CES 2009 3D is Upon Us

Now that CES 2009 is now a memory, it’s time to step back and figure out what I have learned.

I can see that 3D is going to be the standard, eventually. Yesterday, zmogo reported that Sony was talking about the possibilities of 3D gaming. I want you to know that I have seen it. At CES Unveiled, I saw someone play Devil May Cry wearing 3-D goggles on a Mitsubishi television, and then I tried it. Sure enough, the big boss I was fighting was in 3D, and there was depth to it.

Last Thursday, I had a chance to see the BCS Championship live in 3D. I watched it at the Paris Hotel, with special glasses, and a cheering crowd. The sound quality was somewhat poor, but I could see so much depth in 3D, that I might as well been at the game itself. By the way, the event was partially sponsored by Sony.

On Friday night, I visited ViewSonic’s display at the Bellagio hotel. They showed me two 3D products: the VX2265WM desktop LCD monitor and the PJD6220-3D projector. Both of them worked in 3D just fine, provided the 3D glasses were charged. Yes, the glasses had to be electric, and they both required a special emitter. This emitter was a device that flashed a tiny light that could somehow make the three-dimensional effect work. This above image is a representation what it looks like, and it is not too far from the truth.

The real whammy was on Saturday morning, when I saw Panasonic’s 3D. No electric glasses were required, but it was some of the finest 3D that I have seen, ever. I saw one shot of an airplane, and it looked like the wing was coming right out of the screen.

So yeah, I had a great time with 3D at PAX, but what does this mean? It means that there is already a push to create televisions that can do 3D. In fact, some TV companies had 3D displays just so they could say that they could do 3D. In the case of Mitsubishi and ViewSonic, it already works on 3D console games with Nvidia and DirectX, which is about all of them.

So, it may take a while, but 3D should be here for more than just our video games. What does this mean for movies? You may be seeing a lot more 3D films in the theater, as they will need to compete with 3D televisions. So, 3D is going to be in our television, but what about our mobile video? Well, we’ll have to stay tuned for that.