DVB 3D-TV is a new standard that partially came out at the end of 2010 which included techniques and procedures to send a three-dimensional video signal through actual

DVB Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) o ...

transmission standards (

Cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

Terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

Satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

). Currently there is a commercial requirement text for

3D TV 3D television (3DTV) is television that conveys depth perception to the viewer by employing techniques such as stereoscopic display, multi-view display, 2D-plus-depth, or any other form of 3D display. Most modern 3D television sets use an act ...

broadcasters Broadcaster may refer to: * A presenter of any syndicated media program * A broadcasting organization, one responsible for audio and video content and/or their transmission * A sports commentator on television or radio * Broadcaster, currently kn ...

and

Set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of s ...

manufacturers, but no technical information is in there. Nowadays 3D television technology is already in its first steps regarding its standardization, now the major 3D market is in

theaters Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

players with stereoscopic systems, but in the near future it will be extended to diffusion, and later Free viewpoint television will come into our homes, which means the need of new coding and transmission standards.

Implantation

The implantation of first generation of DVB 3D-TV will be staggered: *Phase 1: the first standard will have

forward compatibility Forward compatibility or upward compatibility is a design characteristic that allows a system to accept input intended for a later version of itself. The concept can be applied to entire systems, electrical interfaces, telecommunication signals, ...

with actual HD systems with just some

firmware In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...

actualization at HD systems

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of s ...

es and, of course, the need for 3D panels; however

signaling In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...

or distribution formats should not prevent future expansion to support new 3D encoding formats. This system only works with

stereoscopic Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...

Frame sequential 3D systems. Requirements for this system, which is called Frame compatible format, are included in the commercial requirements of DVB. Some

like Sky3D or Canal+3D are already using this technology, which is largely thought for PayTV. *Phase 2: the use of new

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...

requirements for specific 3D streams won't be compatible with actual 3D STB, but it would be service compatible with 2D STB if no specific 3D STB is available by using Scalable Video Coding and Multiview Video Coding techniques, i.e. not having to

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...

2D and 3D and occupying only one channel by using a unique video stream with a normal 2D base stream and an adjustable 3D depth layer. This system is called service compatible and is designed for

Free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

group of

3DTV signals

Matrix of signal formats for 3DTV:

Frame sequential

Regarding how a signal once it's decoded is sent to the display, current

systems use a frame-sequential 3D signal. Left and right frames are sent alternately to the display and by diverse systems like shuttered glasses or

polarized glasses Polarization (also polarisation) is a property applying to transverse waves that specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations. In a transverse wave, the direction of the oscillation is perpendicular to the direction of motion of th ...

are then shown to each eye. This involves that the real frame frequency halves the video frame frequency.

Technical features

Frame compatible

In Phase 1 system, only frame-sequential 3D is allowed, using frame compatible (CFC) format. This is made by a spatial multiplex that combines the left and right video sequences in one HD stream which is coded with

H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and distr ...

as a single image. This allows to handle video as normal HD video using typical channels and interfaces like

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...

, which is possible in this 1.4a version. Frame compatible (CFC) model is also compatible with 2D HD mode in the same channel, adding some signalling for switching from 2D to 3D. There are basically two ways to do spatial multiplex: Side by side and Top and bottom, but additional spatial multiplex formats have been proposed in order to improve picture quality by providing a better balance between the V and H resolution.

Side by side

Side by side (SbS) format just put the left and right images one next to the other in an HD image. Because of this, a horizontal

decimate Decimation, Decimate, or variants may refer to: * Decimation (punishment), punitive discipline * Decimation (signal processing), reduction of digital signal's sampling rate * Decimation (comics), 2006 Marvel crossover spinoff ''House of M'' * ...

is required which causes halving of horizontal definition. DVB 3D-TV supports following SbS formats: :1080i @ 50 Hz Side-by-Side :720p @ 50 Hz Side-by-Side :720p @ 59.94 / 60 Hz Side-by-Side :1080p @ 23.97 / 24 Hz Side-by-Side :1080i @ 59.94 / 60 Hz Side-by-Side

