3-D TVs are finally going on sale--sans content. So some sets are claiming the ability to add a third dimension to your 2-D broadcasts
Posted 03.10.2010 at 3:45 pm
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Watch 2-D Home Movies of Yourself Watching 3-D TV...In 3-D!
More than a year after the first consumer 3-D-ready HDTVs were demoed at CES, the next generation of sets are going on sale this week. But, aside from the new TVs, glasses, and Blu-ray players, the question of content remains. While there are already brand partnerships with networks like Discovery and ESPN, that's just the tip of the iceberg. As an alternative, the two companies with 3-D TVs but without major brand-name cable partners (Samsung and Toshiba) showed off sets that could convert 2-D video to 3-D in real time.
The converter chip on Toshiba's Cell TV is part of their own platform co-created with Sony and IBM (yes, it's the same brain inside the PS3). Other HDTV makers, though, can go to a third party to upgrade their sets to upconvert 2-D content to 3-D.
One such third party is chipmaker Quartics, who provides the graphics processing brains behind everything from netbooks to HDTVs and set-top boxes. And this year at CES they demoed their own 2-D to 3-D upconversion chip technology.
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Gadgets, How It Works, Corinne Iozzio, 3d, 3DTV, CES, ces 2010, chips, HDTVs, how it works, panasonic, samsung, sony, ToshibaTo upgrade 2-D to 3-D, the software thinks of the colors it sees at the bottom of the screen as what's closest to your eye, and what's at the top as the farthest. This is how it establishes what the background of the scene looks like.
But what about the subject? The chip tracks the pixel color and light intensity of groups of pixels together; when it senses a sudden shift in light or color, it knows it's encountered a new object. The chip also knows that moving clusters of color or light are likely to be the subject of the shot. Once it's identified the objects, it finds a central point from which to draw lines of perspective--the same way we learned vanishing points and two-point perspective in elementary school art classes.
With on-the-fly conversions, however, you won't see many effects that jump off the screen. Currently the algorithms are not fine-tuned enough to re-create the immersive depth needed without being distracting or gimmicky like old-school movie-theater 3-D.
Once the chip knows what objects on the screen to assign depth to, it can start the process of converting the image. The chip creates two separate images, one for each eye, which is flips back and forth at high frequency to trick your eyes into thinking you're seeing both angles at once.
When paired with a set of 3-D glasses that isolate the left and right images from each other at the same frequency, the effect is impressive, but not as realistic as video shot with a two-lensed stereoscopic 3-D camera (or animated originally in 3-D).
At CES Quartics demoed nature videos and the trailer for Appoloosa, but Usman is confident their technique will work with just about any genre. Film with a lot of movement, though, is trickier and may require more sophisticated algorithms--or maybe you'll have to wait for native 3-D footage before the Super Bowl in 3-D will be livable.
Samsung's in-booth demo, for one, showed an upscaled football game. And, while the holographic effect did come across, a wide receiver dashing across the screen had a bit of a ghost trailing behind him--as predicted. Still, upconverting existing content to 3-D is better than waiting around for the first wave of Blu-ray discs or cable broadcasts. And, since the chips are no more costly than those on other 3-D sets, it's the perfect stop-gap.
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WTF!? 2/3
I here by second the previous WTF based off the following points....
1.) 3D movies released on DVD have been out for a while, most of the time they come with the goofy glasses to experience the 3D version of the films on regular TV's.
2.) To view the 3D aspect of the TV you would still have to wear the those d-bag glasses, (see the three d-bags above) just to watch it. If you already have the stupid glasses from a 3D movie, DVD, or you bought a pair online for some wierd reason, just watch a 3D movie, or one of the new cable channels coming out that all 3D with those instead of forking over craploads of cash just to say "hey everybody I'm a consumer whore! Just look at my TV it's 3d." I swear if I ever heard anyone say this crap I would put on 3D glasses find thier TV and smash the crap out of it all the while saying "it's as if I'm really smashing a TV!!!"
3.) This is just a ploy to extract money from the moronic portion of the human race, similar to when the first HD TV's came out, same f***ing strategy.... pick a feature that the public has just recently made a big deal about (3D due to IMAX, Transformers 2, and F***ing Avatar in these theatres), then plop the feature in any new TV or monitor (that's coming next), then make programming, and media to purchase in addition to the device itself. All this and you still where hoaky glasses.
4.) Does anyone know what the longterm effects are to forcing human eyesight that already sees in 3D to convert 2D images into 3D in wich you already see. Does anyone know?
5.) If your actually stupid enough to buy into this idiotic scheme, I sincerely hope that anyone who actually buy's one based off the fact that it's "3D" has thier gentic legacy excommunicated from the human gene pool till the end of all existance. It would do the human race soooo much good.
