Sony to Release 3D TV Capable of Delivering Two Images at Once

[Tharic-Nar]

At CES 2008, there was a TV being shown at Sony's booth that more than impressed me. For one, it was 3D, and two, it had the ability to deliver two pictures at once. With two sets of glasses, gamers could play some multi-player and not be able to see what their opponent was doing. In essence, Sony combined two separate TVs into one, helping to remedy the age-old nuisance of split-screen gaming.

You can read the rest of our post and discuss here.

[TheCrimsonStar]

Now THAT is freaking awesome. I love playing splitscreen multi with my friends, but a lot of them screen cheat...so that would completely cut out that problem. Very cool.

[Tharic-Nar]

What I want to l know... can someone play a game while the other watches TV at the same time? - then I'd be interested

How about 2 TV channels at once with wireless headphones for each user....

So much that could be done, but probably won't...

[TheCrimsonStar]

Hey, a clan friend pointed this out to me...it MUST be an LED tv. LCD's can only get up to 120Hz before the crystals start burning out. LED's were the first to get to 240Hz.

[Kougar]

Originally Posted by TheCrimsonStar

Hey, a clan friend pointed this out to me...it MUST be an LED tv. LCD's can only get up to 120Hz before the crystals start burning out. LED's were the first to get to 240Hz.

LCDs can use both LEDs and CCFLs, it wouldn't make a difference on refresh rate. The LCD crystals are indeed the limiting factor as they can't refresh quickly enough. To get around this issue HDTVs do everything from insert additional fake lines in the display to playing with the backlighting, to even substituting entirely new frames that aren't in the actual show/movie. As long as it tricks the eye into seeing a smoother picture they'll brand it 120Hz or 240Hz, even if the physical LCD TV has a actual 60Hz refresh rate.

Here's how CNET breaks down the differences with 240Hz, it's important to know it can mean two completely different things, not actual refresh time on the display pixels which is what we would assume.

Originally Posted by CNet

To reduce blurring, most 120Hz LCD displays use a system called MEMC (motion estimation and motion compensation) to slip in a new frame between each of the original frames. The end result is one extra frame for every true frame.

You'd think, then, that a 240Hz TV would just double up to achieve an even more blur-free picture. Alas, it's a little more complicated than that. The problem is there are actually two different types of 240Hz, including one that doesn't bill itself as true 240Hz but rather as a "240 effect." Here's a breakdown of the two versions and which companies employ them.

MEMC (motion estimation-motion compensation): Both Sony and Samsung 240Hz sets use MEMC to basically double the 120Hz process described above. However, instead of getting one extra frame for each "true" frame, you actually get three extra frames. (See reviews of the Sony KDL-52XBR7, the Sony KDL-XBR9 series and the Samsung LNB750 series).

Scanning backlight (240 effect): LG, Toshiba, and Vizio use what's called "scanning backlight" technology. Such TVs use MEMC once to get to 120Hz, but instead of doubling the interpolation, a backlight flashes on and off very quickly to achieve what Toshiba calls a "240Hz effect." LG, for its part, fails to make that distinction and uses the 240Hz term without qualification to describe its scanning-backlight models.
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