The 3D televisions on the market today use active 3D technology that displays images to one eye at a time at high refresh rates. Viewers wear active shutter glasses to see the 3D effect. Several TV manufacturers are also developing autosterescopic displays which will eliminate the need to wear special 3D glasses.

The 3D movies played in movie theaters use passive 3D technology. Two images are displayed at the same time. Viewers wear polarized glasses which filter the images into left and right eye to create the 3D effect.

The home 3D televisions deliver images at the rate of 120 frames per second. Since the images are displayed alternatively for left and right eye, each eye effectively receives 60 frames per second. The active shutter glasses are synchronized with the TV through Bluetooth, WiFi, or radio frequency. When the TV is displaying images meant for the left eye, the right lens of viewer’s active shutter glasses turns opaque, which blocks the images from been seen by viewer’s right eye. Likewise, when the TV is displaying images for the right eye, the left lens turns opaque.

The active shutter glasses are battery powered and quite expensive. They usually cost $150 a pair. On the contrary, the polarized glasses are inexpensive – generally around $1 or $2. It would be ideal if we can watch 3D TV without the glasses. The companies that are working on autosterescopic displays use optical elements such as lenticular lenses or parallax barriers to create different images to each eye.

For a 3D TV to be acceptable in the mainstream market, it must also be able to display traditional 2D images. Some of parallax barriers are made of liquid crystal and can be switch off for 2D viewing. Another problem with these glasses-free 3D TVs is that they can only be viewed at certain distance and with very limited number of angles. For example, a model developed by LG that uses lenticular lenses must be viewed at exactly 13 feet from the TV set. Samsung recently showed off its 55-inch glasses-free 3D prototype. It only has 9 different viewing angles. According to Samsung, it will take at least another 10 years before the glasses-free 3D TVs are ready for the market.

There have been alternative types of these screens come out in more recent years. One of them is a hard lens form of the parallax barrier known as Integral Imaging. It uses micro images that are viewed through an array of spherical convex lenses which the brain then sees as a 3D image. Another example is a form of parallax called “continuous motion” that HoloVizio has come up. It uses “voxels” which are replacements for pixels that project several beams of light in several directions at the same time.

If these glasses-free forms of 3D televisions become popular, the rooms might need to be made long and narrow to allow for optimal viewing by the most people. In the mean time, the active 3D technology which works with 3D Blu-ray disc players and 3D streaming media continues to drop in price. More and more people can now afford these types of setups.

Author Bio: If you are considering buying a 3D HDTV, the Toshiba 55WX800U and Panasonic VIERA TC-P50GT25 are great choices. They deliver high quality pictures in both 2D and 3D. They are also affordable and jam packed with advanced features.

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: 3d tv