I am gutted because I have to write an ‘I told you so’ post.

I am one of many who verbally launched many an attack against 3DTV from its concept to deployment. I worked, once upon a time, at the DVB where it took thousands of man-hours of people’s time constructing technical specifications and a lot of associated standards. What a total waste of time … hang on … Perhaps it wasn’t, as this technology has certainly found a place in other fields other than television (e.g. Medical).

Six years ago I wrote the following: Nobody has compared the VIDEO/MOVIE market to the PHOTO market looking at the evolution and take-up of 3D Photography (which remains a niche and curiosity market). 3D Pictures were available to the Victorians, and 3D photography has been available in the market ever since – However, I do not see 3D Photos being demanded by the industry or 3D Picture Frames or 3D albums or 3D graphics novels … Why is that? Probably because it is not the way the brain was intended to view…Perhaps it is because we have sight that functions very, very well, those blessed with it. Now that we have high-resolution graphics it is possibly enough for the eyes. Yes, we have sight that is deemed OK except that 3D TV is trying to rearrange it?

This was in response to the fact that 3DTV physically altered the eyes positioning, focus and as such caused people to have headaches, feel nauseous, fall over, etc. TVs came with a HEALTH WARNING LABEL. Wasn’t that already a sign that this technology was doomed? On the 3DTV journey, I was heavily chastised for claiming that human beings never needed 3DTV. I was called a dinosaur…and not a Velociraptor more like a Brontosaurus if I remember…slow, lumbering and doomed to extinction. Well to all those people that called me out all those years ago…put 3D in your pipe and smoke it.

We will hear from others like Iolo Jones who, over the years, also spoke of its irrelevance. There will be more ‘I told you so’ articles for sure. I didn’t have a crystal ball moment when 3D was pushed towards TV; I had a moment of common sense…Well, I feel better now that this is off my chest. Now we have 4K, 8K, and HDR, AI, VR and more to look forward to. I suspect none of that will make it to mainstream if it means goggles, masks, helmets or any other head-mounted paraphernalia.

Watch this space.