3D Technology

3D television (3DTV) is television that conveys depth perception to the viewer by employing techniques such as stereoscopic display,multi-view display, 2D-plus-depth, or any other form of 3D display. Most modern 3D television sets use an active shutter 3D system or apolarized 3D system, and some are autostereoscopic without the need of glasses.

According to DisplaySearch 3D televisions shipments totaled 41.45 million units in 2012, compared with 24.14 in 2011 and 2.26 in 2010. As of late 2013 the number of 3D TV viewers started to decline.

3D-ready TV sets

3D-ready TV sets are those that can operate in 3D mode (in addition to regular 2D mode) using one of several display technologies to recreate a stereoscopic image. These TV sets usually supportHDMI 1.4 and a minimum output refresh rate of 120 Hz; glasses may be sold separately.

Philips was developing a 3D television set that would be available for the consumer market by about 2011 without the need for special glasses (autostereoscopy). However it was canceled because of the slow adoption of customers going from 2D to 3D.

In August 2010, Toshiba announced plans to bring a range of autosteroscopic TVs to market by the end of the year.

The Chinese manufacturer TCL Corporation has developed a 42-inch (110 cm) LCD 3D TV called the TD-42F, which is currently available in China. This model uses a lenticular system and does not require any special glasses (autostereoscopy). It currently sells for approximately $20,000.

Onida, LG, Samsung, Sony, and Philips intend to increase their 3D TV offering with plans to make 3D TV sales account for over 50% of their respective TV distribution offering by 2012. It is expected that the screens will use a mixture of technologies until there is standardisation across the industry. Samsung offers the LED 7000, LCD 750, PDP 7000 TV sets and the Blu-ray 6900.

Full 3D TV sets

Full 3D TV sets include Samsung Full HD 3D (1920x1080p, 600 Hz) and Panasonic Full HD 3D (1920x1080p, 600 Hz).

A September 2011 Cnet review touted Toshiba’s 55ZL2 as “the future of television”. Because of the demanding nature of auto-stereoscopic 3D technology, the display features a 3840×2160 display; however, there is no video content available at this resolution. That said, it utilizes a multi-core processor to provide excellent upscaling to the “4k2k” resolution. Using a directional lenticular lenslet filter, the display generates nine 3D views. This technology commonly creates deadspots, which Toshiba avoids by using an eye-tracking camera to adjust the image. The reviewers also note that the 3D resolution for a 1080p signal looks more like 720p and lacks parallax, which reduces immersion.