Top and bottom

Top and Bottom (TaB) format put left and right images one above the other in a HD image. In this case, vertical

is required which causes halving of vertical definition. DVB 3D-TV supports following TaB formats: :1080p @ 23.97 / 24 Hz Top-and-Bottom :720p @ 59.94 / 60 Hz Top-and-Bottom * Not every spatial multiplex format is frame compatible with actual systems. Following formats are non frame compatible: : 720p @ 50 /60 Hz : 1080p @ 24 Hz

Graphics and text

There are basically two types of text displayed on screen that need additional

information to be displayed on a

3D display A 3D display is a display device capable of conveying depth to the viewer. Many 3D displays are stereoscopic displays, which produce a basic 3D effect by means of stereopsis, but can cause eye strain and visual fatigue. Newer 3D displays such ...

: * Subtitling: (or captions) are text and visual elements that can be overlaid on the picture. The reconstruction of the composite image which includes the captions needs to be done in the STB. Using standards for sub-titling already available for DVB

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...

systems, in addition to depth information provided by the

, the STB should position correctly the captions into the L and R pictures mixed with the original 3D image. The DVB 3D-TV subtitling solution will use existing DVB subtitling implementations and will be

backward compatible Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially in ...

with 2D streams. * Service guide: the STB generates multimedia content such as EPG for his service guide, which combines the use of data preloaded into the receiver with data provided by the broadcaster, in the form of service information. Depth information will be extracted of the captions, displaying the graphics in the same depth.

Signaling

The main function of signaling for frame compatible 3DTV is to signal the presence of a 3D or 2D video stream. It must be also possible to include in the

signal information about the pixel arrangement used to

the master

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

full samples/line pictures to create the

anamorphic Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...

version, if 3D is available. It's interesting to signal also for 3D receivers the 3D events that are available, for which 3D availability should appear on EPG. For future service compatible (CSC)

3DTV 3D television (3DTV) is television that conveys depth perception to the viewer by employing techniques such as stereoscopic display, multi-view display, 2D-plus-depth, or any other form of 3D display. Most modern 3D television sets use an acti ...

, signal that a 3D version of a 2D service or event is being

, and vice versa will be needed.

3DTV broadcast in future

Multiview

Multiview video coding is a compression standard appended from H.264/MPEG-4 AVC which allows send

3D video without resolution loss due to spatial multiplex, and reducing overhead of sending 2 HD images up to 50% and in a single video stream. It is used in

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

players, but at the moment it's not applicable to

because of the processing time for encoding, which uses

motion compensation Motion compensation in computing, is an algorithmic technique used to predict a frame in a video, given the previous and/or future frames by accounting for motion of the camera and/or objects in the video. It is employed in the encoding of video d ...

algorithms. Nevertheless, there have been some experiments with MVC 3D broadcast by

Fraunhofer society The Fraunhofer Society (german: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., lit=Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research) is a German research organization with 76institutes spread throughout Germany ...

over 2nd generation

(

DVB-T2 DVB-T2 is an abbreviation for "Digital Video Broadcasting – Second Generation Terrestrial"; it is the extension of the television standard DVB-T, issued by the consortium DVB, devised for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial tele ...

DVB-C2 Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable (DVB-C) is the DVB European consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital television over cable. This system transmits an MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 family digital audio/digital video stream, using a QA ...

and

DVB-S2 Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite - Second Generation (DVB-S2) is a digital television broadcast standard that has been designed as a successor for the popular DVB-S system. It was developed in 2003 by the Digital Video Broadcasting Projec ...

Free viewpoint

Total Free viewpoint television can be reached by capturing multiple views and extracting 2D+depth information from them to create a 3D model of the scene. Currently this system is being investigated, but the coding complexity and great bandwidth requirements make current

applications using Multiview Video Coding impractical, so a totally new compression scheme and capture techniques need to be investigated.

References

Commercial requirements for

broadcasting: available a

* DVB 3D-TV seminar presentation by David Wood: available a

{{Reflist

External links

Stereo 3D Broadcast with MVC, Heinrich Hertz Insitiute (Fraunhofer society)

DVB 3D-TV workshop page

Information and news about 3DTV

Freeview 3D project for Japan 2022 World Cup

The Biggest 3D Video's Library
Digital Video Broadcasting 3D imaging Digital broadcasting Digital television Television technology