It is now official as HP has announced their plans to release the HP ENVY 17 3D, a 3D-capable multimedia laptop for the holiday season this year. There were a lot of rumors going on about HP getting a 3D-capable laptop since quite a lot of time, at first for a professional solution, but now we actually get a quite powerful consumer laptop. And if we are lucky enough we may also see the HP 2310g 120Hz LCD monitor too, as apparently HP is finally ready to also jump on the 3D wave.

It is interesting to note the fact that the HP ENVY 17 3D is actually the first 17-inch notebook to support 1080p 3D, meaning Full HD 120Hz screen for gaming and Blu-ray 3D movie playback apparently. But more interesting is the fact that the laptop is based on an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 graphics card and that means no Nvidia 3D Vision, but an alternative solution also based on active shutter glasses. So that can either be some HP solution developed on their own, or more likely the AMD/ATI stereoscopic 3D solution that we’ve been waiting to see for quite some time now. The powerful video card should be backed by a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, so there should be no problems in using this laptop not only for watching multimedia content in 3D, but also playing games in stereo 3D mode.

Also as a part of HP’s ongoing partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA), select models of the HP ENVY 17 3D will include some 3D action from the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. Additionally a 3D movie trailer for the upcoming animated film “MEGAMIND” from DreamWorks Animation will be included, which is certainly Ok, but definitely we could use some more 3D video content.

The HP ENVY 17 3D is expected to be available this holiday season with pricing yet to be determined, but considering that the currently available non-3D version of the HP ENVY 17 with similar parameters starts at $1,399.99 USD, the standard configuration of the 3D version of the laptop will most likely be in the range of $1600-$1800 USD.

- To visit the official website for the upcoming HP ENVY 17 3D laptop…

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AMD/ATI has made available an early “preview” version of their new Catalyst 10.3 driver for download for both Desktop and Mobile users with Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. The official Catalyst 10.3 driver WHQL-ed is due in a few days or to be more exact on 24th and it should not be much different than this one, just supposedly more stable and problem free. Besides the normal updates resulting issues being fixed and some performance improvement in Catalyst 10.3a there are also some improvements that will be interesting to Eyefinity users (anyone out there actually taking advantage of Eyefinity yet?). But probably what is the most interesting in this new driver release is the introduction of official Stereoscopic 3D support for 120Hz displays and shutter glasses on driver level…

ATI Catalyst support for 3D Stereoscopic glasses
AMD has updated it’s Direct3D (Quad buffer support) driver to enable 3rd party middleware vendors such as iZ3D to output stereo L/R images at 120 Hz (60 Hz per eye)

But don’t be too happy yet, as the above quote just says that ATI has introduced some new functionality to make it easier for other companies such as iZ3D and DDD to implement shutter glasses support in their products so that when they are combined with new ATI hardware and the new 10.3 driver (or later) the users will be able to play games in stereoscopic 3D mode with a 120Hz LCD monitor and a set of supported shutter glasses. Both iZ3D and DDD still haven’t announced when they will actually add this support in their products and the supported shutter glasses produced by Bit Cauldron will most likely not hit the market before summer time. So you’ll have to wait some more time before actually being able to play with active shutter glasses on ATI hardware…

It is interesting to note that DDD released an update for their TriDef software suite on the same day that ATI released the preview driver, but unfortunately the new TriDef 3D 4.2.1 package just adds more game profiles and fixes some issues. On the other hand iZ3D is keeping silent for a few months already staying at driver version 1.10 and not even releasing betas like they did more frequently in previous years, but that probably means that they are really working on some really big changes.

