5 reasons 3D will bomb

We railed on 3D TVs during today's podcast, and you know what, the manufacturers deserve it. They deserve it for trying to force consumers into buying new, expensive 3D sets. Personally, I will not recommend a 3D TV to anyone. (Unless we see some incredibly low prices, which I highly doubt). Here's why I'm anti-3D:

1)Price: Right now you can buy a brand-name 120Hz LCD HDTV for roughly $600. (Don't believe me, take a look for yourself.) Even 52" models have finally hit the sub-$999 mark. If you just bought a new TV this holiday, why on earth would you want to drop two- or three-thousand dollars on a new 3D set.

2)Quality: Most of the 3D TVs I saw at CES last week looked good, I won't take that away from them. But how will my eyes feel after watching 3+ hours of consecutive 3D? Especially since I'll be wearing 3D glasses on top of my prescription glasses. And what about movies with subtitles. Text looked a little fuzzy in 3D. How will it look after staring at it for 2+ hours?

3)3D Glasses: Apparently, few 3D TVs will include 3D glasses out of the box. So what happens when you invite friends over to watch a 3D movie and they don't have glasses — or worst — they don't have 3D glasses that work with your TV (since they're all using different technologies.) Chances are, these glasses will be expensive, so I don't see people buying multiple glasses just to have lying around the house. Not to mention, many of the glasses require that you charge their batteries. Imagine watching a movie and having your glasses die out mid-movie. Not cool.

4)It's failed before: 3D TV is not new. Mitsubishi and Samsung released 3D DLP HDTVs years ago and guess what, they never caught on.

5)Content: Ok, so ESPN will broadcast some World Cup games in 3D and Discovery and Sony are planning a 24/7 3D network, but aside from that, what else is there to watch in 3D? Do you want to watch the 11 o'clock news in 3D? Food Network in 3D? You could get Samsung's upconverting 3D TV, which upconverts your current content to 3D, but I'm sure that will be absurdly expensive. 3D Blu-ray players are another option, but again, chances are your wallet will pay dearly for it.

The way I see it, manufacturers are jumping onto the 3D bandwagon because of Avatar. It's made millions of dollars, people have loved the 3D effects, and well, if you're going to hawk 3D products, now is the time. I'm thinking of getting a new LED-based LCD HDTV this summer, but this much I'll tell you — it won't be 3D.