Virgin Debuts 3D On-Demand Movies - The UpStream

Virgin Debuts 3D On-Demand Movies

posted Sunday Oct 3, 2010 by Nicholas DiMeo

Virgin Debuts 3D On-Demand Movies

Virgin Media announced this week that they will be launching the first ever commercially available 3D digital TV on-demand service and they are calling it "3D Movies on Demand". It will be available in the UK for those who are Virgin Media TV customers with a 3DTV and those users will be able to choose 3D movies from Virgin's already extensive range of programs.

For more on 3D Movied on Demand, hit the break.

The service's back-end is provided by FilmFlex and it is expected that the number of films to choose from will grow in the next few months.

Cindy Rose, Virgin Media's executive director of digital entertainment said:

We're really excited to bring a taste of 3D to our customers in the comfort of their own homes. As we've already seen with the take-up of high definition programmes, viewers are continually looking for new ways to experience their favourite shows, and with the addition of 3D On Demand, they will be able to watch eye-popping movies whenever they want.

For all you tech-heads out there, we got the specs for you:

Virgin Media have chosen a 3D encoding method that is compatible with our existing 2D TV broadcast platform. This method which has been adopted by many other broadcasters around the world takes the two (left and right eye) 3D images with 1920 x 1080 resolution, squeezes each image down to 960 x 1080 and then joins them together to form a new "side by side" image with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 that is now compatible with our existing 2D platform. The 3D TV then recreates a full picture by expanding the side-by-side encoded images and displaying these together (polarised or passive 3D) or alternately (shutter or active 3D).

I wonder how many people have a 3DTV, the glasses and a Virgin Media service. Probably three or four. Do you three or four people think this is cool? We want to know!

Advertisement

Login to CommentWhat You're Saying

Be the first to comment!

We're live now - Join us!
PLUGHITZ Keyz

Email

Password

Forgot password? Recover here.
Not a member? Register now.
Blog Meets Brand Stats