Neil Schneider from MTBS3D.com has managed to find and take an interview from James Mentz, President & CEO of Bit Cauldron while at CES 2010. I’ve already written a bit about them and their plans to Offer Alternative to Nvidia’s 3D Vision Shutter Glasses a few days ago. Bit Cauldron still don’t reveal every detail, but have told some interesting things and they sound quite convinced about the advantages of their glasses, although we’ll still have to wait for the second half to see them on the market. It seems that Bit Cauldron has been working for quite some time together with AMD/ATI in order to bring stereoscopic 3D support to the owners of ATI-based GPUs. But when talking about gaming you’ll still have to use some sort of middleware software like iZ3D’s Driver or DDD’s TriDef as it seems that these two companies will be supporting Bit Cauldron’s glasses at first. James Mentz said that they are also open to work with Nvidia (the green company) and others of course in order to work on standards that in the end will benefit the end customer the most, because he’ll be able to use just one solution for all his stereoscopic 3D needs – TV, movies, games, photos… no mater if it is for the PC, the HDTV, the console or something else. So lets see how things will develop and meanwhile I’m getting more and more eager to test these glasses…
I’m sure you probably haven’t heard about the company Bit Cauldron, I sure haven’t up until recently. It is a relatively new company that is just starting to be mentioned regarding the exponentially increasing interest around Stereoscopic 3D everything. Bit Cauldron was formed in November 2008 to focus purely on enabling a world-class 3D experience at home by addressing multiple critical gaps in the 3D ecosystem. The three founders of the company are quite interesting with Sam Caldwell, VP of Engineering at Bit Cauldron that is also founder of a ZigBee RF/ID company, with ZigBee being the wireless radio communication technology that is being used by Bit Cauldron’s products. Bit Cauldron has an advisory board, also made up of quite interesting people, including guys like Geoff Phillips, ATI Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Television Business Unit. I’m mentioning ATI as it seems that Bit Cauldron and their first product in the form of active shutter glasses for stereoscopic 3D support will be used by ATI for providing a complete Sterescopic 3D solution to be used with ATI cards. This will however require you to have a high refresh rate display – one of the new 120Hz LCDs for instance, along with additional software that will be able to provide the stereoscopic 3D content to the display such as iZ3D’s driver.
Currently there are two types of shutter glasses being listed on the company’s website and these are: BC3000 DLP Link 3D Glasses and BC5000 Radio Frequency 3D Glasses. The first one – BC3000 is designed to be used with 3D HDTVs or 3D-ready projectors that utilize DLP Link technology with the glasses having a built in DLP Link receiver. The second product – BC5000 is designed to be used with 3D-Ready computer displays, these glasses incorporate an IEEE 802.15.4-2003 (ZigBee radio) transceiver for communicating with the computer (using USB connector) or again with a 3D HDTV incorporating a VESA 1997.11 standard stereoscopic connector. One thing to note regarding the BC5000 glasses is that they seem to be designed for usage with ATI GPUs as the official website mentions on the product page that there are: Transmitters available for 3D-Ready TVs and PCs with AMD GPUs. So this might as well be what ATI has been referring to Stereoscopic 3D support available for their current line of Radeon HD 5xxx series GPUs.
A USB transmitter can attach the BC5000 shutter glasses to an Advanced Micro Devices’ GPU to create the word’s best 3D experience for 3D Blu-ray movie viewing and Gaming.
The BC5000 3D Glasses achieve their 3D Synchronization using Radio Frequency Technology (the ZigBee radio) which is claimed to offer: no line-of-sight interferences, no infra-red remote control interference, no florescent light and sunlight interference – things that might sometimes create problems to solutions that use IR (infrared) transmitter for synchronization like 3D Vision for example. Bit Cauldron’s synchronization technology is also claimed to eliminate ghosting with multi-microsecond accuracy, offer adjustable duty cycle for multiple display types and provide glass lenses that have clearer and brighter picture. The lenses of the glasses should offer multi-frequency 50/100Hz, 60/120Hz, 84 Hz operation and be even 240 Hz display ready, which is something that still needs to be verified when the true high Hz TV sets hit the market later this year (3D Vision glasses should also be compatible with these). The battery inside the BC5000 3D Glasses is a rechargeable Lithium Polymer one that can be recharged over a micro USB connector up to 500 times with each full charge providing at up to 60 hours of use.
