I will wait and see if it is a gimmick with limited programs to see or still has inherent issues for many with prolonged viewing.
Alot of the manufactures seem to be promoting real time algorithims to convert everything to pseudo 3D, and TV networks are promising 3D channels. Have they trialed these systems with repeated prolonged viewing times in living room conditions? When asked about prolonged viewing and headaches some manufactures are apparantly recommending viewing for only 2.5-3Hrs or saying it may cause somepeople to suffer headaches.
The inherent problem of 3D (using binocular disparity) on a 2D display is the conflict between
Convergence, eyes converge on the object of intrest
Accomodiation (focus), eyes lenses focus on the object of intrest
They do not have any accomodation, so the eye is always having to correct its focus as objects of intrest do not change focus distance in the third dimension as the eyes/brain expects them to with the change in convergence. This is particularly bad with rapid movement in the third dimension and gets worse the closer the object appears to be to the viewer by the display using binocular disparity to fool the eyes/brain.
The eyes/brain can not learn to dis-join the link between convergence and accomodation, it ends up bobing between the two when they do not tally. Except in the case of scare stories about children viewing too much 3D, in Japan has lead to atleast one claim of a child going permanetly cross-eyed.
As well as causing eyestrain the lack of accomodation leads to the unrealistic representation of the subject of intrest being infocus with the background out of focus but looking like you should be able to focus on it due to convergence, or the whole image being infocus despite convergence saying it should not be. This can make it appear abit like a childs pop up book.
The effectiveness of the displays also varies between viewers depending how much their eyes/brian rely on monocular and binocular depth cues, only 1% or less of people are blind in one eye, but their are estimates of upto 5-8% being stereo blind, they see with both eyes but do not combine depth cues, and anywhere from 6-30% with some impairment to stereo vision. But that does leaves 70%+ who will see the full effect.
They also do not have movement parallax, as your eyes and head move the images remain fixed views, so you need to keep your head still for best effect.
They do not fool the inner ear, so if they are very convincing with rapid point of view - camera movement they are likely to induce nausea with some viewers, as the brain trusts the inner ears more than the eyes, if the eyes say your moving and the ears say your not, it can cause the brain to assume your hallucinating due to eating something poisonous. Since the displays occupy a relative small part of the viewers field of view this is unlikely to be a problem with 3D TVs as the peripheral vision is most sensitive motion. Which leads to another limitation they occupy too little of the field of view, the real world is not displayed in a little box in the center of the field of view.
Of the varying methods of achieving binocular disparity. Circular polarizaton glasses as used by RealD and displays with passive glasses, can suffer some cross-polarization ghosting. This maybe distracting - annoying if it occurs too frequently. Shutter glasses in sync with the display have no ghosting and the displays using 240fps, 120fps per eye look good as they are using even pull down with 24fps film sources 5:5 and they are well over the 75fps generally needed for most people to not percieve flicker with bright displays. The shutter systems using 120fps, 60fps per eye maybe less good, as they are using uneven pull down 3:2 with 24fps film sources so introducing a bit of motion judder, and are below the 75fps needed for most people to not percieve any flickering. CRT TVs could get away with 50Hz PAL and 60Hz NTSC because they occupied a small part of your field of view, and peripheral vision is most flicker sensitive, the flat pannels also occupy a small field of view but the shutter glasses cover your whole field of view and are the things rapidly flicking on/off. Dolby 3D using different narrow band RGB filters for each eye would be the best system for projectors but is impractical for flat pannels. Displays without glasses using leticular lenses or parallax barriers usually have limited sweetspots for viewing are more expensive to make and may compromise some 2D or 3D picture quality - resolution.
I think it would have been more advantageous if they had gone with increasing frame rates of the filming as the next improvement in picture quality, improving temporal resolution. The frame rate of capture determines how blurry the image needs to be in scenes with motion, so that judder is not perceived. It is why films use a short depth of focus on moving shoots to make the moving background go out of focus. With higher frame rates the background could be kept sharper, and this would provide more depth cues, making traditional 2D images appear to have more depth as well as 3D ones.
I have found several papers on the internet about eyestrain induced by 3D
"Stereoscopic 3-D display with optical correction for the reduction of the discrepancy between accommodation and convergence"
Which attempts different solutions to the problem of "Many cases of asthenopia-induced headaches are caused by an inability to achieve accommodation or convergence"
Asthenopia symptoms are headache, tearing, eye smarting, blurred vision, double vision, ocular itching, photophobia, blinking, nausea, eye heaviness.
"Eyestrain induced by stereogram on 3-D display. Differences between types of correction"
Which says in the summary "15 min of sustained visual load, the near point of accommodation was prolonged significantly in the groups without correction and with soft contact lenses(SCL), and accommodative contraction and relaxation times were significant delayed in the groups without correction, with hard contact lenses(HCL), and with SCL but not in the group with spectacles"
"Significant increase in the rating questionnaire was found in the subjective symptoms of "eyestrain", "eye heaviness", "clouding", "eye dryness" and "irritation of eyes" after loading in the groups without correction, with hard contact lenses (HCL), and with soft contact lenses (SCL). In the spectacle group, there was no significant change in the subjective symptoms of "clouding" and "eye dryness"
So it may not be good for prolonged viewing for somepeople with glasses due to lack of adaption making the eyes work hard, and some with contact lenses due to eye irratation.
"Reduction of asthenopia related to accommodative relaxation by means of far point stimuli" which also deals with 3D displays and the possible reduction of asthenopia they can cause. Out of 22 students, 10 shifted to hypermetropic and suffered no adverse effects, 12 shifted to myopic with increased chance of suffering symptoms of asthenopia.
It does not state how many had contact lenses, specticles, etc.. But it looks like alot of people just under half will be completely happy with 3D even if these issues have not been solved.
It maybe like front projector dlp rainbow effect, some are very sensitive and find them unwatchable or get headaches or feel ill, others are not sensitive and dismiss those that are as not having the display setup right, or exagerating. Dlp when first launched was only 2x colorwheel speed and I expect Texas Instruments thought it worked find, they may have been suprised by the number of complaints and loss of potential sales caused by worry over dlp rainbows they got. I hope manufactures of these 3D displays have tested/trialled them and can confidently reasure any potential purchasers that they will not induce eye-strain or headaches anymore than a traditional 2D display.
I hope this is not an issue, or has been solved.
If it is an issue I hope it only occurs with prolonged viewing or can be reduced by filming 3D within certain restrictions, like current 2D filming at 24fps requires a short depth of field and not too fast pans on movement to prevent perception of jerking movement and potential viewer nausea.