(Image credit: Samsung)

One of my guilty home-cinema pleasures is that I absolutely adore James Cameron’s *Avatar *movies. Sure, the plot lines across all three films are practically identical, and the dialogue is as cheesy as a camembert wheel, but you can’t deny the spectacle and beauty found in the world of Pandora.

As I collected my 3D glasses from the desk at my local cinema to watch the latest addition in the form of *Avatar: Fire and Ash *a few weeks ago, I was filled with a sense of odd nostalgia.

The crushing fall

One of the biggest culprits… (Image credit: Future)

As you most likely know, that didn’t turn out very well. Despite a plethora of models hitting the shelves, the tech didn’t appeal to the average movie lover, for a variety of reasons. One of the main issues, of course, was that you had to wear glasses to watch 3D content – and some of those needed to be charged regularly.

Watching a movie in 3D also made multitasking a lot more difficult. That, as wrong as it may seem, is a common desire for many people these days when watching a film in their living room. Not exactly the most relaxing and easy of viewing experiences.

Another, more nebulous, disadvantage of the tech is that the 3D effect often becomes the figurative as well as literal focus, pushing the film’s story to the background. After all, if a film features lots of dramatic scenes that have been added purely to look cool in 3D, you will inevitably be distracted away from the quiet, more intimate moments.

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I was about seven years old when the tech was being rolled out for the home, and my parents did not fall victim to the 3D buzz. So we never had a 3D TV at home and I could only watch films in the format on the big screen. But, now that I’m older, I’m a little sad that the 3D boom died so quickly and didn’t get the chance to shine properly with the right technology.

3D isn’t completely gone from the world of home cinema. Some pricey projectors, such as the XGIMI Horizon Pro, still offer 3D capabilities. In the world of gaming, Samsung also recently unveiled a 6K 3D monitor named the Odyssey 3D G90XF, which can be experienced glasses-free. This 27-inch model comes with a rather eye-boggling price tag, however, costing £949 – and it’s not quite the same 3D experience we enjoy in the cinema.

The joy of feeling as though you can reach out and touch the image with a 3D movie is still with me, though, and seeing a film in the cinema in this format remains an unforgettable experience for me each time. It would be exciting to be able to enjoy spectacular blockbusters such as* Avatar *with that same feeling at home, with comfortable eyewear – or, ideally, with no glasses required at all.

Perhaps that 6K 3D Samsung monitor is a sign of things to come, and 3D screens in the home could make a resurgence.

I certainly hope so.

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Robyn Quick is a Staff Writer for What Hi Fi?. After graduating from Cardiff University with a postgraduate degree in magazine journalism, they have worked for a variety of film and culture publications. In their spare time, Robyn can be found playing board games too competitively, going on cinema trips and learning muay thai.

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