Introduction - 3DTV: Processing and Transmission of 3D Video Signals - page 11

Table 1.1 Selection of film titles released during the
1950s 3D boom, with movie ratings taken from IMDB

Title Year IMDB

Rating

The French Line 1953 5.1/10

Taza, Son of Cochise 1954 5.5/10

Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954 6.9/10

Dial M for Murder 1954 8.1/10

Bwana Devil 1952 5.2/10

House of Wax 1953 7.0/10

Man in the Dark 1953 6.2/10

It Came from Outer Space 1953 6.6/10

Kiss Me Kate 1953 7.2/10

Hondo 1953 7.1/10

Miss Sadie Thompson 1953 6.0/10

correctly set up. Typical problems included differences in projection lens
focal length, and differences in illumination of the two views. Furthermore,
if films became damaged, it was common practice for projectionists to
remove damaged frames. If the damaged frames were not removed from
both views, then temporal synchronization would be lost. Also, if we
consider that approximately 8% of the population cannot perceive stereo,
then there is a risk that the projectionist might not have had stereo vision,
making it very difficult for them to configure everything successfully.
According to Lipton [1], Polaroid conducted a survey of one hundred
stereo-equipped cinemas during 1953. The survey found that 25 of those
theatres were poorly set up, causing significant eyestrain among viewers.

• Corner cutting by cinemas - The cinemas attempted to reduce their costs by

using inferior screen coatings, and by using cheap polarizing glasses. This
meant that images were not as bright and sharp as they should have been,
and that the viewing experience using the glasses was poor.

When all of these difficulties became apparent, attention switched to alter-
native technologies for persuading television viewers to come to the cinema.
The principal enhancement that the studios considered was changing the
aspect ratio, making the screen wider. Examples of this technology include
CinemaScope, which changed the standard 1.37:1 aspect ratio to 2.66:1.

1.1.4 The1980sRevivalandtheArrivalof IMAX

Although the first 3D boom proved to be disappointingly short-lived, this
was not the end of interest in 3D from the public or the movie industry.
Certainly by the late 1970s, the movie industry was again concerned about