This Week in Engineering 11/01

And this week I’m out of town visiting my dad, so once again I am passing on some stories I found interesting from TVNewsCheck.

3-D Related:
Consumer Reports Tests 3D TV Sets
Study: 20% of Viewers Might Have Trouble Watching 3D on Television

Other Posts:
The Second Coming Of Centralcasting
Oprah Winfrey Talks-Up Cisco Video-Chat Product

This Week in Engineering

I’ve been off working on other people’s blogs, so here are some of this weeks interesting engineering stories:

• Sony Sets its Sights On News Automation Biz
• CBS: No 3D Broadcasts Without Sponsor
• Mobile DTV: In search of a business model

Some 3DTV Reading

Although aimed at a UK audience, you engineers might want to read two articles that I ran across. The first is a report done by ZetaCast for UK regulator, Ofcom, to provide an independent report evaluating the likely bandwidth requirements for future TV services.

The second is an article from TeamCast in the European Edition of the September 2010 edition of SatMagazine. The objective of this article is to provide some key elements that explain how 3DTV can be conveyed over an 8MHz DVB-T2 (QAM) channel, however there are some interesting calculations about the increase of bit-rates for various 3D encoding schemes.

From 3D Summit: “Scr-w You!”

UPDATE: It looks like I may be wrong about this. Please read the comment.

An interesting dispatch from Variety‘s annual 3D Summit (courtesy of the AP): If you were counting on viewing this year’s 3D Hollywood movie titles on your brand new 3D set any time soon, you may be disappointed. Because of studio / 3DTV manufacturer bundling deals, only three features and three documentaries will be on the shelves and playable on any 3D Blu-ray /3DTV combo.

For example, a Sony 3-DTV buyer won’t be able to watch DreamWorks “How To Train Your Dragon” because that movie will be tied to the purchase of a set from Samsung Electronics Co. And Disney said that its 3-D movies “Alice in Wonderland” and “Bolt” would be available exclusively to people who buy certain sets from Sony Corp.

I’d like to how they are doing this… (HDMI handshaking perhaps?) In any case, I hope that these exclusivity deals end soon, or there will be lots of 3D Blu-ray returns after Christmas!

Trouble in 3D City?

Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in 3D City!
With a capital “T”, that rhymes with “D”
And that stands for Drool.

According to a press release from The Nielsen Company and a blog post in the New York Times – people who have actually viewed 3D TV say they are less likely to buy a new 3D set than people that have heard about 3D TV but have not actually seen it. In Sam Grobart’s NY Times post, he suggests that the deal breaker could just be having to wear those 3D glasses.

(Click on the white space in the graphic to see it full size.)

(With apologies to Meredith Wilson.)

UPDATE January 2017: Direct view 3D TV looks dead. Long live 3D TV!

IFA: 3D Adds Depth to TV Landscape

Chris Nuttall of the Financial Times filed this report from the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. Nuttall said that the rumored Toshiba eyeglass-less 3D TV was not demoed. The report also had a list of what Nuttall considered to be the “best gadgets” at the show, including Apple’s “Apple TV”.

Graeme Wearden of The Guardian also highlighted Panasonic and Sony’s 3D announcements including a 3D projector by Sony. Panasonic announced a 3D IPTV service that would allow stereo movies to be downloaded to it’s TVs and Blu-ray players.

And for a more pessimistic view, see Harry McCracken’s blog post.

3D Added to US Open Coverage

According to this release from the USTA, CBS will be providing 3-D coverage of some Center Court matches from the Arthur Ashe Stadium during the US Open. As of now, some matches will be available on DirecTV’s n3D channel with the possibility of carriage on some cable systems.

And according to Broadcasting & Cable, CBS Sports Exec VP of Operations and Engineering Ken Aagaard says that the network plans to produce the middle weekend – Saturday, 9/4 through Labor Day, 9/6 – and the final weekend – Saturday, 9/11 & Sunday, 9/12 in 3-D. According to B&C, CBS has secured a sponsorship deal with Panasonic, who also underwrites DirecTV’s n3D channel.

UPDATE (9/2): It looks like 3-D coverage will be exclusive to DirecTV.

HDMI Consortium Pubs Part of Spec

HDMI Licensing, the agent that represents the HDMI founding members (Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony,  Technicolor, and Toshiba) is making available the part of the HDMI® 4.1 specification that deals with 3D display formats.

This will provide production companies, networks and transmission companies with the information they need to determine if their 3D programming will display on HDMI® equipped sets.

Comcast – Your 3D Source ?

Comcast SVP Derek Harrar wants you to know that Comcast, not DirecTV, will be the place to go for 3D TV content in 2010 according to this article from Multichannel News. (And this press release.) Harrar said that Comcast lead they way with Hannah Montana: The Movie in 2008 and followed-up with My Bloody Valentine, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience and Coraline, all offered in the anaglyph 3D format.

Second 3-D Truck Underway

All Mobile Video has announced that it will build a 3-D HD remote truck utilizing Sony gear. The only other 3-D truck is NEP’s Supershooter 3D, which will be used to broadcast the Feb. 25th Harlem Globetrotters game on ESPN.

The All Mobile Video unit will incorporate 3D camera rigs from 3ality Digital, while NEP’s truck uses 3D HD camera rigs from PACE.

3-D Networks

With announcements this week from ESPN, Discovery and Direct-TV, it looks like 2010 will usher in the era of 3-D TV telecasts. (At least until everyone has a 20 megabit per second internet connection.)

Start saving for that $2,000.00 $3,500.00 3-D set !

(Click on thumbnail for link to complete New York Times graphic.)

Related:
Cnet wrap-up.
Broadcasting & Cable: 3D Reality Sets In