James Cameron, the director of popular movies Avatar and Titanic, said at a technology forum in Seoul, South Korea, that TV stations should start shooting content in stereoscopic 3D format. The movie Avatar in stereo 3D theatres has managed to earn over $2 billion in revenue in several months time, but will stereo-3D TV-shows will make a profit for producers?

“(Big entertainment companies) cannot be afraid to shoot in 3D because tens of thousands of people all over the world are shooting in 3D every day. We're going to have 3D TVs all around us and we are going to need thousands of hours of sports, comedy and music and all kinds of entertainment," said James Cameron, reports Reuters news-agency.

Many TV-shows that are filmed in the U.S. and translated around the world are akin to some movies in terms of usage of special effects and cast. Needless to say that budgets of shows like FlashForward or Lost are very high. The question is whether producers would like to shoot high-quality TV-shows in 3D, provided that there are going to be only one or two stereo 3D channels in the U.S. with insignificant amount of viewers as well as zero major stereo-3D channels in Europe. Unlike movie producers, who can rely on cinemas to ensure that the right equipment is used for showcasing of films, TV show makers have to focus on technology that is used by end-users and those HDTV-sets in the vast majority of cases do not support stereo-3D.

Mr. Cameron reportedly stressed that it would prove cost effective over the long run for TV producers to learn how to shoot in 3D instead of trying to convert existing 2D content to the format.

“There is not going to be the time or the money to convert that. It's going to have to be shot live. We are going to learn how to do live shooting. The cost will come down on live 3D production,” said the legendary director.

Market tracking firm DisplaySearch forecasts that stereo-3D-capable TV shipments will be around 2.5 million worldwide. Besides, DisplaySearch predicts 27 million stereo-3D HDTV-sets to be shipped in 2013.

"You have got the channel, you have got the sets. The missing piece is content. You have got to get the content,” concluded James Cameron.

Tags: Stereo 3D, HDTV, Avatar, Blu-ray