Groups Take in Depth Look into 3D Television
The Blu-Ray Disc Association is in the process of developing a position on stereoscopic 3D. The Association’s activity is at least partially in response to growing pressure from Hollywood studios desirous of creating a home video market for their rising number of stereo 3D movies.
"There are discussions going on right now, and we are putting together a public statement," said Andy Parsons, Senior Vice President, Advanced Product Development, Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. and Chairman of the Association’s Marketing Group.
Theoretically, the Blu-Ray group could take one of two broad approaches to stereo 3D. It could decide to just pass through any 3D data on a disk to HDMI ports, letting the TV render it. Alternately, the 3D information could be rendered locally which would require a significant addition to the Blu-Ray specification. If the Association opts for the later approach it will need to define a standard format. In either case, the Association wants to make sure any 3D approach is compatible with its existing specification for 2D content.
The separate right and left eye images required for stereo 3D typically require significantly more bandwidth than 2D images. This, in turn, creates difficulty for broadcast delivery. For this reason, many see Blu-Ray as the likely first vehicle to deliver stereo 3D movies to the home. With this case, a standard format is needed. If everything goes perfectly, this could happen in 2010 or 2011. That is, assuming that there isn’t 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.
The Blu-Ray Association is not alone in thinking through issues related to 3D at home. At least four other industry groups were formed just this year to explore standards for stereo 3D on television:
- The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recently held a meeting to form a task force to explore a 3D 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.
- The 3D@Home Consortium has gathered members from as many as 30 companies and organized to facilitate the development of industry standards and their dissemination, create and publish useful technical roadmaps and develop educational materials for training, consumer and retail channels.
- The Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California has formed a 3D working group chaired by a representative from Dolby Labs. It aims to define the core issues for driving 3D content into the home. The lab is courting technology companies to install a broad range of existing 3DTV gear at the lab for tests and demonstrations.
In addition, Insight Media recently published an industry report entitled 3D Television Report.
Since 2007, studios have released or put on the drawing board as many as 80 stereo 3D movie titles. There will be more to come. The most recent word on that topic was spoken at the recent Intel Developer Forum. Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said all his studio’s animated movies starting next year will be created and available in stereo 3D, a shift he said was as significant as the transitions to talkies and color.
If I were a betting man, I would lay down money that 3D in the home is really - at long last - going to happen. The only question is: how fast will it happen?
By Art Berman, DisplayDaily
