A Beginner’s Guide to … 3D entertainment
Don't know your passive display from your active glasses, then read on for everything you need to know about 3D.
BLU MOVIE
Another important development for 3D home entertainment was the ratification of the Blu-ray 3D format back in December 2009. Discs use a codec called Multiview Video Coding (MVC), which is an extension of the H.264 codec used on standard Blu-ray discs. MVC carries separate 1920×1080 frames for the left and right eyes with only a 50 per cent overhead compared to a normal Blu-ray picture. Blu-ray 3D discs still play in older Blu-ray players, simply by ignoring the right-eye picture and showing a 2D image of the left-eye picture.
The HDMI cable must carry twice as much data for 3D, though: 1920×1080 at 48fps for a 3D film that runs at 24fps. Fortunately HDMI 1.4 allows frame rates up to 60fps at 1920×1080, so HDMI 1.4 should be supported on all 3D-capable TVs and Blu-ray players.
Avatar on 3D Blu-ray is still on limited release, and only available with certain hardware
Blu-ray 3D players are now widely available, but discs are still very thin on the ground. This is because it has taken a while for Hollywood to gear up for the additional hassle and cost of 3D movie production. For ages, that limited 3D releases to those you’ve seen at the cinema: the usual rash of easy to convert 3D animations, plus movies that were shot in 2D and had 3D elements added afterwards (such as Clash of the Titans). Now, though, major blockbusters are all coming in original 3D, and the Blu-ray’s of those will follow quickly.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides may lead the charge for live action films on Blu-ray 3D