Anyone seen golf in 3D yet?

[Zeph]

HD is making it's approach for real, but 3D is now starting to enter the stage. I heard today that Sky Sports will be sending The Masters in 3D this year. I don't have 3D-TV or 3D channels, probably won't for a long time, but has anyone tried it yet? 3D on the movies lifts the entertainment value a couple of notches, but how will it look in golf?

[Kieran123]

It would be weird to watch.....I am not a fan of 3D, and do not see it ever becoming the norm in the living room.

Golf isn't really the type of sport I would want to see in 3D....

[Clambake]

I saw some 3D coverage that included some golf in some backroom demos at CES in January.   On the plus side, one thing that was much more apparent was the elevation differences, particularly on the greens.    The greens look a lot more challenging, and you can see the impact of the slope a lot more.      Players hitting shots didn't look much more impressive in 3D.     On the downside, the 3D images lose a lot of the detail and crispness that you see in HD - everything is a bit fuzzy.      All this was on TVs prepped by the TV manufacturer to look as good as possible at the show, so normal home viewing won't be any better.

[jamo]

No I haven't, but the Masters was in 3D here in the U.S. on Comcast and AT&T; last year as well.

[Zeph]

Originally Posted by Clambake

I saw some 3D coverage that included some golf in some backroom demos at CES in January.   On the plus side, one thing that was much more apparent was the elevation differences, particularly on the greens.    The greens look a lot more challenging, and you can see the impact of the slope a lot more.      Players hitting shots didn't look much more impressive in 3D.     On the downside, the 3D images lose a lot of the detail and crispness that you see in HD - everything is a bit fuzzy.      All this was on TVs prepped by the TV manufacturer to look as good as possible at the show, so normal home viewing won't be any better.

I do enjoy golf in HD, so it is a pity the quality suffer. Better look at elevation differences is a good perk though, you don't see a whole lot of that on 2D coverage.

[michaeljames92]

To me 3D seems like a waste of time. I have never enjoyed watching anything in 3D, just seems awkward on the screen. I'd rather just regular HD

[Lefty-Golfer]

I just bought the new Panasonic 3D tv it was, supposed to be the best "normal" HD TV on the market. I have it 3 weeks and the TV is freakin awesome, my kids play Black opps on it nonstop...but i have not even looked into how you charge the glasses. The system installer guy said the 3D features are amazing so i guess i have to do that. will let you know.

[timnsr72]

DirecTV had the masters in 3d last year also, it wasnt that great looking, eventually the picture will become crisper

[golf4fun12]

I don't think any sport would look good in 3D.

[WUTiger]

I've been seeing golf in 3D ever since I started playing. The golf course is a wonderful 3D experience - unless you play with your eyes closed.

[daveny]

I thought about purchasing the Panasonic 3D, but there isn’t enough content. And I am still not 100% convinced of 3D.

[Clambake]

I attended a technology conference last week and one of the panel discussion sessions was on the future of 3DTV.   Represented on the panel were a couple content producers, a couple content distributor, and a technical representative of a large TV manufacturer.     The takeaway is that 3DTV is really "event driven" because of the requirement for glasses, i.e. having to wear the 3D glasses forces a person to be 100% absorbed in the specific event you're watching and not able to multitask at the same time, such as being on the computer or reading.     As I thought about it, I think this makes golf even more unlikely to be a strong driver for 3D content in the future since, of all the different types of televised sporting events, golf is one of the more boring and typically watched while doing something else (even for those of us obsessed with the game).

As discussed in the panel, it is likely that 3D will stay event driven until natural viewing 3D televisions are eventually developed which do not require the use of special glasses.   I saw a Sony demo of this at the CES show, and it was fairly impressive but clearly many many years away from the market.