Bit Cauldron states that their shutter glasses are available only under private labels and to OEM’s, meaning that you won’t be able to get it directly from them, but buy it with your video card for instance or branded with another name. Most likely ATI will offer these as a kit with a suitable display to complement a stereoscopic 3D solution that will work on PCs with ATI video cards, but we’ll have to wait and see along with checking of the shutter glasses are as good as Bit Cauldron claims they are. Also these shutter glasses are expected to be more affordable than other alternatives, but there is still no word on what the prices will be. Another thing to not is the fact that if they will rely on iZ3D’s Driver is the fact that the latest software still has only beta shutter support that is having issues with syncing the signal, so we’ll also need new driver. So don’t wait to see these right away available on the market, but I’ll try to keep you updated as I’m quite interested in how will things develop…
Two weeks ago Sony and RealD officially announced their technology partnership aiming to provide immersive 3D home entertainment to consumers beginning in 2010. The pact includes Sony licensing the stereoscopic RealD Format (side-by-side 3D format), know-how in producing active and passive 3D eyewear and other RealD technologies. Sony and RealD have been closely working together to create a better 3D experience at movie theaters for years. The parties will now join forces to deliver a similar premium 3D entertainment experience to the home.
“Sony has its proprietary LCD panel driving technology to reproduce full HD 3D images on the screen of new “BRAVIA” LCD TVs, which will work in sync with new 3D eyewear based on RealD’s technology. We are excited to work with RealD in bringing 3D to the home,” said Hiroshi Yoshioka, Executive Deputy President, Officer in charge of Consumer Products and Devices Group, Sony Corporation.
A week later JVC Kenwood also had announced its partnership with RealD, but in professional 3D imaging product and not for consumer products, but who knows their partnership could as well be extended. JVC Kenwood already has a track record of producing professional 3D-imaging devices including GD-463D10, a full HD 3D LCD monitor for professional use. Launched earlier in 2009, the monitor quickly earned acclaim for its soft gradation and true color reproduction, and is now being used by Hollywood movie studios, theaters, research institutes and other enterprises involved with professional 3D imaging.
“We are delighted to establish a partnership with RealD, the global leader in 3D technology for cinema, which will allow us to build on our solid track record of technological development for Hollywood and related markets,” said Haruo Kawahara, Chairman, President and CEO of JVC KENWOOD Holdings, Inc. “We hope this will lead to a dramatic increase in our 3D-imaging device business.”
And yesterday Samsung and RealD announced their partnership, with RealD’s 3D technology to be integrated into Samsung’s new line-up of 3D TVs. It seems that Samsung will also support the proprietary stereoscopic RealD Format for the delivery and display of high-quality 3D content. The two companies will also work jointly on active eyewear technology and New Passive Display technology to promote the adoption of quality 3D TV.
“Our collaboration with RealD is helping bring a new dimension of TV entertainment to consumer households around the world,” said Dongho Shin, Senior Vice President of Visual Display Division, Samsung Electronics. “Together, we are committed to enhancing the TV viewing experience with the best that 3D technology can offer including immersive lifelike depth and a new realm of color clarity.”
Other companies may follow the lead very soon and it seems that RealD is on track to becoming the standard to be used by the new wave of 3D TVs that are supposed to be coming out this year. Have in mind that RealD is not only producing passive polarized glasses like the ones you see in 3D cinemas that are also using company’s technology, but also active shutter glasses like Nvidia’s 3D Vision. And the wave of consumer-oriented 3D TVs we expect to start hitting us pretty soon seems to be on track of using active shutter glasses, instead of passive polarized solutions. This however raises an interesting question – how many pairs of glasses you’ll get with the TV and how will you be able to buy additional 3D glasses if you need more people to watch simultaneously. And unlike the PC where you usually need just one pair, because you are alone playing a game in S3D to watching a 3D movie, when 3D moves to the living room and on TV (with 3D TV broadcasts also starting to appear soon) things change a bit – the whole family would want to watch in 3D and will need glasses.
