- Photo: Toshiba
What’s the worst thing about 3DTV? If you said those annoying and geeky 3D glasses, then you’ll be happy to know that Toshiba is launching its 55 inch glasses-free 3D TV in the UK. Of course, you’ll be unhappy to learn that it’s selling for a painful £7,000 price tag.
3DTV fails to catch on
3DTV was supposed to take the world by storm and serve as the evolutionary successor to HDTV. However, the television technology never quite took off in the way that was expected and today is mostly considered only a minor feature. Instead, the industry is looking to super thin OLED technology, as well as smart internet integration as the future of television. Well, one of the major impediments to the success of 3D television, besides the high prices, which have gone down, or the lack of content, was of course those dreaded 3D glasses.
Glasses-free 3D solution
Aside from being unfashionable and cumbersome to wear, 3DTV glasses were also quite costly. Nintendo developed 3D display technology that didn’t require glasses, but such glasses-free screens were only suited for smaller displays, at the time anyway. Today though, Toshiba has adapted glasses-free 3D technology to the big screen, with its 55 inch television called the ZL2 TV, which officially launched in the UK yesterday on March 12th.
Usually limited to small screens
Toshiba was actually the first major manufacturer to debut glasses-free 3DTVs all the way back in 2010, but these were of the smaller 10-20 inch variety. Moreover, they were also plagued by complaints. See, the television uses parallax barrier technology, which depends on the viewing angle to create the 3D effect. If viewing it from the side, or not directly head on, the effect is gone or distorted. This is why such glasses-free displays have traditionally been limited to small gadgets like the Nintendo 3DS or Toshiba Qosmio F750 laptop.
Face tracking for 9 people
The newly launched 55 inch Toshiba 3DTV, however, uses face and eye tracking technology to ensure its 3D effect still works on such a large screen. The TV model is even capable of following you around the room, or suggesting an ideal place for you to sit. Plus, the tracking technology works for up to 9 people, although it’s best suited for only 4. From early impressions, it seems the technology does actually work as advertised and that Toshiba has learned a lot in the past few years dealing the parallax displays.
4K resolution
Next to 3D though, the major highlight of the TV model is its 4K resolution display. Essentially, the 4K mode offers four times the resolution of an ordinary HDTV and creates some truly exceptional images. Whereas previous 3D glasses free Toshiba models didn’t offer the best picture quality, the same definitely cannot be said of the ZL2 television.
Costs an arm and a leg
All this state of the art technology does have a cost and it clearly shows with this Toshiba 3DTV price tag. The glasses-free model is currently retailing at John Lewis for £7,000 and Harrod’s will evidently be selling it as well. Of course, for that price, you could outfit your entire house with state of the line Apple gadgets, or even buy a decent used car. But, if you want to enjoy the 3D television experience sans glasses, then the ZL2 looks to be the best option available at the moment, despite its ridiculous accompanying price tag.
