Home Theater Magazine is manufacturing consent

Bouy... I am going to have to start a new blog called "Manufacturing Consent". After witnessing all the techniques of propaganda the NFL Network used to try to sell me on Devaney's plan to draft Sam Bradford, I have been sensitized this subject. For most people, it was Fox news trying to sell the public on Iraq II.

Often times, when confronted with a tough-sell situation, the powers that be (both economic and political) may seek the aid of major media outlets to help promoting the difficult agenda. The goal is to whip people up into a frenzy of excitement where there would naturally be none. Indeed, there might even be considerable concern, doubt and opposition to the program if the public is left unalloyed by shills.

So it is with the 3d "revolution" in home theater. Uptake is slow. Sales are slow. This is not just a function of a W shaped recession either. When purchasing new HDTVs, the buying public seems to show no preference for units that allegedly have 3d functionality. Whatever the reason may be, the public seems unwilling to spend money for the feature.

The marketing forces simply conclude that they are not doing a good enough job in pushing the technology. Enter Home Theater magazine. Witness the cover of the July 2010 issue (Volume 17 No. 7.) The cover headline says in massive letters:

3D NOW!

Not so subtile? Yep, uh-hun. I guess they want me to buy 3d now, eh? Yes... that's it. Not to leave any stone unturned, hyper-shill... errrr... Editor Shane Beuttner delivers the big message of the magazine right up front.

Back to the Future

The 3D Era is now.

He scribes a nice shill argument effectively saying "This is not a gimmick to sell B movies anymore" and "3d his here to stay." He couches this language a bit more carefully, but I am giving it to you straight, with no chaser.

He immediately shifts to the salesman soft-pedal. To help us all get ready for the 3d era, his testers and writers have worked hard to present a series of reviews, particularly one on the Samsung 8000. This is of course, the major-model from the heaviest advertiser... er... most successful 3d HDTV maker.

Turn a couple of pages to letters to the editor and you will see the following bit of text. Steve Smith in St. Paul Minnesota basically says that he is never going to jump 3d wagon because of 3d. "I would rather see a 3d movie in the theater, but even then I am not crazy about the format." Steve is pissed that Home Theater magazine is pressing this agenda so hard when it has no benefits. Why make us unhappy with the equipment we just bought when the new stuff just doesn't add value?

I am highly sympathetic to Steve's case. However, I do look forward to my next upgrade, he doesn't. I am concerned that my next HDTV--a 4K HDTV--is being delayed because of meaningless technological masturbation with 3d.

Evidently, Shane sets aside his shill tactics and says the following in response to Steve Smith. "I'm of something of a mixed mind on this. On the one hand, I wonder too if the industry is running before it's learned to walk with 3D, and whether it's losing TV sales right now as poeple wait for more 3d HDTVs to become available from more manufacturers..."

No, no, no Steve! Say that properly. They are loosing sales right now because people are waiting to see if the industry can introduce an 3D HDTV that will actually work... errr... impress.

Note the U-Turn in Shane's rhetoric. On the shilling page, he's all in favor of it. On the heart-to-heart with a reader, he too seems concerned by the fact that the film makers don't do much with the technology. Although he would never say it, the current crop of HDTVs don't present 3d material very well either.

Nevertheless, nearly the entire July issue contains one sales-push after another. The entire issue is a substantial effort to whup you up into a state of excitement about 3d.

Home Theater is representing powerful economic interests that want to sell this technology. Home Theater magazine is trying to manufacture consent where there would naturally be none.

So what about 3d?

I am a great lover of technology. I am quick to embrace any possible improvement. I am what is commonly known as "an early adopter". The second HDTV seemed even remotely good, I dived into the pool head-first. For the record, this was late 2006 when the XBox360 got it's HD-DVD attachment and the PS3 was about to be released (signifying the arrival of Blu-Ray).

The arrival of true 1080p disks signified to me that this market was about to mature.

So what about 3d? Have I adopted that? Nope. Do I have plans to adopt it soon. Nope. Do I have any plans to adopt it? Not really. Why? Because every demo I have seen, save one, sucks hard. This is not at all unlike the 3d effects we see in the movie theater: They suck hard.

I'm going to be perfectly frank with you good folks: 3d leave me cold. I am not excited. The major reason is that the movie produces don't do anything with the media. An occasional shot which pops out at you is not worth the annoyance of the glasses. Even the most advanced 3d movie ever made, which is Avatar, still made relatively limited use of 3d.

Even when the true 1080p 3d Blu-Rays begin to arrive, which they have not, I still doubt that there is much power in the media itself.

