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3D TV Technologies: Status and Future Predictions
By Tassos Markas, President and CEO, 3DMedia
So what is going on with 3D TVs? Should you buy one now or wait? What should you consider before making this decision? Here is a summary of the status of 3D TVs today with some of my personal thoughts on the direction of this market that I hope can make your decision easier.
3D TVs and 3D technology in general has been in the news regularly since the release of Avatar in 2009. HDTV manufacturers are including 3D capability in most of their high-end products and most HDTV models will be 3D capable this year. This trend is expected to continue, and in a few years most HDTV models will be 3D capable. Currently there are three different 3D technologies promoted by various HDTV manufacturers. The first one is the active glass technology that is offered by almost all manufacturers at this point, the passive glass technology that is heavily promoted by LG Display Division, and the autostereoscopic technology that has been introduced and promoted by Toshiba this year.
Active-Glass Technology
Up to this point, active glass technology has been dominant due to its good 3D image quality and very low manufacturing costs. To implement this system, HDTV manufacturers need a minimum of 120Hz panel to show images at 60Hz to each eye, and an infrared transmitter to communicate with the glasses which frame is targeted for which eye. It should be noted that HDTVs with higher refresh rates have the added benefit of delivering better 3D quality by minimizing ghosting between the left and right eyes. Most high-end HDTVs are already capable of 120Hz refresh rates, so there is not much additional manufacturing cost to make an HDTV 3D-capable. Almost all extra costs of this technology are in the glasses. Active 3D glasses use shutter glass material which prevents or allows light to reach each eye based on signals received from the TV's infrared transmitter. This makes 3D more like a feature that can be added to HDTVs, rather than a new TV product category.
Although active glass technology delivers good 3D image quality, there are some drawbacks, and all of them are related to the glasses themselves. Active glasses are not lightweight, they are expensive, they need periodic charging or new batteries, and a significant amount of the incoming light is lost when wearing them. The latter issue does not make them convenient to use, and consumers prefer removing them when doing something besides watching 3D TV. Another element that has been seriously overlooked by manufacturers is the actual design of the glasses. Most of them have a "goofy" look which makes some consumers uncomfortable wearing them.
Passive-Glass Technology
Another promising 3D technology uses simple polarizing glasses to provide separate views to the left and right eye. Using passive glass technology, the implementation cost moves from the glasses to the TV itself. Passive 3D glasses are lightweight, and they can have the same look and feel as regular reading glasses. In addition, they do not block as much light as active glasses, therefore they enable users to read and naturally perform other functions. The only drawback of the passive glass technology is that they currently require a loss in HDTV resolution by a factor of two. Since half the pixels are assigned to one eye and the other half to the other eye, typically each eye sees a 960 x 1080 resolution instead of the full 1920 x 1080 provided in 2D mode. This is not very bad for viewing most 3D content, especially when dealing with video, but for high-quality still pictures with a lot of detail, it can be noticed. However, manufacturers supporting this technology are looking into solutions to address this loss of resolution, and it is expected that there will be a solution soon.
Glasses-Free Technology
Autostereoscopic TVs have the advantage of not needing any glasses, but currently they are very expensive and up to this point they have not produced acceptable 3D image quality. I believe that adoption of glasses-free 3D TV will take time, and will not reach the mass markets until 4K HDTV panels become affordable for consumers. This technology will need to support viewing from different angles of multiple viewers, and this requires multi-view technology that can only be delivered using higher resolution panels to avoid a very noticeable reduction in picture quality.
Projections and Summary
Since manufacturing costs of HDTVs supporting active or passive 3D glasses are low, we project that within a few years all HDTVs will be 3D capable. The good news for consumers is that prices will continue to fall and they will be able to get 3D TVs at very reasonable prices.
In summary, I believe that active glass technology has been the enabling technology for 3D, but it will not be able to win the hearts of consumers unless the price continues to fall, and the design problems have been addressed. The passive glass technology has a higher potential of reaching mass market adoption in the upcoming years. Autostereoscopic technology will take several years to mature, and it will also require 4K panels to reach consumer level prices, which is not something I see happening in the near future.
Purchasing the right 3D TV is a matter of personal preference. If you are comfortable with active glasses, this technology offers good quality and allows you to experience 3D content in its full potential. For those not comfortable with the price or design of active glasses, they should wait until they find the right balance between price and design, or they can choose the passive glass technology instead. Autostereoscopic technology will take more time to reach consumer level price points.
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