MOBILE 3D TV MODELS

With the debut on the markets of the LG Optimus Smartphone (known as the Thrill 4G in the USA) and the Nintendo 3DS 3D portable game console, mobile 3D TV has presented itself as an answer to the pricing and quality issues that larger screen 3D TVs have experienced, especially in the 3D TV without glasses arena. It's widely perceived that the 3DS - if successful - will drive the general popularity of 3D TV and associated 3D content.
                     
LG unveiled their 4.3 inch display Optimus Smartphone at the 2011 Mobile World Congress, the first mobile phone to have the capability to record, view, and share 3D content. The phone achieves recording via two 5.0 megapixel cameras, and can show 3D content via a display that gives video resolution of up to 1080p for 2D and 720p for 3D.

LG are now following up with the demonstration of a 7 inch mobile 3D TV that doesn't require glasses to see the 3D imaging, with plans for the prototype model to be seen at the 2011 NAB show in Las Vegas. The model uses a parallax barrier 3D LCD display, and features a built in antenna, 800 x 480 resolution, and of course can also receive and display standard 2D mobile broadcasts.

At this stage, large display no glasses TV models of sufficient quality and at an affordable price are some way off general availability. Mobile 3D TV models have the advantage of small screen displays which give more effective 3D imaging capability, hence the reason why Toshiba's first released without glasses models were 20 inch sets. Smaller screen TVs are intended for single person viewing, hence lend themselves more effectively to the individual user requirements that without glasses 3D TVs present.

The reason for this is that no glasses 3D TV works using specific 3D TV technology that is based on how the displays themselves emit the 3D images. Basically this means that for a larger display there are only a certain number of sweet spots where you'll get the 3D effect. This problem is far less apparent on a smaller mobile 3D TV display where your eyes are only 30-50cm from the screen. The other benefit of mobile 3D TV will ultimately be in cost - in theory all that's needed is double resolution coupled with high brightness and a simple parallax barrier display.
                                              
That said, mobile 3D TVs from the major manufacturers are still in development phase, with early prototype models also experiencing some loss of 3D quality when you move off centre away from the sweet spots. LG demonstrated their mobile 4.3 inch parallax barrier 3D TV display at CES 2011. The display works by utilising a series of slits attached to the front of the LCD panel which act by blocking the light source at different times. This ensures that the left and right eyes of the viewer see the different images required to create the illusion of depth. Overall the reported 3D effect and quality was good.
                            
The Japanese Company Ortus Technology, who are the makers of worlds smallest HD TV, have demonstrated a high quality small screen 3D TV.  The new 4.8 inch 3D HD TV works using the same technology as the HD model but upgraded to deliver 3D images. The LED backlit TV offers stunning quality 2D HD pictures at a pixel density of 458ppi and can display over 16 million colours. It delivers 3D images through the use of a special covering over the display equipped with the Ortus technology known as Xpol. This covering gives the panel the ability to display the alternate images required for us to see in 3D.


There is one manufacturer - Michley Tivax - who look to be more advanced on the mobile 3D TV front. Michley Tivax unveiled several innovative products at CES 2011, including two new mobile 3D TV devices. The first of these was a 7 inch portable no glasses 3D TV labelled the MiTV3D7, offering an 800x480 resolution LCD display. The second was certainly an interesting innovation, the MiTV 3D C201 dongle which lets users watch 3D content on a PC. The dongle couples with an antenna to give a solution that receives and displays a 2D or 3D program, though 3D glasses are required.

Aside from imaging quality, the benefit of 3D TV on mobile devices is fairly obvious - TV on the go and wherever you want it, with the added fun of 3D too. I can see it being particularly popular on journeys, where the portable DVD player now leads the field.

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OVERVIEW OF 3D TV

As little as a few years ago most of us would have been laughing at the idea of buying a 3D TV for our homes. But with a recent surge of interest coinciding with an increase in processor capability, leading to better and bigger 3D TVs in 2011, that idea has now become a reality. 3D TV technology is hitting the public consciousness at a time when broadband internet TV services are also booming, and the two together are promising a huge change in the way we access entertainment and knowledge.
                                 
