First up is a deal on select LG 2011 Home Entertainment Products. There are 32 products to choose from, 28 HDTVs, two 720p front projectors, and a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray home theater. Note that the overview page doesn’t show all 28 HDTVs, so be sure to check out the subpage for the full selection.

Next up, get two free pairs of 3D glasses and a Blu-ray player with the purchase of a select Samsung HDTV. You get two pair of Samsung SSG-3100GB 3D Active Glasses (MSRP $169.99) and a Samsung BD-D5500 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (MSRP $159.99) when you purchase one of six LED 1080P 3D HDTVs in 46″, 55″, and 60″.

Lastly we have two promotions running on Sony products. The first is on Sony HDTVs, with twelve to choose from. They’re all 1080p and all but one are LED (the one is LCD), eight are 3D, and screen sizes range from 32″ to 60″.

And lastly, a deal on Sony Blu-ray players and home audio systems. You can choose from the Sony BDP-S380, BDP-S480, or BDP-S580 Blu-ray players – and they erroneously SMP-N100 Streaming Player under the Blu-ray category as well. There are also eleven (twelve counting the streaming player) home audio products to select from. Sound bars, home theater systems, A/V receivers, speakers, and a universal remote – a decent set of options.

This is good for everyone – industry and consumer – but my earlier diatribe stands. I think Full HD Passive systems will be better in the long run than active shutter systems, standard glasses or not.

Via TWICE.

First up, I’m not sure I’m sold on Sharp’s Quattron technology or not. I haven’t seen a set in person in conditions where I can really judge it. Basically they added a yellow pixel to the standard red, green, and blue pixels and claim in provides sharper colors. But in any case, you can get the Sharp LC40LE830U Quattron 40-inch 1080p 120 Hz LED-LCD HDTV for $649.98. That’s 41% off of the $1099.99 MSRP, a $450.01 savings.

Now, on to less specific deals. Through August 27th, Amazon is offering deals on select LG consumer electronics products. The selection includes two 720p front projectors, five network connected Blu-ray players, and thirty one HDTVs. The Blu-ray players are the BD630, BD640, BD650, BD670, and BD690. The two lower end models are connected, with the BD640 having WiFi. The BD650 and BD670 are similarly a wired/wireless pair, with the addition of 3D and Smart TV. And the BD690 has WiFi, Smart TV, and a 250GB drive for storing media including Vudu downloads. The HDTVs are a mix of ten plasma, sixteen LED, and five LCD, some with 3D support.

Sticking with LG, Amazon has another promotion running through October 1st. This one is offering a free family pack (six pair) of 3D glasses with the purchase of one of five select LED 3D sets. The sets are available in 47″, 55″, and 65″ sizes and each includes four pairs of glasses.

Switching to Sony, through August 27th save on select Sony BRAVIA HDTVs. Thirteen sets to choose from, LED & LCD, nine with 3D. Sizes from 32″ to 55″.

From Sony over to Samsung, where through September 3rd you can get a free Blu-ray Disc player and two free pairs of 3D glasses with the purchase of a select HDTV. The player is the Samsung BD-D5500 3D Blu-ray player, which carries a $159.99 MSRP (and currently stickers for $114.28). The glasses are the Samsung SSG-3100GB 3D Active Glasses which carry an MSRP of $169.99 (and a $43.79 sticker) – and that’s per pair. There are six LED 3D sets to select from, in 46″, 55″, and 60″ sizes.

And finally, for a complete change of pace, save up to 50% off select HP printers. Twelve Photosmart, Officejet, and Officejet Pro printer models to choose from.

Enjoy.

The groundbreaking work on the new 3D-TV broadcast standard builds on the extensive efforts over the last year by the ATSC 3DTV Planning Team. This new standard, which could be completed in a year, will allow:
3D content delivered on one ATSC terrestrial channel to fixed receivers, with delivery of both views (left and right eye) in real-time, and;
3D content delivered on one ATSC terrestrial channel to Mobile/Handheld receivers, and delivery of both views in real-time.
3D content delivered in non-real-time.

While HDTV in the US is often called ‘ATSC‘, it isn’t a single standard, but rather a collection of standards. The standards for mobile/handheld are collectively known as ATSC-M/H.

It isn’t clear yet just what the final 3DTV standard will entail. Today’s broadcast ATSC for fixed receivers uses MPEG-2 with a maximum resolution of 1080p30. However, back in 2008, MPEG-4/H.264 was added to ATSC with support for up to 1080p60, but this isn’t in use today as main ATSC receivers don’t support MPEG-4/H.264. Most stations are using 1080i or 720p MPEG-2 today.

