3D Blu-ray system demoed at SID

Blu-ray disc
Blu-ray 3D could be available in your living room soon

TDVision Systems, the 3D technology company, has been busy showcasing some of its new tech at the LA-based SID (Society for Information Display) 2008.

Since 2001, TDVision has been trying to find ways to integrate 3D into hi-def home-cinema setups. This year’s demonstration of its TDVCodec showed that it is now possible to view your normal Blu-ray discs in 3D.

Another dimension

How is this done? According to the company, the TDVCodec allows “HD-3D compatibility with existing 2D infrastructures, having the same Blu-ray disc, read by any existing Blu-ray player as a 2D video stream in full High Definition, without any loss in quality, color, frame rate or resolution.”

Cutting through the press release waffle, this essentially means that by adding a TDVReady decoder to an existing Blu-ray setup, you can have a 3D experience at home.

The 3D system is compatible with televisions that house Texas Instruments 3D DLP chips. At the moment, Samsung and Mitsubishi are the only TV manufacturers using these chips.

TDVision Systems has yet to announce a release date and price for the decoder.

3D Blu-ray

Those who wish to view 3D Blu-rays without expensive modifications to their HD setup will be glad to hear that the first-ever 3D Blu-ray disc has been announced for release and it’s, er, Hannah Montana And Miley Cyrus: Best Of Both World’s Concert Tour.

Though TechRadar has yet to sample the delights of Hannah Montana and her cohorts, we do suspect that this isn’t really the release to prove Blu-ray’s 3D capabilities, but at least it does show that filmmakers are getting serious about 3D. None more so than James Cameron whose 3D-shot Avatar is set to be released December 2009.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.