PUFF THE
3D DRAGON
Jackie Paper
Let’s be fashionable. 3D TV is one of
the hottest things around. Conference
organisers’ eyes are smiling. It is a
subject that has arisen like a phoenix
from the ashes. There is a high risk of
a ‘rash’ (is that the correct collective
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single one is able to be particularly
successful. But at least they can all be
accommodated by DVB broadcasting
standards with some signalling
additions.
The 3D cognisenti will have spotted the
subtlety of the title of this article. One
of the founding fathers and pioneers
of modern 3D systems is Californian
Lenny Lipton. For virtually his entire
lifetime Lenny has developed and
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this is an idea whose time may have
come.
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one of the best children’s songs in the
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Dragon’. It is a work of rare beauty that
will last forever. The question for both
the broadcasting and cinema worlds
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be best remembered for the song or
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The really serious interest in 3D began
in the cinema world about two years
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to fear that HDTV would draw cinema
audiences into the home and away
from the popcorn. They pulled the same
rabbit out of the hat they had done
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movie.
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which provides pictures for the left and
right eyes. The technical term for this
is ‘plano-stereoscopic’. You do see
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be limitations.
There will probably be a degree of
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‘wow factor’ with 3D movies. The box
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drew rather higher takings than 2D
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It wasn’t long before there was a
wake-up call for the television industry
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common standards for 3D TV before
chaos occurred. This work is under way
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the SMPTE. The DVB Project has not
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(if you would like to join this contact the
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The work at the moment is centred on
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mostly the working assumption is that
this will be based around two either
full or half HDTV pictures. A special
display is needed that feeds each eye
with the correct picture. This can be
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which each involve the viewer wearing
glasses. These glasses have to be tied
in with the display so they both do the
right thing at the right time.
The broadcast world is not the only one
looking for 3D TV systems. The Blu-ray
and DVD worlds are doing so as well.
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at different plano-stereoscopic systems
today. Will the sheriff ITU be able to
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For many years it has also been
possible to devise displays which do
not need glasses (‘autosteroscopic
displays’) and companies like Sharp
and Philips have made important
advances. So far such displays have
been seen as super-duper for things
like advertising hoardings but less
useful for bread and butter home 3D
TV. They do tend to have limitations on
‘depth planes’ and viewing angles. But
maybe technology will advance further.
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processed plano-stereoscopic TV
can provide the best moving 3D the
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technology allows everything to be
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stereoscopic TV can provide the best moving 3D the
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correctly registered to the ‘pixel’. They
are worth investigating. But can these
systems ever be a sustainable source
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will that residual eye strain limit viewing
time or even make this 3D boom as
short as those in the movies of the
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I love the idea of 3D. I get a real thrill
out of watching it and there is no doubt
that there will be 3D TV broadcasting.
But something inside me thinks that my
grandchildren will remember Lenny’s
song more than this rudimentary 3D.
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using what is called ‘object wave’
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may seem like just so much (to quote
my favourite song) ‘string and sealing
wax’.
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DVB-SCENE : 09
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