Dealers Doubt 3DTV

DALLAS: Consumer electronics dealers are not so sure about stocking up on 3DTV sets. Retailers met this week in Dallas for the Brand Source and Home Entertainment Source Spring Summit, Dealerscope reports.

One Memphis, Tenn., dealer told the publication he intends to wait until next year to sell 3DTVs because he expects compatibility problems to arise.

"I've been selling to many of my clients for 20, 30 years. I don't want to jeopardize those relationships with something I'm not sure of,” Ken Bourgeois of AV Fusion said.

Other dealers were reluctant about the shutter glasses necessary to view 3D content on a 3D-compatible set. The glasses can’t be swapped between sets, so people can’t schlep them to the neighbor’s for a Super Bowl party. One retailer mentioned the paucity of 3DTV content, and said people are more interested in Internet-connected TVs right now.

The chief of the HES was the 3DTV devil’s advocate of the Dealerscope piece. Vance Pflanz of Sioux City, Iowa, said he started carrying Sensio-enabled 3D sets when those first came out. Sensio introduced real-time 2D-to-3D video processing six years ago. (See coverage at Popular Mechanics). It first integrated 3D processing into a TV set in late 2007 in an agreement with Kerner Optical, a spin-out of Industrial Light & Magic.

Anthony Celeste of Tom’s Guide is another 3DTV skeptic. Celeste says 3DTV is not fully cooked.

“A major obstacle in creating 3D software and hardware exists in that the spec hasn’t even been finalized yet,” Celeste writes. “I’ve heard a lot of 3D proponents defend this by saying that Wireless-N products were released without a final spec, and that worked out fine. However, I feel this is a weak argument. Wireless-N was essentially an upgrade to Wireless-G. 3D is not just an upgrade to 2D, its new technology.”

“CE Dealers Still Skeptical” is at Dealerscope.