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Testronic Labs Primed For New 3D Spec
Date published: 18 Nov 2009
In December of this year, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) will announce an enhancement to the Blu-ray specification to allow for 3D video and menus. Unless you own one of the estimated 25m PS3 consoles currently in homes worldwide, you'll need a 3D-enabled BD player and maybe a new television, accompanied by a pair of new-style 3D glasses, to enjoy the feature. There are a handful of TVs that are 3D ready already in the marketplace, but this fact has been essentially unadvertised so even their owners probably don't know, and they certainly lack the glasses as these haven't reached the public yet. New 3D consumer equipment is slated to hit the market in the 2nd quarter of 2010.
In most cases, the glasses will be what are known as Active Shutter. This means that there are literally shutters in each lens that, usually quicker than the eye can follow, block each eye as each subsequent frame of video is displayed on the screen. Thus, the right eye gets every other frame (which constitute the right eye version of the film) and the left gets every other frame (similarly). We're a world away from the split-image, polarised glasses school of traditional anaglyph technologies of the past - those that UK TV viewers are revisiting right now as terrestrial Channel 4 airs 3D week (above, right)!
So, what does this mean for Testronic Labs? As you can see there is 3D technology in the players and also in the TVs that needs to be compatible, functional and usable. Right now, it doesn't hugely matter what monitor we use for linear testing. However, with the advent of 3D, for our clients to gain the necessary product confidence that only comes from a full set of passed tests, we will have to matrix each player with each available monitor to ensure that they are communicating with each other correctly. In addition, backwards compatibility is a major concern to all mainstream consumer electronics manufacturers who don't want their devices to appeal only to a niche of early adopters hungry for all the latest living room tech - we envisage testing the 3D version in 2D players, the 3D version in a 3D player to a 2D TV (or a few of them) and other permutations to ensure all round compatible playback.
Clearly there is an enormous amount of linear play testing, even with just a few players and monitors, to be fulfilled if 3D is to work in the home. Add to this the complexities of ensuring that the A/V integrity in the 3D landscape is respected by subtitles, menus and more. Add to this the infinite potential applications of BD-Live or Java apps with 3D visuals interactive content coming towards you on the Z-axis? It's going to happen someday! Add to this...well, before we wax too lyrical about the distant future, let's get ready for what's right around the corner - 3D in the home is coming in 2010!
