3D TV is dead. Remember 3D TV? It was that ing that you read on the list of specs on that new TV you were buying, but never really cared about or actually used. Well, it’s gone now. Rejoice!
According to CNET’s recent interviews with LG and Sony post-CES, both will stop including support for 3D video playback in their 2017 LCD and OLED TV ranges. Samsung abandoned the format in 2016, but you’ll still find it scattered throughout the ranges of screens from second- and third-tier companies like Soniq and Kogan.
Panasonic, LG and Sony currently include 3D support in their current ranges of LCD TVs released throughout 2016, and higher-end models also include include a faux-3D effect that turns regular TV or movie content into a more As the technology matured, most manufacturers moved from powered active 3D to a passive 3D that used cheaper, unpowered glasses like the ones that you’d find at the cinema.
Panasonic only announced one new TV at CES this year, with no support for 3D built in. LG and Sony backing out of 3D TV, too, means that — after a long and slow demise — we can now safely agree that 3D TV is dead, buried and cremated, another failed technology to throw onto the trash heap of time. Good riddance, to be honest — now I don’t need to find a cupboard to store those flimsy little plastic 3D glasses that I took out of the TV’s shipping box but never used.
Cinemas and movie studios still find 3D movies a profitable enterprise — although the gimmick peaked in 2010 with Avatar — so they won’t disappear from our lives any time soon. If you’re one of the precious few that likes or loves 3D TV, now is probably the time to start looking for a new model before they run out of stock and disappear off store shelves forever. [CNET]