Although I’ve spent the majority of my career selling consumer electronics and working with consumer electronics manufacturers, I’ve never been accused of being a technology ‘early adopter’ in my personal life. I held onto my ‘flip phone’ until the last possible second, I still don’t have a Facebook page and until last year my TV had a tube in it. So if you want the opinion of the ‘Average Joe’ consumer, I’m your man – by the way don’t even get me started on Tablets – remind me why I need one? Unless of course HP decides to practically give them away again!
So when it comes to 3D TV, let’s just say it’s nowhere near my radar screen. The glasses are clunky, especially since I wear prescription lenses, the content is limited and I usually get a headache watching it.
So you can imagine when I touched down at the CES show in Las Vegas back in January I was bracing myself to be bombarded by more of the same not so interesting 3D technology from all of the vendors.
Well, this all changed the moment I arrived at the LG booth. I was greeted by a friendly woman who, much to my surprise and delight, handed me a very harmless pair of clip on glasses. “Hmm, I thought, these aren’t so bad – I can barely feel them on my face.” Then I proceeded to walk into one of the most incredible 3D experiences of my life. I couldn’t believe what I was watching – the 3D was absolutely amazing. One scene included a baseball player sliding into home plate and the sand flew up and looked as if it was going to land in the hair of the gentleman standing in front of me. Another was a sword fight and I found myself moving to the side in order to avoid being stabbed in the chest!
I was so excited about what I experienced at the LG booth; I couldn’t wait to see what the others had up their sleeves – besides it’s all the same, right? Wrong. Booth after booth I walked away disappointed and underwhelmed. Could LG’s Cinema 3D really be that much better than the rest? As far as I could tell, it’s no contest.
A technology guru I am not, but when this “Joe” is impressed, you techno maniacs may want to take a closer look.
By the way, how much does this cost? Ah, I knew there was a catch. Even though you won’t find this technology on my TV stand any time soon, it’s still very cool!
