Glasses-Free 3DTV? Not For a Decade, Says Samsung

There are many barriers to 3DTV: the fact that you have to wear goofy glasses, the fact that those goofy glasses cost as much as a flatscreen 2D TV, the fact that those goofy glasses aren’t compatible with any other brand of 3DTV. You might notice that all these barriers have one thing in common: that we’ve described them using the phrase “the fact that”. Also the glasses. Seems like if you get rid of those, 3DTVs will sell like hotcakes, instead of the cold turds they’re selling like.

Well, that means a decade wait, according to Samsung.

The problem isn’t really about figuring out the technology to get rid of the glasses: as the 3DS has demonstrated, that we’ve already gotten. No, the problem is twofold: scaling those displays up, and making them look good from more than a few angles.

The biggest glasses-free 3DTVs have gotten so far is…twenty inches. While that may be impressive in many areas, it hasn’t impressed consumers; Toshiba hasn’t been able to meet even modest sales quotas.

Furthermore, even the biggest current screens only look good in a specific viewing range: anything too far to the side looks like unmitigated crap. We’ve got a long way to go before we crack this technology, looks like. So get to work, Samsung.