3D TV

Riding the wave of Avatar’s enormous success, the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show featured the first tech theme of the new millennium: 3D TV.

3D devices will be everywhere, or so industry experts predict, and manufacturers are scrambling over each other to be the first to provide 3D hardware and content to the home. Is the public ready for 3D TV? Is the industry itself ready for 3D TV with looming format wars and no-glasses monitors and active and passive eyewear monitors? Do I need a new TV?

All of these questions will be answered over the coming years, but one thing is certain, you will never see TV the same again.

Quick Fact:

The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the MPEG4-MVC (Multiview Video Coding) codec, which compresses both the left and right eye views necessary to simulate depth, and will be standard in all Blu-ray players.

3D TVs are everywhere at CES 2010 and Kevin Pereira and Alison Haislip tackle new television sets from Samsung, Sony and Panasonic to see what’s in store for consumers in 2010.

Demo and discussion of 3D gaming and intelligent self-adapting technology with Intel at CES 2010, by Neil Berman. The 3D game featured is Dirt 2.

Panasonic takes us through its new line of technology for 3D and their new plasma Kuro range at CES 2010.

ESPN became the first network to announce plans for a 3D channel.  This news comes after DirecTV announced the launch of a high-definition 3D channel later this year.  Discovery Communications also announced an alliance with Sony and Imax for a 3D network to debut in 2011.

ESPN 3D will showcase a minimum of 85 live sporting events during its first year, beginning June 11 with the first 2010 FIFA World Cup match, featuring South Africa versus Mexico, ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer announced.

Other events to be produced in 3-D include the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, college basketball and football contests, up to 25 World Cup matches and the Summer X Games. Additional events will be announced at a later date.

“ESPN’s commitment to 3-D is a win for fans and our business partners,” Bodenheimer said in a statement. “ESPN 3D marries great content with new technology to enhance the fan’s viewing experience and puts ESPN at the forefront of the next big advance for TV viewing.”

3D-TV is real.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) running from January 7-10 in Las Vegas is expected to showcase all kinds of new 3D TV technology.  Look for the following:

AMD announced it will demonstrate a Blu-ray stereoscopic 3D standard at the CES 2010 showcasing how consumers will soon get to enjoy HD 3D entertainment.

DirecTV will be launching their first US 3D HDTV channel early in 2010. The announcement will be made at the CES 2010, with the new channel expected to go live in March of 2010. More

NVIDIA will showcase 3D Blu-ray playback technologies at CES 2010. NVIDIA and movie playback software developers including Arcsoft (TotalMedia Theatre), Corel (WinDVD), Cyberlink (PowerDVD Ultra) and Sonic (Roxio CinePlayer BD) have been working together to develop programs that support 3D Blu-ray titles, which are limited to just a few as of today. Major titles in 3D Blu-ray will be hitting stores in 2010. We can expect to see many 3D Blu-ray titles at CES 2010 including ones that will work with NVIDIA’s 3D Vision. More

Swiss audio technology company, Sonic Emotion , will debut its 3D sound technologies on the US market at CES 2010.

Look for Sony, Samsung, Mitsubishi, LG and other manufacturers to showcase flashy 3D displays at CES.  Sony has recently announced a partnership with 3D tech firm RealD to bring 3D technology to Sony Bravia HDTVs and the Playstation 3 Blu-ray player.