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How do I watch 3D TV at home?

Our digital TV expert says...

Dear Koulla, 3D has come a long way since you needed red and blue glasses to get the full experience. Now, with the right services and equipment, you will be able to watch three-dimensional TV without these old-style specs. And it’s not just 3D TV that’s being developed; 3D digital cameras are already available and more than 400 Xbox and PlayStation games are 3D-ready.

Here's my top tips on how to get 3D TV at home...

Video: Quick guide to 3D TV

Who offers 3D TV?

Sky (www.sky.co.uk) launched a dedicated 3D television channel in October 2010, offering a mix of sport, films and documentaries, via existing Sky+HD boxes. And Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) also offers on-demand 3D pay-per-view films.

3D TV suppliers

Company	Package Name	Channels	Broadband	Home Phone
	TV: XL	160 channels including Virgin 1, Sky1, ESPN, Disney Channel and many more
	Sky Entertainment TV	Sky Entertainment Pack with channels like Sky 1 and Sky Atlantic

A number of DVDs are already available in 3D, such as the children’s animated feature Coraline, though these use the old 3D technology, so are not as impressive at home as they were in the cinema.

Do I need to buy a new TV?

This depends on the kind of 3D technology you choose. There are essentially two new types of 3D technology now available; polarising and active shutter.

All three are expensive to implement at the moment and there is effectively a format war going on, reminiscent of the VHS-Betamax years.

While Sky and Virgin Media have both developed their 3D offerings based on polarising technology, either's content will be compatible with both polarising and active shutter TVs and glasses.

Polarising

Using polarising technology, slightly different perspectives of the same scene are recorded on two cameras and displayed on your TV at the same time. Wearing special polarising glasses, a different picture is filtered to each eye, so that you see the image in 3D.

This is the technology that is currently used in cinemas so you’ll be familiar with the glasses that you need to wear.

However, to use this technology at home, you will need to buy a new polarising 3D TV, or a specialist projector or screen. Prices start in the region of £6,500.

The polarising glasses also reduce image brightness and you need to sit directly in front of the TV for best results.

Active shutter

Active shutter technology gives you 3D in full high-definition and is the format that technology giant Sony uses with its TVs.

It displays two separate images, alternately, at high speed. You wear special, battery powered LCD glasses, which actively block the right and left views in sync with the video, so each of your eyes see the correct image at the correct time.

However, you do need a TV, projector or screen with a very high refresh rate, and the glasses, which are expensive, run on batteries so need to be recharged between uses.

The future of 3D - Lenticular

For many people, lenticular technology, also known as auto-stereoscopic, is the future of 3D because you don’t have to wear glasses in order to watch videos in 3D.

It uses a sheet of transparent, cylindrical lenses, fixed to an LCD screen to reflect light at specific angles, delivering separate images to each eye, allowing you to watch 3D TV without glasses. However, like polarising technology, it is best viewed straight on.

While this is the technology that the Finepix Real 3D W1 digital camera uses, lenticular TVs are extremely expensive at the moment.

As 3D technology becomes more widespread, prices for all technologies will almost certainly fall, allowing more consumers to take advantage of the amazing viewing opportunities it offers.

Sony has predicted that up to 50% of all the TVs it sells will be 3D by 2012, and it is also looking to enable Blu-ray, VAIO products and the PlayStation 3 to be 3D compatible.

For the time being though, 3D TV is very expensive and, with a number of different formats available, it would be best to wait until one of the technologies is more established, or it’s clear that providers of three-dimensional TV – such as Sky and Virgin Media – as well as PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Blu-ray are going to be compatible with more than one format before investing.

3D TV today

If you want to watch 3D movies at home without spending a fortune, there’s a huge choice of DVDs available if you're happy to use the old red and blue anaglyph glasses, though the effect is not as impressive.

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