Glasses-free 3D and the transition to 4K-3D at home
In this post, Ian Herring writes about why glasses-free 4K-3D TV could become the next holy grail of home entertainment
Plenty of pundits have pronounced 3D TV dead, but a new generation of technology could offer the reprieve that we in the business have all been waiting for.
The first high-quality glasses-free 3D tablets hit the market this year and are already flying off the shelves. The 10.1-inch Hampoo and eight-inch Gadmei are mercifully ushering in the end of the awkward active-glasses phase of 3D consumer electronics (CE).
That means it’s only a matter of time before a 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV becomes the next must-have in home entertainment — and that, in combination with the other next big thing, Ultra HD (4K), will be just too fantastic to resist.
It makes me excited about the future of 3D filmmaking.
Imagine sitting on your sofa watching an action-packed film or show, such as Parallax’s upcoming underwater series Bahama Blue or Guillermo del Toro’s summer blockbuster Pacific Rim, in glasses-free, 4K-3D.
In the theatre, because of the tint on my polarized lenses, I found some of Pacific Rim’s fantastic creatures looked dark – snapping me out of the immersive experience. This could be fixed with brighter projection in theatres, but also perhaps, someday, at home. With an autostereoscopic 4K-3D TV the picture would be ultra-bright and crisp — much more so than 1080p — just as it was intended.
Which has got me thinking that 4K may be the gateway for 3D to take hold. 4K is a more accessible idea for people to grasp – it’s not a huge leap for people to see that Ultra HD is a logical step from HD as it’s just a better image.
So for now we leave 3D off the table and when the autostereoscopic sets begin to roll out with 4K resolution, I think it will blow people’s minds in the way HD did when it first came out in the mid-2000’s.
And if things go well, autostereoscopic 4K-3D TV is set to become a powerful, immersive and transformative visual medium, and that’s why Parallax is diving in full-force.
Swimming with dolphins in 4k-3D may be like being there
