Tomi Engdahl’s ePanorama blog

See ‘Avatar,’ Diagnose Your Vision Problems web article says that 56 percent of people aged 18 to 38 have vision problems that could make it difficult to view 3-D properly. Not everyone’s eyes can perceive perceive the stereo images correctly, and then their brain can’t merge them into one image in 3-D. This can cause a degree of discomfort, such as headaches, when watching 3D movie. That’s alarming news to people pushing 3D TV technology to every home if this figure is true.

I have already known for long time that another 5 percent of the population have problems that make it impossible to view in 3-D. But it was totally new that around half of the young population have some problems with 3D video viewing. The article says that there are therapeutic exercises that can be prescribed that enable some people to gain the ability to see in 3-D, but it won’t work for everyone.

I can imagine something like this happening in the future: A customer has bought a brand new 3D and comes back to shop to complain. The customer says: “I can’t see the image in 3D on this 3D TV you sold to me. The TV must be broken!”. The salesperson says: “There is nothing wrong with the TV. The problem is you. You have to go to therapy to get to see right way and believe that what you see is really 3D. What kind of therapy package you want to buy? I have a good selection of therapy products for this…” Is this imagination or future of the 3D TV?

3D TVs promise to add an extra visual dimension to the video content. TV makers have made a big bet on 3D. According to Reurters television manufacturers are banking on 3D TVs for their next sales boost. The manufacturers heavily in 3D game include Sony, Panasonic, LG and Samsung. All of them will feature 3D screen advances at the Consumer Electronics Show and the product are expected to hit store shelves in force by the middle of 2010. According to Wired Sony appears to be the most serious about 3-D at CES. Sony claims its 240-Hz frame-rate technology reduces the mixing of images of 3-D content assigned to the left and right eyes. Also Toshiba Crams Supercomputer Guts Into 3-D TV.

The TV manufacturers in 3G game wishfully expext that the new technology will be as big a boost for the industry as the transition to color TVs from black and white. TV manufactuers want some new hit because LCD TV profits are shrinking fast as prices for the TVs drop.

But investors think it is still too early to put money on 3D. The problem is that many consumers have only just unboxed new fancy high-definition television screens, making them unwilling to spend on upgrading again any time soon. Major problems now is that you need glasses to see 3D effect and there is a lack of interesting 3D video material to watch.

Because lack of 3D material some manufactuers have included tricks to convert 2D to “3D”. The Toshiba Cell TV includes a converter to make everything that’s normally 2-D on your screen pop out in 3-D when viewed through active shutter glasses. That’s where the processing power comes into play. I am very skeptic if this kind of processing can give any good quality 3D that could be enjoyed.

The Blu-ray Disc Association has completed its specification for 3D video. The specification was completed just few days before Christmas. It standardises the inclusion of stereoscopic 3D content on Blue-ray Disk. According to BDA the 3D video system doesn’t depend on any specific 3D technology – active-shutter or polarised lens – or display type. The material will be presented in resolutions up to and including 1080p.

The BDA’s spec mandates encoding 3D video using the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec, an extension to the H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray Disc players. This codec will need around 50% more data rate / storage space for 3D video compared to 2D video. MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead compared to equivalent 2D content, and can provide full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray Disc players.

The specification provides a way for existing Blue-ray players can take the new 3D content and display it in 2D form at 1080p. This will allow Hollywood to release 3D movies in place of 2D version without pissing off the installed base – assuming it doesn’t charge an unreasonable premium for the material, of course. Maybe just wishful thinking keeping in mind the history of Hollywood pissing off with paying customers with DRM and other artificial restrictions…

There is also some existing Blue-ray players that work with 3D system. The Blu-ray 3D specification is designed so that it allows Sony PS3 game consoles to play back Blu-ray 3D content in 3D.

This kind of 3D as used in 3D Blue-ray is not like a hologram, it is more like a viewmaster. I have seen many 3D video systems and played with 3D technologies in the 1990’s, and everything I have seen didn’t really feel like I was looking at the real world, but something “artificial”. I am still waiting to be amazed by 3D video some day.. I was really amazed by some 3D photos and computer graphics around 15 years ago when I saw then first time and had possibility to play with them. Nowadays 3D video seems to be mostly recycling the same old ideas and same limitations. 3D can be entertaining and look cool on special uses where the presented video content is designed in such way that the limitations of the technology can be hidden… My quess is that 3D will not overtake the traditional 2D video anytime soon…

Control Geek blog posting Backstage at the Macy’s (Wanamaker’s) Light Show shows you what technology is used to run one large commercial light show.