How To Get 3D Into The Home: 200 Experts Met For Six Months - Report Now Available

Jim here. I have had the privilege of viewing one of the initial copies of "REPORT OF SMPTE TASK FORCE ON 3D TO THE HOME" prepared by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

We are finally getting some clarity on how to accomplish this! For so long now we have been waiting for direction because for a truly elegant and pragmatic 3D motion picture industry we need to complete the cycle from theater screen to home theater screen to portable devices.

Here is what they set out to do (excerpt from report): The effort was initiated on Aug 19, 2008. At the initiation of the effort, the task force was chartered with defining “what standards would be needed to establish rapid adoption of stereoscopic A/V content from content mastering to consumption in the home via multiple types of distribution channels (e.g., packaged, broadcast, satellite, cable, internet) with consideration for downward scalability (e.g., portable/mobile).”

First of all let me tell you that they include a comprehensive glossary of terms that is certainly needed to ensure everyone is talking the same concepts as this 3D technology is booming.

Secondly they break out use cases! They examine various real life scenarios that a typical end user may encounter and they address it in their study. For example, a user wants to view 3D media on his glasses-required bedroom 3DTV, but also wants to view that same media later on his no-glasses 3DTV in his living room. Not only that but the sets are different sizes. The report sets priorities on all these use cases and their relevance to the 3D in the home standard.

Finally they expose the requirements needed for the 3D in the home standard INCLUDING resolution and frame rate. I can tell you that they set out image file requirements up to and including 1920x1080 with frame rates up to and including 60p per eye. Backward compatibility is addressed as well with 2D.

Their biggest concept is the notion of a single standard 3D Home Master which coexists with other masters after post-production and for theatrical screening. A lot of detail has gone into defining how this 3D Home Master should look and behave.

Of course they had to touch on display technologies as well - interesting read!

So I encourage you to purchase this resource from the SMPTE if you have any interest in the journey we are taking to get 3D movies and content from the big screen and into our homes. The 75 page report in PDF format sells for $20 at the SMPTE store right here. Hard copies of the report will also be on sale at the SMPTE booth at NAB.

Quick Post: SMPTE Wants 1080p/60fps per-eye 3DTV Standard Within a Year

UPDATE: 4/16/09 - Michael here.  After reading the full SMPTE task force report, it is clear that 24p 3D content is still a possibility, as the image file is required to contain video resolutions "up to and including 1920x1080 and native frame rates up to and including 60p per eye view."  It seems from the wording that since 24p is a native frame rate, the image file will be required to contain it if the source material is 24p.  Whether we will actually able to see 24p 3D content displayed without pulldown will be determined by the technology of the display.  Hopefully CEA will work on solutions for this.

UPDATE: 4/15/09 - Michael here.  I, as well as MarketSaw readers, have been thinking/worrying about how 24p 3D content will be displayed using this standard. Hopefully, there will be a solution such that no pulldown or other types of messing with the original frames is required.  Perhaps variable frame rate TVs that can display at both 120 and 96 hz?  I'll let you know as soon as I find out how the players involved will be handling 24p content.

Michael here.  I agree with Jim (see article below) that lousy 3DTV will do nothing but slow the widespread adoption of 3D by the consumer electronics industry, primarily by misleading consumers with a subpar product.

Those of us wishing for the highest possible quality in 3DTV, however, may have cause to celebrate, as SMPTE (a major player in creating the DCI standard for Digital Cinema) announced on Monday that they hope to finish a 3DTV standard within a year.  And, wisely, they have decided that this standard should be 1080p at 60 frames per second, per eye.  This is equivalent to what Panasonic has been demonstrating with its uber-impressive 103 inch 3D plasma.

The SMPTE standard will rigorously define the requirement for a "3D Home Master", which studios or game publishers would deliver as source material for Blu-ray disks, broadcasts and internet downloads.

The best news about this is that the 3D images will be delivered to various mediums without sacrificing resolution or frame rate.  And a year from now seems like the perfect time to debut the new standard with the Avatar Blu-ray!

source: EETimes

3D-At-Home Tech Shown at SMPTE Expo

Hi everyone, Michael here. Last week I saw an impressive demonstration of 3D-at-home tech at the SMPTE 2008 Tech Conference & Expo. TDVision, which makes a number of 3-D products, was showing off their 3-D media encoding/decoding technology on a Samsung 3-D ready DLP HDTV via shutter glasses. The 3-D footage--a combo of CG and live action--was vibrant, smooth, and immersive.

TDVision hopes to license their codec--which allows both 3-D and 2D versions of content to be stored on the same disc--to makers of DVD/Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. While their representatives were coy about giving a date when the first 3-D content utilizing their tech would hit the market, they did say that they have been having many discussions with the major studios and other 3-D content providers, as well as hardware companies such as Texas Instruments.

