Re: Stereo vs. 3d

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bill Walton guessed that his following comment will generate some 
discussion, but he says it is OK....

>I believe all of us in the "stereo community" should strive 
>to use the term stereo, rather than 3-D.  To me "3-D" conjures up the 
>image of folks sitting around in a dark movie house wearing 
>anaglyphic glasses. That is a part of stereo, but maybe not the most
>important.
> Of course there are those who say " if you mention stereo, people want 
>to talk loudspeakers and audio"  Then all it takes is to say "I am
>referring to steroscopic, not stereophonic. 

That's an interesting argument... "3-D" brings images of people
watching anaglyph movies, which is stereoscopic and perfectly 
acceptable.  "Stereo" gets confused with sound which is something
totally different.  And yet, you prefer "stereo"???????????!!!

For those of us who are in their 30s and 40s (or younger),
3d does not bring images of anaglyph movies in a dark theater.
Stereo definitely means stereophonic sound for the masses.

Is there any other reason (more serious, please!) that we should
"strive to use" stereo rather than 3-D?

The way I see things, "stereo" and "three-dimensional" mean the 
same thing, since the first comes from the Greek and it means 
"solid, i.e. three-dimensional".

"Stereo" is an unfortunate abbreviation for "stereoscopic" ("to view
solid, i.e. in three dimensions").  In the Greek language (and I 
believe in other European languages, as well) this word is not 
abbreviated to "stereo", but used as-is (steroskopikos, in Greek).  

If you think that "stereoscopic" is a better choice than "three-
dimensional" then you should go all the way and demand that we use
the proper word "stereoscopic" and not the abbreviation "stereo" 
which just means solid and can be applied to sound as well.

-- George Themelis, stereoscopic (a.k.a. "stereo") photographer and 
              teacher of the Greek language in his spare time...


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