Sky suggests UK homes could see 3D TV by the end of the year
By Donald Melanson 
posted Mar 9th 2009 5:12PM
posted Mar 9th 2009 5:12PM
Sky has already successfully tested its 3D broadcasting capabilities, and hinted that the 2012 London Olympics could be comin' at ya like never before, but it now looks like the broadcaster could be set to roll out the service even sooner than many expected. According to Sky's Chief Engineer Chris Johns, Sky now has the "capability for homes to see 3D by year-end," although he unsurprisingly didn't offer any firm timeline for an actual rollout, or even a confirmation of the exact type of 3D system that'd be used, saying simply that they're continuing to test different systems and that he envisions it to be "glasses-based in some form." He also added that Sky is focused on building a content library "over the coming year," so that would seem to suggest that an actual launch would come very near the end of the year, if not later.[Via Register Hardware, thanks SK]
Sky should try HD before they start shooting at the moon.
Maybe when there is a single 3D format for embedding into a datastream, one that set top boxes recognize and support, one that is broadcast via HDMI to a television, one that the television can subsequently decode. Then and maybe then they can start thinking of broadcasting 3D movies. There is also the small matter of only a handful of 3D movies even existing, most of which are CGI.
Who the hell are they kidding?
This is fantastic news. If they can just add smell-o-vision and rumblerama to 3D, then we'll finally have a television system capable of, er, being thrown out the window and replaced by books?
I don't want to wear special glasses when I watch TV. Thanks, but no thanks.
They may hint that the 2012 Olympics will be in 3D, however as they are not an Olympic broadcaster it's only speculation on their part as they have no way of knowing. Also if it is going to be "glasses-based in some form." it will likely be an epic failure.
The glasses part is really up to the TV to figure out. It really shouldn't matter to the datastream or the decoder box about what mechanism the TV constructs a 3D image from the data. The only time glasses might come into it is if the box were to offer some kind of legacy 3D processing using red/blue type glasses for the 99.99999% of people who don't have a 3D capable television.
I'm not interested... What's the point of all of this 3D hype besides making money?
to view things in 3D!
it's like saying what's the point of HD? what's the point of colour? what's the point of TV at all?