3D at CES

by David English on January 15th, 2010

You can read elsewhere about the specific 3D devices that will be available this year for watching 3D content in your home. I don’t want to duplicate that. What I would like to do is give a quick time-line and perhaps ramp back expectations a bit.

You can expect to see 3D-compatible televisions (both LCD- and plasma-based), as well as 3D-compatible Blu-ray disc players, starting to stream in from the top manufacturers around May and June. New 3D-cable and 3D-satellite TV channels will start up around the same time with an emphasis on sports (ESPN), nature documentaries (Discovery), and premium pay-per-view content (DirecTV). Blu-ray discs that are 3D-compatible will trickle in through the second half of the year, led by recent 3D theatrical releases such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (slated for “summer”) and A Christmas Carol (fourth quarter).

How will the 3D home experience measure up with seeing Avatar in 3D at a movie theater? James Cameron has been pushing for theaters to adopt digital projection and 3D for almost a decade, and has been thinking about how to use the new medium creatively even longer, so expect the quality of other 3D content to be uneven at best. Sports, theatrical movies, and games will best show off the technology, but also expect a flood of quickly produced 3D material that may induce headaches and nausea, quite literally.

Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba will include a 2D-to-3D conversion feature with their 3D TVs. It provides real-time conversion of broadcasts, DVDs, home movies, or any other non-3D video you can route through the television. Samsung demoed this feature at CES with some sports video clips, and it wasn’t all that impressive. The company rep I spoke with didn’t know what criteria was being used (such as contrast and/or motion) to distinguish one focal plane from another.

How much more will the 3D TVs cost over traditional 2D TVs? The premium could be $200-$300 initially. Within a year or two, the gap will probably narrow to next to nothing, as all televisions above a moderate price point become 3D compatible.

Will 3D ever become popular enough that we would want to wear the funny glasses for the majority of programs? No one knows for sure. And glasses-free 3D TVs aren’t likely to be technologically or economically feasible anytime soon, though there are some promising prototypes.

I Want My 3D TV

by David English on October 7th, 2009

Prototype 3D televisions were a big draw at this year’s CEATEC, with Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, and Mitsubishi pushing hard to build consumer acceptance. So far, there’s no broadcast or disc-based 3D standard, either internationally or domestically in Japan, so any 3D television by necessity would have to be a prototype.

The 3D televisions use a field sequential technology (alternating frames), and they require the viewer to wear 3D-enabling glasses that are synced to the video content. The depth effect on the displays was quite good, possibly even better than the 3D television Panasonic demonstrated earlier this year at CES.

With a growing number of motion pictures being released in 3D, there is certainly great potential. But just as no one is absolutely sure if 3D movies will endure theatrically beyond an initial fad, the same is true for 3D home theater. The Japanese manufacturers are forging ahead, assuming the demand will be there when the technology is ready and the standards are in place.

The success of 3D television will largely depend on the success of the theatrical 3D movies. If they fail, broadcasters and other media distributors aren’t likely to assume the risk based purely on specialized content.

A Billion Colors

by David English on June 10th, 2008

Imagine a billion colors. Now imagine a computer monitor that can display a billion colors.

Behold the HP DreamColor LP2480zx. It’s the result of an unusual collaboration between HP and DreamWorks Animation. The 24-inch LCD monitor can handle 30-bits of color (that’s 10-bits per primary color), which translates to more than a billion different colors. Previously, you had to pay as much as $23,000 for a comparable monitor.

The big news for people working in video/film production, animation, 3D rendering, game development, graphic arts, product design, and other color-critical industries is the price of this new monitor. It has a surprisingly low list price (given what you get) of $3,499.

The other specs include a native 1920×1200 resolution, wide 178-degree viewing angle, and extremely deep black level for an LCD screen (0.05 cd/m2). It can cover 97 percent of the stringent DCI-P3 color space standard — that’s the full range of colors possible for a digital cinema theater.

I had a chance to test drive the DreamColor display last month while visiting the DreamWorks studios in Glendale, California. I was very impressed with its performance. Keep in mind, you’ll need a 30-bit compatible graphics card, graphics card driver, and application software in order to take advantage of the 30-bit color gamut. You’ll also need to connect the monitor via its DisplayPort 1.1 or HDMI 1.3 input if you want to view your 30-bit content in its full billion-color glory.