Let me put a name to the rumor- This was born as a prediction by Philip Swan, a recognized TV analyst, of PC Magazine about a year ago. ESPN officially says there is no truth to his prediction and they are increasing budgets for the channel for additional crews and events. I got that from the executive producer. And no, she is not a personal friend but just the person who responded to my inquiry about your spreading these rumors. ( Don't worry, I didn't tell her your name.) It is true that the advertisers are thin for this startup but ESPN understands this. While I will admit that no venture is guaranteed a winner in the first year, ESPN has a commitment to stay the course as long as even just 3D companies are the only advertising clients. After all, where else would a 3D producer best advertise his 3D TV's, 3D Blu Ray movies, new theatrical 3D releases, than a 3D TV channel? To claim that the only advertisers that ESPN can get for their 3D channel are those in 3D or making 3D as a cause for channel failure is stupid ( IMO ). But, that was the basis for PS's claim it will fail. In a few months, people went from quoting PS to making claims the channel failure was a fait accompli. As the year ended I thought most smart people realized this was just a false prediction made by another press guy with a title. But then you started with the "I know the date they will pull the plug!" Strange, that you seem to be the only one who knows that. Did you also know and learn from your friend at ESPN, that DirecTV is going full time with it's airing of ESPN 3D? Maybe not because I just learned that today. I find it strange that DirecTV is going full time with ESPN 3D at the same time ESPN is pulling the plug on the channel. Lets see who is lying to us!
I don't know what 3D conversion has to do with this thread but the systems I saw used at ESPN3D are twin cameras with variable IA. Their productions are pure stereographic cameras. But, I've seen some pretty good conversions of 2D motion pictures. This is not the 2D - 3D switch you have in your TV. While this technology doesn't create solids in stereo, it does create some nice depth enhancement as a look, I think best suited for surreal content, like animations. I appreciate some not liking the look of conversions and that is OK with me. I'm one of the few who doesn't like 3D IMAX look and that's my choice. Fortunately, here, I have a nice choice to see an IMAX 3D movie in IMAX, regular 3D or 2D. When I go to see an IMAX 3D movie, I sit all the way in the back!
I seem to like things that were actually shot in 3D then things which were converted to 3D.
