Last night, MTBS had the chance to check out another Dolby Surrounded event just prior to the launch of the Toronto Film Festival. This was a much smaller gathering than what was held in San Francisco earlier this summer, but it also featured some discussion about 3D cinema and 7.1 surround.
However, it’s the stories that happened off-stage that drew the most interest. For example, similar to RealD, Sensio, TDVision Corp, and several others – Dolby also has a 1080P 3D broadcasting mechanism to achieve full resolution without using extra bandwidth by cable and broadcasting companies. In the case of Dolby, they are looking to be part of the MPEG standard to accomplish their goal.
For those unfamiliar, current 3D broadcasts are done in a side by side format that reduces the resolution by half – even more so for interlaced polarized solutions. This is a major problem because broadcasters and cable operators don’t want to reserve extra bandwidth for 3D broadcasts and would rather use it for more channels and more content. This is why standardizing a codec like that from Dolby, Sensio, RealD, and others could make a big difference in image quality for 3D consumers.
Share your thoughts! Do you see a 3D encoding standard arriving anytime soon? Who will come out the winner and why?