The scale of public interest can be seen in the fact that in North America alone over 2 million 3D TV sets were shipped after just nine months of a real market. If you compare this to HDTV take up, where a quarter of that number were sold in the first five years, it's clear that the potential of 3D as an entertainment medium is outstanding.

And there's no sign of a decrease in the appetite for 3D entertainment, in fact the opposite is true. Recent research indicates that a rapid acceleration is likely, with a predicted 30 plus percent of US homes owning a 3D TV by 2014, and an even bigger take up in Europe and the Far East.

Sales of TVs, 3D Blu Ray players, and 3D games consoles will make up the bulk of the forecasted exponential growth in 3D enabled devices throughout the rest of 2011 and the coming years. In the first few months of 2011 there have been announcements from most of the manufacturers on new 3D TVs and new 3D Blu Ray models which will all become available to buy through the rest of the year, many of which deliver quality improvements and enhanced features.

The global release of the Nintendo 3DS over the first few months of 2011 has sparked a massive focus on 3D gaming - Nintendo may well have sold more 3DS consoles in a few months than the number of 3D televisions sold to date - and it's always been likely that the major catalyst for growth in 3D television sales was going to come from a general increase in 3D content availability in general.

As the amount of programming we can watch in 3D does grow over the next few years, it's likely to attract more and more 3D fans looking for something extra from their home entertainment.

3D TV definitely has the potential to take its place among the leading entertainment technologies found in our homes. The great thing about the current crop of models on offer is that in fact they are the top of the range HDTV models from each of the manufacturers. As such, you're pretty much guaranteed superb high quality standard 2D imaging as well as having the option to watch in 3D.
                       
Employing technology first discovered in the early 1800s, the leading TV manufacturers are using ground-breaking technological skills to give us improved access to stunning 3D imaging - also known as stereoscopy - which basically tricks your brain into creating an illusion of visual depth by displaying two different images. This is known as a parallax view - the two slightly different perspectives of a visual object that each eye sees naturally because they are spaced physically apart. Our brains resolve these two different object views and this is what gives us the perception of depth and three dimensions.

You can read more about how 3D TV works in my article dedicated to explaining the technologies involved. If you want to read some technical detail on how our brains 'see' 3D images, there's a superb article on depth perception at Wikipedia.

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ABOUT THE GLASSES OF 3D TV

                                          
Makers are blaming disappointing sales of 3-D TVs last year in part on the bulky glasses they came with. They're trying to tackle that this year by introducing sets that work with lighter, cheaper glasses of the kind used in movie theaters.

Manufacturers don't plan to completely supplant the 3-D TVs that require the heavier, battery-powered glasses, which went on sale last year for the first time. But Samsung Electronics Co. estimates 1 million 3-D sets were sold in the U.S in 2010, far short of its initial estimate of 3 million to 4 million, and the introduction of a competing technology a year later is another sign that the first 3-D TVs didn't live up to expectations.

LG Electronics Inc. was the first major TV to announce new 3-D sets Wednesday, a day ahead of the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. LG, a South Korean company, said it will start selling two models, a 47-inch and a 65-inch one, later this year that use the lighter, cheaper glasses. Each will include four pairs. Current 3-D sets usually include one or two pairs of the bulkier glasses; some don't include any, requiring consumers to pay about $100 per pair.

"We're meeting consumers' needs by eliminating some of the pain points" by addressing the 3-D glasses issue, said Tim Alessi, director of new product development at LG Electronics USA. "It's going to be the most comfortable viewing experience, just like going to the movies."

Vizio Inc., one of the largest sellers of TVs in the U.S. but not a leader in the high end of the market, which includes 3-D sets, announced in December that it would sell a 65-inch 3-D set with the lighter glasses.

The two types of glasses are called "active" and "passive," and each has its benefits and drawbacks.

Last year's TVs relied on active glasses, which have battery-powered shutters that alternately black out each of the eyes to create the 3-D effect. They worked with some high-end flat-panel TVs with little modification required, but they require periodic charging. They also darken the image and may make it flicker.

