HDMI Group Releases 3DTV Version Of Spec

Verizon 1.4a Specifies Mandatory 3D Formats For Broadcast Content

Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 3/4/2010 4:52:42 PM

HDMI Licensing, the entity responsible for licensing the High-Definition Multimedia Interface specification, announced Thursday the release of version 1.4a of the spec, which adds mandatory 3D formats for broadcast content.
An extract of the 3D portion of HDMI 1.4a is available for public download at http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/specification.aspx.
HDMI 1.4 was released in June of 2009, and the group last month said it would make the 3D portion of the spec publicly available in order to help broadcasters, cable networks, transmission-equipment vendors and others deliver 3D content to new 3DTV sets. The complete HDMI Specification Version 1.4a -- along with the 1.4a version of the compliance test specification -- is available only to licensees.
"We published these latest enhancements to support the market need for broadcast 3D content," Steve Venuti, president of HDMI Licensing, said in a statement.
Version 1.4a adds two mandatory formats for 3D broadcast content: side-by-side horizontal and top-and-bottom, which refer to techniques of delivering left- and right-eye images. For broadcast content, side-by-side horizontal must be 1080i at 50 or 59.94/60Hz and top-and-bottom must be either 720p at 50 or 59.94/60Hz or 1080p at 23.97/24Hz.
HDMI has been licensed to more than 900 consumer-electronics manufacturers. The spec was developed by Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Technicolor (formerly Thomson) and Toshiba. HDMI Licensing LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Silicon Image.
The Consumer Electronics Association recently revised its definition for the 3DTVs as digital TVs that support HDMI 1.4 as well as a 3D video source that uses at least one industry-standard format aside from anaglyph (the red-and-blue stereoscopic technique). The trade group now expects around 1 million 3D television sets to ship in 2010, down from an earlier estimate of more than 4 million.