Re: PHOTO-3D digest 1290

[P3D Marvin Jones <72657.3276@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>What if each of you was to buy one or more movies from Shawn Smith
>(they are only $25 each!). What would Shawn do? Probably purchase more
>titles. Then, you all purchase more movies. Then, some company  sees that
>Shawn is selling a lot of movies so, they release the titles they have.

Unfortunately, you are overlooking the realities of production here. Your
beloved Shawn can sell tapes for $25 because he's undoubtedly not paying
royalties or production costs of any kind. His only cost is the price of the
Japanese laserdisk that he's apparently pirating his dupes from. (The Japanese
system quickly died from lack of customer support.) A LEGAL video release from a
major studio would run into tens of thousands of dollars to produce. At this
time, alternative field video is such an esoteric device that the total
potential market for a 3D video numbers in only the hundreds, at most. And
frankly, that's about all it would ever be. The average consumer thinks setting
the clock on his VCR is such a complex and technical chore that the vast
majority of them (something over 80%, I think one poll discovered) are simply
flashing 12 o'clock. They are not going to embrace a technology that involves
decoder boxes and plugs here and there and everywhere and wires or infrared
sensors and all the rest. An even bigger drawback than the technophobia of the
average consumer is that a comprehensive software library would involve licenses
from virtually every major studio. Someone trying to assemble such a catalog
would make every lawyer in Hollywood wealthy enough to retire en masse! Hey, I'd
love to see 3D become commonplace, but realistically it's just not very likely
to happen.


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