HDMI spec could see update to better handle stereoscopic 3D
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 18th 2008 3:14AM
posted Nov 18th 2008 3:14AM
Like it or not, 3D is making a beeline for your home. It may be subtle, but companies are toiling behind the scenes to make sure the third-dimension becomes a reliable revenue stream in the future. Speaking of those companies, a number of HDMI proponents are currently estimating that the HDMI specification will eventually be updated to make it ready to handle the most robust stereoscopic material Hollywood can offer. As it stands, the current HDMI 1.3 spec should be able to handle first-gen material, but eventually, backers want it to support 120Hz rates for HD and multiple 3D views. 'Course, that change is "a long, long way off" according to Steve Venuti, president of HDMI LLC, but a CEA working group has already been established to "update the standard that defines an uncompressed video interface referenced in turn by the HDMI standard." We've got an eerie feeling we'll be sporting 3D goggles for an uncomfortably large swath of time at CES 2009.
The cheap way to implement 3d is to send an additional channel of data to the TV representing the depth of each pixel. It would probably adds 30% to the bandwidth and probably less with encoding. Then the TV can use the image plus the depth to split the image out into left and right versions. How the TV does this depends. Some TVs might split the image into red / green versions, others might alternate frames with shutter glasses, others might have fancy polarising tech to display both at once.
Something on the other end also has to be broadcasting this data which probably means a profile 4.0 player at some point.
I still think its a gimmick. If a TV does support 3D, it had better be a damned good 2D TV first and foremost. Very few people are going to buy a TV just to watch a limited selection of 3D CGI movies which is what it amounts to.
I can't see the whole industry changing and HDMI updating their spec for 3-D.
I can, they do it all the time, it's not like it would be a total overhaul. Just think USB 1.1 to USB 2.0, it's a lot better then creating a new connector of some kind.
"As it stands, the current HDMI 1.3 spec should be able to handle first-gen material, but eventually, backers want it to support 120Hz rates for HD and multiple 3D views"
HDMI already supports 120hz and even up to 2560x1600.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Definition_Multimedia_Interface#TMDS_channel
"Over single link connection supports 1080p at rates up to 120 Hz and resolutions up to WQXGA."
Though whether or not any current devices can output or accept 120hz, I don't know. I would think that hdmi motherboards and vid cards do, but I don't think any current monitor can accept the signal. All "120hz" monitors/tv's currently do not accept 120hz, they only accept 24 and 60.