own gear on them.

 

How is 3D television possible? It's the difference between your two eyeballs that makes the 3D effect, and that's what the glasses do, create a difference between eyeballs. But if you're looking at a flat screen, there's no difference between eyeballs. Seems to me the only way you could create 3D television is to have two screens separated by a depth, and be able to see through the first screen to the second.

I actually thought of that many years ago, I thought that by using two cameras, and interlacing the scan lines at the TV, images from one camera get the odd lines, images from the other get the even lines, you'd get 3D, but it's still a flat image, it wouldn't work.

Inquiring minds want to know!

 

Didn't espn say they are doing some 3d soon?

 

I remember Douglass Trumbul ("2001: A Space Odyssey" special effects guy) working on a system without glasses. It worked by vibrating the two images back and forth at a rate faster than the eye could perceive.

 

I believe it's a variation on the lenticular 3-D postcards from the past. I don't know if that's what Steve saw or not, but I think you have to be particular about viewing angles in order to get the full effect. The Russians have worked on cinematic applications of the same type of system in the past, but its use was never widespread.

 

That would be exactly what it is. It's known as barrier-screen technology. It doesn't work as well as the glasses-needed system, due to narrower viewing angles and lesser depth. (Even the models that employ head-tracking technology to adjust.)

Derek

 

Did you check out Pass Labs and Accuphase?

 

The glasses-less 3D display was in the center of the main Hall. It wasn't a product but a "think-tank" group showing there latest innovations. It wasn't out in the open you sort of had to stumble on it. The display I saw was a concert that had a image floating in front of the stage. it wasn't what I'd call a watchable image but their first step was impressive.

 

There was just a special on 3D tv on KCLU radio. They spoke with a couple experts including the person who holds the patents on about every form of modern 3D projection systems. Interesting guy who said the 3D tv without glasses exists experimentally but current technology is not up to snuff to create a realistic 3D without glasses. The problem is current TVs lack sufficient resolution. He gave some term which I forget, but apparently even the best of currents sets will need a pixel count 100 TIMES greater than currently available to make it work. (And you thought your HD set was hot stuff....) The 3D TV works without glasses by some diffusion method with a 100 pixels needed where regular tvs use only one. Philips started working on it and gave up last year he said. A VERY large step away.

 

Cablevision in NY is broadcasting the Islanders vs Rangers hockey game live in 3D this Wednesday night. 5 special cameras will be placed close to ice level to provide a better depth preception then the normal camera locations do.

 

Actually, 3DTV sorta/kinda works. But there are huge sacrifices in image brightness and sharpness, since you're losing half the resolution for the other "eye" of the image, and you're losing roughly 40% of the brightness due to the glasses. This is a huge, drastic problem that I think not enough people are thinking about.

And that's besides the increased expense, lack of available software, and the bother of wearing glasses in the first place.

The No-Glasses 3D system that Steve referred to months ago is still a pipe dream that people have been chasing for more than 50 years. I'm not convinced it can ever work with TV at home because people won't sit still and keep their heads anchored in a vice. Even then, the picture quality is annoying for more than five minutes. If they ever get it to work, it'll be a boon to theaters... but there is that little problem that everybody in the theater sits in a different seat, at different distances from the screen.

I wish they'd just try harder to perfect HD and not worry about 3D until everybody has great, affordable pictures. And we're not quite there yet.