As with the existing ATSC standards, which give broadcasters numerous choices in resolution, frame rates, etc., the 3D standards will likely do the same. I expect the final standard will give broadcasters a choice of a few different ways to encode 3D video.

As I discussed in my recent post on the state of 3D, 3D broadcasts in the US to date have used a de facto standard known as frame packing. In this system two video frames, left and right eye, are ‘packed’ into one video frame for encoding. So you might take a 1080p frame, which is 1920×1080, and pack two 960×1080 frames into it in left-right packing. Or a 720p frame, which is 1280×720, might have two 1280×360 frames inside in top-bottom packing. The end device handles splitting the frames and displaying them. The obvious drawback is halving the resolution in one direction.

The final standard may include frame packing as one option, albeit a low quality one. I note that backwards-compatibility is mentioned:

“The addition of 3D-TV capability to the DTV broadcast standard will foster new broadcast services while preserving the integrity of legacy TV receivers by adopting a system that allows for simultaneous delivery of 2D HDTV, Mobile DTV, and 3D programs within the same channel while ensuring backwards compatibility,” [ATSC President Mark] Richer said.

To be backwards compatible with today’s receivers, this probably means MPEG-2 using one of three systems – left/right frames, 2D+Delta, or 2D+Depth. Left/right frames is basically frame packing, transmitting two full video frames (one per eye). For 2D display just one frame is used. The drawback is the bandwidth, broadcast ATSC maxes out at 19.4Mbps; by way of comparison Blu-ray supports up to 48Mbps. Sending two full frames means you have to sacrifice the resolution and/or turn up the compression.

So the most likely systems are 2D+Delta or 2D+Depth. Both transmit one full 2D frame, which is displayed on 2D sets. They differ in how they provide the 3D effect. +Delta transmits encoding for how the other frame differs from the full frame that is sent. So if the full frame is the left eye, the encoding is the delta, or difference, to produce the full right eye image – left+delta = right. +Depth instead transmits a ‘depth map’ that overlays the image. This basically tells the display the ‘z-index’ of items in the image. From that it computes the 3D version of the image and generates the left/right images. This is a lot more work for the display device, but can save on bandwidth and allow for higher resolution/quality images. Since Europe standardized 3D for DVB-T on 2D+Depth, it seems likely the US will do the same – or at least include it as one option.

While this would allow broadcasts compatible with all existing MPEG-2 ATSC receivers, it would not provide an optimal 3D experience due to the compromises involved.

Since H.264 isn’t in wide use today, I think there is still a chance for a clean H.264 3D solution. Since 1080p60 2D images are supported, it would be possible to do 1080p30 3D with two full frames – every other frame is left/right. Even better, 1080p30 3D using 2D+Delta/Depth would allow reduced compression in the base 2D image, for a higher quality image.

Since the pipe is the same size for MPEG-2 or MPEG-4, using MPEG-4 will always provide for a better quality image. No matter which video codec or 3D system is used, the 3D image quality will necessarily be lower than plain 2D as you need to encode more data with the same fixed maximum. All else being equal, of course. In other words, if you use the minimum compression required to fit the stream in the pipe the plain 2D image will be less compressed than the 3D image of the same resolution and frame rate as the 3D image needs to fit both the image and 3D data into the pipe.

H.264 will provide the best possible quality; but no matter what they do they won’t be able to match Blu-ray’s 3D quality as it can push full 1080p60 frames to both eyes, with each eye having more available bandwidth than an entire ATSC channel.

Via TWICE.

The first one is kind of funny given my post earlier today (or yesterday now I suppose, but I’m still up) about 3D HDTVs and glasses, but through August 20th, Amazon is offering 14 pairs of glasses with select LG Electronics Cinema 3D HDTV with Smart TV models. These are passive 3D 1080p LED sets, and there are five models to choose from. Three 120Hz models in 47, 55, and 65 inch sizes, and two 240Hz models in 47 & 55 inch sizes. The TVs come with four pair of glasses, and you get the other ten by adding five two-packs of glasses, which are currently $14.03 each. So you save $70.15. Not a lot, but it is a savings, and I couldn’t not list this given the coincidence with my earlier post.

Offering slightly more in the way of savings are two deals on HDTVs. First up, through August 20th, save on select Sony HDTVs. There are twelve 1080p LCD & LED models to choose from, ranging from 40-inch to 55-inch, eight of them 3D.

