The NFL in 3-D: No "gimmicks," but plenty of depth

Last night's Chargers vs. Oakland game was a snoozer for most of us; not so for the select few who got to watch the game live in 3-D, a first for the NFL.

The AP reports that the 3-D transmission—shown Thursday night in three theaters (one in New York, another in L.A., and a third in Boston)—was mostly a success, save for a couple of satellite "glitches" that caused the screen to go dark for a few minutes.

Overall, though, audiences were "in awe" of the 3-D image, which "gave the feeling of being on the field," the AP gushed.

L.A. Times technology blogger Jon Healey was a bit more measured—he called the 3-D presentation "noticeably better" than what you'd see on your HDTV at home, if not exactly "jaw-dropping."

While there weren't any "gimmicky" shots of Philip Rivers firing a strike right at your head, the "added depth" of the 3-D image "provided a real sense for what you'd see from the sidelines," Healey reports.

So what did he see, exactly? "Instead of crowded jumbles of players flattened against the screen, you'd see each of them distinctly, and the space around them." That's pretty cool—indeed, I bet 3-D would give us at home a much better sense of what, say, a pass rush feels like (pretty scary, I'm guessing), or how Devin Hester manages to turn hapless kickoff units into Swiss cheese.

Did Healey get a headache from watching four quarters of football through 3eality's 3-D goggles? Nope: the glasses were "easy on the eyes," he says, while "pictures were crisp." (Make sure to click through to Healey's post for more details.)

OK—so when will regular NFL fans like us get a crack at this? Hard to say; the AP reports that the NFL "has not decided what to do with the technology," but that team owners will be discussing 3-D broadcasting in the coming months.

Update: Eric Taub of the New York Times was also impressed, but prefered the 3-D-enabled HDTVs in the VIP room to watching on the big screen. "The sense I got in the theater was that I was watching the action through a very large picture frame, with the players receding into the distance," Taub writes, adding that on the "smaller and brighter television image, the 3D effect ... brought a nice depth to the program, making it somewhat more engaging." Interesting.

Related:
The NFL, live and in 3D [L. A. Times technology blog]