Philips: Don't get too excited about 3D

By Rich Trenholm on 03 September 2009, 2:40pm

Shelled out £4,000 for a Philips Cinema 21:9 television? You'll be pleased to hear it's obsolete. Philips has bumped the firmware and added a micro polarising lens to the screen, to create a prototype 3D TV.

The TV gets its tri-dimensional input from a prototype 3D Blu-ray player. Philips says it's "actively participating in the 3D specification work of the Blu-ray Disc Association".

But hold it right there. Amid the 3D arms race, which has all the major manufacturers here at IFA insisting 3D is the next thing everybody just has to have in their lives, Philips is sounding a welcome note of caution. The company has "no immediate plans to launch any commercial 3D TV products in the short term", and any plans "will depend on 3D TV standards". In today's press conference, Philips conceded that 3D isn't yet stable, and the technology "isn't quite there".

In other words, Philips has punted the prototype 3D telly to keep up with the Joneses, but its heart isn't in it. Philips can burble on about 3D being the next big thing, but the Dutch company has yet to put its money where its mouth is in the same way that Sony has. Sony has a massive stake in 3D because of its content arm, but Philips is happy listening to ambient music and making coffee makers, sunlight lamps and intimate massagers.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: 3D TV isn't the great consumer dream manufacturers insist on proclaiming. The hyperbole is so far ahead of the technology we're getting bored of hearing about it. We're glad to hear Philips, at least, doesn't believe the hype.