CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[cmjohnson]

Since 3D Blu-Ray players are now in stores and ready to sell, I bought a new one today, the Sony S470.


I know fully well that it won't even have true 3D capability until a firmware release due out in July.

I also know full well that with my CRT projector (9500LC) I will not YET be able to get 3D capability as there is no system to sync
the shutter glasses to the signal. 3D capable sets have an IR emitter in them which generates a sync pulse to control the operation
of compatible shutter glasses, and that sync pulse is sent as data in the HDMI link.

If I remember correctly, I predicted that this would be how it would be implemented, or one of a few practical scenarios.


But this leaves a gap that every CRT projector will fall into until someone invents a new gadget:


A device needs to be invented that is placed in the HDMI link between the player and the projector, which detects and reads the
IR emitter sync pulse and routes it to a separate IR emitter that will drive the 3D shutter glasses.

This would truly make 3D capability display agnostic for use with hardware players. Any display that can display the picture can then be made to work with the 3D glasses.


Since MANY displays, especially virtually every flat screen display for sale at retailers today, are capable of handling the 3D image even
if they don't have the IR emitter and sync system that actually makes them "3D compatible", the potential market for this gadget would
be far from limited to the CRT enthusiasts crowd. It could be an absolutely HUGE seller, in the millions of units, eventually.


I'm going to talk to an engineer friend of mine about this. There's no reason that he shouldn't be able to turn this into a feasible project
and product. He could get very rich for it and I'd get a slice for bringing him the idea.


CJ

[paw]

CJ

Remember the IR systems from different manufacturers are not compatiable. So, you cann't take Panasonic glasses and watch a Samsung display.

[cmjohnson]

But they're all getting their trigger data from the information on the media, which MUST be in a format that is compatible with any
manufacturer's TV set.

To address this issue, we only need to look at the information that is common to any manufacturer as it is part of the standard.


Here's a white paper that addresses this at least as an overview.

http://www.blu-raydisc.com/assets/Downloadablefile/BD-ROM-AV-WhitePaper_100604%281%29-15916.pdf


This gives some clues.

Someone who had a BD drive in his PC could do some exploring and learn more. There's a frame script in there somewhere,
and I think that a suitably talented software engineer could hook into it and use it to generate an IR driver with it. Once that's done,
it could be adapted into a stand-alone device that's inserted into the HDMI chain. But it would have to be an AACS-licensed device
since the HDMI chain is encrypted.

I can see it now: The new Moome V. 1.4 3D-compatible Blu-Ray card for Marquee, with IR driver output!


Actually...that may be in the new version already. I should check on that.


But there's a market for a glasses driver package that doesn't require you to spend yet another 2000 dollars on a new display
when your "old" one is fully able to display the 3D image.



CJ