Once agian......WTF!!!!!!
PS... and and WTF PopSci for even entertaining this 3D TV crap, absolutely ridiculus.
I think you just need to calm down a bit. Go have a smoke or something.
As for your points.
1) Yes, with the glasses you can watch a film recorded in the specific format for 3D. However, this is not the point of the article. The article was referencing a chip that can convert normal everyday broadcast television into a 3D image.
2) While near all applications of 3D require the use of glasses, there was one TV at CES that used a rippled lens over the TV to allow 3D viewing without glasses(though it sucked when the media you were watching was not recorded for 3D viewing)
3) Marketing 101? Sounds like you are describing the evolution of televisions next step.
4) If anything said here deserves a WTF comment, it is your point number 4.
5) I hope anyone who buys into these new "CDs" that they are trying to push onto us dies a tragic death. Technology advances, get over it.
Once agian......WTF!!!!!!
PS... and and WTF PopSci for even entertaining this 3D TV crap, absolutely ridiculus.
Why wouldn't Popsci post about this. This is about new electronics technology, kind of the whole point of the company.
@omega2424
so...even though ur brain "sees" in 3D u would rather watch 2D shows on a 3D tv in a 3D world just so you wont have to wear some glasses?....hmmm.. i think someone is afraid of change......
Anywho, i cant wait till the prices come down, and more content is available, im ready for 3D! imagine cinemax in 3D!......
I'm glad I own a PS3. =)
-well what we have here is indeed an effort to promote an archaic technique of providing a quasi-3D effect. While not suitable for home-TV usage, a usPat.#7,180,663 was issued in 2/2007 to a pvt.-inventor which has developed a 3D w/o-eyeglasses system that conveys a credible illusion of 3D in so long as either the camera is moving, or the subject is moving; -otherwise the illusion retreats to conventional 2D (ie: length & width, but no depth). However, do not despair, as my partner and i have invented a true constant 3D-technique which we've developed to the point of a working prototype, from which we're preparing to introduce via a DVD-sampler. This Barker-Vonheck/3D-System employs no primitive eyeglasses, yet enables constant 3D depth-perception for HD-TV, which will likely first be introduced for video-integrated Cell-phones, and 3D/RV-mirrors for cars & trucks; --but will be suitable for ones PC-screen, TV-screens, and yes even large theater-screens! We've not yet conducted any licensing of our advanced proprietary 3D-technology, pending approval of our Pat.Attorney, --but suffice to say we expect to make a much more concise disclosure of our revolutionary development via Pop.Science-mag. when the time is right later in 2010. Meanwhile, anyone interested can reach the developers via E-mail: i-n-v-e-n-t-e-c-h@att.net
omega2424
You sound like the typical angry nerd stereotype. Your comments are ridiculous and make you look like the one who I hope doesn't reproduce.
To me this is a bit like when they start clutching for straws like bringing out the dvd / video player and the printer scanner www.wirelessprinterscanner.net these aren't things we need, they're simply marketing ploys.
This is great news indeed. Having the option to turn your 2D movie collection into 3D is just fantastic, and so it's well worth investing in a 3D TV. Marty from http://www.home-theatre-systems.net
You sound like the typical angry nerd stereotype. Your comments are ridiculous and make you look like the one who I hope doesn't reproduce.
Dallas
http://burnwiigames.org/
so...even though ur brain "sees" in 3D u would rather watch 2D shows on a 3D tv in a 3D world just so you wont have to wear some glasses?....hmmm.. i think someone is afraid of change......
www.promdresspicture.com
Anywho, i cant wait till the prices come down, and more content is available, im ready for 3D! imagine cinemax in 3D!......
3D aspect of the TV you would still have to wear the those d-bag glasses, (see the three d-bags above) just to watch it. If you already have the stupid glasses from a 3D movie, DVD, or you bought a pair online for some wierd reason, just watch a 3D movie, or one of the new cable channels coming out that all 3D with those instead of forking over craploads of cash just to say "hey everybody I'm a consumer whore! Just look at my TV it's 3d." I swear if I ever heard anyone say this crap I would put on 3D glasses find thier TV and smash the crap out of it all the while saying "it's as if I'm really smashing a TV!!!"
www.tran33m.com/vb/
www.tran33m.com
Ce sont d'excellentes nouvelles en effet. Avoir la possibilité de transformer votre collection de films 2D en 3D est tout simplement fantastique, et il est donc bien la peine d'investir dans une 3D
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What is missing from this gem to tempt you to write your own role authorization plugin (according to your tweet)? http://www.kidneyremedy.com/rss.xml