A few years ago, there was a giant format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD to decide the next major technology advance. Well now there is a new war starting, but instead of it being at home, it is in the movie theaters. The war is over, which 3D projection technology is the best. Right now, the leader is RealD with their polarized projection system. A close second is Masterimage who uses a similar, but also different polarized technique. The other major companies are Dolby, who uses an RGB technology, and XpanD, who uses the shutter glasses technology. The major problem with these four systems is that none of them are compatible with each other. This means that a theater that is set up to display RealD movies, can not display any other types, and vise versa. One of the major factors that will decide the fate of this 4-way battle is the price to manufacture the 3D glasses that we all love so much. RealD’s glasses are the cheapest, 65 cents, while XpanD are the most expensive, $50.

[via New York Times]