Re: Broadcast 3D

[Andrew Woods <RWOODSAJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Eric Drysdale (Eric_Drysdale@xxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> 2. Broadcast 3D in NYC?
> I just moved into a new apartment in which the quality of my TV reception
> has improved immesurably.  This weekend on Channel 27, which I've never
> seen before, (in New York) they were running hours and hours of
> 3D programming including underwater footage, some high-school sporting 
> events and a bit of animation. 
>
> Sure enough, the company that the 3d-imagery was shown "courtesy of..." 
> was listed as Videograf, here in NY. What is this? How can I get the
> technology to see this stuff?  Is it regular programming?
> I would think if there's some regular 3d tv shows, we'd know about it...
> right?  If not, I'll do a little snooping and find out...

I received the following email message some time ago (back in July as
you can see from the message):

) From Yware@xxxxxxxxxx Tue Jul 25 18:58 WST 1995
) Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 06:45:14 -0400
) From: Manny Berrios <Yware@xxxxxxxxxx>
)
) There is a TV station in New York City which is broadcasting in 
) 3D. WEXP-TV would be interested in establishing contact with 
) people who are creating 3D video, especially L1 (left-eye/field 
) one) field-sequential.
) 
) More news - and a homepage - to follow.

I would guess that these two messages refer to the same channel.
In which case the answer to Eric's question as to how you view this
stuff can be answered easily.  The encoding scheme is called field-
sequential 3D (or stereoscopic) video.  An NTSC video signal shows
60 fields per second.  3D video uses sequential (alternate) fields
for the left and right images.  If you view it without glasses
it will appear to flicker at you and if you look closely you will notice
that it is flickering between two slightly different images - that is
30 left images per second and 30 right images per second.

This type of 3D video can be viewed in a multitude of ways but the easiest
is using a pair of liquid crystal shutter glasses.  In front of each eye
is a small sheet of liquid crystal material.  This can be driven 
electronically to a clear state or a opaque (black) state.  When a left image
is shown on the screen the left eye is clear and the right eye is driven
black and vice versa for right images so that the left eye only sees left
images and the right eye only sees right images on the TV.
A small box reads the video signal and drives the glasses in synchronisation
with the left and right images on the TV.

3DTV corp is probably the most well known place to get this equipment.
You can visit their web site at "http://www.stereospace.com".
Or as you probably just saw in the previous digest someone is selling
some pre-loved stereo equipment originally from 3DTV - hey, do I get
a commission...?  :-)

Anyway, back to WEXP-TV...  Eric, armed with this extra information, please
do find out more.  Even though I don't have any hope in hell of receiving
this station on my TV back here in Perth (even with my super duper booster
antenna) I am still interested to hear what they are up to, what they
are broadcasting and how well it is being received.  I emailed Yware
a while back but didn't receive any reply...  :-(

Snoop away!
Andrew.
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