(December 21, 2009) The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) announced last week an industry-wide standard for 3D high definition content on disc. The HD Guru reveals here details not contained within that press release.
According to Futuresource Consulting, a U.K. specialist research and knowledge-based consulting company with expertise in consumer electronics, “next generation 3D Blu-ray players will be available in the second quarter of 2010“â€â€far earlier than other reporters’ predictions. Full HD 3D Blu-ray content will appear at the same time as the players’ introduction, as occurred with the previous format releases of DVD and 2D Blu-ray.
Futuresource  Consulting’s press release obtained by HD Guru states that “…3D-enabled BD players will be available in Q2 next year to support the major push on 3D TVs that will start at CES and build throughout the year. Further interest will be driven by owners of PS3 consoles, which will be able to play ‘Blu-ray 3D’ content.”
Sony, LG and Panasonic have already announced plans to launch 3D products in 2010. Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba publicly displayed prototypes of their respective 3D designs in 2009. The industry wide Blu-ray 3D standard requires all players to output Full HD (1920 x 1080p) 3D resolution.
The BDA press release highlights are:
- 3D players deliver 1080p Full HD to the each eye
- 3D players are standardized to operate with any brand or model 3D-enabled HDTV
- 3D players will play standard 2D Blu-ray discs as well as 3D ones
- Current Blu-ray players will all be able to play 3D titles, however only in 2D
- PlayStation 3 game console will be upgradable to play 3D titles in 3D
- Standard includes new graphic features, such as 3D menus and subtitles
In an email response to questions regarding the new Blu-ray 3D standard, a BDA representative revealed players may output 3D 1080p HD at a 48 frame per second rate (fps). This output represents sequential alternate frames of the left and right 24fps motion picture film. 3D Blu-ray players can also output 3D as 1080p/120 Hz.
A number of 3D HDTVs will display at 120 Hz (as demonstrated by Panasonic’s 50″ and 103″ plasma prototypes) while others will choose to upconvert all HD 3D and 2D content to 240 Hz, the refresh rate cited by some LCD manufacturers in their 3D demonstrations.
With unified support of a 3D Blu-ray standard by the Hollywood movie studios and the TV manufacturers, a format war has been avoided that would have resulted in consumer confusion and doubt. The industries are expected to join together at the International CES in Las Vegas next month to roll out the first consumer 3D displays and Blu-ray players.
With great pleasure HD Guru announces its new 3D dedicated website, HDGURU3D.com. We intend to make it the go-to source for 3D information, product reviews, news and much more.
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Edited By Michael Fremer. If you’re looking for great music to play on your home theater/audio system, check out Michael’s website (link)
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If I have a 240hz tv such as the UN46B8500, will I be able to convert it to a 3D tv since it has 240hz?
Is the Mitsubishi L65-A90 Laservue able to play this new 3D content? Can the PC output this new 3D content to the television?
I have a couple of answers for some, and more q’s for others.
600HZ Sub Field is by no means faster that 120hz/240hz – it is regular 60 hz split down into 10 subfields – so it changes 1/10 of its pixels 600 times a second, or Each pixel 60 times. It creates a more fluid (yet Spaced in scene changes) images. 480hz does this in groups of 8.
HDMI 1.4 is a new standard – it governs a Minimum operation spec of the required HW/SW. This DOES NOT mean that all the Cables/Equipment you currently own is instantly Obselete – it just does not Comply anymore. It may (or may not) still offer the desired effect you require for your setup. Most of the cabling i own is 1.3 spec, but not certified – and its works fine, and from what i have seen on the web, 1.4 is still 10.2Gbps (although some say 20) – it’s for that fact that the major enhancement, 4K Video (4096×2160p24) can ONLY be 24hz, cause any higher goes over the bandwidth availability. the Wiki even says 1.3 cabling can support everythin of 1.4 but the ethernet channel that is introduced in 1.4.
Also the PS3 WILL be upgraded to HDMI 1.4 Via a firmware Update, as will the XBOX360 – from what i have read.
The Thing i still don’t get is Why the 3D movies have to be run at 100/120 hz – when all video is kept at 24hz, or upconverted to 50/60 hz – so in theory, the fact that 24hz camera is more than enough for a theater to supply us 2d, and 2 of those cameras can supply us with 3d, why wouldn’t a 24hz signal + 1(or 6) frames x 2 be good enough to provide us with 3d – 50/60 hz is more than twice the original 24 hz, and we are only working with 2 eyes and 2 cameras. i understand that the theatre can overlay these signals, whereas a tv can only Show one frame at a time, but….
Hold up, i think i am answering all my own questions here – As said Before by GURU – the signal flickers, so obviously the eye is not fast enough to see 1/24 images per second, but gets lost with 2/48 images, evey second frame makes up an image for each eye – so each eye would only see 24 frames for .5 of a second each (total). This will also happen in the faster rates, but 4/96 images per second means that each eye has half the time between refreshed images – and 100/120 is the regular video standard upgrade from that point (25/30 p – 50/60 i/p – 100/120 p)
The other solution to this problem would be to interlace the images – using sub fields to split the video so that both images are on screen at once – the problem here is as to how the video can show 2 differently polarised images on alternating scanlines. this could be run progressively at 50/60hz – and theoretically reduce flicker – but i’m no expert – i guess they would have looked at this already.
