3D Movies Showing Up Some Viewers’ Problems – People across the country are packing movie theaters to see Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and other new 3D movies, but some with less-than-perfect vision in both eyes are leaving with headaches, nausea, blurred vision or dizziness. Even a small misalignment of clear vision in both eyes can cause discomfort, according to opthalmologists. If you cannot see with both eyes simultaneously, the 3D movie can fall flat. Many people are unaware they have anything wrong until they watch a 3D movie and experience the symptoms. If your eyesight is less than perfect, watching 3D won’t cause vision damage, but it might be a good sign that it’s time to visit a vision doctor. Less than 5% of the population have visual disabilities severe enough to make 3D viewing difficult or impossible, but as many as 12% may have some sort of problem with their binocular vision. Supervised vision therapy can usually improve the binocular vision that is required for 3D viewing. It is similar to binaural hearing – a small percentage of people who can hear well still cannot experience the increased realism of binaural headphone recordings – partly because they are not getting equal signals from their opposing ears. Here are two little self-tests for your binocular vision that you can do online: The Framing Game; The Eye Hop Game. Despite the possible discomfort for some viewers, 3D movies and TV are not going away.
Men’s Hearing Loss Caused by Analgesics – New research suggests that use more than twice a week of aspirin, acetaminophen and other analgesics can substantially increase the risk of hearing loss – especially in men under 50. The American Journal of Medicine reports that acetaminophen doubles the risk of hearing loss, ibuprofen and NSAIDs increase it by two-thirds, and aspirin increases hearing loss by about a third. The research surveyed nearly 27,000 men who filled out questionaires every two years, and they were asked if their hearing loss, if any, had been professionally documented.
Onkyo Has First THX-certified 3D-Ready AV Receiver – Get ready for the onslaught of “3D-Ready” AV gear. Onkyo will deliver this month three new 3D-Ready HT receivers and three home-theater-in-a-box systems. All of them decode both lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio bitstreams, and use 192K/24-bit Burr-Brown PCM1690 DACs which are resistant to clock jitter and have a 113dB dynamic range. The flagship TX-SR608 is 7.2 channel THX-Select2 Plus-certified and 100 watts per channel. Audyssey DSX dimensional sound processing has been added to its Dolby ProLogic IIz capabilities. All video sources are upscaled to 1080p via HDMI and Faroudja DCDi Cinema and there is also a front HDMI input. There are five other HDMI inputs, Sirius Radio connections and simplified connections to optional iPod docks and HD Radio tuners. This receiver will be available next month at $599. The use of the latest HDMI v. 1.4 on the entire line eliminates all pass-thru products and allows HD audio formats to be used on all models.
Sharp to Launch Fourth Color in TV Displays – Sharp promises to deliver in the second half of this year new TVs – including 3D models – incorporating a brand new patented LED technology that delivers a fourth color to the traditional three-color RGB spectrum used in most TVs. They say the addition of yellow to the traditional red, green and blue will deliver an improved viewing experience in their new Aquos TVs. The high end displays which Sharp makes for Sony will not use the new technology. Sharp also will have at the same time a range of systems using their new Quad Pixel technology, as well as several 3D TVs.
