Sky 3D TV channel - active or passive glasses?
The age of 3D television and 3D cinema (come to think of it 3D gaming thanks to Nvidia 3D vision) is finally here and there's no stopping it - despite the current lack of 3D movies available. For the time being you have to trek along to you're local 3D capable cinema and don those funky Clark Kent style 3D glasses.
This is all about to change though as Sky have promised to launch their very own 3D TV channel in the future. We know just how good Sky are don't we? The big question is however, what 3D technology are they planning on using for their 3D TV channel because I've searched everywhere and can't find any definitive information. Is Sky 3D TV going to use the passive or active system?
Having seen James Cameron's new 3D film Avatar at the cinema recently I've got to say that I was really impressed, not just with the film itself which was brilliant, but the use of 3D in particular. This isn't the first 3D movie I have gone to see having watched "My Bloody Valentine" last year. Although this was the first time I experienced the passive 3D system at a cinema I wasn't that impressed. It was a bit of a novelty and although it was interesting, I just couldn't see it taking off. There's a bit of a wow factor when something gets waved in front of your face, but for me the 3D has to be part of the movie and not just done for effect. James Cameron I think has managed weave 3D seamlessly into the movie without making it stand out like a sore thumb (okay... that was bad!).
On the back of this I've done a little more research and revisited the 3D world to see what's happening and where things are going. As I'm sure anyone who is interested in 3D entertainment knows, there are a number of systems for displaying 3D images, in fact there's actually a vast array of different techniques and at the moment no clear winner. Here's a quick summary...
There's the old analglyph system of red and green coloured glasses which was not that great and gave some people headaches - nobody wants to go there again. Most cinemas showing 3D films currently use the polarised light technique (the RealD system is quite common) whereby the audience wear passive glasses (no electronics involved). The projector fires at 144 frames a second and polarises the image via an electro-optical liquid crystal modulator called a ZScreen. The movie is normally 24 fps (frames per second) so if you do the math you'll appreciate that each eye is shown an image 3 times and this is to reduce any flicker. Next there's the active system which I think is quite likely to win out in the home whereby your 3D ready HDTV shows alternate images for each eye and the (preferably wireless) active shutter glasses block out the left and right image in sync with TV. This is the system that Nvidia 3D vision uses. There are a number of other 3D systems and indeed variations of the above (linear polarisation and twin projector systems for example). As I'm sure you can imagine the average consumer would balk at the thought of having to actually choose one and fortunately for the time being this is all very much in the domain of a few 3D movie geeks with more money than sense.
So what's Sky doing with their new 3D TV channel? Theoretically you can have either a passive or active system with a TV. Perhaps future 3D televisions will be able to incorporate both technologies so the viewer can decide which they want to use? Somehow I think not which basically means when you pop over to watch a 3D movie with your friends, you'll have to find out which 3D glasses to take with you. Presumably this means that the BBC will use a completely different system and you can be almost certain that you're blue-ray HD 3D movies will be completely different yet again.
Never mind saving up to buy 3D TV's and 3D films. Perhaps we should be saving up to buy an assortment of 3D glasses!