The second deal is similar, through August 13th, save on select Panasonic HDTVs. There are thirteen 1080p plasma models to select from, from 42 up to 65 inches, ten of them 3D. There is also one lone 1080p 42″ LCD model on offer.

Speaking of Panasonic, one of the deals from last week is still running as well. Also through August 13th, save $90 on a Panasonic DMP-BDT110 Wi-Fi ready 3D/2D Blu-ray Disc player with the purchase of a select Panasonic HDTV. The BD deck is currently $121.04, so you’d get it for $31.04. There are eleven HDTVs to choose from, all 1080p 3D plasma models.

It looks like the same models of plasma are involved in both promotions, and I spot checked a couple and they have the same price either way, so you may as well get the Blu-ray deck cheap if you buy one of the qualifying sets.

They’re also still offering free one-day shipping on select Sony camcorders through August 31st, if you just need one in a big hurry.

EDIT: Looks like I missed one. There is another, perhaps better, promotion on LG HDTVs. Through August 13th, save on select LG HDTVs. This promotion has the most choice, with 32 LCD, LED, and plasma models to choose from. There are 720p and 1080p sets ranging from 22 to 60 inch, twelve of them 3D. It looks like there is some overlap with the free glasses offer too.

So you might expect me to have been one of the first to have jumped on the 3D HDTV bandwagon, but you’d be wrong. Oh, I fully intend to buy a 3D HDTV, but I’m waiting for the industry to shake out a bit. I’ll let them work out the kinks, mature the technology, and get prices down a bit more, then I’ll upgrade.

One of those ‘kinks’ that I’ve been waiting for them to work out is the idiocy of having multiple, incompatible systems for the glasses. Most vendors today use active shutter glasses, but the glasses from one vendor won’t work with a TV from another vendor, which means your friends with a Sony TV can’t bring their glasses over for movie night on your Samsung. OK, let me step back and give a quick overview of where we stand. Oversimplified, but it’ll suffice.

We see the world in 3D because each eye sees objects from a slightly different angle. The brain uses this parallax to calculate the distances and provide depth to what we see. But projected images, like conventional TV, all come from the same plane – they’re 2D. There is no parallax, and thus no depth. So the obvious solution is to provide a different image to each eye, each simulating a different angle, creating the illusion of parallax to provide depth. But that’s simpler to explain than to do.

Older 3D systems tended to be anaglyph, using different color filters for each eye – often red & blue, but there are a number of systems. The two images would be projected with matching color filters, and the filters in the glasses meant each eye only perceived the corresponding color projected. This system works well enough for B&W, but the nature of the system – colored filters – often wrecks havoc with the colors in a color image. And it isn’t that sharp, you get bleed through from the opposite eye’s image if the filters don’t block 100%, etc. Anaglyph is still used for printed materials, and sometimes for video, but it is really used mainly as a novelty these days.

Modern theatrical systems are almost all based on polarized light. The glasses are similar to quality polarized sunglasses, only allowing light waves moving in one direction to pass through. A simple way to imagine it is that you can give light a left hand twist or a right hand twist as you project it. So the 3D system does both – using left hand for the left eye and right hand for the right eye. Corresponding filters in the glasses allow only the matching twist through, so that eye sees only the image projected for it. These systems work fairly well, the only real drawback is that the glasses block some of the light, and so make things dimmer – but that’s easily compensated for by increasing the brightness of the image. Since the glasses are simple lenses and all of the work is done in the projector – or the TV – these systems are called ‘passive’. The advantage is that the glasses are simple, cheap, and light. They aren’t quite universally compatible, as there are different ways to do the polarization (mainly circular polarization vs. linear polarization), but most theaters, and passive 3D HDTVs, use the same system so de facto they tend to be.

On the other hand, most 3D HDTVs today use active shutter glasses instead. As the name implies, in this system the glasses are an active part of the system. Instead of each eye receiving a constant stream of light, filtered for that eye, active shutter systems alternate images to each eye. The glasses contain liquid crystal lenses (similar to the LCDs in a digital watch) which alternate between transparent and opaque – exactly out of phase. So the left eye receives the image while the right eye is blocked, and vice versa. This is sync’d with the image on the screen, so a left eye image is shown while the left lens is transparent, etc. The downside to this is that the glasses are complex, relatively heavy, expensive, and need to be recharged regularly. Oh, and each vendor has used a different synchronization system, making them incompatible, as above, but I’ll get back to that.

