Ultra-D 3D TV Update

There has been a great deal of comment about my article on Stream TV Network's new glassless 3D technology, Ultra-D.  They've ranged from "Who do I have to kill to get this?!" to the a bit more skeptical, "You're nuts" and "I believe your brain is melting."

Happily, we also got this comment from a fine fellow, Walter Watling, who writes in from the U.K., and clearly knows far more about the technological end of this than I can dream about.

Folks, this is all true. There's at least 5 companies with 4k autostereoscopic TVs in test now. StreamTV have signed a distribution deal in the UK & as a 3D content specialist I can honestly say autostereoscopic is a game changer - I've got one sat next to me here now & have been converting movie clips during the day for the testing I'm doing.

However, whilst the tech is incredible, any 2D converted to 3D will only be so so. I often test my stuff taking a stereo side by side, batch creating a 2D+Depth file which the media player I'm testing (beta) then uses to create the 8view files it displays on the TV. However, I shoot with an 8x camera rig & when you see originally shot 8view on these TVs it's truly awesome. You can literally move your head & look around the edges of objects in real time, just like I do in real life. 2D to 3D can't do that. If you thought autostereoscopic 3D was a game changer, then ask to see a show reel or photos shot in native 8view, it's a league of it's own!

What I can say is they should be available to the public by Xmas with a marketing tag of "4k for £4k"! Start saving now. They're being shipped to warehouses as I speak :-)

If any of you are near Coventry on the 21st Aug (nxt Wed) you can hear me speak about it to the Coventry Skeptics In The Pub. I'll also be taking their portraits with my 8cam rig, so they can see for themselves.

I have to thank Walter for his note and confirming what I wrote -- and that my brain is not melting.  Not that I needed confirmation that I saw what I saw (and have seen and written about for 2-1/2 years), but it's good for others to know that I'm not totally nuts.,,

And yes, as I noted in the article (and a reply to a comment), 3D converted from 2D isn't nearly as good as native 3D -- but it's still impressive.  And it adds a level of content that wouldn't exist.

Walter's comment about being able to almost look around images reinforces my quote from Mathu Rajan about how this is leading toward holograms.  That wasn't hyperbole on my or his part. 

And then there came a long, detailed, technical and erudite comment from John A. Rupkalvis.  It's worth reading the whole thing, but the operative point came in one sentence:  He said that he recently saw native-3D content on a glassless 3D 2K monitor, and then saw saw the same content on a glassless 3D 4K monitor, "and it was unbelievably stunning."

One "correction" though from Walter's comment above, at least for readers in the U.S.  I don't know what the sets will sell for in the U.K. (or when), but the prices I've been told by Mathu Rajan are significantly *less* than what he mentions here -- although that depends on the size of the model.  (Also, they should be available here well-before Christmas.)