I’m in the fortunate position of getting to visit a few tradeshows now and again. It’s fun, but most of the time there’s a lot of bigger, faster, better than before happening and not much real innovation.

This year though 3D TVs seem to have exploded, seemingly out of nowhere, from the labs and into… well, if not production then at least “tradeshow demo” status.

We’ve all seen the red/blue glasses and if you’ve ever been to a IMAX 3D showing you’ll know what a professionally produced 3D image can look like.

The glasses are a PITA though – that and the associated increases in production costs are why it’s never really taken off. It’s even worse if you wear spectacles for normal viewing, the 3D glasses are just uncomfortable on top of normal specs.

So what’s changed? Well recently I saw a 42” flat screen projecting 3D images with a real sense of depth (both into and out of the screen). I wasn’t wearing special 3D glasses and I was in a group of people who could all see the effect from a fairly wide viewing angle (not as wide as a normal picture, but you didn’t have to be spot on the target to see the effect). Hyundai are actually selling a TV using this technology in Japan (pictured).

So the display technology is maturing to the point where it’s becoming feasible – that’s point one.

Now look at production. Essentially to make 3D content you need two viewpoints. They don’t have to be separated by much - you only need the distance between your own eyes - but it’s still two cameras. More than that, it’s 2 sets of film to sync up and edit which just takes time.

Until you go digital.  Now your equipment is (relatively) tiny, it’s cheaper than ever before and keeping the footage in sync is far simpler. So using 2 cameras to get a stereoscopic viewpoint is perhaps not so crazy any more.

It’s even easier with animated movies, you just render it twice and move the “camera” between runs – your only cost there is render time (another thing that’s getting cheaper and cheaper as technology matures)

So will we all be watching 3DTV this year? No – but in 5 years? I wouldn’t bet against it. We’ve already got Hollywood producing 3D movies this year so the content is on the cards. The pieces are in place, they just need to come together…

This is probably going to be the first of many rants about the drive to make everything possible "mobile". Just because you can, doesn't mean you should... At CES a couple of years ago the industry buzz was around mobile video - ways to deliver it, devices for consuming it, stores to buy it etc etc.

Clearly I'm not "in the know". I don't have any access to sales figures or forecasts so I'll have to go on common sense: Does anybody spend money on downloading an episode of lost/desperate housewives/big brother/whatever to watch in jerk-o-vision on a crappy 320*240 screen, when they could just wait a couple of hours and watch it on the 40" telly at home? Really? Sure, I could see myself catching up on the news or watching a podcast if I've got an hour to kill but those services are essentially free. Plus I don't care about the quality too much. Actually spending money on a mobile download though? I just don't get it.

Prediction time: Mobile TV will not be the killer app that lights up the 3G airwaves and makes the world a better place! Just like WAP it won't go away, because its here now so why not keep it around, but I don't see it growing.

This assumes portable playback devices stay as limited as they are now. If somebody invents a 3 foot wide holographic screen, all bets are off but until then the mobile viewing experience will just remain painful. And yes, I know the N95 is pretty good but it's all relative - "pretty good" compared to other phones, but "woefully inadequate" compared to a decent TV.

This site has (as yet) no traffic as it's just getting started, but if one day you find this in google and happen to have spent money on a TV / video download to your phone - leave a comment and tell me why, OK?

(image courtesy of letsgomobile.org, reporting last year that the mobile video market was set to explode)