SMPTE investigates stereoscopic 3-D home entertainment
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is starting a significant initiative that could help to propel the stereoscopic 3-D home entertainment industry forward. The international standards-setting body will create 3-D mastering standards for content that will be viewed in the home — for all devices and delivery methods. An audience watches a 3-D film in China. (Getty Images photo)According to the SMPTE plan, the society will first establish an industry task force to define the parameters of a mastering standard for 3-D content distributed via broadcast, cable, satellite, packaged media and the Internet, and played-out on televisions, computer screens and other tethered displays. In six months, the 3-D Home Display Formats Task Force will produce a report that defines the issues and challenges, minimum standards, and evaluation criteria.  The society will then form a standards committee, which will use the report as a working document for standards setting efforts to follow. This is a complex process that takes time, and Aylsworth — who is vp, technology at Warner Brothers Technical Operations — estimated that the standard is at least a year and a half away. A 3-D home entertainment market has the potential to impact 3-D digital cinema. Numerous executives believe that such a market might prompt increased 3-D production at the studios, which would benefit digital cinema stakeholders. “If the studios saw that the cost in creating 3-D — which is more expensive than a 2-D movie — could potentially bring in more revenue in the later market, I think it would help to develop more movies in that genre,” explained SMPTE engineering vp Wendy Aylsworth. What impact it might have on the perceived advantage that 3-D gives digital cinema theater owners would remain to be seen. |
See the full article by Carolyn Giardina at The Hollywood Reporter here
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