Group aims for 3D home video format
Seeks standards within six months
By Danny King -- Video Business, 7/21/2008
JULY 21 | A film-technology standards group hopes to establish basic film-mastering standards within two or three years that will create a consistent format allowing for 3D films to be played on home-theater delivery systems, ranging from DVDs to Internet streaming.
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, which has established more than 600 standards related to film exhibition since its founding in 1916, said a task force designed to establish parameters of so-called stereoscopic 3D mastering will have its first meeting next month in Los Angeles. The task force looks to have a document outlining challenges, minimum standards and other issues related to 3D home entertainment within six months.
“There are a lot of companies in the entire food chain that see the possibility of this being a good market,” SMPTE engineering VP Wendy Aylsworth said. “The fact that there is more 3D content showing up in theaters certainly makes it easier to translate those movies to the home.”
Theatrical releases such as last year’s Beowulf and the upcoming Avatar as well as with chains such as Regal Cinemas including 3D systems in hundreds of theaters are helping what some analysts say is the rebirth of 3D, which briefly reached iconic status in the ’50s.
Some studios, though, say 3D is more likely to remain a novelty than grow into a substantial part of home entertainment sales. Although viewing 3D in the home without wearing glasses is a possibility, that technology is at least five years out, Aylsworth said.
“We don’t have much 3D in the pipeline,” said Bill Mandel, VP of broadband technology at Universal Pictures, during a content-delivery conference in La Quinta, Calif., in March. Mandel estimated that 3D could capture about 10% of the home entertainment market.
Aylsworth declined to estimate how big the 3D home entertainment industry could become once industry standards are set. Still, some studios and hardware makers view 3D as having enough potential to warrant forming a consortium in April dedicated to facilitate industry standards that would eventually cut the price of 3D home entertainment. Members of the group, called the 3D@Home Consortium, include Walt Disney, IMAX and Corning.
“3D is taking a lot of my time,” said Benn Carr, VP of new technology at Walt Disney, during the content-delivery conference in March. “It’s amazing how that effort ramped up from a novel idea into something serious.”
