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Broadcast Engineering on 3-D
Posts Tagged ‘3DTV’
by Michael Grotticelli May 10th, 2010
 The 3-D version of “Avatar” won’t be released until 2011. Panasonic and Samsung have delivered the first models of 3-D TV sets to retail stories, and Sony will release several models soon. As an early adopter who wants to experiment with 3-D, let’s say you buy one.
Now comes the problem: What do you watch?
For most of this year, and much like the early days of HDTV, the answer is: not much. The reviews regarding 3-D TVs are based largely upon a single demo reel of 3-D content — just clips, not even a entire movie. This was the case throughout the Las Vegas Convention Center during the recent NAB Show. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3DTV, content, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony
Related Topics: Application, Broadcast, Film, News |
by Michael Grotticelli May 7th, 2010
 Jannick Rolland, a professor at the University of Central Florida’s School of Optics said watching 3-D content could put a strain on your eyes if the system is not well-implemented. Three-dimensional TV is being introduced into the marketplace with very few short-term studies and no long-term studies about the technology’s effect on the health of viewers.
Last month, Samsung issued a warning about possible health effects associated with 3-D TV, including altered vision, lightheadedness and even stroke or epileptic seizure. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington have published papers that found that visual disparities in 3-D TV images can put physical strain on viewers.
Many questions remain regarding the one-size-fits all approach that has to be taken for mass audiences to enjoy the 3-D experience, Jannick Rolland, a professor at the University of Central Florida’s School of Optics, told EETimes. Rolland is known as a pioneer in virtual reality studies.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3DTV, experience, health issues, University of California, viewing
Related Topics: Application, Broadcast, Film, Infrastructure, Products |
by Michael Grotticelli May 5th, 2010
 To film critic Roger Ebert, 3-D is a “waste of a perfectly good dimension.” It was 1986 when a young fan approached Roger Ebert in a video store in Hollywood, CA, to ask why he didn’t review laser videodiscs on TV. Ebert, ever curious, said he’d never heard of laser video but was interested in learning about it. A few hours later, with an address provided by the fan, Ebert was in the offices of the Voyager Company getting a demo.
The rest, they say, was history. “Siskel and Ebert,” the biggest movie review show on TV at the time, began reviewing laser discs, and the pre-DVD technology took off. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3DTV, critic, perspective, Roger Ebert
Related Topics: Application, Film, News |
by Michael Grotticelli April 27th, 2010
Last year, Zero Creative launched its 2-D to 3-D conversion service for autostereoscopic 3-D displays (glasses free), such as its own xyZ 3-D display. Now, the company has introduced the capability to convert any existing 2-D content into full stereoscopic 3-D.
The service is divided in three different quality levels: basic, high and extreme. In all cases, video content is converted on manual frame-by-frame bases instead of automated processes. This approach results in a highly accurate 3-D conversion and reduces errors, according to the company. The quality levels determine the differences in 3-D perception, and, at the extreme quality, extra optical handmade image correction or additional special 3-D effects can be employed. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3D conversion, 3DTV, autostereoscopic, file format, stereoscopic, Zero Creative
Related Topics: Broadcast, Film, Post Production, Products |
by Michael Grotticelli April 27th, 2010
 The prototype PACE Shadow-D rig is mounted on top of a box-style lens and allows a single operator to shoot both 2-D and 3-D simultaneously. As more live productions begin to be shot in 3-D, the issue of where to place the cameras around a venue so as not to interfere with the existing 2-D positions — and not block any fan seating — is being looked at from several angles. Several live sports and entertainment productions to date have provided invaluable experience in how to make 3-D look its best (e.g., 3-D cameras should be positioned as close to the field as possible to immerse the viewer in the action).
