It is not mass for before 3D market horizon of 2015

Passionate home cinema, you've still not seen! After the high-definition on screen and on disk, electronics industry and Hollywood studios have a new revolution to offer consumers: TV in three dimensions. It was one of the highlights of the IFA, the European track of the electronics industry, in early September in Berlin. Several big names in the sector, Sony and Panasonic in mind, proposed visitors wear strange glasses to watch their last novelty: TV in relief, as in the film. In the program, short demonstrations proposed at the show, sport, documentaries, concerts show, video games and, especially, films. With an impressive visual quality: fluid images, faithful colors and dramatic effects of relief. Panasonic, for example, showed images of a race of formula 1 in subjective camera, or an overview of the towering Grand Canyon. Not to mention excerpts from a long-awaited science fiction film, "Avatar", first feature-length film James Cameron since "titanic", which should come out in December.

Much more cost effective

If some, such as Philips, did not advance to date, the Japanese group Panasonic as its competitor Sony swear that the first screens will be in store for Christmas 2010... and perhaps before. The reason for this haste Enjoy without delay of the enthusiasm of the spectators for the 3D film. Landed in 2008 in some rooms with a handful of films ("Flying to the moon", "journey to the center of the Earth"...), the relief on the big screen to is packaged in 2009, including with the success of "Up there" (read below). Now, "it is to repatriate for individuals what is happening in the cinemas, explains Luc Saint-Elie, responsible for new technologies of Panasonic France." Hollywood realized that a film in 3D is much more cost effective than 2D: 3D allows to sell more expensive tickets and improve the rate of filling rooms. The studios want to benefit from the same phenomenon in the living room.

Another advantage for the studios, a film in 3D should be much more difficult to hack on the Internet, because of the weight of the files, which will be the double of a film in 2D high definition. Support for storage of films already exists: it's Blu - ray format high definition appeared in 2006. With 50 gigabytes of storage on a disk double-layer, Blu - ray is capable of storing two versions of a film high definition (one for each eye, read below). The problem is that the Blu - ray Disc Association (BDA), which brings together publishers of content and consumer electronics manufacturers, has not yet set of technical specifications for the 3D. In early September, it has just announced its objectives in terms of quality. So it is known already 3D discs will be required to ensure a resolution HD (Full HD) for each eye, be readable (in 2D) on a current drive, read old Blu - ray or DVD discs and maintain the same level of bonus and interactivity. The BDA has even specified that the subtitles will appear on the front of the image to be legible, and that 3D content should not be bound to a single display technology.

A war of formats

A specification strict, but that does not replace a standard in good and due form, to gather industry often competing and willing to impose their technical choices. The error would be to revive the war of formats, such as between, from 2006 to 2008, Blu - ray Disc promoted by Sony and Disney, the Toshiba HD DVD and Microsoft. "There is no war of formats, promises Arnaud Brunet, Director delegate Blu - ray Partners France, the body responsible for promoting the Blu - ray technology.". But the ball is in the camp of the BDA: earlier it will decide, the faster the market can move forward. "Otherwise there will be no 3D under the tree for Christmas 2010. And, even in this case, the France and Europe could be excluded, because the first products will be rare. "The first served countries will be probably the Japan and the United States," said George Daniel Levi, Chairman of Blu - ray Partners France. It is not mass for before 3D market horizon of 2015.

The first years, 3D programs should be limited to films and video games. As television programs, they risk to be expected, because the dissemination of images in 3D is still at the project status. Some experiments took place, including at Roland Garros with Orange, said ready technically but expected specifications for future screens. But the chains and the broadcasters, who have just to upgrade to high definition, are hardly departing to invest again in another technology. Especially as the means to acquire dual purpose cameras, requires a bandwidth very broad to transmit the signal. As summarised Luc Saint-Elie, "we are still far from the day where the"20 H"will be broadcast in relief".