Group Peers into 3-D Future for Blu-Ray
The Blu-Ray Disc Association is developing its position on stereoscopic 3-D under growing pressure from Hollywood studios who want to create a home video market for their rising number of stereo 3-D movies.
"There are discussions going on right now, and we are putting together a public statement," said Andy Parsons, chairman of the association's marketing group.
At least four ad hoc industry groups formed just this year to explore standards for stereo 3-D on TV. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers held a meeting this week to form a task force to explore a 3-D content mastering standard. The Consumer Electronics Association will hold a meeting in October to determine if it should try to set standards potentially covering, TVs, set-top box and disk players.
Since 2007, studios have released or put on the drawing board as many as 80 stereo 3-D movie titles. At the Intel Developer Forum Wednesday (Aug. 20), Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said all his studio's animated movies starting next year will be created and available in stereo 3-D, a shift he said was as significant as the transitions to talkies and color.
Theoretically, the Blu-Ray group could take one of two broad approaches to stereo 3-D, said Parsons. It could decide to just pass through to HDMI ports any 3-D data on a disk letting the TV render it, or it could render the 3-D information locally which would require a significant addition to the Blu-Ray specification. If the group opts for the later approach it will need to define a standard format. In either case, the group wants to make sure any 3-D approach is compatible with its existing specification for 2-D content, Parsons said.
Many see Blu-Ray as the likely first vehicle to deliver stereo 3-D movies to the home. That's because the separate images for right and left eyes in stereo 3-D typically require significantly more bandwidth than 2-D images, creating trouble for broadcast delivery.
"The first real stereo 3-D for the home will be via Blu-Ray and for that you need a standard format," said a senior executive at one large consumer electronics company who asked not to be named.
"If everything goes perfectly this could happen in 2010 or 2011, but it never goes like that," the executive added. "Hopefully there will not be a format war."
Blu-Ray players and titles are just beginning to ramp up in the wake of Toshiba's decision earlier this year to abandon the rival HD-DVD format. About six million Blu-Ray players have shipped into the U.S. to date, most of them embedded in Sony Playstation3 consoles.
About 900 Blu-Ray titles are now available, more than double the number out just six months ago, Parsons said.
By Rick Merritt, EE Times
