How does it work 3d tv

Finally, there is the matter of content! Also, importantly, satellite broadcaster SKY have launched a 3D subscription channel. We perceive depth because the right eye and the left eye are in different locations and each eye captures an ever so slightly different image. The brain processes the two different images into a single image enabling us to focus and perceive the world around us with a sense of depth.

The central principle behind 3D TV is exactly the same — two different images are displayed and then shown to the left eye and right eye. The footage shown to the eyes is recorded from two slightly different perspectives, either from two different cameras, or a camera with two lenses. This footage is then interlaced into one image and broadcast to 3D-ready TVs which are then able to polarise separate the original 3D broadcast back into separate images.

They appear on the screen as blurred images — but when viewed through 3D glasses, the separate images are directed to either the right eye or left eye, creating the impression of depth. There is though thankfully a defined standard with 3D Blu-ray. Because each eye can only see one set of images, your brain interprets this to mean that both eyes are looking at the same object.

But your eyes are converging on a point that's different from the focal point — the focus will always be your television screen. That's what creates the illusion of depth. Today, a more popular type of passive lenses in movie theaters can be found in the polarized glasses. Again, if you look at a screen that uses this technology you'll see more than one set of images. The glasses use lenses that filter out light waves projected at certain angles. Each lens only allows light through that is polarized in a compatible way.

Because of this, each eye will see only one set of images on the screen. Polarized lenses are becoming more popular than anaglyph glasses because the glasses don't distort the color of the image as much and provide a better audience experience. But it's very difficult to use the polarization technique for home theater systems — most methods would require you to coat your television screen with a special polarizing film first.

Where does the term anaglyph come from? That means the sculpted object projects just slightly from the background. In the last few years, engineers have come up with a new way to create three-dimensional images in movies and on television sets.

You still wear 3-D glasses with this method, but they don't use colored lenses. The method doesn't compromise the color quality of the image as much as anaglyph glasses do. It also doesn't require you to put a polarization film on your television screen. What it does do is control when each of your eyes can view the screen. The glasses use liquid crystal display LCD technology to become an active part of the viewing experience.

They have infrared IR sensors that allow them to connect wirelessly to your television or display. As the 3-D content appears on the screen, the picture alternates between two sets of the same image. The two sets are offset from one another similar to the way they are in passive glasses systems. But the two sets aren't shown at the same time — they turn on and off at an incredible rate of speed.

In fact, if you were to look at the screen without wearing the glasses, it would appear as if there were two sets of images at the same time. The LCD lenses in the glasses alternate between being transparent and opaque as the images alternate on the screen. The left eye blacks out when the right eye's image appears on television and vice versa. This happens so fast that your mind cannot detect the flickering lenses.

But because it's timed exactly with what's on the screen, each eye sees only one set of the dual images you'd see if you weren't wearing the glasses. For several years, LCD and plasma screens weren't good candidates for this kind of technique. The refresh rates — the speed at which a television replaces the image on the screen — were too low for the technology to work without the viewer detecting a flicker from the glasses. But now you can find plasma and LCD displays with incredibly fast refresh rates.

The refresh rates are just one part of a television qualifying as 3-D ready. Learn more in the next section. It's easier to present 3-D in high definition using active glasses than with passive glasses. That's because with a passive glasses system, the television has to display two sets of images at the same time. An active glasses system alternates between the two sets of images at very high speeds — it's less information for the television to handle at any particular moment.

You can't use a standard television and expect active glasses to work. You must have some way to synchronize the alternating images on the screen with the LCD lenses in the glasses. Very recent-vintage active 3D TVs that comply with the universal full HD 3D standard work with any active glasses that also comply, including those cheaper Samsungs.

Older active 3D TVs typically require the same brand of glasses Panasonic TVs need Panasonic 3D glasses, for example or more expensive universal glasses. You can use pretty much any circular polarized passive glasses -- including off-brand versions or even ones "borrowed" from a theater, with any passive 3D TV. Passive glasses are easier to use and wear Since they don't have electronics or batteries, passive glasses are lighter and more comfortable than most active glasses -- although new active glasses are generally lighter than their predecessors, and we've found most of them comfortable enough.

Passive glasses come in many form factors, including designer and clip-on versions for people who wear regular glasses. They also don't introduce flicker when you're multitasking with a laptop, phone, or other screen while wearing them, nor under bright fluorescent lighting.

Active glasses flicker in both circumstances, but in our experience they don't usually introduce visible flicker when you're actually watching 3D TV. They do need to be turned on and synced with the TV, although that's usually a simple process. Their batteries also need to be periodically replaced or recharged, typically via a USB port below. Active and passive both have picture quality pros and cons In our experience, 3D picture quality varies greatly depending on manufacturer, model, glasses, technology type LED LCD or plasma , and even screen size.

