2D compatible 3D broadcasts
Phil Lelyveld
Entertainment Technology Center
[BBC]
The Digital Service Development group led by Phil Layton in BBC R&D was involved in the previous trial of 3D at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships this year and also the recently broadcast Strictly Come Dancing Grand Final. In this post Dr Peter Cherriman outlines the work to produce 2D compatible 3D broadcasts for Freeview and Freesat receivers.
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The 2D view could be created by new functionality in receivers or by using some low-level H.264 signalling. After testing the various options, we found that none worked successfully with all HD receivers already in the market. However, we did find a solution using “Red button” (MHEG) technology that is present in all FreeviewHD and FreesatHD receivers. This solution uses the cropping and video scaling features in the interactive MHEG engine. We originally trialled this technology on FreeviewHD receivers during our 3D Wimbledon broadcasts. We have yet to investigate whether a similar interactive application approach is possible on other platforms. …
See the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/researchanddevelopment/2012/01/2d-compatible-3d-broadcasts.shtml
