High Definition makes sense, it’s standard television made up to four times clearer and sharper. It was clearly a worthwhile piece of technology, definitely far from being another CES fad. Let’s just think about how important its been for gaming. If you really think about it, its signalled the death – or at the very least, steady incline – of PC gaming, now that consoles can match the fidelity. That’s probably more of a personal opinion than a fact but let’s be honest HD has had it’s part to play in the massive paradigm shift affecting the industry.

HD is great, let’s sing praises from the rooftops and the rest of it. However, the next evolution in home entertainment is something I’m struggling to get to grips with, 3D Television.

With films like Avatar and Up coming out recently, 3D is having a bit of a shocking resurgence. I could moan about how it never really works but let’s be honest it’s simply a gimmick, or at least that’s what its been traditionally perceived as. But these new TVs that are taking the Computer Entertainment Show in Las Vegas by storm, aren’t your traditional red and blue glassed affairs. The big disappointment is that they still require the use of glasses although this a slightly more advanced than multicoloured acetate glued to cardboard.

Instead of your normal 24 frames per second, the output will be doubled to 48. Then half of these frames will be the image from the left perspective and the other half will be from the right. Your glasses – that are synced up through the use of Bluetooth, Infrared or another similar Wireless Technology – will be then block the alternative side. So while the TV is outputting the left frame, the right eye will be blocked and vice versa. Obviously this will be happening 48 times per second so you shouldn’t really notice the flickering and the resulting image will appear to be coming at you, or at least that’s the theory. It’s all incredibly clever but it’s far from perfect.

Can you really picture “seeing pubs investing in the screens and football fans having a laugh, wearing the dark glasses, and enjoying a big match” as Sean Hannam would have you believe. I guess it’s not really that surprising that the last line in that Telegraph piece mentions headaches, I’m surprised they don’t cause epileptic fits.

Gaming in 3D has always been somewhat of a curiosity for me, however, I’ve only dabbled in occasional experiments – most of  them resulting in purple and green cluttered remains of ridiculous Trackmania circuits. Nevertheless, I really want to give this technology ago but as I mentioned in rant about networks the other day – all technology should be invisible, alternately flickering glasses aren’t exactly concealed.

Despite being amazingly clever, it’s far from being the obvious next step for home televisions. I’ll happily predict that the uptake will underwhelm companies as this one will peter out as being the first technology craze of the decade.