What you need to know about how 3D TVs work
It’s been much more difficult than I imagined to get a solid understanding of the new 3D TV technology, why it requires a new TV/Blu-Ray and even what the practical ownership experiences might be like (viewing angles etc…). I’ve googled it (although not with much gusto), hunted through Satellite, video game, and TV forums, and searched through gdgt on the matter and turned up very little. Luckily engadget decided to post a pretty good summary on the 3D offerings at CES and linked in a couple good write-ups on what we’re dealing with the technology itself.
I was particularly interested to understand the visual filter technologies used in the different offerings. The big question we all have is (I think) “will a glasses-less solution come out in a year or two rendering any early adoption purchase an expensive obsolete relic before I even get to enjoy any real content offering?” For me the second big question was “is this TV only going to work for showing 3D? Can it show regular 2D content?” And lastly “What is this I’m hearing about 2D to 3D conversion technology? Is it real and does it work?”
The answers turned out to be mostly good news (except that a new Blu-ray will be needed and I just bought one last month dang it). In a nutshell the TVs need superfast refresh rates and a computer chip or two to handle the type of projection that is going to make this thing sing. You won’t be using polarized glasses like when you watched Avatar at the theatre. You’ll most likely be using LCD shutter glasses which will require IR syncronization. Active shutter has the advantages of not restricting viewling angles like polarization.
2D conversion will work to a small degree, but mostly it’s impact will be with video games.
The TVs will function perfectly as regular high end HDTVs for regular 2D content!! The TV won’t be a total bust even if 3D doesn’t pan out.
Click here to read about the show summary and upcoming product offerings by manufacturer.
[engadget]