- Download links for the new ATI Catalyst 10.3a preview driver with S3D support

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Video Interview with James Mentz, President & CEO of Bit Cauldron (0)
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• Bit Cauldron to Offer Alternative to Nvidia’s 3D Vision Shutter Glasses (14)
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More interesting news coming from GDC 2010 in San Francisco, this time from ATI announcing their Open Stereo 3D Initiative in trying to work with more partners to ensure support for multiple different stereoscopic 3D solutions (learning that thanks to MTBS3D, not from ATI!). The idea of the open initiative is to offer consumers additional choices when selecting an S3D solution, more innovations and of course help in lowering the costs for the hardware and software making it easier for wider adoption. ATI (AMD) and its partners will supposedly soon announce a lineup of 3D products, including a 3D-enabled ATI Eyefinity technology (to counter Nvidia’s 3D Vision Surround), 120Hz 3D-ready displays and notebooks, active shutter glasses and passive polarized ones (have you heard of passive shutter glasses!?), S3D support for DirectX 9, 10 and 11, Quad Buffered OpenGL, Blu-ray 3D support. As you can see from the presentation slide above the 3D-gaming middleware partners are DDD and iZ3D, and for Blu-ray 3D support ArcSoft and CyberLink. ATI is also going to try to work on establishing standards that will help in having compatibility and much wider choices when building your computer and stereo 3D setup if they are adopted by others. The only thing that still remains to be seen is how soon we are going to see actual products on the market as ATI has been talking about S3D support for quite some time, but still no dates when to expect it are available… although we have multiple hints about summer availability. But being so open I still don’t see ATI joining the S-3D Gaming Alliance like two of their major partners that will make stereo 3D gaming possible on ATI GPUs (iZ3D and DDD) or any other association that is trying to openly promote stereoscopic 3D technologies?! But for that matter Nvidia is also not a member of S3DGA or any other similar independent organizations, as far as I know…

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The above slide is from recent AMD/ATI presentation regarding their upcoming Stereoscopic 3D support for 120Hz displays and the new Catalyst 10.3 drivers due to be released in March. The slide mentions only iZ3D as a middleware partner by name, but suggests that others will also be supported (DDD for example), but don’t get your hopes too high yet. The Bit Cauldron shutter glasses, the ones that are supposed to go along with this solution, should be available around the summer and iZ3D haven’t released a new beta of the driver for quite some time. So things are slowly moving for ATI and the reason for that is that they decided to go for more open solution, but they have more external factors to take into account partnering with other companies to provide the complete solution. iZ3D’s driver currently can work on both Nvidia and ATI hardware, but their shutter glasses support is still in beta and is not problem free – looses sync when the framerate drops below the refresh rate. So with a new version of the driver and all other pieces in place, with Catalys 10.3 or newer being part of all that, we can hope to have an alternative solution that will support ATI’s GPUs for stereoscopic 3D gaming, photos and videos on a 120Hz LCD display in a few months. And as for 120Hz displays there are already quite a few with more expected to be available by the summer and we all expect to have 120Hz capable HDTVs from most major consumer electronics players by that time too. So things will definitely be very HOT this summer regarding S3D and not only…

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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…

- For more information visit the official website of Bit Cauldron…

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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…

- For more information visit the official website of Bit Cauldron…

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By now you should already know that Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) is the new “3D” in gaming and not only in gaming, but in movies to, so it is not hard to guess that everyone is willing to jump on the plane as early as possible to take advantage of the built momentum later on. Nvidia already did that with GeForce 3D Vision and the product has become quite popular and is gaining quite a lot of attention although its development could be improved a bit in terms of quicker reaction to new games coming out, but is ATI (the biggest competitor of Nvidia) preparing an alternative stereoscopic 3D solution of their own?

Today, browsing through the specifications of the recently announced Radeon HD 5870 GPU, I’ve noticed something interesting and of course I started to look for more information about it, but to my surprise there was none at all. I’m referring to the sentence “3D stereoscopic display/glasses support” that you can find almost at the bottom of the page wit specifications of the new GPU under the category ATI Avivo HD Video & Display technology. Looking at the bottom of the page with notes there is this explanation available “Requires 3D stereo drivers, glasses, and display“, which does not clarify things in any way, but actually does the opposite. So is ATI preparing 3D stereo drivers that will be compatible with their latest Radeon HD 5000 range of GPUs along with development of shutter glasses much like 3D Vision, that will be compatible for instance with 120Hz monitors from ViewSonic and Samsung already available? Or maybe the guys from ATI are just stating the obvious, that their new GPUs are capable of Stereoscopic 3D playback of videos and games, if you are using a third party software and hardware solution, for instance like IZ3D’s monitors and drivers. But if they are saying that for just their new GPUs it would be weird, because the older Radeon HD 4000 series also were supported in other third party S3D solutions, so it is nothing new, right?

Anyway if you have some information regarding this you are more than welcome to share it with us… ;)

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