Watch 3 Idiots on 3D TV?

By the time this column comes out in print, James
Camerons 3D flick Avatar would have outstripped Rajkumar Hiranis 3 Idiots in
box office takings all over India. Thats not shameful for 3 Idiots because its
competing with a global record: Avatar may have crossed $2 bn to become the
worlds most successful movie so far, beating Camerons previous record of $1.8
bn for Titanic.

This column is not about 3 Idiots, but about 3D on
television. In mid March, the mega IT show at the Suntec Convention Center,
Singapore, the talk of the town was 3D TV. A dozen models were on displayfrom
the likes of Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic, and LGat the biggest ever IT
show that sprawled across 350,000 sq ft and drew a crowd of over 700,000
participants for three days..

Samsung went one step further and claimed its 3D TV sets
can convert current 2D broadcasts into 3D. True, the quality will not be as good
as the footage rendered on pure 3D, but customers who buy the gizmo wont have
to wait for 3D programs to be broadcast. What would the 3D TV sets cost? In the
US, Samsung has two 3D-ready LCD TV modelsa 46-inch model at $2,600 and another
55-inch model at $3,300. You can now attach them to 3D-ready Blu-ray players and
see 3D movies at home.

But realistically, where would you buy a 3D TV set? Forget
the US, forget Europe. The centers of innovation are Japan and South Korea. In
fact, BS11, a Japanese cable TV channel was the first in the world to telecast
specially created 3D programming, as early as in 2008, four times per day. In
January this year, South Korean Digital Satellite Broadcastings Sky-3D became
the worlds first fully functional 3D telecaster. It offers 3D content 24/7
using an innovative side-by-side 3D broadcast technology at a resolution of
1,920 by 1,080 pixels. Incidentally, global sports channel ESPN plans to launch
a new 3D sports channel on June 11 that will telecast eighty to eighty-five live
sports events a year in 3D.

How does 3D TV work? Right now there are seven
technologies that show stereoscopic 3D images. The most common are the ones that
need you to use red and blue colored glasses (called anaglyphic 3D), or
polarized glasses (called polarization 3D), or dont need any glasses (autostereoscopic),
or holography (used in 3D modeling).

Samsung uses digital light processing (DLP) technology,
originally developed by Texas Instruments for delivering a 3D image on TV. This
technology requires active 3D glasses that are battery powered with LCD
shutters which are synchronized to shut and open automatically in fractions of a
second. The synchronization happens via an infrared device embedded in the
glasses and on the TV display. The 3D effect is realistic and the image is very
clear. Your brain cant detect the fast shut/open sequences.

One question you need to ask is who sets the standards?
Since there are so many technologies floating around, will any of these become
the default standard on all 3D TVs? Thats the job for the SMPTE, (pronounced simpti)
which stands for Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers. SMPTE was set
up as far back as 1916 in the US and lays down technical specs for all
broadcasts. Although there are other bodies also working towards a 3D standard,
SMPTEs standard will be the dominant one since it has a huge influence on all
telecasts in the US.

That doesnt mean you should ignore 3D developments in
Japan and South Korea. After all, these were the first to introduce new 3D tech
and already have products in the marketplace and also in the pipeline. Their
technology may be more than a few notches ahead of the US and Europe.

The final question: How soon will 3D TV come to India?
Quite soon, going by two parameters. Firstly, India has the most TV channels in
the worldthere were 360 at the end of 2008, and another 160 applications were
pending before the government then. Secondly, the competition for eyeballs is
among the highest in the world. So a new 3D TV channel that telecasts using the
lowest priced 3D tech may just be born this year and offer local and
international content to Indian audiences. We can then see 3 Idiots in 3D after
all.

Raju Chellam

The writer is a former DQ editor & currently managing director of
TechTrenders Asia, based in Singapore

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in