LG Cinema 3D TV Get Full HD Certification From VDE

i4u writes "LG announced today that the German VDE, one of the largest technical and scientific associations in Europe, has certified the LG Cinema 3D TVs to be full HD in 3D-mode. LG's Film Patterned Retarder (FPR) technology, used on the CINEMA 3D TVs, creates the perception of 3D depth by delivering two 540 line images, one for each eye, that are then combined via the glasses to create a unified 1080p image. The ruling from the VDE lets LG carry the full HD badge. There is no explanation one how the VDE arrives at this ruling. My personal experience shows a rather big resolution difference between FPR and shutter glass based 3D TVs."

Re:Interlacing

[Belial6]

I don't think they will be a fad. The reason is that 3D for gaming works. Field depth isn't an issue, temporal aliasing isn't an issue. The need to be able to walk around the house while playing isn't an issue. The ability to flatten the game to 2D isn't an issue. Making the game in 3D isn't an issue. This means that a good many people will already have the equipment in their home.

For movies and TV programing, it is a slightly different story. The reason I don't think it will go away comes down to price and the ability to watch in 2D. In the past if you bought a program in 3D, that is all it would ever be. You couldn't simply press a button to convert it back to 2D in real time. Now it is trivial. There is no reason that a TV should not be able to take a 3D stream and display it in 2D. All the current 3D TVs would need to do is drop every other frame, or for SBS just show half the stream stretched onto the whole screen. So from a consumer perspective, their media is backward compatible, and there is no loss for getting the 3D version.

From a hardware perspective, 3DTVs are noticeably more expensive, but I believe that is do to the "because we can" situation. Given time, the 3D functionality will likely be a standard feature because the cost of including it is negligible. Kind of like contrast controls. Almost nobody plays with the contrast controls on their TV, but they are there all the same for those that do want to use it.

Finally, 3DTV functionality will make a big splash for regular TV when units start shipping that will interlace from two different sources. When one person can play video games, and another can watch a TV show on the same TV at the same time, people who you never expected to have an interest will buy the product. This will lead to everyone having a 3DTV. As filming equipment gets replaced, the cost of filming in 3D will become negligible, and thus the cost from creation to consumption will be so small that you might as well supply it that way. Even in a worst case scenario, it will be trivial to supply computer animated movies in 3D since they are already made in 3D and flattened to 2D for distribution. It is pretty much just a matter of running the renderer to a second file. Once TVs start shipping where they will frame drop 3D streams into 2D, it wont even take a second render.