3D glasses: active shutter glasses vs. passive glasses

[admin_exported]

Hi there,

My question is simple: will 3D TVs using passive glasses be able to display Full HD 3D?

I'm asking this question since I understand that the active shutter technology implies that the TV displays alternate pictures for the left eye and for the right eye, leaving the glasses, which receive a signal from the TV, to shut or open its left and right lens in order for us to perceive the 3D effect; this should mean that the respective TV is able to display a full 3D HD picture because it can display alternate full HD pictures. Is this assumption correct?

But the TVs using passive glasses will have to display simultaneously BOTH pictures for the left and right eye, while the polarized passive glasses filter the pictures to allow us to perceive the impression of 3D (just like the RealD or IMAX 3D technologies). Since the TV has to display both pictures simultaneously, does this mean that the TV is limited to a maximum resolution of 720p in 3D?

I have seen a new LG 3D TV in a showroom this past weekend (I live in Bucharest), which uses passive glasses, they worked fine but I felt the respective DEMO was not in full HD. I might have been wrong...

Thank you very much in advance!

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, your assumptions are correct.

 

[Andy Clough]

Yes, active-shutter glasses will handle Full 1080p HD for 3D, but as I discovered when visiting Sony's professional broadcast HQ there can be anything up to a 50% drop in high-definition quality when watching in 3D, as you can read in my blog.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much.

 

[Anonymous]

I'll head on to your blog, thanks a lot for responding.

 

[Anonymous]

One more question: if an active shutter pair of glasses fails while we watch a 3D Blu-Ray film, will the menu of the respective Blu-Ray disc allow us to watch a version of the film that requires passive glasses? Or is this something that the hardware/software of the TV does and not the Blu-Ray player? Again, thank you for your time.

 

[Andrew Everard]

The TVs are usually switchable to 2D mode, in which case they will take one eye's worth of signal, and still be viewable.