TV Makers Firm on Real-Time 2-D/3-D Conversion

CE giants raised eyebrows at the Consumer Electronics Show when they promised that their upcoming 3-D TVs would convert 2-D programming to 3-D in real-time. Critics dismiss real-time 2-D/3-D conversion as gimmickry, claiming the results are generally so spotty that even the casual observer can pick up on the parlor trick. The CE industry's content-production partners are skeptical at best.

But TV makers including JVC, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba insist that until there's a plethora of available 3-D programming, on-the-fly 2-D conversion is needed to make 3-D TV fly with consumers. Even first adopters will look for the conversion capability to justify the expense of the new sets, CE vendors believe.

It's a conviction born of experience. "Japanese consumer electronics companies got burned with their efforts to introduce 3-D via PCs," said Ikuo Matsumoto, executive director at 3-D market tracker Fujiwara-Rothchild, based here. "They failed miserably because too few 3-D titles were available at that time. They say they can't repeat the same mistake again."

So the CE industry is forging ahead with conversion methodologies, based for now on proprietary algorithms. JVC has been in the forefront of development and has licensed its conversion approach to Sensio Technologies (Montreal). Matsumoto expects 3-D TV sets using JVC's technology to appear on the market this year. Other conversion algorithms available for licensing include DDD's TriDef and technology from Mercury Computer Systems. Toshiba is working on a real-time conversion algorithm that leverages the company's powerful Cell processor, used in Cell TVs.

Matsumoto worries about two things. First, "if real-time 2-D/ 3-D conversion doesn't make images look good, it could literally kill 3-D," he said. Sources told EE Times the converted images range from "surprisingly good" to "unnatural," especially during scene cuts.

Perhaps more important, anyone hoping to arrest price erosion for flat-panel TVs by adding 3-D features may find the strategy's benefits short-lived, Matsumoto said. Samsung, for one, plans to ship 2 million 3-D TV sets this year. The faster the 3-D feature moves downstream through product lineups, the less time vendors have to milk 3-D's value-add.

At Nomura Securities, "our current 3-D TV market forecast is around 1.6 million units this year," global technology specialist Richard Windsor wrote in a recent research note. But given Samsung's plans, Windsor added, "this is already out of date."

By Junko Yoshida, EE Times