What's the right choice, Active or Passive 3D?

3DTV has been one of the buzz words in the TV industry over the last couple years. The quality of 3D film and TV production has improved dramatically as has the ability to watch it at home on your TV. Thankfully the days of using the red & green cardboard glasses to gave you a 3D effect but ruined the colour have now gone & 3D today is in full colour and also in HD.

There are, however, two main types of 3DTV that you can buy for your living room, both of which require the viewer to wear either Active or Passive 3D glasses. Both types will work with the industry standard 3D transmissions and 3D movies that you can buy on Blu-Ray, ensuring there are no compatibility problems.

Active 3D
Active 3D is the preferred method of watching 3D for those that are after the very best picture quality. It works in a very similar way to the 3D IMAX theatres & provides you with a Full HD (1920x1080p resolution) image to each eye. The glasses are generally powered by built-in batteries, some are rechargeable via USB. From 2012 the active glasses from the big brand names will be interchangeable between different manufacturers, meaning you can take your Panasonic glasses to your friends house and watch 3D on their Sony TV!

The glasses themselves blank off your vision so that only one eye at a time can see the TV. The lenses switch on/off in turn at high speed to match the image that is on the TV. It happens so quickly that your eyes can't distinguish between the two slightly different images that are being thrown at them and your brain puts them together to form a 3D picture.
If you watch a 3DTV without glasses you can see both images at the same time showing slightly different perspectives of the same scene. 

Active 3D glasses are slightly heavier than their Passive 3D cousins but are now light enough that it makes little or no difference. They should also fit over the top of all but the bulkiest spectacles allowing you to wear both if you need to. 

Active glasses do cost considerably more than Passive ones. This is due to the fact that they have a lot of technology packed in to give you the very best picture possible. If you're planning on having lots of friends and family over to watch 3D this might be slightly prohibitive with prices up to £60 per pair.

On the other hand if you're looking for the best picture and enjoy watching films or sporting events with your partner or children Active is the best choice.



Passive 3D
Passive 3D is the name given to the system used in most cinemas up and down the country. It's also what's employed by Sky & LG to get 3D into pubs & clubs. Passive 3D allows many users to watch 3D at relatively low cost. Glasses can cost as little as £2, allowing the casual viewer to either buy some at the bar & watch the match alongside another 30-40 people in the pub, or so that your extended family can gather round and watch the big Christmas movie without breaking the bank.

Passive glasses come in a variety of styles and colours and because they're much lower cost can be replaced easily if lost or broken.
You may also be able to use the glasses you bought in the cinema to watch your new Passive 3DTV.
The downside to Passive 3D is that the picture quality is drastically reduced.
With Active 3D the Full HD image is sent to each eye in turn. Passive 3D is very different.
Passive 3D uses filtration on the TV screen itself to split the image to be seen by each eye.

Half of the 1080 lines that cross the screen are polarised to emit horizontal light, the other half emit vertical light, the lenses in the Passive glasses only allow one type of light to pass through. Horizontal in one side and vertical in the other. The result is that the resolution that each eye sees is cut from 1080 lines down to 540 lines.

For the casual user or for large group viewing, this reduction in picture is really of no concern. It's also a great option to get 3D on a tighter budget or for the kids bedrooms to use with their PS3 or Xbox.

As you can see in the picture (to the left), when looking through the glasses each eye is missing half of the detail on the screen. Between each line of colour through the glasses is a black line, this is reversed for the other eye with the appropriate scene displayed instead. 



Conclusion
Whichever way you choose to get 3D you'll be glad that you did. The level of immersion into the film or sporting event you choose to watch is fantastic. It is also a great opportunity to create a family or friend get together.

We refer to 3D in the shop as "Event Viewing". By this we mean that it's not something you're going to use every day or even every week. It will however, likely be a big sporting event or movie that you can get everyone involved in. Making sure that you spend a few hours together as a family or with friends specifically to watch, enjoy and discuss a particular movie or game.

A great example of this was the "Strictly Come Dancing" final on BBC HD during December 2011. It's a show that crosses the age and gender divide and was recorded beautifully by the BBC. The 3D effect was fantastic and really impressed members of my family with its quality.
Society has accused TV of dividing the family & reducing the amount of quality time we spend with each other. Maybe with 3D and the advent of Smart TV this accusation can in some ways be rebuffed!

Option 3!
A third option has just been released in to the UK market that does not use glasses at all. The TV from Toshiba, which is currently 5-6 times the price of a Passive 3D set, use a complicated system of facial recognition and a lenticular display to "beam" the 3D image to up to 14 people in front of the TV.
I am yet to see this type of set in operation so can't really give an opinion on its quality. At the moment however, based on price alone, I think I'll stick with the glasses!

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