theatre technology
3D LCD Shutter Technology

Liquid crystal shutter technology has been around for several years, but until recently was pretty much limited to CRT televisions due to high refresh rate requirements that could not be achieved with most LCD or plasma HDTVs. Today, both plasma and LCD televisions are available with high refresh rates, so the time is right for 3D home theater technology to play a much larger role in the consumer market.

There is a very good reason for covering LCD shutter technology today. At the recent 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), several major manufacturers were showing 3D home theater entertainment solutions: Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. Two out of the three, Panasonic and Samsung, required the use of LCD shutter glasses to view the 3D effects.

 

In order to view any 3D movie using current technologies, you have to separate a left-eye view and a right-eye view into two distinct images that can only be viewed by the corresponding eye. Polarizing technologies are used in most movie theaters to separate the two images that are projected on the screen. LCD shutter technology uses special glasses that alternately apply a voltage to two liquid crystal lenses to darken the left lens while the right is transparent, and then darken the right lens while the left is transparent. This must happen at a very high rate in order to avoid a strobing effect. Currently, a minimum of a 120 Hz refresh rate is required so that action scenes appear to flow smoothly.

The process is referred to as alternate frame sequencing. A 120 Hz refresh rate splits the left-eye channel and the right-eye channel into two alternating views at 60 frames per second for each channel. Each lens on the LCD shutter glasses are synchronized to the appropriate image being displayed. Thus, the left eye only sees the left-eye image and right eye only sees the right-eye image. Although the refresh rate for the display is 120 times per second, the refresh rate for each lens of the shutter glasses is only 60 times per second.

There are two types of LCD glasses: wired and wireless. Due to the increased comfort and convenience of wireless glasses, that type was used with both the Panasonic and Samsung demonstrations at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. The LCD glasses used were slightly oversized and fit comfortably over my regular eyeglasses. They were very lightweight. Both Samsung and Panasonic shutter glasses used infrared technology and the glasses contained an IR sensor that picked up a signal from an emitter and synchronized the shuttering of the glasses to left/right framing of the images. At 120 Hz, there was no noticeable strobing or any indication that a framing process was taking place.

One benefit that I noticed about LCD shutter technology is that there really isn’t any of the ghosting that is noticeable when using an anaglyph image process for rendering 3D movies. Ghosting comes into play when you see part of the left image with the right eye and vice versa. In order for 3D movies to be enjoyable, distractions such as ghosting need to be minimized or eliminated.

 

On thing to note is that Samsung was showing a prototype model. The Samsung rep made it clear that this was not a product that was on its way to the market. The prototype was at CES to see how much interest there was in 3D viewing. From what I could see, there was a lot of interest. The Samsung rep also mentioned that the technology required the use of a Samsung 3D Ready HDTV. Those models include and Samsung 2007 or newer DLP models, or any 2008 Series 4 Samsung plasma display. I didn’t investigate this any further, but those are likely to be the models with at least a 120 Hz refresh rate.

Panasonic, however, was showing a product that they said is in development and will come to the market. I personally found the Panasonic model to be more enjoyable to watch, but part of that could have been the environment. Panasonic was showing their prototype in a movie theater, while Samsung’s 3D television was on the show floor. I think that further demonstrates which company is serious about pursuing 3D.
 
3D Movie Technology for DVD and Blu-Ray

3D movies have recently seen a resurgence in the movie theater. Due to new 3D theater technologies, several 3D version of movies have hit the theaters and a few of those have made it to home theater formats in both standard DVD and Blu-ray.

3D movies have been around in theaters since the early 1950s when they were very popular. Many of these movies used a stereoscopic anaglyph image, which requires two cameras separated by a few feet to run simultaneously. Colors are added to each image and then they are superimposed. To view the 3D effects with anaglyphic images, you must wear special glasses with different colored lenses. The left lens separates the part of the images filmed by the left camera and the right separates out the images filmed by the right camera. Your eyes combine the images, which creates a depth of field and the 3D effect.

 

Newer movie theater technologies use dual projectors and polarized images that you view using glasses with polarized lenses. Each polarized image can only be seen properly through the corresponding polarized lens. This avoids the color overlays used in anaglyphic image technology and the colors are therefore more realistic and accurate. Linearly polarized 3D movies have been around since the 1930s when the technology first emerged.

Disney and a company called Real D have pioneered the use of circular polarized 3D projection technology that has greatly improved the 3D viewing experience. Circular polarization alternately displays left-eye and right-eye images, which are filtered through special polarized glasses. Recent 3D versions of films such as Chicken Little, the Nightmare Before Christmas, Meet the Robinsons, Hanna Montana’s Concert Tour and Journey to the Center of the Earth were all filmed and shown using this technology.

What about home theater 3D movies?

There is good news and bad news. The good news is that a few recent 3D theater hits have been reproduced in 3D for both standard DVD and Blu-ray. The bad news is that polarized technologies require expensive dual digital projectors that are not practical for home use. You cannot simply display polarized images on an HDTV. That means that the 3D movies available for home theater use do not use the same imaging technology and you cannot use the gray polarized glasses that you might have kept after viewing one of the current 3D flicks at the theater. Sorry, no can do.

All of the most current 3D movies on DVD and Blu-ray use anaglyph technology, which requires that you wear glasses with different colored lenses. When you buy a 3D movie, you generally get 4 sets of cardboard-framed anaglyph glasses.

There have been improvements made to anaglyph technology and the screen colors are generally very accurate. The 3D effects are not as dramatic as with the Real D polarized technology, but it is still pretty good. If you have a choice, buy the Blu-ray version of a 3D movie. The extra sharpness offered by Blu-ray improves the quality of the 3D effect. A lot of people are disappointed with the 3D effects when using a non-HD TV and a standard DVD format. If the image is not sharp enough, it is difficult to see the full 3D effect.

