Updated: 05/12/2010
3-D Production
The basic concept of displaying separate images for the left and right eyes (just as each of our eyes sees a separate image) is simple. However, accomplishing it on a TV or theater screen in a way that is acceptable to audiences has long been a problem. Various techniques have been used throughout the years. (A
good history of developments can be found
Almost half of the top-10 highest grossing movies of 2009 were offered in 3-D. From a gimmick 3-D progressed to being a more natural part of the story. Although the film was the most costly film in history to produce, it garnered about two-billion dollars world-wide, setting an all-time box office record. However, when adjusted for inflation
several earlier films were still ahead of it: Gone With the Wind, Star Wars, The Sound of Music, ET, The Ten
Commandments, and Titanic. Avatar is credited with opening the door to a mainstream acceptance of the 3-D medium. (Avatar was released in 2-D, Real D 3-D and IMAX 3-D.) Avatar was immediately followed by another 3-D film, Alice In Wonderland, in 2010. Despite weak reviews, "Alice" benefitted from a significant increase in the number of theaters equipped to show 3-D and it set an opening weekend box office record. At this point it appeared that the general public had finally embraced 3-D in film.
Savings In Going Digital
Even so, the success of "the made-for-3D" Avatar was hampered by the limited number of 3-D equipped theaters. Theaters that didn't show it in 3-D cited the expense of equipping their theaters for digital 3-D. Even though equipping a theater for digital 3-D costs more than $100,000, there are major cost savings in other areas. For example, the industry could save $1-billion a year by distributing movies on small hard drives instead of large reels of celluloid. A billion dollars would go a long way in helping out theaters move to digital technology.
3-D In Television
Sony, a major TV hardware supplier, predicts that by 2013 between a third and a half of all TVs sold by the company will have 3-D capability. The 2010 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention, where new audio and video equipment is traditionally introduced, featured a wide array of 3-D production equipment.
In late 2009, a Blu-ray standard was finalized that made it practical for 3-D movies to be issued on the high-resolution disks for home use. Sky TV a European, a satellite TV provider, announced that it would launch a 3-D channel in 2010.
ESPN 3-D will showcase at least 85 live
sporting events during 2010. And early in the same year Discovery, Imax and Sony
announced that would be forming a 3-D television channel.
Somewhat more elegant looking 3-D video cameras are housed in a single enclosure, similar to the Panasonic 3-D camera shown earlier.
The red and cyan filters allow the image (light) intended for one eye to pass while blocking light to the other eye. Thus, each eye sees a separate image. Although the technique works (at least to a large degree), it has a number of limitations -- not the least of which was that audiences found wearing the (generally paper) glasses annoying. A more recent technique involves alternate-frame sequencing.
Glasses linked to a 120 frame per-second TV set by a IR (infrared) beam
alternately switch left and right
eye images. These "LCD shutter" glasses are expensive ($70 - $100
each) and require batteries but this system provides an excellent 3-D picture. 3-D Production Issues
As of 2010, this whole area remained rather fluid, and no solid rules or guidelines were in place. It hasn't helped that 3-D equipment and display approaches were in a state of flux with no uniform standards.
Several companies have equipment to convert 2-D films and videos into 3-D. However, the process is labor intensive and time consuming, and the results vary.
Future 3-D TV Displays
Thus far, this approach requires you to sit at an exact point in front of the screen -- a limitation that may be okay for a single viewer, but not when several people in a room want to watch the same program. Assuming that 3-D has finally reached the mainstream and becomes commercially viable, we can expect to see major changes in the next decade. © 2010, All Rights Reserved
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