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Consumers are easily baffled by technology, as a BBC report on HD
adoption confirmed this week. Although more than half of UK households have
HD-ready screens, 91% still watch standard definition video, whether from DVD
or broadcast TV. So the news that the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has agreed
a new standard for 3D could prove a mixed blessing – do we really need another
standard for home entertainment or will it just cause confusion? The fact that
the decision on Blu-ray 3D was illustrated in some reports by a pair of
red/blue glasses shows just how perplexing the news could be.
The nineteen directors of the BDA, including representatives of
Apple, Panasonic, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures and Warner Bros.
Entertainment, have learned from the drawn-out format battle that ended with
Blu-ray’s victory in February 2008. This time we are to be spared the spectre
of incompatible 3D discs and players; the BDA has listened and come up with the
right answer.
Toshiba is on-board as a BDA member this time and the leading CE
manufacturers are now free to follow their technical inclinations with the
certainty that any combination of disc, player and screen will work together.
Not only that, 3D discs bought next year will be playable on the Blu-ray
players acquired this Christmas.
Stereoscopic screens without glasses will not be available for
2010, however, nor for several years beyond that although the BDA standard
allows for their introduction if and when an affordable option is developed.
One interesting product differentiator that will remain will be
visible when the trade marked “Blu-ray 3D” products start to appear in the
shops. The 3D glasses supplied with the screens will be either “passive”, as
currently used in most cinemas screening 3D films, or “active” and
electronically controlled by the TV screen. The two systems are not
interchangeable and that could have been a stumbling block in setting a single
standard but, fortunately, the BDA appears to have steered around the problem.
Both types are a long way from the cardboard handouts included
with earlier “anaglyph 3D” releases on DVD. Lightweight lenses are used in both
active and passive glasses and they can be worn easily over existing eyewear.
Active glasses incorporate an electronic “shutter” that blacks out each eye for
a fraction of a second while the other lens lets light through. That is the
system proposed by manufacturers such as Sony and by Panasonic, who are
currently touring UK venues with their “Full HD 3D Roadshow” (pictured).
Most consumers will be accustomed to the passive glasses handed
out in cinemas, which work well with large screens but may be less effective in
the home. The difference can be summed up as “cheap glasses, expensive screens”
or “expensive glasses, affordable screens”, and both options are now open to
manufacturers of TVs and the projection systems used in home cinema
installations. Thanks to the BDA agreement, the relative merits of the hardware
will now be fought out by marketing departments secure in the knowledge that
any Blu-ray 3D title will play without problems on any screen in the home.
By the miracle of what is known as “backward compatibility”, there
will be no need for separate 3D and 2D SKUs when titles are released. The BDA
has sidestepped potential issues by coming up with a standard that means all
Blu-ray players manufactured to date will play 3D titles – although only in 2D.
Similarly, the new generation of Blu-ray 3D players will accept DVD and Blu-ray
2D titles, some even generating the illusion of 3D from existing content. This
will ensure that retailers will not have to segregate display racks according
to format, or worry about consumer returns of “unplayable” discs.
There is particularly good news for those lucky folk who opted to
buy a PS3 for its Blu-ray potential, rather than as a games machine. All they
will need to enjoy Blu-ray 3D at its high-definition best is a new screen since
the processing power to deliver perfect stereoscopic pictures is already
installed.
Disc manufacturing for Blu-ray 3D is little different from today,
the challenge lies with title design and authoring, so capacity is assured.
Technicolor clearly knew that the news from the BDA was in the offing when they
announced on Dec. 14 that they have the technology in place to deliver Blu-ray
3D discs in the first half of 2010. Sony DADC will undoubtedly follow suit,
particularly in view of the boost to PS3 fortunes that the BDA agreement will
bring, and Deluxe cannot be far behind. Independent replicators, such as MPO
and Arvato, are also likely to benefit from the increased demand..
Other pieces of the 3D jigsaw are falling into place, too. The
announcement by NXP Semiconductors of a one-piece silicon chip for flat TV
screens that supports all 3D standards, including the half-resolution 3D system
that Sky will launch next year, means that affordable 3D screens are in
prospect. While the introduction of 3D by Sky is great news for consumer
awareness, there is still clear blue water between low bit-rate broadcast TV
and Blu-ray discs.
“No one’s expecting Blu-ray quality,” said a caller to the BBC’s
“You and Yours” programme this week, complaining about poor pictures on HDTV,
so the message that Blu-ray is better is getting across. The recent reduction
of the BBC broadcast bit-rate to less than 10 Mbps will increase the quality
divide for the 9% who actually watch in HD. Now the packaged media industry
must convince the remaining 91% of HD-ready viewers that not only is Blu-ray
quality worth watching but it is a future-proof source of home entertainment in
any dimension. All they have to do is buy the discs …
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