Blu-ray body talks up, fails to detail 3D content standard
Quick, onto the Avatar trailer bandwagon!
The Blu-ray Disc Association has yet again said it's looking at how it can incorporate 3D TV content into the optical disc standard - but with still no indication in which technological direction its investigation is leaning.
The BDA said in May it was forming a taskforce to probe the problem - five months after Panasonic called for the prompt creation of a Full HD 3D TV version of standard.
3D on the big screen: the eyes have it
At the time, the consumer electronics giant threatened to go it alone if the Blu-ray Boys couldn't or wouldn't come up with a standard. Panasonic has some weight here, having working closely with filmmaker James Cameron on his 3D magnum opus, Avatar.
Indeed, it's the recent release of a special Avatar trailer - the full film will be released in December - and the resulting media interest in 3D that's undoubtedly lead to the BDA's 'we haven't forgotten about 3D' statement.
The best it could say about its progress so far is that "at a minimum, the specification will require delivery of 1080p resolution to each eye and backward compatibility for both discs and players". As a result, 3D discs must include a 2D copy of the movie, and 3D-capable players must be able to play old 2D-only discs. ®
COMMENTS
I, for one, welcome the new stuff!
@ AC 1st post:
I know what you mean, and many others have expressed similar feelings. Use of blurring in 3d scenes causing eye strain, etc. There's no perfect solution since the use of a longer focal length means a smaller aperture and therefore introduces more noise into the captured image.
However, there are ways other than focus to "focus" the viewer's attention upon the subject of a scene. Lighting, for instance. How often have you seen some temptress stand just in the right position to have a beam of light illuminate her eyes more than the rest of her face? Movement, colour, or just the fact that a character is talking can all achieve the same effect of attracting the viewer's instinctive attention. People (or rather their subconcious and/or visual cortex) will learn to accept 3D scenes having no unfocussed ares, just as we have all learned to interpret 2D pictures as representation of 3D scenes.
In any case, my eyes were bollocksed years ago by hours of Unreal Tournament p\/\/n4g£ at 18 inches from an eighteen inch CRT monitor. (Worth it for the instagib triple-holy-shit rampage though!)
Oh oh
Could be interesting, but let's not have another VRML debacle. They should get input from people who walk the walk, like ILM and WETA and Blizzard, about how to do it right.
Eh?
There's a 3D-body? I thought it was just a room full of people trying to break everything :)
I'm with AC "The problem..."
I wento to see Ice Age 3D with sprog and found that prolonged viewing was moderately uncomfortable, and the effects, while, well, effective, were frequently a distraction. I have to say that currently I prefer 2D.
That's what you get...
When technology standards are dictated for commercial and not technological merits, I'd imagine we'll see a last minute, half assed standard thrown together just in time to catch that Avatar bangwagon as it trundles out of the cinemas and into the shops.