At the 2010 NAB Show, there were “beam splitter” rigs, with one camera shooting horizontally from the back of a dual-lens configuration and the other shooting vertically from the top or bottom. Some refer to it as the “half-mirror, 90-degree approach.” The latter, displayed in the Ikegami Electronics booth, is designed to maintain the lowest profile for the camera position (and save some sight lines). Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3Ality Digital, 3DTV, autoscopic, beam splitter, cameras, Element Technica, Pace, positions, Stereoscopic 3D
Related Topics: Acquisition, Application, Broadcast, Products |
by Michael Grotticelli April 27th, 2010
Now that many have figured out how to make beautiful 3-D images, solutions to the numerous challenges of getting them to digital cinema and consumer home screens in the most efficient way are being discussed in earnest.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is currently working on a 3D Home Master standard that will provide high-level image formatting requirements for the source materials authored and delivered by content developers. It will also provide requirements for the delivery of those materials to all distribution channels, from physical media to terrestrial, satellite, cable and other streaming service providers. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3DTV, autoscopic, content, delivery, distribution, Dolby, production, SMPTE, Stereoscopic 3D
Related Topics: Application, Broadcast, Film, News |
by Michael Grotticelli April 27th, 2010
 Aside from movies, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg thinks sports and gaming will be the most popular drivers of 3-D content in the home. As CEO of DreamWorks Animation, Jeffrey Katzenberg is afraid that his fellow Hollywood motion picture executives are going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. The proverbial goose is 3-D technology, and Katzenberg says Hollywood is now at a “genuine crossroads” as to the future of the new medium.
He was critical of Warner Brothers’ 2-D to 3-D conversion of “Clash of the Titans,” which he termed “cheese ball.” The critics almost universally agreed with him, although audiences are coming in large numbers to see the film, which is currently in movie theaters. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3DTV, DreamWorks Animation, Jeffrey Katzenberg, production
Related Topics: Acquisition, Broadcast, Film, News, Post Production |
by Michael Grotticelli April 9th, 2010
 XpanD, a European manufacturer that makes active-shutter glasses for movie theaters, as well as 3-D glasses for Panasonic and Vizio TV sets, is developing universal glasses that will work across manufacturer lines. One of the negatives of 3-D TV is that viewers must always wear special glasses to view the three-dimensional effect. But one “gotcha” that most viewers don’t know yet is that virtually all of the glasses being packaged with early 3-D TV sets are proprietary to the manufacturer’s brand.
That means 3-D glasses sold by Samsung won’t work with Panasonic, Sony or other set brands. Forget bringing your 3-D glasses to a viewing party for a sporting event at the home of a friend using a different kind of 3-D display.
The cheap, polarized spectacles required to view 3-D in movie theaters won’t work at home, either. Most of the new 3-D receivers require “active-shutter” glasses that have to electronically synchronize with the TV set.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3DTV, glasses, Incompatibility
Related Topics: Broadcast, News, Products |
by Michael Grotticelli April 8th, 2010
 ESPN will produce both 2-D and 3-D broadcasts of the 2010 World Cup events with a single mobile production vehicle on-site in South Africa. ESPN has been making some big promises about bringing to home viewers a minimum of 85 sporting events in 3-D over the next year. Those programs will launch on the fledgling ESPN 3D network on June 11 with a World Cup soccer match between South Africa and Mexico. The network said it eventually will air 25 World Cup matches, Summer X Games, college basketball and football and the BCS National Championship game.
In the meantime, ESPN’s production staff is learning how to produce -3D programming in the most efficient and cost-effective way. It’s a lesson that many will be watching and ultimately benefiting from. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3DTV, ESPN, production
Related Topics: Broadcast, News |
by Michael Grotticelli April 5th, 2010
 When viewing movies, most less than two hours in length, binocular dysphoria has not been a huge issue for audiences. Most 3-D display technology, whether in the theater or at home, requires viewers to wear electronic glasses that are timed to open and close rapidly. A slightly different image is projected to each eye, and from that difference, the brain creates the illusion of depth.
However, our brains process visual information in many different ways, and human depth perception is a very complicated business. The brain uses 10 different cues to figure out the distance of an object. One if them is parallax, which is used by most 3-D TVs. For 3-D to work, the brain must reject several of the other cues in favor of parallax. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 3DTV, binocular, dysphoria, medical, viewing
Related Topics: Application, Broadcast, Film, News |
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Michael Grotticelli is writer and editor of Broadcast Engineering’s “Beyond the Headlines” and “Sports Technology Update” e-newsletters. Each week, he provides a fresh perspective on the latest in 3-D technologies and innovations as well as report on real-world applications of 3-D in the broadcast, professional video and film industries.
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