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Samsung, RealD pact for ZScreen passive glasses 3D TVs falls apart
Back at CES, Samsung's business display unit and RealD announced a deal to build passive glasses compatible 3D TVs with sharper resolution than FPR, since the active shutters are built into the screen itself. Turns out, that promise won't be fulfilled. In its Q2 earnings report released yesterday, RealD confirmed that the agreement fell through since Samsung's "initiative to manufacture panels... is not being pursued." RealD did say it's decided to explore "other potential partners," for the ZScreen technology but it has yet to offer any specifics. Equally ambiguous are the factors that led to the Samsung schism, though RealD CEO Michael Lewis told reporters that the Korean manufacturer simply "had a recent management change, reviewed all their projects and decided not to go forward." He added, however, that his company remains "bullish on the technology." Samsung, for its part, has yet to comment on the story.
Samsung, RealD announce RDZ tech that puts active shutter 3D into the TV instead of the glasses
Just when we were getting used to the introduction of passive glasses 3D into the formerly active shutter-only home arena Samsung LCD Business and RealD will show off another option at this year's CES that is apparently based on the ZScreen technology RealD licensed last year. According to the two, RDZ LCD HDTVs are compatible with the cheaper RealD glasses already in use in theaters, by making the panel itself an active switching LCD instead. Compared to the patterned retarder passive 3D we expect to see from Vizio and LG, this has the advantage of not cutting the resolution of whatever you're watching in half, although they would likely still claim advantages in brightness and lack of flicker. We'll have to let our eyes tell us which is the best approach but the fact this is coming from Samsung's business LCD division instead of its consumer arm suggests the price of any displays that are eventually released will be something beyond the 3D capable TVs we're used to so far.
RealD to license ZScreen for HDTVs, bring cheap 3D glasses to the masses
Most who have seen their favorite content in 3D have seen the light, but still find it hard to look past the glasses. Any 3D glasses are worse than no glasses at all, but expensive 3D glasses make even less sense to most. So while all the consumer 3DTV glasses so far have been of the expensive active shutter variety (which keeps the price of the TVs more in line with the 2D versions), RealD announced at the 3D entertainment summit that it would license its ZScreen technology (pictured above) to 3DTV manufacturers. This means that the same inexpensive 3D glasses used in theaters could be used at home. The big question of course is how much will these 3DTVs cost, and how will the 3D quality experience compare to what active shutter glasses can offer. But to those who hate heavy, expensive 3D glasses that require batteries, this is could certainly be good news.
