3D TV Faces Costly Tech Challenges as Cable Prepares to Start Service

LOS ANGELES -- Although cable operators can offer 3D TV pictures to viewers in a “frame compatible” mode today, much work remains to boost the viewing quality and experience of stereoscopic video images beamed to the home, according to industry experts on an NCTA convention panel last week.

The experts outlined cable’s initial approach of offering frame-compatible 3D TV signals, which don’t offer full-resolution images but also don’t demand major changes in the industry’s existing video-delivery infrastructure. Using the frame-compatible approach, cable operators send separate left-eye and right-eye images in a side-by-side format or stacked top and bottom.

In the next phase of development, the experts said, cable operators and other video service providers will offer full-resolution 3D TV pictures through two separate information channels. The providers will use a frame-compatible signal with an additional channel of information or a single-image signal with a second channel of 3D data. But, the experts said, both approaches require expensive new video-delivery equipment and digital set-tops.

"The end game is, of course, to deliver full resolution” 3D, said David Broberg, vice president of consumer video technology for CableLabs. But he projected that it will probably take two years for the industry to craft digital set-top boxes with enough processing power to handle full HD resolution in 3D mode.

Kevin Murray, a systems architect with NDS Group, said it may not be technically necessary to offer extras like the ability to deliver on-screen graphics, including closed captions, in 3D and to instruct the TV set to switch between 2D and 3D modes. But he said features like these would significantly improve the viewing experience. “You don’t need to do anything to an HD set-top to get 3D video on a 3D display,” he said. “But the experience you get isn’t as seamless, isn’t as clean.” Murray said such trick modes as fast forwarding can be problematic in 3D and need to be considered separately. He drily noted that it could be “very disconcerting” to watch a 3D video of somebody throwing a baseball at you in fast-forward mode.

Walt Husak, director of image technologies for Dolby Labs, said it’s still not clear how popular 3D programming will be. Nor, he said, is it clear whether programmers will pay higher production costs to develop 3D content any time soon. “How many hours will people spend viewing 3D TV, five to six hours per day?” he said. “Or will it be a couple hours per week? We'll have to wait and see.” Besides these issues, glasses-free 3D TV displays, considered the Holy Grail for 3D by most TV set manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers, may be many years away.

Consultant Mark Schubin described a demo by Japan’s NHK that showed an “absolutely great” 3D parallax-barrier display, with no need for special glasses. But, even with an ultra-HD camera, he said, “the quality was less than YouTube” because the technology displays images from multiple viewpoints. He estimated it would take 100 times the information currently transmitted for 3D-TV for a parallax-barrier display to produce a high-quality video. But Broberg said glasses-free 3D displays in handheld devices may hold promise. “It’s not something you can share, but it can provide a fairly good, high-quality personal 3D view,” he said.

Even with such technical and cost obstacles, some industry experts continue to hold high hopes for 3D-TV. Tony Werner, Comcast’s chief technology officer, noted that Comcast showed the first national 3D broadcast of the Masters golf tournament last month. “I thought it was going to be a little ho-hum,” he said. But at the viewing events that Comcast held, he said, “we were almost having to rip the glasses away from people."

Comcast was one of a few major industry players that made 3D TV news at the convention. Comcast and ESPN said Comcast will carry the new ESPN 3D network when it launches June 11 with coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Comcast will offer ESPN 3D to its digital cable subscribers, making it the network’s first cable affiliate. Comcast will also offer some ESPN 3D events on video-on-demand (VOD).

In another notable 3D announcement at the convention, Avail-TVN said it will launch up to four 3D channels for cable operators and other video service providers by the end of the year. The digital media service company said its new suite of 3D programming services will include a transactional VOD channel, a free VOD network, a transactional linear pay-per-view service, and a free, promotional 3D channel. Avail-TVN said all four services will work on existing digital set-tops with minor software upgrades. It will join ESPN, Discovery and DirecTV in pumping out 3D programming to TV viewers.