Above: Ethan Schur of TDVision (holding the TDVCam 3-D Camera) demonstrates TDVision's 3-D tech at the SMPTE Expo

Perhaps the most potentially revolutionary aspect of TDVision's presentation was their interactive 3-D virtual gaming world "AlterSpace", in which the "player" navigates around the environment using a controller and can choose to socialize with friends, surf the net, hold live video-conferences, view movie clips, images, and even play games. A 3-D version of the classic Pong which could be accessed through the virtual world was a particularly neat example of how 3-D can make something old new and exciting--and the stereo effect was quite pronounced and impressive.

I can't wait until 3DTV / 3D-At-Home becomes a reality...and it will have to become real soon if the studios want us to be able to purchase 3-D versions of big 3-D movies such as Bolt, Monsters Vs. Aliens, and eventually Avatar. There is a ton of movement in the industry towards this, so let's hope everything is worked out soon!

Quick Post: SMPTE To Establish 3-D Home Entertainment Task Force

SMPTE to Establish 3-D Home Entertainment Task Force
Committee to Define Parameters of Stereoscopic 3-D Mastering Standard for Home Display

WHITE PLAINS, NY – July 21, 2008 -- The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is establishing a task force to define the parameters of a stereoscopic 3-D mastering standard for content viewed in the home. Called 3-D Home Display Formats Task Force, the project promises to propel the 3-D home entertainment industry forward by setting the stage for a standard that will enable 3-D feature films and other programming to be played on all fixed devices in the home, no matter the delivery channel. The inaugural meeting of the Task Force is open to entertainment technology professionals interested in participating in the effort, subject to available space (SMPTE membership not required). It takes place on August 19, 2008 and will be hosted by the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University of Southern California, near downtown Los Angeles.

“Digital technologies have not only paved the way for high quality 3-D in the theaters, they have also opened the door to 3-D in the home,” explained SMPTE Engineering Vice President Wendy Aylsworth. “In order to take advantage of this new opportunity, we need to guarantee consumers that they will be able to view the 3-D content they purchase and provide them with 3-D home solutions for all pocketbooks.”

The 3-D Home Display Formats Task Force will explore the standards that need to be set for 3-D content distributed via broadcast, cable, satellite, packaged media and the Internet and played-out on televisions, computer screens and other tethered displays. After six months, the committee will produce a report that defines the issues and challenges, minimum standards, evaluation criteria and more, which will serve as a working document for SMPTE 3-D standards efforts to follow.


The first 3-D Home Display Formats Task Force gathering will feature demonstrations of 3-D technologies. All technology professionals in content creation and distribution, consumer electronics and entertainment tools and services who are considering joining the group are welcome to attend. Non-members will be asked to pay a small fee for the initial meeting, and ongoing participation in the work requires membership in the SMPTE Standards Community. Register at: www.smpte.org

About the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is the leading international technical society for the motion imaging industry. As an internationally recognized and accredited standards-setting body, SMPTE develops standards, recommended practices and guidelines and spearheads educational activities to advance engineering and moving imagery. Since its founding in 1916, the Society has established more than 600 standards including the physical dimensions of 35mm film and the SMPTE time code. More recently, it codified the MXF file format to support the exchange of professional AV content and crafted the Digital Cinema Standards, which paved the way for digital movie theaters. Headquartered in New York, SMPTE is comprised of engineers and other technical specialists, IT and new media professionals, filmmakers, manufacturers, educators and consultants in more than 65 countries. They are joined at SMPTE by more than 200 sponsoring corporations, principal players in content creation, production and delivery for all platforms and in entertainment hardware and software. www.smpte.org .

About the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC
The Entertainment Technology Center @ USC is a non-profit organization within USC’s School of Cinematic Arts which brings together the top entertainment, technology and consumer electronic companies to discuss how to understand what next-generation consumers want and then to work towards new entertainment products and services for the future. ETC’s Executive Sponsors are Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom/Paramount, Warner Bros., along with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc., Lucasfilm Ltd, Sharp, TATA Consultancy Services, Thomson and Volkswagen of America. Additionally, ETC’s Anytime/Anywhere Content Lab (AACL) is sponsored by Dolby, LG Electronics and Sandisk.
One of ETC’s current initiatives is to map 3-D and identify gaps and opportunities for improvement in acquisition, production, to distribution in theaters, the home and digital devices. ETC is now conceptualizing the Digital 3-D Lab, as a part of the Anytime/Anywhere Content Lab, which will build on the success of ETC’s world-renowned Digital Cinema Laboratory. For more information, email: info@etcenter.org


For More Information, Contact:

Rochelle Winters Kimberly Maki
Smoke & Mirrors SMPTE
213 250-4603 914 761-1100 ext. 4960
rochelle@sampr.net kmaki@smpte.org

For ETC contact:
Shana Starr / Jason Kirshner
LFPR (for ETC)
949.502.7750 x 209/210
shanas@lucidfusion.com/ jasonk@lucidfusion.com