Nvidia Announces 3D Blu-ray Format For 2010

Barence writes "Nvidia has announced that 3D Blu-ray movies will begin appearing in 2010. A spokesman confirmed that the Blu-ray Association — to which Nvidia is a contributor — had settled on the 'proper parameters [for] what constitutes a 3D Blu-ray' and claimed the first 3D Blu-ray films would hit the shelves 'towards the end of Summer 2010.' Nvidia will support the standard through its 3D Vision technology, using bit rates of around 60Mbits/second — twice that of a standard movie — although HDMI 1.3 'should have sufficient bandwidth' to ensure smooth playback. New files will be encoded using the MVC-AVC format, which is based on the AVC format currently used by Blu-ray movies.' Update: HotHardware has some additional details, including images of demo hardware.

Re:New players AGAIN?

[interkin3tic]

The PS9, featuring ultraviolet Ray 5D technology is set to drop in another month. Think I'll wait for that.

Re:Remind me why we need (or even want) this?

[gEvil (beta)]

I would settle for a plot that was at least somewhat plausible. Movies now seem to be just a mixture of scatological jokes and special effects that mask the fact that nothing is actually happening.

Think what you want, but I personally can't wait to witness the destructive forces of ShitStorm3D!!!

MVC-AVC?

[Anonymous Coward]

MVC is a chain of adult video stores here in northern Virginia. It's great to see that Nvidia understands what audience will be first up to buy this technology.

Re:Remind me why we need (or even want) this?

[TheSync]

Is there some wicked cool technology that's going to work on my existing (brand new) TV without glasses?

This is under development, but the challenge is that non-glasses based 3D systems need to code a large number of views - you may need to be able to generate 100 views so that everyone in the room can view 3D properly. Rather than code and transmit ~50 views, it is likely that you will have to code and transmit 3D model (think: Quake model) and render the views at the display device.

The different views can be steered in different directions using lenticular arrays, a matrix of small mirrors or other beam steering devices on the display surface, or computer-generated holograms (aka electronically controlled diffraction-grating matrix).

I've seen some 12-view lenticular displays based on a quad-HD resolution 2D LCD panel that begins to be acceptable - but I've also seen a small ~200-view, 360-degree display [usc.edu] based on a single spinning mirror that was awesome, but wouldn't scale to a 50" screen.