Will 3-D Television Really Transform Home Entertainment?

We've been hearing a lot of talk in recent months about 3-D television, and how it is going to transform the home entertainment experience. The latest news in that trend comes from Toshiba and RealD, who have announced that they are set to cooperate in bringing 3D technology to Toshiba TVs, including support for the stereoscopic RealD Format, as Toshiba advances development of REGZA TVs able to deliver HD quality 3D content.
According to Toshiba, the companies will also work together on technology for active eyewear compatible with Toshiba 3D-enabled displays. I'll have a few thoughts about this in a moment, but first, here's the release:
"Toshiba plans to introduce 3D into our REGZA line-up of Full-HD LCD TVs in 2010, and we are delighted to work with RealD, the clear leader in the industry," said Masaaki Osumi, President and CEO, Digital Media Network Company, Toshiba Corporation. "Home viewing is fast moving toward the total immersion offered by 3D, and Toshiba is determined to be in the vanguard in delivering this experience."
"3D is opening new opportunities for home entertainment and we look forward to collaborating with Toshiba to bring an unmatched 3D experience to their products," said Michael V. Lewis, Chairman and CEO of RealD. "RealD 3D technology has revolutionized cinema and the RealD Format promises to deliver a similar premium entertainment experience to the home utilizing today's existing HD infrastructure."
The RealD Format is a proprietary version of a side-by-side 3D format that multiplexes a left eye and right eye 3D image stream into a single channel for delivery of HD 3D content to any 3D-enabled display type – plasma, LCD or DLP. The RealD Format uses a unique set of proprietary filters and other technologies making it compatible with today's HD infrastructure for high quality 3D delivered via cable, satellite, packaged media or the Internet.
So is this the next great leap, as Hollywood and electronics manufacturers suggest? I submit not. If you've seen Avatar, then you know that the 3-D used in the film was little, if any, better than other recent 3-D films. Moreover, there's that little matter of the glasses. As long as the 3-D experience requires glasses, the format will never enter the mainstream, in the opinion of this writer. Glasses have a way of adding depth, but causing one to lose the cinematic scale, as well.
So will this be an expensive failure for Toshiba and other companies, then? It's hard to say for sure. Certainly 3-D films are less likely to be pirated; a likely incentive for the studios. But I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if you could walk into a Best Buy in six years and pick up a "new" 3-D TV at cut-rate prices.
Now if you'll excuse me, the 1950s are calling…they want their fad back.