HDTV broadcast standards may come in two major ‘Phases’. Agreeing standards may be moving from possible to difficult. The first Phase is the system that will be used this year, in 2010, for Pay TV services.
The emerging technology to broadcast 3D-TV?
A modest number of broadcasters both in Europe and North America plan to start broadcasting in 3D-TV using what is called a ‘Frame Compatible‘ format. This squeezes the left and right images up together, so the whole thing looks like an HDTV signal to a normal set top box. The two pictures are then unravelled into the L and R pictures in the TV set, and displayed one after the other on the screen. At the beginning of March 2010, the group of the world’s major TV set makers, the HDMI Consortium, agreed on a small number of ways that the ‘squashing up’ should be done, and made this effectively a mandatory requirement for all TV set makers of 3D displays. At first it seemed this was the key that would unlock a common standard for Frame Compatible 3D-TV broadcasting. The baton could now be picked up by the standards bodies such as the DVB project and the ITU-R, and we could have 3D-TV standards in a few short months.
Challenging the 'Frame Compatible' system
However, this life is not so simple. There are calls from those whose favourite Frame Compatible Format are not included in the HDMI ‘Mandatory’ 3D-TV set for the matter to be re-opened.
As well as its Frame Compatible formats, the HDMI also proposed a small number of formats that could be used for ‘Service Compatible’ formats, whose uses today include Blu ray and Video Games, but which might in future also be a higher quality broadcast format. Here again, not everyone’s favourite format is included, and there are calls for this to be re-opened. Similarly, the ‘signalling’ provisions of the HDMI 1.4a are subject to claims they did not include everything they should. Adding to the potential for even more fragmentation, the MPEG group responsible for the service compatible compression system reports a growing number of alternatives are being put forward.
In short, the good news is that set makers have tried to reduce to a small number the formats that can be used for broadcast 3D-TV delivery. The bad news is it may have been too late to stop the tide of proposals.