Of course, this does not prevent marketing forces from attempted to persuade you to 'upgrade' to a 3d set. Mark ye well the following example of marking hype:

If you check out an in-store demo, you'll likely be impressed by 3D. We recently spent some quality time with Panasonic's VT25 3D plasma watching Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and it was a blast. After all, 3D adds depth and, when it's done right, can make you feel like you're inside the picture. -PC Magazine

All I can say to that is "bullshit" and "thank you for regurgitating the predigested marking hype from the advertising companies... oh wait! I forgot! PC Magazine is a marking/advertising company." In sooth, they always have been.

The quote above is proceeds from a false premise, uses fallacious logic and reaches and erroneous conclusion. Almost no one has a VT25 HDTV on display, must less equipped with the several-hundred dollars worth of glasses necessary to do 3d. Worst of all, if you have seen it, and I have, there is no there there. There's nothing special going on. The demo left me flat. I didn't want it.

Inevitably, sooner or later, I will want to buy a new HDTV. Moore's law guarantees progress in all of the basic areas of HDTV quality. I will want that increase in core-competency at some point in the future. Upgrade day may not come for two years, but sooner or later, it will come.

No doubt, this will bring 3d along with it. 3d is being rolled into all HDTVs as we speak. This will become a default feature of all HDTVs soon. You won't be able to buy a current model year without it. However, my reason for buying will not be 3d. The shit just doesn't do anything for me.

To you folks in the industry: I have to say that I really believe you are wasting your time with this 3d jazz. It is much more difficult to interpolate a 3d layer from 2d sources than it is to upscale 1080p to the so-called 4K standard. It is much more difficult for the creative film maker to shoot a movie in 3d than it is to shoot the movie in 4K with a simple RedCam.

I believe the difference between 1080p and so-called 4k is far more dramatic, far more stunning and far more desirable than the anything 3d has ever thrown at me. Every photographer and graphic artist will tell you that more pixels are better. Higher resolution is better resolution. Every gamer will tell you a higher res screen is a better screen. Every computer user will tell you that more screen real estate is better.

If I were you, I would toss the 3d thing on the back burner and work hard on the 4K thing. I will upgrade immediately for a reasonably priced 4K screen. 3d holds no interest for me.

3d a smash at CES? LaserVue puts plasma to shame...?

Or so they say here. Supposedly, 3d ready HDTVs like Mitsubishi's DLPs and Panasonic's Plasmas are the rage right now at CES. What is a 3d ready HDTV? It basically an HDTV which can take any Blu-Ray {and perhaps any HDMI digital input} and transform the standard flat 2d picture into a stereoscopic picture. This means you can sit in front of the DiamondScan or the Viera and watch Dark City, or Apocalypto or No Country for Old Men in 3d. All you need are the customary glasses. The original authors and engineers of the film and disk do not need to do anything special to permit this stereoscopic feature to function. Its all done, post-process, with our marvelous silicone digital signal processing technology.

Although I have never been a particular fan of 3d movies, I must admit, this is cool feature. It would be fun and cool to try it out with my library. It would give me a reason to go back and watch all my favorites again. I am skeptical it will work well {this technology has never worked well in my estimation} but it would be fun to try it. Based on the enthusiasm for the tech, it must be working better than I would presume.

But then again...

We come to the issue of LaserVue. If you read my past blog entries, you know what I think about LaserVue: Its a fraud. The emperor has no cloths on. I say this is as a commited DLP fan who wishes it would work. I am more likely to buy a Mitsubishi DiamondScan 835 than a LaserVue right now, and not because of LaserVue's price. I would finance it, if I though it would work better. It does not.

Nevertheless, somehow, someway, the lovely Alix Steel [will you marry me babby?] is all bubbly about how LaserVue puts Plasma to shame. She even embedded a small res video in her post to prove it... not that such a proof can prove her point. I hope you are right, Alix, but I am highly skeptical. One thing I will say is this: You are girl after my own heart. Image quality is more important than skinny screens.

I vow that I will give LaserVue another look soon. It may be that Mitsubishi debugged their shtick in the past few months. I was expecting major improvement with the next gen. So far we have no generational landmark, but Mitsubishi may be making improvements to the LaserVue firmware. This process did wonders for my mighty PS3.

In my last survey of the market, Panasonic's marvelous Viera PZ850 series proved itself to be a serious contender for the championship. If the LaserVue can put such a screen 'to shame' it will be worth every penny of the $7,000 they are asking for it. It is no mean task to crush the PZ850 series or the Pioneer Kuro Elite Pro.