So, why do only a few vendors (like LG & Vizio) use passive 3D while the rest use active 3D with the expensive glasses? Well, active 3D is a higher quality solution for the home right now. See, with active 3D each eye sees the full image. So if you have a 1920x1080p ‘Full HD’ display, then each eye gets Full HD – just half the time. But with the displays refreshing at 120Hz or 240Hz, you still get the effect of full HD since the brain can’t tell the difference. It is still equivalent to 60Hz or 120Hz per eye. (Remember classic film is 24 frames per second and, in the US, classic TV was only 30fps (OK, 29.97).) On the other hand, passive 3D systems today use fixed polarizing filters on top of the screen which divide the image in half, line by line. So every even line is for one eye and every odd line is for the other. The end result is that each eye is only getting half resolution, so your 1080p set is only 540p in 3D mode. This is another one of those kinks I mentioned, and it will be resolved, which I’ll get to – but first, back to active shutters.

So, active shutter glasses are more expensive and complex, but provide a better image. That’s fine. But they’re expensive, with prices ranging from $50 to $200, while passive glasses start at a couple of bucks. The cost of active glasses wouldn’t be so bad, except for the compatibility problem and the stinginess of vendors. When you buy your shiny new 3D HDTV it may not even come with a pair of glasses. And when they do, it is generally just one or two pair. If you have a family with more people, or ever want to have friends over for a movie night, you need more glasses. Maybe your friends have their own 3D HDTV – great, they can bring their glasses. What, they have a different brand of TV? Oh, that’s too bad.

Different vendors have used different systems to keep the glasses in sync. There are IR- and RF-based systems, using different protocols. So while Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic, for example, all have used IR – they’ve used different IR protocols. Some vendors, like XPAND, have seen this as an opportunity and have been producing ‘universal’ glasses which implement multiple standards to work with multiple TVs, but it still means buying more if your TV came with vendor-specific glasses. Finally the main vendors supporting active shutter, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, and XPAND, have formed the ‘Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative‘ to produce universally compatible glasses across all members.

The new glasses will support RF and IR protocols. Of course, they’re not expected to be available until 2012, but they will be backwards compatible with 2011 model 3D HDTVs. Basically they’re going to cram all of the protocols into one set of glasses for backwards compatibility, though it sounds like going forward the vendors will be using Bluetooth as a standard RF system on their sets. So one day we may have one protocol across all of the sets, which would allow for simpler ‘universal’ glasses.

So that’s one kink worked out, or at least on the path there. So, time for me to start shopping for that 3D TV.

Actually, no. See, I don’t like active 3D. Sure, the image is great and all, but I don’t like the heavy, or at least heavier, glasses and the costs involved. I have a hard enough time remembering to plug in my PS3 controllers to keep them charged, I don’t want to deal with having to keep my 3D glasses charged. Or worry about them falling into the couch or getting sat on, etc. I think the RealD glasses at the theater are pretty comfortable, and you can even buy custom, designer, even prescription, passive 3D glasses if you want. I’m a big fan of passive 3D, in other words. But I’m not willing to sacrifice quality either, the kink I mentioned earlier.

Fortunately, that’s on its way to being resolved too. While current passive 3D systems use a passive, fixed polarizing screen on a conventional HD display, that’s not the only way to do it. One obvious solution – up the native resolution of the display. If you’re halving the resolution for each eye, the higher the native resolution of the display, the higher the resolution for each eye. A 4k native display would provide better than Full HD for each eye. But making such high resolution displays in large panel sizes is a very expensive option today.

There’s another approach though, as pursued by RealD in their RDZ system, add an active polarizer to the screen. This is kind of a hybrid between active shutter and passive 3D systems. The glasses are passive, but an active layer is added to the screen. Instead of an on/off shutter, it is a polarizer, that alternatively polarizes the full image left or right. While the glasses are passive, since each lens only allows the matching image through, one eye sees nothing while the other sees the image, just like with active 3D. But all of the complexity and cost is in the TV. The glasses are literally the same as used in the theater – if you need more just bring them home next time you go, instead of tossing them in the recycling bin.

Sets using RDZ are expected to hit the market in 2012 from Samsung, and there will probably be similar, competing systems. Personally I think this solution is the best of both worlds. You get the Full HD image quality with cheap, lightweight glasses. Cheap enough that you can have plenty on hand for friends, and not worry about breaking or losing a pair. And if you need prescription lenses (as my fiancée wears) you can have prescription 3D glasses made that you can use at home and in the theater. No more having to sacrifice clarity for 3D, or trying to wear two pairs of glasses. It is hard to justify the cost of a prescription pair just for the theater, even for a die-hard movie goer, but if you can use the same glasses at home all the time, it is easier to justify.

