Ever since The Power of Love, which premiered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1922, 3D film has been a reality. The film was shown in red and green anaglyph which meant that the viewer could see the effect by wearing glasses with different colored filters for each eye. Since that time, 3D has had various success. From 1952 to 1955, a string of 3-D movies known as the “golden era” of 3-D began with the release of Bwana Devil. Then, after three decades of decline, 3-D movies came back into the mainstream with IMAX and Disney Theme Parks making several successful 3-D films such as Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, Into the Deep, and Wings of Courage. Inevitably though, the technology declined again until 2004 when the animated film The Polar Express made 14 times as much money in 3-D than it did in 2D. Numbers like that couldn’t be ignored by theaters which started fitting their theaters for 3-D. With the success of Avatar, which became the highest grossing film of all time over 15,000 screens are expected to be 3-D ready by the end of 2010.

As much money as 3-D movies were making in theaters, home television and electronic companies started to wonder if consumers would also buy into the hype with their products at home. By 2010, many of the major manufacturers such as Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic, and LG had made plans to introduce high definition televisions with 3-D capabilities by year’s end. At the same time, popular camera companies such as ARRI, Panasonic, Sony, RED, and Canon started releasing consumer and professional level camcorders and cameras that could shoot in 3-D. Even network television got in on the craze by introducing broadcasts of events in HD such as this year’s PGA Sony Open in Hawaii to viewers around the world. Read the rest of this entry »

It only took them $4B. And now Disney, owns more superheroes than Stan Lee. What does this mean for video enthusiasts? Well you can all probably expect a ton more superhero movies, as if there weren’t enough already. Except this time Wolverine is going to be wearing those cute little Mickey Mouse ears! With access to over 5,000 characters Disney is hoping to make even more profit off television and merchandise sales. Or as Disney President and Chief Executive Robert A. Iger put it, “We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation.” Disney’s big success has came with the young pre-teen demographic due to shows featuring the Jonas Brothers and “Hannah Montana.” They are hoping to bring in Marvel’s stranglehold on teen males as it has struggled to bring them in.  “It helps Disney add exposure to a young male demographic it had sort of lost some balance with,” Disney said. One thing is for sure, Marvel has definitely lost it’s edge for me. Sure, the Fantastic 4 movies didn’t help but this is really the end. Good bye cruel comic book world, hello Disneyland!

Netflix has announced that it will be teaming with ABC to bring seasons of certain top shows to it’s streaming video service. According to the agreement, Netflix will be streaming the seasons of Lost (1-5), Desperate Housewives (seasons 4 and 5), The Legend of the Seeker (seasons 1 and 2), Grey’s Anatomy (season 5). They will be available through Netflix’s  “Watch Instantly” streaming service. Netflix already streams Disney programs like Hannah Montana and The Wizards of Waverly Place. This is a very interesting time to watch  how streaming video is now taking over the forefront of online rental services like Netflix. With this announcement Netflix wil now be working with ABC, CBS and NBC to stream HD content to it’s subscribers. Will this be the future of the tv industry?