Introducing DLP® 3-D TV

David C. Hutchison
Senior Member of the Technical Staff

Texas Instruments
DLP® TV
Introduction correct left and right views are displayed to
the correct eye.
Now that HDTV has established itself in the
consumer marketplace, both consumer There are many advantages inherent in
electronic manufacturers and consumers are using this approach to generating
beginning to ask what the next big stereoscopic images.
technology for TVs will be. One new 1) One technical hurdle in achieving cost
technology is 3-D Television. 2006 saw the effective stereoscopic displays is that
introduction of several new cinema titles, stereoscopic displays require two times
such as Return of Superman, Monster the imaging bandwidth of the standard
House, and Nightmare on Christmas. In 2-D displays. For a 1080p television set,
early 2007, Meet the Robinsons was this means that two 1080p input streams
released by Disney Studios. In each case, are required. Current solutions to this
the films that were presented in 3-D retained hurdle are to either cut the horizontal
higher receipts than those that were shown resolution by ! or cut the vertical
in 2-D. With studios like DreamWorks resolution by !. Using these solutions
announcing that all future animated titles will allows for the transmission of two
be in 3-D, it stands to reason that there will images using the currently available
be 3-D content available for home viewing in bandwidth but sacrifices either the
the near future. In early 2007, Texas horizontal or vertical resolution of the
Instruments enabled 3-D video processing in image. The solution created by Texas
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its DLP TV product offerings to its Instruments maintains both the vertical
customers. TV producers such as Samsung and the horizontal resolution. This
and Mitsubishi have since then introduced solution thus produces the highest
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the first DLP 3-D Ready TVs. This paper quality and highest resolution displays
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outlines the DLP 3-D HDTV Video Format available for stereoscopic viewing.
and shows how stereographic content can
be created using this format. 2) Most TV display systems contain an On
Screen Display (OSD) menu system.
DLP® 3-D Technology The OSD menu provides the user a
feedback mechanism in situations
Recently, Texas Instruments has introduced where the user adjusts various
the first 3-D-capable television solutions to parameters such as screen brightness
its OEMs for 2007 consumer electronics and audio volume. It is desirable for this
televisions. These solutions utilize the menu system to work when the system
inherent speed advantage of the Digital is in 3-D mode. The easiest way to
Micro-mirror Device (DMD) to generate the achieve this is to display the menu at 0
left and right views required for stereoscopic depth (so it appears 2-D). With some of
imaging. Combining this with recent the other formats, this requires placing
technical innovations in shutter glasses, the the menu into two separate video
user will be able to experience a high quality streams adding complexity to the TV
®
high definition 3-D image on their DLP electronics design. With the offset
television set. sampling scheme used by Texas
® Instruments, OSD menus can be added
The foundation for DLP 3-D HDTV is found
to the stereo image using the same
in the SmoothPicture™ algorithm. Details of
method as is used for a standard 2-D
the operation of SmoothPicture™ can be
® image. As such, significant system
found in reference 2. DLP 3-D Technology
redesign cost can be avoided.
utilizes the SmoothPicture™ subframes to
generate independent views for the left and 3) By utilizing the SmoothPicture™
right eyes. A signal is generated for each architecture, Texas Instruments is able
subframe and transmitted optically to the to supply a 3-D-capable display with
LCD shutter glasses that are worn by the little additional electronic cost. The main
viewer. The LCD shutter glasses will cost to this solution is a modest cost in
process the signal and will control the the eyewear. As such, consumers can
shutter for each eye to ensure that the purchase a 3-D Ready television for the
same price as the traditional 2-D

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 television. They can then choose to Creating the Left and Right Views
purchase the eyewear with the
television or upgrade at a later time. Creating left and right images is a fairly easy
thing to accomplish using a basic digital
DLP® 3-D Image Format camera. The average distance from one eye
® to another for humans is approximately
The DLP 3-D Image format makes use of
® 64mm. Thus, when composing a simple
how the DLP SmoothPicture™ algorithm
scene, one needs to take two images. The
displays an image onto the screen. The left
second image needs to be shifted
and right images are sampled using the
approximately 64mm horizontally from the
native offset diagonal sampling format of the
first image. This can be done using a slide
DMD. The two views are then overlaid and
plate or by simply shifting ones weight from
appear as a left and right checkerboard
one leg to another.
pattern in a conventional orthogonal
sampled image.
This format preserves the horizontal and
vertical resolution of the left and right views
providing the viewer with the highest quality
image possible with the available bandwidth.

