Interesting news regarding 3D TV today then

[admin_exported]

1. SKY TV announce 3D channel will launch on April 3rd showcasing the Chelsea v Man U game followed by 5 other Premier League games within the next month and the Play Off Finals!

2. Panasonic new 3D TV sold out on Day 1 when they were launched in the US.

Looks like 3D is here to stay!

 

[PJPro]

Well, I don't think I'll be getting one.

 

[Anonymous]

andytucker:

2. Panasonic new 3D TV sold out on Day 1 when they were launched in the US.

How many did they release though? a few thousand?! Call me cynical but this sounds like a clever marketing ploy to attract this sort of publicity.

 

[Anonymous]

andytucker:
1. SKY TV announce 3D channel will launch on April 3rd showcasing the Chelsea v Man U game followed by 5 other Premier League games within the next month and the Play Off Finals!

2. Panasonic new 3D TV sold out on Day 1 when they were launched in the US.

Looks like 3D is here to stay!

hmmm , i think you will find that they didnt sell out in 1 day , thats just designed to get people on their gravy train , you will have no problem getting one dont worry...

 

[bigboss]

There have always been issues with Panasonic supplying TVs. Last year, very few actually managed to get hold of V10 series TVs. If people are buying the TV, is it for 3D or 2D? It doesn't necessarily mean that people are interested in 3D & that's why are buying the TVs.

 

[Anonymous]

People wanting 3dtv's after finding out it sacrifices hi definition makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[Anonymous]

3D tv will be the same as most innovative new products that were launched

firstly, the wealthy will buy them and speak highly of them ....

the poor who cannot afford them will complain and say they will never buy one and will bring up examples of where 3D tv causes safety and health issues such as migranes and squintness etc.

after a few months, the poor will end up buying them ....

the same happened to microwave ovens and mobile/cell phones

 

[Anonymous]

That is kind of secondary to the fact that it's a poorer definition image lol

 

[Anonymous]

theres wont be any loss of resolution when watching a 3d bluray using a 3d bluray player on a 3d tv using the active system , but 2 out of 3 is sadly all there is this year ..cos there are no 3d blurays.. strange .

watching sky 3d will not be full hd , it may be better than normal sd though , time will tell...

 

[Anonymous]

Well this part is hardly a selling point

Another fascinating fact that emerged during the day is that there's a drop of around 50 per cent in high-definition quality when viewing in 3D. "We have found that viewers will accept a drop in HD quality for 3D," says Cameron. "Although we're using Full HD, 1080p transmission for 3D, there's a 5-10 per cent drop in HD quality at the production end, and a 50 per cent drop at the viewing end."

 

[Anonymous]

hi fi newbie:

Well this part is hardly a selling point

Another fascinating fact that emerged during the day is that there's a drop of around 50 per cent in high-definition quality when viewing in 3D. "We have found that viewers will accept a drop in HD quality for 3D," says Cameron. "Although we're using Full HD, 1080p transmission for 3D, there's a 5-10 per cent drop in HD quality at the production end, and a 50 per cent drop at the viewing end."

ah what does james cameron know

is he referring to the active system though ?? this stuff is foncusing

edit , i cant see why there should be a 50% drop in resolution when viewing , maybe with the passive system , but not the active , as each alternating image is 1080p , assuming the source is a specially made 3d bluray...

 

[Anonymous]

I am also unsure of the takeoff of 3d tv,yes the price will have to drop to an affordable level,which it most likely will after a few months,

Also I will be looking forward to demo's of them once in the local shops etc to decide for myself one way or the other,

 

[Anonymous]

The Active 3D set up will send full HD pictures to both eyes so no drop in picture quality.

Regarding Sky HD this is not 1080p anyway as the sky box can only send pictures in either 720p or 1080i

 

[Tom Moreno]

maxflinn:
hi fi newbie:

Well this part is hardly a selling point

Another fascinating fact that emerged during the day is that there's a drop of around 50 per cent in high-definition quality when viewing in 3D. "We have found that viewers will accept a drop in HD quality for 3D," says Cameron. "Although we're using Full HD, 1080p transmission for 3D, there's a 5-10 per cent drop in HD quality at the production end, and a 50 per cent drop at the viewing end."

ah what does james cameron know

is he referring to the active system though ?? this stuff is foncusing

edit , i cant see why there should be a 50% drop in resolution when viewing , maybe with the passive system , but not the active , as each alternating image is 1080p , assuming the source is a specially made 3d bluray...

He never said anything in the quote about a drop in resolution. This doesn't happen on 3D Blu-ray because it is a full 1080 48p image. However the quality still drops to half of the bitrate because you are now delivering twice the frames in the same period of time and there has been no change to BD's overall maximum deliverable bitrate. On Sky (and it sounds like most other broadcasters) the bitrate will remain constant with what they currently deliver but the L/R images will be side by side in the frame so you're current 1080x1920 hd image will become a 1080x960. There's arguments as to how much the horizontal resolution affects viewing though and in the US many channels on their satellite systems actually deliver resolutions of 1400 or 1200 lines horizontally apparently that are stretched to fill the screen by the decoder.

 

[Anonymous]

I attended the 3D demo held by Panasonic in Limerick last night. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this was the first demo they had done in Ireland - nice to be ahead of Dublin (& Cork) for once!

I wasn't bowled over by the 3D experience to be honest. Yes, the picture looks great in 3D on bluray, but having to wear those glasses is a pain, as they are bulky and quite uncomfortable. The infra-red signal put out by the TV that is picked up by the 3D glasses so that they are in-sync is fine unless someone gets in front of you, then the link is broken and you're just looking at the blurry picture again until you press the button on the glasses to reset it again.

They demoed the Avatar 3D game on the X-Box 360 via the 50" panel and 2 short clips - one of a bit of "staged" sport and the other was an undersea montage of fish swimming on the 65". Not exactly breathtaking but designed to look good in 3D for these purposes.

Someone asked whether the glasses would be compatible with other manufacturers' TV's but they couldn't say whether the Panny glasses would work with TV's made by the others - say if you were visiting a friend with a Sony 3D set. They suggested, none to confidently, they might work if the refresh rates were the same. This is a relevant question, to my mind, considering the cost of the glasses! If you're going to do a 3D demo like this you should expect questions like this.

Both my wife and I decided we would wait the 5 odd years until they produce panels that do not need special uncomfortable glasses for you to watch them properly!

 

[Alsone]

Interesting post Mark.

I think my attitude to 3D is wait and see. I find it interesting. I watched the Queen (archive footage) in 3D shown earlier this year and shot using the old red / blue lens system and some of it was really good. That said the glasses were a pain.

However, there are 3 new systems on the new market, the shutter glass system, the polarised lens system and the lenticular system. The fact that you report the shutter system isn't comfortable isn't totally a surprise to me as I would have expected the glasses to be quite heavy. I alos wonder about reliability given the number of switchings per second. However the other 2 systems sound interesting so i guess its too soon to write off 3D just yet. Its still early days as they say.