3D HD Digital TV, 3D Blue-Ray and 3D Glasses

What is 3D TV?

3D technology allows you to experience sharp life-like images that leap out of your TV at you. Forget the blurry 3D images of the past, where we had to wear glasses with red and blue lenses - things have moved on from there. We still have to wear glasses, but now they have become high-tech.

This new technology can display HD quality with 3D reality on a LED back-lit display, so long as the media broadcast is in the new 3D standard.

In order to receive and display 3D reality You require the following:

• 3D Ready Television
• 3D Glasses (hi-tec)
• Source material: i.e. 3D DVD film (Blue-Ray) or 3D broadcast

When it comes to the broadcast, don't get confused, we are not talking about the type of broadcast that Channel 4 showed back in 2009 in their "3D Week" - these were in the old format requiring glasses with coloured lenses.

At present no broadcaster is offering this technology, although Sky has it in their sights and Cable TV will follow later. Because of the extra bandwidth required to broadcast 3D it is unlikely that it will come to Freeview as they have limited space. However as you well know, technology moves on very fast - who knows what the future will bring.

When the film or programme is shot, two cameras are used a left and a right one. Both cameras are set to film the subject from two different angles. From filming until it is viewed through the 3D glasses the left and right images are kept separate.

This new technology is far more demanding on the TV standards required to display 3D so the televisions need the following:

• Display separate images at 1080p for each eye
• A frame rate of 120 frames per minute, 60 frames per eye
• A refresh rate of 100hz or more
• A chip or electronics to decode or translate the left and right images
• A transmitter to pass the images to the 3D glasses

The TV receives the image from the source (either DVD or TV broadcast) then it decodes the data into two separate set of images, one set for our left eye and right eye respectively. This information is then passed over to the 3D glasses, by infrared or by radio signals, which takes us to the next step in the process . . .

3D Glasses

The hi-tec glasses are an amazing piece of clever design. We are not talking of their looks as many feel they should have a more sleek appearance - what we are referring too is the technology behind this.

Here's how they work: The lenses are LCD and they have built in something called an "active shutter" or "LCD shutter", it is not a mechanical shutter that flicks across the lens, it is electronic.

A signal is received from the TV that instructs the glasses to alternatively blank the left and right lenses, so each eye is presented with the individual left and right image at the rate of 60 images (frames) per second, per eye. In effect the LCD lens is instructed to make the lenses either clear or opaque. If the lenses were not shuttered and you saw both left and right images together, it would not work.

The cleverest part in the process, and funnily enough doesn't cost anything, is the brain! The brain then combines the left and right images together, seeing only one sharp HD 3D image.

Whereas in the past the old 3D films (requiring the coloured lenses) could be viewed without glasses, albeit a bit strange to the eyes, with the red and green offset on the TV screen, the modern 3D cannot be viewed without them. The problem is at £50 a pair it could be quite costly for the average family.

Having a greater storage capacity, Blue-Ray disks are the ideal medium to store the extra data required for the left and right images. The data is roughly twice the amount used for a normal HD film.

The Blue-Ray Player has a special chip or electronics that can then translate this data and pass it on to the 3D Ready TV. At present Sony, Panasonic and Samsung have models available.

At the time of writing only a few models are available, but a rough price guide is:

• 3D Television - £1,700
• 3D blue-Ray Player - £349
• 3D Glasses - from £50 per pair