Re: No 3D movies to watch?

[P3D Gregory J. Wageman <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Julie Porter muses:

>I am attempting to stear this unweildy thread back to 3d and motion. There is a
>TV program that reminds me of SW ST, Blakes 7, Dr Who & a lot of other SF&F
>references. It is great SF and relies heavally on CGI. If you realise this is
>Babylon 5. Then you probably realise where I am going. (If not I reccomend that
>you watch it). It is created/produced and mostly written by one man _J. Micheal
>Straczynsky(sp)_ (JMS to most). If you want to see what motivation in HW can do
>take a look at his stuff. (B5 is shot wide screen HDTV, surround sound etc.)

You said it yourself, Julie:  resolution.  B5 is one of the few TV series
I regularly tape for watching at my leisure...  B5's CG images were originally
rendered on a roomful of Amiga computers.  But television only requires
640x400 pixels of resolution, and most TVs can only reproduce 300 lines
or less of horizontal resolution.  VHS is more like 250, on a good day.
This is a full order of magnitude less than 35mm film (even if you settle
for only about 4000 lines).

While everyone will automatically say that things'll continue to improve,
the home- and business-PC market will NOT be driving the kind of display
resolution needed for pro film work.  For the most part, people don't
need 4K pixels, nor do they want to pay for monitors capable of displaying
it.

>I wonder what whould happen if we told _Bill Gates_ that he will get blown out
>of and totaly loose the 3d market share. 

Actually you should tell Steve Jobs.  He's the majority shareholder of
Pixar, which is probably the company in the best position to make a
G-rated, family entertainment 3D vehicle.

        -Greg


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