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Sony: 'All PS3 Units Will Be Firmware-Upgradeable To 3D'
by Leigh Alexander [PC, Console/PC]
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November 19, 2009
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3D stereoscopic technology is a major component of Sony's strategy to achieve profitability for the PlayStation 3 -- and the company says the console's planning for a system-wide solution.
In a new presentation [PDF link] to investors about the company as a whole, Sony revealed plans to add 3D capability to PS3 games via a firmware update: "All PS3 units will be firmware-upgradeable to 3D," it says.
Sony says it's aiming to "lead the 3D market," and pointed to plans to offer 3D-specific tools to developers making games on its platform. (Some console games such as Blitz's PSN title Invincible Tiger have custom coded 3D stereoscopic modes, and Disney's G-Force has a less sophisticated red-blue 3D glasses version, but there's no system-wide solution.)
3D gaming on PlayStation 3 appears to be simply one component of the strategy -- it's looking at 3D for its Blu-ray format and high-definition televisions, too.
However, with only a small minority of current televisions supporting more sophisticated stereoscopic 3D, the vast majority of consumers will need to upgrade to play PS3 games in the most effective 3D modes.
The company also wants to install 3,000 Sony-created 3D theater projectors in cinemas by the end of 2010. Sony Corp CEO Howard Stringer tells investors and media that the company's on track to stem its losses and return to profitability.
The executive believes that, with the help of new tech like 3D and the upcoming Motion Controller for the console, its PlayStation business can achieve profitability by March 2011.
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What you can do on Paper are red and blue anaglyph images. These images appear as black and white for the viewer. More improved 3D Systems use shutter glasses. These glasses are working by shutting black one side and open making the other transparent, while showing two images. With this method, you get a 3D picture, that is in colour.
The setback is, that the picture will start to flicker, if you can't shutter the glasses fast enough.
The usual 60 Hz LCD TV can show you 30 pairs of 3D pictures a second, in fact you will look at a 30 Hz picture, this is flickering hell as you can imagine.
Newer TV Sets support higher refresh rates as 120 Hz and up, with this you can display the pairs of 3D images fast enough, that it won't flicker.
I doubt, this will be any form of standard in the future, I really don't see anybody owning an HDTV Set yet. To think that untra expensive 120 Hz HDTV units will sell like hotcakes in the future, seems unlikely to me. I think most people don't want to sit with shutter glasses in their living room, that seems like something for tech geeks, not for the mainstream. But that is just my opinion.