DVB Project In Europe Publishes 3D TV Broadcasting ‘BlueBook’

The European Broadcasting Union’s DVB Project in Geneva, Switzerland, released without fanfare this week a new “BlueBook” listing recommended “commercial requirements” for 3D TV broadcasts. The document’s key aim is to outline a 3D TV broadcasting service that uses the “existing HDTV infrastructure,” the project said. It said it published the BlueBook because several DVB members need technical standards before introducing 3D TV broadcast services in 2010 or 2011.

Initial requirements are for pay-TV broadcasters to transmit “frame-compatible” 3D TV services for use over current set-tops through an HDMI connector using firmware upgrades, the BlueBook says. There are a total of 20 commercial requirements covering the areas for digital TV reception that DVB members think are needed for a user-friendly service, it says.

Its main requirement is that broadcasters be able to use an existing DVB HDTV broadcast channel, and viewers can use an existing or suitably adapted receiver to receive the 3D TV content. “This does not, however, preclude its use in other commercial environments, or the later addition of enhancement signals,” the BlueBook says. Left- and right-eye 3D images must be arranged in a “spatial multiplex,” such that the resulting signal can be processed by the set-top box “substantially as a conventional HDTV signal,” it says.

One commercial requirement is that the 3D TV spec be flexible enough to support future frame-compatible formats, the document says. Another is to allow services that offer only 3D-TV programming in addition to those that feature a mix of 2D and 3D, it says. The spec “shall address frame-compatible 3D-TV services over HD broadcast infrastructures up to the point of reception by the digital receiver,” it says. “The 3D-TV specification shall not address how the 3D transmission is displayed nor any technologies, such as shutter glasses, used to achieve 3D viewing effect."

Since the spec will be limited to frame-compatible services, “it is envisaged that the primary task of DVB 3D TV shall be to signal the presence of 3D encoding in an HD frame,” the BlueBook says. “The first 3D TV broadcast services are likely to be directed to STBs connected to 3D TVs via HDMI or equivalent interface.” Though there are no specific additional requirements for audio for 3D TV, “nothing proposed in the signalling or distribution video formats for the 3D TV specification should prevent future expansion to support new 3D encoding technologies,” it says. DVB will “investigate the technical benefits of additional frame-compatible formats and provide a report summarizing ‘pros and cons’ of such formats,” it says.

Meanwhile, Sisvel Technology, an Italian company, said Thursday it plans to use next month’s IFA show in Berlin to showcase a new technology for 3D TV broadcasts that it calls the “3D Tile” format. Frame-packing is “the key technology that will be adopted in the first generation of 3D TV broadcasting services,” it said. Squeezing left- and right-eye 3D images into a single HD frame “allows the service provider to reuse part of the existing production infrastructure and the whole of the existing distribution infrastructure,” Sisvel said. “Unfortunately, frame packing requires sub-sampling of the source images to make them squeezable in half the size of a HD frame and this might cause adverse consequences."

To overcome these problems, 3D Tile allows for storage of two 720p frames in a single 1080p frame, Sisvel said. “In this case, if the left and right pictures are originated in the 720p format, no decimation is needed,” it said. “The reconstructed left and right pictures will preserve their original resolution and will not suffer from the unbalance of the vertical and horizontal resolution.”