Cox getting into 3D; ESPN 3D starts in June
March 30th, 2010, 2:54 pm · 19 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
Take a day off, miss some big 3D news. DirecTV offered us an update yesterday on one of its upcoming 3D TV channels. We knew ESPN 3D was coming, but now we know when: June 11. More notably, Cox Communications plans to air the upcoming Masters Tournament for all customers who have an HD receiver. That makes Cox the first cable TV provider in Orange County to make some sort of commitment to 3D.
Let’s start with Cox. The cable company will air the Masters Tournament next week from Augusta National Golf Club beginning Wednesday, April 7 (yes, that’s the event where we will all see Tiger Wood’s return to the sport). There will be two hours a day of live coverage, starting at 1 or 2 p.m, our time. The same coverage will also be available on demand (go to channel 1). If you’re not an eligible Cox subscriber, you can also view the 3D coverage at Masters.com if you have a 3D-compatible computer.
What will you see? “Viewers will be better able to depict the many subtleties and elevation changes of the course’s grounds,” says Cox.
The interesting note is that Cox is a cable company. And cable companies have complained about not having enough space to air more HD channels. Companies are tweaking the technology and playing with available bandwidth in order to squeeze more HD into a customer’s house. Cox, for example, has turned some regular TV channels into on-demand only so that they are not broadcasting 24/7. When a customer wants to view the channel, it starts airing as if it were broadcasting 24/7.
Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, is also airing the Masters Tournament in 3D. Here’s a good explanation about how Comcast is doing 3D by Engadget, “Comcast’s 3D Masters broadcast explained.”
Time Warner Cable and other TV companies have said very little about their 3D plans. The TV company leading the effort is DirecTV, which announced in January that it will offer three 3D channels this year (see earlier story,”Who’s bringing 3D content to 3D HDTVs“).
(Update: Time Warner will also air the Masters Tournament in 3D. More to come later.)
The big one is ESPN 3D, which plans to broadcast sporting events filmed with 3D cameras. It goes live June 11. The new channel kicks off with the 2010 FIFA World Cup matches. In its first year, ESPN 3D plans to offer a minimum of 85 live events in 3D, including X Games 16, 2010 college football ACC Championship, 2011 BCS National Championship game, college basketball and NBA games.
DirecTV HD customers who subscribe to ESPN will get the new channel at no extra cost. A software update will be pushed out to all DirecTV HD customers just before the launch. The company’s other two 3D channels — an on-demand channel and a pay per view channel — will also launch in June.
Either way, DirecTV and Cox customers will need a few things to get the 3D experience. Consumers must have a 3D HDTV, which are today available from several brands (see list below. Most of today’s 3D TVs also require 3D glasses.
| New 3D TVs for 2010 | 3D Blu-ray players | Other 3D | More on 3D |
|---|---|---|---|
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More 3D TV news:
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What a waste of bandwidth! How many Cox customers have a 3D TV? 10? 100?
Why isn’t Cox (or Sony, etc.) setting up some places where you can go see the technology? Maybe I’ll wait for version 2.
Uh, that’s why they’re doing it – to SELL the TV’s.
Gee Dub – you don’t go to the Sony store at South Coast Plaza much do you? They’ve had a TV set up with this 3-D technology for several months. I saw the presentation and it is impressive.
The difference between 3-D and 2-D is a major jump in technology. People will make up their own minds about the effect of this, but the reality is that 3-D is here and its going to improve our ability to visualize data.
I welcome this work and applaud Cox for making the effort to bring the technology forward. This is a major effort to break through some technology barriers which have been mostly false perceptions and can be broken by the accelerating digital processing.
The Sony demo was really cool when you watch the FIFA soccer stuff. The difference was really impressive.
But, remember that in order to record, play, and show this stuff, you have to redo the cameras. Plus, the directors need to rethink how they shoot scenes.
Some will not initially adopt. That’s no different than the people who stayed listening to the radio while others were getting the new TV.
Good points…and this “journalist” is truly craptacular.
“There will be two hours a day of live coverage, starting at 1 or 2 p.m…”
It’s just too much work to VERIFY this information, eh?
And, it’s Tiger Woods’ return, not Tiger Wood’s. His last name is not Wood. At least, not anymore!
On the other hand KTLA Channel 5 began broadcasting in HD in October 1998, when NOBODY had an HD set yet (they were not available)
KTLA’s commitment to HD broadcasting was not without a reason. The studios and transmission facilities all needed to be upgraded in order to support HD technology. Remember that there were conflicting standards for HD signals. When KTLA made the jump, they were sending a better and higher resolution image to the older NTSC TV’s anyway. This improved the image clarity and the the quality of signal over all improved, even if the receiver was NOT HD.
In this same way, you would expect that the resolution of the digital TV signals from the Masters will also surpass other sporting events in quality. We should especially see this effect on High Def channels.
No thank you. Not interested in 3D viewing AT ALL!
3D Glasses interfere with my bluetooth headset
The 3D glasses interfere with my antennas.
Now I get it. With the 3D we can watch the front of his pants move whenever he sees a Blonde. Who says Television’s dead?
3D? Bwana Devil revisited. It was crap then and it’s crap now. Everything I look at is 3D, maybe we should just leave it that way. What;s next an improved straight line?
Tiger’s behavior interferes with me watching The Masters period.
Wasn’t Rachel Uchitel in “DOUBLE D?”
This is so stupid. Can’t wait for monthly bills to skyrocket across the board thanks to this. Providers think ESPN charges too much now? Can’t wait for what will happen when a few losers demand 3d. It’s already been documented that this will not only require separate cameras, but separate broadcasters as well, hell, almost everything. Not to mention all the bandwith problems we hear about. Because of that we are missing plenty channels (having to wait for satellites to orbit or adapters to be passed out) and the ones we do get, even in HD, are compressed and look like crap
Networks and providers still don’t know how to do HD right (if you saw real HD, you’d be impressed. Go into a sports production truck of the real thing before it goes through the mess the viewers get to see, and even a guy with ED would get excited). They compress, they crop, they cover the image with useless crap, and now moving on to the next thing…
They SHOULD charge extra for this, just like a premium channel… 3d is an awful idea imo
If this brings down the cost of the LED TV’s, then great. I could care less about 3D TV.
“If this brings down the cost of the LED TV’s, then great. I could care less about 3D TV.”
It’s “couldn’t” care less.
[...] From the Gadgetress: “Let’s start with Cox. The cable company will air the Masters Tournament next week from [...]
Stopped watching Tiger Woods anymore since I found out yesterday that he lied about being a victim in first grade by a nonexistent racial attack by white sixth graders. He was supposedly tied up and painted with slurs. This was denied by the first grade teacher and substantiated by other teachers at the school. I’m so disappointed of him and his lying and cheating.
Lets see…we all went out and bought a flat screen TV, then we all went out and bought a wide screen HD digital TV and now we are all going to go out and buy a 3-D TV…Are you guys sure about that???
I saw the first 3-D movies that hit the theaters and all I remember was taking home these cardboard funny glasses…pardon me if I do not run to Best Buy next week for another new TV.