My new question is how does polarisation work on an HDTV. Thank you
Please elaborate on the AV reciever question. If i were to purchase, for instance, a sony str-db3500es today, and hook it up to my ps3, would it be able to pass through 3d pictures to a future 3dtv i might purchase?
Is HDMI 1.4 necessary for Blu-ray 3D? If so, how will the PS3 be able to support it? Doesn’t it have an HDMI 1.3 port?
I’m a bit confused about it saying some plasmas will display a 120hz technology. Please explain this, as current plasmas have used a 600hz sub-field drive. And previous plasmas have used a 480hz sub field drive, and have an incredibly good response time. Help me out a bit here…
So how important is HDMI 1.4 to all of your components (3D HDTV, AV Receiver, BLU-RAY) with regards to the quality of the 3D movies? Doesn’t the HDMI 1.4 spec have 3D specific features?
Okay so lets say I have a PS3 and I download this upgrade, I buy a 3D blu ray and try to play it on my non 3D TV, will I still be able to watch the content in 3D or is the 3D TV a must??
You will be able to play 3D Blu-ray discs in glorious 2D without a 3D HDTV.
HD Guru
playstation is upgradeable with softwear or hardwear?? will xbox have to sell a new system to play 3D and will they do that?
Sony did not respond when I asked that question in a email. We may have to wait until CES for the “official” answer.
I don’t know about the Xbox’s architecture so I can’t comment about its ability or inability to upgrade to 3D.
HD Guru
If I have a 3D ready DLP TV, will Blu-ray 3D display in 3D on it?
So to get 3D, I will need to purchase a new 3D TV, a new receiver with HDMI 1.4 to pass the higher bandwidth and 3D images (or else go back to lossy sound or use the analog connection and no DSP modes), and a new Blu-ray 3D player (provided I don’t have a PS3). Is that correct?
You got it basically right. The one exception is HDMI 1.4, which does not automatically equate with passing and switching Full HD 3D over HDMI. Bandwidth and functionality of HDMI 1.4 is within a subset of optional features available to surround sound receiver makers.
HD Guru
So does this mean I should hold off and not go big on a tv to last for years as I was planning to do the day after christmas because said tv will only be 2D in our new 3d world by this time next year?
I knew this question would come up sooner or later. TV technology continues to move forward with improved performance and added features.
3D is a new feature. I can’t tell you if you’ll want it. I can tell you it will first appear in Q2 2010 with movie content on Blu-ray and 3D video games via the Playstation 3D upgrade.
If readers have not seen how good 3D HD can appear, I suggest checking out AVATAR 3D. I caught it on Saturday and it is without a doubt the best looking 3D content ever filmed. Cameron raised the bar on 3D and set a new standard of quality. It’s not your grandpa’s red/green lens 3D!
We viewed it at a Sony SXRD equipped movie theater. The Sony system uses twin projection lenses, RealD 3D glasses and a silver screen to preserve polarity. It was the brightest 3D commercial movie presentation we have seen (although all the 3D HDTV demos we’ve seen are much brighter than any 3D movie theater.)
If you like the 3D in AVATAR you may want it as a feature on your next HDTV and may decide to wait for it to become available before you purchase a large screen HDTV.
HD Guru
“PlayStation 3 game console will be upgradeable to play 3D titles in 3D”
and this is why i continue to assert that the ps3 remains the best choice for blu-ray.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I meant display without the 3:2 pulldown. It would seem that the 96-Hz refresh rate that Panasonic currently offers in its high-end plasma sets would be more suitable for display without pulldown. I hope that Panasonic doesn’t hobble 3D with a 120-Hz refresh as it did 24p in its midrange U.S. models (even after it knew the 48-Hz rate sucked).
We’ll have to wait until the January International CES to learn details about its 2009 models.
HD Guru
I’m also confused. If the 48-Hz refresh rate represents sequential display of content at 24 fps each for the right and left eyes, wouldn’t any higher refresh rate have to be an even multiple of 24 Hz? Isn’t 120 Hz an odd multiple (5)?
No. Just as Blu-ray players output 1080p/60, which is not an even multiple of 24, 3D players may output at 120 Hz. Your display will either have 3:2 pulldown (for 120 hz) or upconvert to another scan rate such as 240 Hz which is 5 times 48. We will have to wait until CES to learn which rate each TV maker will employ.
To help readers understand 3D HDTV we are preparing a 3D HDTV Primer. It is scheduled to be published later this week over at our new sister website, hdguru3d.com
HD Guru
I am still a bit confused as to what 3D HDTVs do differently from 2D HDTVs. Is it just the ability to handle higher refresh rates (48 Hz and 120 Hz)? Or are they actually doing some post processing stage to render contents for 3D glasses?
3D HDTVs will need to take source material such as film based 48 Hz 3D and upconvert it (otherwise you would see flicker at such a low refresh rate). In addition, the display will output an infrared sync signal to be received by the glasses, so each eye always gets the proper view (left image for left eye, right image for right eye).
HD Guru