Figure 2 -- A 35mm camera using a slide

plate to create the left and right views needed
for stereoscopic viewing.
Once the left and right views have been
photographed, they need to be combined
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into a format that can be used for DLP TV.
A photographic editor that supports mask
operations, such as Adobe Photoshop, is
needed to complete this step. Before
combining the images into a single
stereographic image, they must be cropped
and scaled so that the images will fit
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correctly on the television set. All DLP
Figure 1 -- The DLP® 3-D HDTV Video
Television systems use either native 720p or
Format
native 1080p resolution. Thus, the left and
right views must be cropped to a 16:9
3-D Content aspect ratio and they must be scaled to
®
either 1280x720 lines or to 1920x1080 lines.
One of the advantages of the DLP
Technology is that the data signal uses the Once the scaling and cropping operations
same bandwidth as a traditional HD Video have been completed, the left and right
Signal. As such, this format can be views can be combined into a single
transferred over current DVI and HDMI stereoscopic image. The steps to
interfaces. Thus, game developers, accomplish this task are:
photographers, and videographers are able 1) Load the left, right, images.
to display stunning 3-D content using
technology that is already available in stores 2) Load either the 720p or 1080p mask
today. In addition, the proper format can be into Photoshop. Copies of the mask
created using common applications, such are available at:
Adobe Photoshop and AVISYNTH. http://www.dlp.com/3D
(AVISYNTH is a powerful tool used for video 3) In Photoshop, make a copy of the
post-production. It is available as freeware left image.
at: http://avisynth.org).
4) Apply the mask to that image. This
image is called the stereo image.

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 5) Next, copy the right image as a The same formatting can be accomplished
layer onto the stereo image. very simply for video edits. A script can be
written using AVISYNTH. The script will load
6) Invert the mask and apply it to the
the left and right images into memory,
right image layer in the stereo
perform a mask on each of the images, and
image. ®
combine the images into the DLP 3-D
7) Set the overlay to ‘Normal’ Format. An example of the script is shown
below.
8) Flatten the image and save it as
either a Bitmap (*.bmp) or a TIF File
(*.TIF). #Load Left and Right Video
Left =
The saved file stereo.bmp is now in the AVISource(“left.avi”).ConvertToRGB32
correct format to display onto a DLP 3-D TV.
Right =
AVISource(“right.avi”).ConvertTORGB32

#Load Video Mask

Maskclip = ImageSource(“alpha.bmp”,
end=FrameCount(left-1),
fps=framerate(left))

# Mask and Combine

Top = mask(left, maskclip)
Vid3d = layer(right, top, “add”, 255,
0,0,0,true)

# Add Audio
Audiodubex(vid3d, left)
Figure 3 -- An example of combining the Left
and Right views into a DLP® 3-D Video Image
Figure 4 -- AVISYNTH script to create DLP®
Here are some important facts to note about 3-D Formatted Video
®
the DLP 3-D Format. Each pixel of the left Similar operations can be performed using
image is surrounded by pixels of the right video edit tools such as Adobe Premier.
image. The converse of this is also true. As
such, here are some simple rules to follow
For gaming, there are a couple of methods
once the image has been packed into the
® available to generate the desired 3-D format.
DLP 3-D Format:
With most video games, the depth
1) Do not scale an image that is in information is already known when the
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DLP 3-D Format. Most scaling scene is rendered. It is possible for the
algorithms utilize neighboring pixels game software to generate a second view
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to create (or remove) pixels. Since and merge the two together into the DLP
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the DLP 3-D format utilizes 3-D Format. Furthermore, it is possible to
neighboring pixels for the left and write hardware drivers for the graphics
right views, most scaling algorithms processor which will pull the depth
will corrupt the image. Thus, all information out of the graphics card and
scaling should be completed prior to create the stereographic images.
®
converting the images to the DLP ®
Once the image is converted to the DLP
3-D Format.
3-D format, all that is needed to display the
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2) Left/Right and Up/Down swaps of format onto a DLP TV with 3-D Technology
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an image in DLP 3-D Format cause is a HDMI cable. Make sure that the source
the left and right views to be is transmitting the image data using the
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swapped. Again, all edits to the left native format of the DLP TV. (either 720p
and right views should be completed or 1080p). Put on the glasses and then
prior to converting the image to the enjoy the show!
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DLP 3-D Format.

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Conclusion available to the public today. Still images
® can be converted to the stereographic
Texas Instruments has released new DLP format using tools such as Adobe
3-D Technology to its OEMs in early 2007. Photoshop. Video may also be converted to
OEMs such as Samsung have announced the format using video editing programs
®
production of DLP Television sets which such as Adobe Premier.
utilize this technology to show superior
stereographic video.
References
®
The DLP 3-D Technology uses an 1. StereoGraphics Corporation.
innovative format that allows for the left and StereoGraphics Developers’ Handbook.
right images to be combined into a single Background on Creating Images for
® ®
frame. This format preserves the horizontal CrystalEyes and SimulEyes . 1997
and vertical resolution of the left and right StereoGraphics Corporation.
views and enables superior viewing 2. Hutchison, D. The SmoothPicture™
experiences. Methods for creating Algorithm: An Overview, 2005, Texas
stereographic content are fairly simple and Instruments.
can be accomplished with technology

Figure 5 – Adobe® Photoshop® desktop

showing left view, right view, mask, and
DLP® 3-D Format image.