That said, we can make some broad generalizations between active and passive based on what we've seen. Passive generally causes less crosstalk -- a major 3D-specific artifact -- than active. Active 3D TVs don't show jagged-edge artifacts and line structure that can be seen on passive models, although these artifacts are less visible on smaller screens and farther distances.

They also keep their 3D effect better when seen from extreme angles to either side or above and below the image -- although from most normal viewing angles, passive 3D TVs have no issues maintaining the 3D illusion. The fact that passive isn't available on plasma TVs is also an issue to home-theater enthusiasts who don't want to buy an LCD. We prefer the 3D picture quality of the best active 3D TVs over passive for critical viewing Our main hangup with passive 3D TV is the presence of the artifacts mentioned above, which we find especially distracting at the closer seating distances and with the large screen sizes favored by home-theater enthusiasts.

But with the practical and certain picture quality strengths of passive 3D, especially in bright rooms, an argument can certainly be made that it's the better choice overall. Check out "Active 3D vs. That's what 4K TVs that employ passive 3D promise. Their higher resolution should eliminate most of those jagged edges and line structure. You need made-in-3D source material to take full advantage of a 3D TV. Many 3D products feature 2D-to-3D conversion options, but they're a far cry from a real 3D source.

The ratios are comparable, and so far in 3D Blu-ray releases are on the same pace as the last two years. In other words, 3D Blu-rays aren't getting much more common as the format matures. There are also quite a few blockbusters; nearly every big-budget 3D theatrical release also makes it to 3D Blu-ray. As a result, between and millions of consumers either purchased new HDTVs to meet the "new" broadcast requirements or analog-to-digital TV broadcast converters so that they could keep their older analog TVs working a little while longer.

This meant that when 3D TV was introduced in , most consumers were not ready to discard their just-purchased TVs, and reach into their wallets again, just to get 3D. Bad timing was just the first mistake. To view the 3D effect on a TV you had to wear special glasses. And, get this, there were competing standards that determined which glasses you had to use. Some TV makers led by Panasonic and Samsung adopted a system referred to as "active shutter". In this system, viewers had to wear glasses that used shutters that alternately opened and closed, synchronized with alternately displayed left and right eye images on the TV to create the 3D effect.

However, other manufacturers led by LG and Vizio adopted a system referred to as "passive polarized", in which the TV displayed both the left and right images at the same time, and the required glasses used polarization to provide the 3D effect.

However, a major problem was that the glasses used with each system were not interchangeable. If you owned a 3D TV that required active glasses, you could not use passive glasses or vice versa. To make matters worse, even though you could use the same passive glasses with any 3D TV that used that system, with TVs that used the active shutter system, you couldn't necessarily use the same glasses with different brands.

Another problem with 3D glasses was the cost. For a family of 4 or more or if a family regularly hosted a movie night that cost was pretty high.

Uh-oh, more costs ahead! Also, with internet streaming starting to take off, you needed to make sure that your new 3D TV was compatible with any internet services that offered 3D streaming.

Realizing that some consumers might not want to purchase all the other gear needed for a true 3D viewing experience, TV makers decided to include the capability of 3D TVs to perform real-time 2D-to-3D conversion—Big Mistake! Although this allowed consumers to watch existing 2D content in 3D right out the box, the 3D viewing experience was poor—definitely inferior to viewing actual 3D.

As a result, TV makers made the big mistake of not incorporating increased light output technologies into 3D TVs to compensate. However, what is ironic, is that with the introduction of HDR technology in , TVs began to be made with increased light output capability.

This would have benefited the 3D viewing experience, but in a counter-intuitive move, TV makers decided to dump the 3D viewing option, focusing their efforts on implementing HDR and improving 4K resolution performance , without keeping 3D in the mix. In order to provide 3D TV programming, two channels are required, so that standard TV owners could still watch a program normally on one channel, in addition to those wanting to watch in 3D on another.

This meant increased cost for broadcast networks to provide separate feeds to local stations, and for local stations to maintain two separate channels for transmission to viewers.

However, Vudu, 3D Crave , and some other internet streaming content channels still provide some 3D content, but how long that will last is anyone's guess. Another reason 3D failed was the poor retail sales experience. At first there was a lot of sales hype and 3D demonstrations, but after the initial push, if you walked into a lot of retailers looking for a 3D TV, the sales people no longer provided well-informed presentations, and 3D glasses were often missing or, in the case of active shutter glasses, not charged or missing batteries.

The result was that consumers that may have been interested in buying a 3D TV would just walk out of the store, not knowing what was available, how it worked, how to best optimize a 3D TV for the best viewing experience, and what else they needed to enjoy the 3D experience at home. Also, sometimes it was not communicated well that all 3D TVs can display images in standard 2D. In other words, you can use a 3D TV just like any other TV in cases where 3D content is not available if 2D viewing is desired or more appropriate.

For a variety of reasons, not everyone likes 3D. If you are viewing with other family members or friends, and one of them doesn't want to watch 3D, they will just see two overlapping images on the screen.