Oh, yeah, I left out ‘glasses free’ 3D systems. That wasn’t an accident; I’m extremely unimpressed with them. They work OK on small displays – cell phones, handhelds, etc. – though even there they have major limitations. But they have too many drawbacks. Glasses free systems work via two major systems – lenticular screens or filter slats. Lenticular screens are familiar to most people – you know those images that seem to move when you tip them back and forth? Those have a lenticular screen on top. Basically rows of linear lenses that create ‘slices’ of an image. so when you view at a given angle you seen only specific slices, as directed by the lens. If you ever see one of the images without the lens in place it looks like several images all sliced up into ribbons, interlaced with each other. And that’s exactly what the display is doing – it is actually displaying columns of left & right images interlaced, and using the lens to direct each one to one eye. The slat system works in a similar manner, but even simpler. There are vertical slats positioned in front of the display designed to simply block every other column of pixels from each eye. But in such a way that it blocks the odd columns for one eye, and the even columns for the other.

So, in these systems you have the same drawback as today’s passive 3D – it halves the resolution. But, worse, there are very specific fixed points (or point in some cases) for viewing. While active and passive glasses systems work pretty much from any viewing angle the display supports, with glasses free systems you have to be in one of the ‘sweet spots’ where the effect works. Anywhere else and you may see nothing, or garbage, or 2D, it depends. Again, you know those cheap lenticular pictures? Know how as you tip them, as one image dissolves into the next there is a point where it is neither image and just a mess? The displays are like that, if you sit in the wrong place.

I’ll never say never, but to date I haven’t seen anything out or announced that truly resolves these issues with glasses free 3D. I’ve seen systems that will increase the number of viable points for viewing, but that’s just polishing a turd. You still have finite points and you still lose quality. Until someone comes up with a real breakthrough I think passive Full HD 3D will be the best option. I’m just waiting for it to arrive – and be priced reasonably, of course. I picked up my current set, a 61″ Samsung 1080p DLP, in late 2006, so it has plenty of life left in it. I can wait.

Press release spotted via Engadget.

First up, you can save $30 on a Sony HomeShare Speaker and Blu-ray Player Bundle. You simply add one of the qualifying speakers and BD decks to your cart to receive the discount. The promotion includes the BDP-S480 and BDP-S580 BD decks (which are good units, especially the 580), and the SNP-N100 Streaming Player and SANS300 & SANS400 HomeShare WiFi Network Speakers.

Second is a deal on select 2011 LG Electronics products. There are thirty one products involved in the promotion, nearly all (27) of them HDTVs (several 3D), three Blu-ray home theater systems, and one standalone Blu-ray player. Of the HDTVs eight are plasma (six of those 3D) with screens 50-60″, thirteen are LED (three of those 3D) with screens 22-65″, and six are LCD (none 3D) with screens 32-55″. Two of the home theater systems also support 3D.

Both deals run through 23:59 PST on July 23, 2011.

Of course, the next step is bringing that content home. Several consumer electronics companies are working on systems for 3D in the home. The polarized glasses used in modern theater systems aren’t feasible in the home, they require a polarized image source. The leading candidate right now are LCD shutter glasses which flicker on and off in sync with the on-screen image, providing each eye with its own perspective. With 120Hz refresh screens each eye gets a full 60Hz refresh rate. And there are other systems, including some which provide 3D viewing without any glasses.

But we still need a way to get that 3D content into the home, and that’s where Panasonic’s proposal comes in. What they’re proposing is a modification to Blu-ray to provide 3D playback. And it is based on existing standards with relatively simple modifications. The content would be encoded using an existing two-channel encoding system already included in H.264. Instead of encoding each ‘eye’ individually as two channels, there is one primary channel and the second channel only has to encode the delta, or differences, from the primary. That means instead of 2x the data the result is only about 1.5x as large. Because the primary channel is still a full, viewable 2D version of the content this system could theoretically be backwards compatible. While 3D viewing would require newer, 3D capable players, older Blu-ray players could potentially play back the standard 2D version.

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is hoping to officially consider the proposal before the end of the year, which could lead to adoption in 2010. 3D content would also require an updated HDMI standard to carry the content to the display, and Panasonic is also considering a proposal for that.