Sony's not pushing autostereoscopic displays because full sized displays simply aren't commercially viable products at this stage of development.

Current designs offer too limited viewing angles (for the 3D effect) for a big screen living room set up to say nothing of the cost issue if alternate technologies in development were used instead. It should be pointed out that the Sharp displays used in the 3DS date back to about 2004-2005 and do not represent bleeding edge tech in autostereoscopic displays.

When full sized autostereoscopic HDTVs with 3D viewing angles that can be observed by a room full of people become available, current shutter glass based 3D HDTVs will be priced budget product cheap by comparison, at which point glasses free autostereoscopic HDTVs will be marketed as the upscale premium 3D experience.

By that point, I would imagine there will be quite a few 3D ready HDTVs in households that don't even own a single pair of shutter glasses.

So how are you going to watch 3D TV or 3D Blu-ray movies on the 3DS? exactly, you wont. Not mainstream.

can someone of those saying "no more glasses" please explain 3d technology , becuase that is so stupid it must be a confusion, you guys are asking for soething and have no idea how it works. the only way to do 3d without glasses right now is if only one person watches the screen.

That's the rub isn't it? Nintendo has yet to formally release any information regarding studio deals for media distribution on the 3DS.

Without studio support, there is no 3D movie content although I'm sure any studio producing 3D movies would want as many people to buy and view them as possible, including on the 3DS.

But until we see the actual 3D media distribution plan laid out, it's pretty much a case of counting chickens before they've hatched to state that we'll all be watching 3D movies like Avatar on our 3DSs upon release.

I explained the tech already, hopefully educated at least one person.

Its obvious that the technology will not be mainstream until the time comes when people can buy a TV without glasses which is in 3D. The 3DS is mainstream because it doesn't require glasses whereas the TVs currently selling are not due to price and the requirement to wear glasses.

This sort of illustrates part of the problem though.

Assuming many of the posters here are more savvy about leading edge technology than the average consumer, if they don't understand the current barriers in producing viable big screen autostereoscopic displays for the living room (ones that aren't ridiculously expensive, or only 3D viewable by those sitting directly centered in front of the display), then the "average, clueless consumer" probably isn't going to get it either.

But I think it's safe to say that the "average, clueless consumer" already associates the 3D viewing experience with glasses since that's how it's done in the theaters where virtually all consumers currently view 3D content.

ssj12 is the only one making sense here

Even if the 3DS gains movie support doesnt this end up becoming the same bitch Sony had over UMD movies and movies on the PSP in general? Its to small of a screen for anyone to really enjoy watching movies on. A 5 minute youtube video is fine, but 2 hour feature film is a bit extreme and eye straining. I can for one present the example of my copy of National Treasure 2 that I had with my PSP-3000 bundle. I watched it, but had a massive headache after due to eye strain. And i had it tilted all nice so I could see the screen nicely from a 3 foot distance.

I really dont see how the 3DS will help push 3D entertainment much farther than portable gaming. It is no movie watching machine. And it will not push matured 3DTVs into glassesless tech any faster than how long it will probably realistically take (5 - 10 years).

yes i notice you know how it works. It makes me mad when i see people saying, "why cant everything be like the 3ds", and then attack other companies that work making tvs as if its because they are lazy, when the freaking technology depends in the positions of the eyes and it was so easy to use it on a handheld and now nintendo is behaving as if they are heroes when they just choose the cheapest option(again).