Lockstep with AMD’s announcement that it would demonstrate 3D Blu-ray technology at CES, NVIDIA Corp. said Wednesday that it will be demonstrating an implementation of the technology at CES as well.
According to reports, the company has successfully held private demonstrations of 3D playback using the AVC Multi-View Codec (AVC-MVC), the codec initially expected to lead the way for 3D Blu-ray content. Sources close to NVIDIA say that content encoded in AVC-MVC can be decoded in real time by NVIDIA hardware, but the demanding nature of the application sets the barrier to entry at $99 for the GeForce GT 240.
Because the Blu-ray disc association’s upcoming 3D standard is based on active shutter technology, interested parties with NVIDIA hardware will also need an NVIDIA 3D Vision kit and the appropriate 120Hz 1080p monitor. In that regard, the outfit recently confirmed that Acer would be first to market with the GD245HQ and GD235HZ displays suited for the job.
Users daunted by the hardware costs shouldn’t be too surprised: The technology being tapped for home theatre implementations of 3D cinema requires the player to concurrently process two 60Hz 1080p streams which are then interleaved into a single 120Hz stream via alternate-frame sequencing. The 120Hz LCD is required to display every frame of the 120Hz stream, and LCD shutter glasses are required to reveal the appropriate frame to the appropriate eye to create the impression of depth on the z-axis.
Our readers are no doubt aware that one 1080p stream can be demanding on hardware, much less two, which is why NVIDIA is limiting the technology to GT 240 (or better) adapters. It is probable that inferior GPUs may never receive the functionality at all.
The chip designer has expressed that it has been working with the market’s leading developers of movie playback software to ensure support when the technology officially launches in 2010.
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