If you were still refusing to believe that the
3D push was on, um, it's
on. Announced at NAB Show, 22 international firms (including some pretty major players) have launched the 3D@Home Consortium, which aims to "speed the adoption of 3D entertainment in the home." Led by Disney, Philips and Samsung -- and joined by Thomson, IMAX, TDVision, 3DIcon, Corning, Planar Systems, QPC Laser, SeeReal, 3ality, DDD, In-Three, Quantum Data, Sensio, Fraunhofer Institute IMPS, Sim2, Setred, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Holografika and Volfoni -- the non-profit alliance is focused on "creating and publishing useful technical roadmaps, developing educational materials for consumer and retail channels and facilitating the development of industry standards and their dissemination." From the outside looking in, it seems these folks are sort of jumping the gun, but given that we've already seen a
3D format compatible with legacy 2D systems and a successful
live 3D broadcast here in the past 48 hours, maybe being ahead of the curve isn't such a bad thing.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nfinity @ Apr 15th 2008 8:55PM
Now THIS IS what we are calling next gen.
My god, I saw 3d in imax once and it's freakin' insane.
This consortium is great thing. It will speed up adoption and offer something truly next gen. I'm pretty sure this is one of the bad things for Blu-Ray.
New technologies are booming and will give Blu-Ray even more trouble in mass adoption.
Rob @ Apr 15th 2008 10:21PM
Ok, I think you're missing one important fact. And, you can hate Blu-ray all you want. But, the fact remains that we need a way to sell/deliver the content to the public, and downloading it doesn't cut it yet. So, that leaves us with Blu-ray as the only choice due to its large capacity. If we want HD, PCM audio, and 3D, guess what? We don't have any other form available to deliver such huge amounts of data to the customers than via Blu-ray discs. HD-DVD is dead and you have Toshiba to thank for that. The world has accepted Blu-ray as the optical media of choice to deliver HD content. So cut the nonsense and join the club because your mourning is getting ridiculous.
Mr. E @ Apr 15th 2008 10:54PM
One of the stated goals of this consortium is to "facilitate the development of industry standards." Since there are obviously no standards yet in place, it's a little premature to assume it will require an entirely new format.
In fact, it would be in everyone's interest to come up with a home 3D standard that can work on Blu-ray, preferably transparently, but if necessary with a new profile definition. It's going to be at least a few years until 3D in the home even starts to really get any serious interest. By that time, Blu-ray will be well on the way to migrating from early adopter to mainstream status. A profile definition wouldn't be terrible, because people with an investment in Blu-ray software could just get a new player, if they so desire, and play back 3D titles along with the existing library of BDs and DVDs.
To me, the main barrier to 3D in the home are the required glasses. Unless they can get over that hurdle I don't think it will gain much if any traction.
DrXym @ Apr 16th 2008 5:07AM
If 3D were to become a standard it's obvious that Blu Ray would feature prominently in it. Nothing else comes close to offering the storage capacity required to make it work properly. Not that 3D is going to be more than a niche for a long, long time.
I remember walking around trade shows 15 years ago where various 3D displays were being shown. Nothing came of it then and I doubt nothing will ever come of it until someone produces a proper display that doesn't require glasses, or the viewer to be exactly in front of the set and exactly some distance away.
Britton @ Apr 15th 2008 9:38PM
Did I miss out on the fact that today was 3-D day or something?
Gordon Werner @ Apr 15th 2008 9:58PM
I don't want to have to wear special goggles to watch TV. Nor do I want to have to carry a pair around town in case I am going to watch something at a friend's house
Ron Smith @ May 31st 2008 7:36PM
Ive gotten to the point that I would prefer glasses to a giant television, because ir would be smaller and hopefully cheaper. Also I am in college so it is much easier to transport glasses than a giant panel.
DrXym @ Apr 16th 2008 3:47AM
What the hell is all this push about 3D for? Unless they intend to produce a TV set capable of transmitting 3D images through a wide field of vision without glasses, the whole endeavour is utterly pointless. People are not going wear some stupid glasses to watch TV and that's all there is to it.
MaxieZeus @ Apr 16th 2008 2:16PM
And no one's ever going to want to listen to music through those dumb little white things you stick in your ears, either. If music can't come out my hi-fi's speakers, it's unenjoyable, impossible to implement, and completely useless... that's that.
LOMAX @ Jun 12th 2008 9:38AM
Are you nuts? I have to wear glasses to do anything anyway as I am short sighted. Millions of people have to wear glasses/contact lenses? Glasses with polarised lenses do not look stupid and they are dirt cheap so you could have 20 pairs of them in case all of you friends came round.
So no need to carry your own, they dont look stupid and millions of people wear some sort of glasses anyway. I can't really see this being a deal breaker for the technology.
How many noobs are going to raise this noob objection. nubs.