The current 3D movies available on DVD and Blu-ray include Journey to the Center of the Earth, Hanna Montana’s Best of Both Worlds Concert, and Polar Express. There was a 3D version of Shrek 3, but I do not think it is available and was only produced using a standard DVD format. You might, however, find a copy on eBay.

The HQFS 3D alternative

There is also a wide range of older movies available using a technique called HQFS (high quality field sequential). Many of the old 3D movies from the 1950s are available on standard DVD using this technology approach. Amazon has a nice selection of available HQFS DVDs. With HQFS, movie fans wear special wired electronic shutter glasses that are synchronized to the frames in the video. If you want to experience 3D in your home theater, it looks like you will either have to purchase HQFS glasses (they are not included with most HQFS movies) or wear anaglyph glasses. We have not yet tried any of the HQFS movies, but we are tempted to buy a couple shutter glasses because it looks like there are dozens of older 3D movies available. Most of those movies are pretty cheesy, but make for good entertainment if you are into 3D. It looks like the newest HQFS video available is Spy Kids 3-D Game Over.

I just saw a long list of 3D movies that Disney is planning to release in the theaters over the next few years. Bolt is just hitting the theaters now. I suspect that Bolt and at least a few others will be released on Blu-ray and DVD. You can even get animal emblems of your favorite 3D icons used in famous movies like Avatar.
 
3D Home Theater Technology

There were some very hopeful 3D home theater technology demonstrations at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. I only had one day at the show and there were 2700 exhibitors. Fortunately, there were only a few areas that I needed to focus on and home theater 3D technology was one of them.

2009 could be the year that 3D technology for home theater and gaming really takes off. Most of the major home entertainment players are showing a keen interest in 3D. Sony, Panasonic and Samsung were each displaying impressive 3D prototypes. Both Sony and Samsung were also focused on 3D gaming, but the focus of this article is primarily on home theater applications.

 

What was impressive about the demonstrations is the fact that all three companies are using technologies other than the anaglyph imaging technology that dominates the current meager market for 3D movies for home use. Anaglyph 3D is subject to ghosting problems and an HDTV must be tuned just right to obtain the best 3D effects.

3D currently used in movie theaters uses a different approach. Most movie theaters use a circular or linear polarizing technology that requires the use of special glasses with polarized lenses that separate the left and right images to create the 3D illusion (yes, all current 3D technology is an illusion). Some IMAX 3D theaters use polarized technology, but others use LCD shutter glasses technology. Both of these have proven to be superior to anaglyph 3D in movie theater environments, but have been difficult to reproduce in an impressive and affordable way in a home theater. That nut appears to have been cracked.

I want to cover the Sony demonstration first, because the technology approach appears to be unique. Sony displayed a prototype that uses standard Real D polarized glasses for viewing. Real D uses a circular polarized technology and it the dominant method for displaying 3D movies in the theater. The Real D method uses a single projector that alternately projects left-eye and right-eye images and then uses a method to circularly polarizes the viewing using clockwise polarization for the right-eye and counter-clockwise polarization for the left eye. The polarized lens eyeglasses separate the images for the viewer.

What makes it interesting is that using a polarized method was previously not possible with an LCD display. While an LCD image is technically polarized because the pixels have to orient themselves for viewing, you have to be able to display alternating left-eye, right-eye images with opposing polarization in order to separate the images visually using a circular polarizing method.

The Sony reps were not talking about their 3D technology. A few of us technology geeks in the crowd speculated that either Sony is displaying two alternating images using a special display screen, or they are using a dual layer display. The rep did confirm that a special screen filter is used in the process. The Sony images were crisp and clear with almost no image ghosting. At this point, this may or may not be a practical technology. The Sony rep said that this was just a prototype and is not a product in production.

Both Panasonic and Samsung showed 3D plasma displays using LCD shutter glasses. The shutter method also uses alternating left-eye, right-eye images, but used LCD shutter glasses where each lens alternately goes from opaque to transparent many times per second in synchronization with the image being displayed. While this sounds like an unusual approach, it does work well with the new plasma and LCD displays that have refresh rates of 120 Hz or higher.

The shutter glasses used by both Samsung and Panasonic were lightweight and comfortable. Each contained an infrared sensor that synchronized the shutter glasses with the video images. There was no visible ghosting and the video action was smooth.

Samsung only displayed a prototype that was running from a PC. They made it clear that this was not yet a real product and they had no immediate plans to start production. Panasonic, on the other hand, was showing a product that they said was coming to the market.

The most interesting part about the use of shutter technology is that it should theoretically work on any television with a 120 Hz refresh rate with the use of an external 3D controller. Special 3D recorded Blu-ray disks will be necessary. It is not currently feasible to convert standard Blu-ray or DVD recordings to 3D because the process requires that the original film be recorded using 3D stereoscopic cameras.

 

The real questions is: Can the industry settle on a Blu-ray format for 3D that can be used with multiple viewing technologies? If that doesn’t happen, we will once again experience the format war issues that we saw with Blu-ray versus HD DVD, but this time it may prevent the majority of 3D fans from investing in any 3D viewing technology until the dust settles.

By the way, I recently went to see the new Disney animation called Bolt. If you like 3D, this is a great movie for the whole family. Just make sure that you select a movie theater that is showing Bolt in 3D. I suspect that Bolt will be one of the future releases for 3D home theaters.New companies creates custom lanyards of their own technology and brand to introduce this service in the market.
 
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