[photo-3d] 3-D Article in "Le Journal De Montreal"

[Gabriel Jacob <jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Okay here is some good 3-D news from our local Montreal
newspaper. The article takes pot shots on 3-D from the
past, but that is to be expected, if though not fully
justified. :-)

The heading starts of by stating, "Finally! Convincing
3-D on Television." The article is about a premium
pay channel (Canal Indigo) that will start broadcasting
interlace 3-D! The first broadcast will be on July 15,
2000 and will be the Toronto Molson Indy Race. After that,
they will broadcast on August 30, the Grand Prix Players
from Three Rivers and finally on September 9, they will
have the Grand Prix of Monterey.

The article goes on to say, "Forget those unbearable 3-D
glasses with the plastic two color lenses." I wonder what
that would be!?! Continuing, "This time, they are real
glasses, relatively comfortable, real lenses, that looks
like smoked glass."

The article (actually two articles) mentions the C3D
network and how they have spend over $25 million dollars
so far in their 3-D venture. They write that the main 
target audience for now is the young, and features such
programs as rave parties, cartoons, extreme sports, and
educational programming. They write they do produce
programming that can be put on DVD such as "adult"
material.

Now the really interesting part of the articles is how
they are going to market the 3-D glasses, needed for the
"masses" to see these 3-D programs (on the Indigo channel).
The glasses and decoder will be sold through mainstream
sources such as Future Shop (large electronics store,
similar to Circuit City in the US), Sears, Canadian Tire
(more of a hardware and auto store!), and Radio Shack.
They're also negotiating with a video rental chain to
rent the glasses and decoder for $8 (Canadian currency).

Two pairs of glasses and one decoder will sell for $59
Canadian (comes out to roughly $40 US). Add to that the
cost of watching the pay per view program, which will be
$29 CDN (~$20 US). 

The July 15 broadcast is going to be recorded digitally
and will be reportedly better than anything that has
been broadcast before, such as the the ill fated (huh!)
animal documentaries that were broadcast last fall (in
pulfrich 3-D). They report you almost had to convince
yourself to believe you were seeing the 3-D. This isn't
true, it was excellent. 

Comments, the price sounds good for 2 pairs of 3-D
glasses and a decoder. I don't think they are going to
be wireless or they would have mentioned that. Ironically
I won't be in Montreal to witness this great event!

Gabriel reporting from Montreal!