The lighter glasses, called passive, are not much different from polarized sunglasses. They don't cause video to flicker, and glasses from any manufacturer will work with sets from another manufacturer, or in movie theaters. They don't block as much light as the active shutters, either. However, they only work with LCD TVs that have an extra layer to the screen, and in LG's implementation, the passive glasses cut the resolution of the image in half.
                                      
Not all major manufacturers are on board with the new screen technology. Panasonic Corp., which along with Samsung pioneered 3-D TVs last year, is sticking to active glasses.

The latest PR blurb from CEA headquarters shows that, in a survey taken of 250 sales associates in retail stores, consumer enthusiasm for 3D is strong, with 50% of customers reporting a positive response to 3D technologies, and only 2% reporting a negative response.

That’s not necessarily good news. Do the math, and you’ll see that 47% of customers had no feelings about 3D TV one way or the other, or didn’t respond. (Or were distracted by their teenagers repeatedly begging Mom and Dad for an iPhone or iPod Touch.)

The CEA report does go on to say that “…While nearly 70 percent of sales associates feel well trained to answer questions about 3D, there is still consumer confusion. According to the retail associates interviewed, roughly half of consumers had some confusion about the technology.” That pretty much covers the 47% who didn’t respond positively or negatively.

And now for the devil in the details! “…For most retail associates, 3D content is pivotal. Nearly 80 percent of the associates interviewed believe sales of 3D technologies will not be strong until more 3D content is available.  Moreover, some of the most frequently asked questions by consumers revolved around the availability of 3D content. “

There’s the rub. 3D may look great in the store, but how much 3D World Cup coverage can you watch before nodding off? (Hey, did you catch Paraguay and Japan fighting to a 0-0 tie?) And there are only a couple of 3D Blu-ray discs out there that haven’t been exclusively linked up to a 3D TV bundle promotion.

DirecTV is taking some steps to solve the problem today, announcing the launch of its 24-hour 3D channel in conjunction with Panasonic at a New York City press event. That’s good news for DirecTV customers, but it’s not much help to cable or Dish Network subscribers who are currently limited to ESPN 3D.

If this seems like déjà vu all over again (apologies to Yogi Berra), it is. Remember the start of the digital TV transition in 1998, when exactly two DTV stations went on the air? (For trivia buffs, they were WRAL (CBS) in Raleigh, NC, and WFAA (ABC) in Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX.)

Set-top boxes cost about two grand. You needed component inputs on your TV that could accept the 1080i signal from the box (good luck with the 720p outputs), plus an antenna, and maybe a preamp, and a bunch of coax, and a compass to tell you where to aim the antenna.

Oh, and yes – you needed HDTV content. But there was very little of it back then, aside from some CBS prime-time programs and the ABC Saturday Night Movie. It wasn’t until four years later (2002) before most of the TV networks were carrying a majority of their evening programs and sports coverage in HD. Can 3D TV manufacturers afford to wait that long?

It’s encouraging that 70% of the sales associates interviewed by CEA felt competent enough to answer questions about 3D. But that’s not the problem, based on my experience last Sunday at Best Buy. Only two out of four 3D TV demos in the store were actually working, and one was located in the worst possible spot for a demo. The other had only one pair of working 3D glasses. How do you answer questions about 3D, when customers can’t even see a demonstration of it?

This is where a company like Sony has a leg up with their Sony Style company stores. They can ensure (and they’d better!) that potential customers get the best possible 3D demo, with a large screen LCD TV and comfortable seats positioned at the correct viewing distance. And they can put together a nice mix of live 3D (Sony is a World Cup sponsor) and clips from Sony Pictures 3D movies (think Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs).

Samsung’s ‘experience’ store in the Time-Warner Center in New York City is also an excellent place to demo 3D. (Hmmm. Maybe Samsung should be thinking about opening their own company stores!) Alas, Panasonic has no such showcase and is at the mercy of Best Buy and Sears. And Mitsubishi (who has some of the most compelling 3D TV value propositions right now) has no 3D showcases at all. (Too bad they can’t just truck their June NYC line show around the country!)

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