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The Register: Check out your HD TV because 3D TV is fast becoming a reality – provided you live in Japan that is.

A Japanese retailer has unveiled a 46in 3D LCD TV, though it’s actually manufactured by Hyundai. The set has a 1920 x 1080 resolution and generates a 3D image using stereoscopics. It creates the illusion of 3D by rapidly displaying two different images, one for the viewer’s left eye, the other for the right eye.

That means viewers must wear special specs for there to be any effect. Fortunately, two pairs are thrown in, so you and the missus can enjoy 3D telly together.

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Last September, an English consortium predicted 3D TV could be ‘three years away‘. Home Theater Blog is following up on the evolution…
Home Theater Blog: We’ve spoken about 3D TV/Home Theater here before on occasion, and even though I’m not sufficiently convinced this is even something we’ll I’ll want, much less see in the next 10-15 years, it is interesting to follow the research and development end of things. Mitsubishi Electronics Research Labs have been quietly perfecting the technology of 3D TV but not just any old 3D TV, the kind that doesn’t require those ridiculous glasses.

The 3D technology can work with regular TV but according to Mitsubishi, their prototype 3D TV would offer a “richer, more immersive experience than regular TV”, and again, most importantly without those silly glasses. Mitsubishi envisions one or two specialty channels (possibly even a premium subscription channel early on) providing the 3D content and then others catching on, if the consumer demand is there.

Currently the system appears limited to a resolution of 1024×768 but of course as with any research and development the potential for increased resolution is always on the horizon. The system is further described as using “high-resolution (1024×768) stereoscopic color images for multiple viewpoints” with “scalable architecture to manage the high computation and bandwidth demands”.
“In our system image acquisition consists of an array of hardware-synchronized cameras that capture multiple views of the scene. In order to deal with the high processing and bandwidth requirements, the system uses a fully distributed architecture with clusters of PC’s.
A multi-projector 3D display with horizontal parallax achieves large, high-resolution output images. The system is scalable in the number of acquired, transmitted, and displayed real-time video streams.”

Mitsubishi has implemented the 3D systems with rear-projection and front-projection lenticular screens. Ok I have to admit I had to go and find out what “lenticular” meant. According to this Wiki entry “A lenticular lens is a single convex lens that magnifies light through a prism effect,” which would seem to give us a clue as to how their by-passing the 3D glasses.

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Gizmondo: Following our earlier report that 3DTV could be here sooner than we think, Grundig has released their Tharus 3D flat panel which lets you watch 3D TV without special glasses.

Made for DVB high definition broadcasting, Tharus 3D uses a system where the footage is first acquired by a stereo HD camera. Its two pictures are transmitted to a special 3D converter set-top box that turns those two angles into eight perspective views, displaying them on this flat panel.

Pricing and release date were not announced.

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BBC: 3D television could be in homes within three years, according to a European research consortium.
Levent Onural, co-ordinator of the multinational 3DTV network, said the technology was already in place for 3D TV and cinema to become commonplace.
The consortium, funded by the European Commission, consists of about 200 researchers in seven countries, and is halfway through its four-year duration.
However, Prof Onural said holographic television was at least 10 years away. He said: “We do think holographic 3D TV is feasible, but the technology is not in place yet. If you ask my opinion, it will take another 10 years to get there, but some say it will take 14 to 20 years.”

However, he said that it would offer the “ultimate viewing experience”. “For example, take a football game. Viewers would be able to look at a TV that will be like a coffee table and see small-scale real football players made up from light running around on that table.”

See also: 3D HDTV from Philips.

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