3DTV
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Sky suggests UK homes could see 3D TV by the end of the year
Sky has already successfully tested its 3D broadcasting capabilities, and hinted that the 2012 London Olympics could be comin' at ya like never before, but it now looks like the broadcaster could be set to roll out the service even sooner than many expected. According to Sky's Chief Engineer Chris Johns, Sky now has the "capability for homes to see 3D by year-end," although he unsurprisingly didn't offer any firm timeline for an actual rollout, or even a confirmation of the exact type of 3D system that'd be used, saying simply that they're continuing to test different systems and that he envisions it to be "glasses-based in some form." He also added that Sky is focused on building a content library "over the coming year," so that would seem to suggest that an actual launch would come very near the end of the year, if not later.[Via Register Hardware, thanks SK]
Samsung developing WiFi variant for TVs, testing elusive 3D rendering chip
There's no telling what kind of off-the-wall gear Samsung is apt to unleash at CES, and we'll be honest -- we're pretty jazzed about the possibilities. At a recent tech forum, Samsung confessed that it was working with both 60GHz wireless technology (read: WirelessHD) and "its own variant of WiFi" in relation to cord-free TVs. This news is particularly bad in two respects: first, it doesn't signal very much confidence in WirelessHD, and moreover, the last thing we need is yet another proprietary wireless HD / HDMI standard to slow down the already glacial pace at which it's being adopted in the industry. Moving on, we're also told that the outfit is "internally testing a stereoscopic 3D rendering chip for its TVs that could be released as early as the second half of 2009," which would "help translate 2D video to 3D and interpret 2D content with embedded depth information." Something tells us we best get used to wearing oddly tinted glasses.[Image courtesy of MyDigitalLife]
LG to launch "one or two" 3D TVs in 2009
Deny it all you please, but the 3D revolution is here. LG is just the next brand in the growing line of consumer companies that are caving to the three-dee pressure, and according to Choon Lee, Vice President Director at the Digital TV Research Lab, LG will be launching at least one 3D TV next year. To quote: "3D TVs are the next big step for [LG]; we will try with one or two markets in 2009." Regrettably, that's about all the details he would give up, stopping short of confessing to which markets would first see the devices and when exactly during the course of next year they would launch. It's cool, though -- gives us ample time to get used to wearing those hideous glasses around the house without tripping over foreign objects.
Mitsubishi shows off 3D TV technology: no glasses needed
Experiencing 3D on a television sans those horrifically unsightly glasses has been a dream for years, and while we heard that Mitsubishi had a few tricks up its sleeve last year, we're finally seeing the fruits of its labor. In a brief, completely monotonous video, the outfit demonstrates its "scalable system for real-time acquisition, transmission and autostereoscopic display of dynamic scenes," which translates to "3D TV" in layman's terms. We'll restrain from getting all up in the technicalities, but feel free to take a look at what the "future holds" in the video after the break.
