One of the obstacles that has possibly stood in the way of the spread of 3DTV has been the fact that everyone needs their own pair of glasses and not just that, but that largely those glasses are only compatible with televisions produced by one manufacturer. This is obviously fine as long as it is just you and the family who want to watch TV, but what happens when you have friends or family over for an occasion such as Christmas, with numerous heads all wanting to see the TV in 3D?

Of course you might be wealthy enough to be able to afford umpteen pairs of 3D glasses. Or the rest of your family may also own a 3D TV made by the same manufacturer and have their own glasses to bring. Unfortunately neither of these two options are going to cover very many of the 3D TV buying public.

Until Auto Stereoscopic displays are further developed to the extent they become a realistic 3D solution in homes, one of the best options are Universal 3D glasses such as the XpanD X103 Universal 3D Glasses. These particular glasses are able to function perfectly with almost every 3D TV platform currently available.

According to their website “XpanD’s patented technology has the fastest shutter speed in the market today. This guarantees optimal Stereoscopic 3D images without any ghosting, minimal light loss and no visual distortion.”

Although not currently on the XpanD site, at a reported $125 – $150 these are still expensive to be buying spares for all your visitors, but then maybe making this your only pair of 3D TV glasses to take with you and use with any TV might be a more attractive route to go down. For now at least.

So how does 3D TV work? In very basic terms it works by showing the viewer two slightly different images in such a way that each image is seen only by one eye, imitating the way in which we see the three dimensions of the world around us. There are several different methods for doing this, some of which I shall explain here.

Anaglyphic 3D (Passive)
This is the method we are probably all most familiar with and have the best understanding of as the technology used is very basic. Anaglyphic 3D uses glasses with two different colour lenses to produce the 3D illusion. Two images are overlaid in different colours, the lenses ensuring that each eye only sees one of the images. This is by far the cheapest method of 3D display and has been around for some time. Of course cheapest isn’t always best and this is certainly the case here. The effect is not particularly good and as all the images can only be displayed in two colours, it tends to look awful as well!

Polarisation 3D (Passive)
This is the method currently being used in most cinemas for films like Avatar, Clash Of The Titans, and Up. Polarisation 3D is similar to Anaglyphic 3D but instead of using different colours it uses differently polarised images combined with a pair of glasses that house two differently polarised lenses. The benefits of this method is that the glasses themselves are cheap enough to produce that they are virtually disposable and the images can be displayed in full colour as a normal film would be, giving a much better quality effect.

Alternate Frame Sequencing 3D (Active)
This is the method that a lot of the higher end three dimensional televisions will be using. Just like the other methods it shows slightly different pictures to each eye, but in this case the viewer wears special electronic LCD Shutter glasses that open and close in rapid succession. The film is shown at 48 frames per second, instead of the usual 24, and the projector, or TV sends a signal to the glasses to tell them which eye to have open, switching eyes as the different frames appear on the screen, so that each eye sees 24 frames per second, but of the two slightly different images to give a flicker-free 3D effect.

Autostereoscopy 3D
The final method of delivering a 3D experience is also the one which is still mostly in the development phase. This method requires no glasses and current flat panel solutions utilise lenticular lenses or parallax barriers. This means that if a viewer positions their head in one of, usually, several viewing angles they will perceive a slightly different image with eye, giving the 3D effect. Several companies have, or are on the verge of releasing the first of these Televisions into various markets, and this is also the method that the forthcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system will use. Going forwards this would be the ideal medium of 3D display with no disposable glasses, or expensive active eyewear required. Currently however it is in a similar stage to early flat panel TVs which had very narrow viewing angles which were not convenient for anything other than single viewers.

John Lewis has today launched 3D TV on their online site and to celebrate are offering some great bundle deals including two free pairs of 3D Glasses.

Priced at just under £1,800 the 3D Samsung C7000 is the first consumer 3D TV to hit store shelves in the UK. This 40″ TV is available from both John Lewis’s flagship store on Oxford Street as well as at John Lewis online. John Lewis are also offering a special deal, while stocks last, giving you 2 free pairs of Active 3D Glasses (normally £149) when you also purchase a Samsung BD-C6900 3D Blu Ray player with the TV.

The 3D Ready HD television has received great reviews and is praised for giving great quality images whilst remaining slim and attractive. It also packs in numerous features aside from 3D Display, including built in Freeview HD for viewing non-subscription HD channels. The set is also web enabled to allow connection to internet@TV which provides access to a wide range of entertainment media ranging from video, music, social networking, news and games content, all you need is to connect the TV to the internet.

The Blu-Ray player is no slouch either, playing 3d Blu-Ray discs, standard Blu-Ray discs, and even processing and improving the quality of traditional DVDs to near HD standards. The free Samsung 3D Glasses are lightweight, stylish, and every bit the sort of quality you would expect from the Samsung name.

At just £2148 this is a great bundle with which to make your first foray into the world of home 3D theatre. Not only does it give you everything you need, but it will do it with a quality of equipment that will still be impressive for a long time to come.

Main Bundle Features:
Samsung UE40C7000 LED 1080p 3D TV
40 inch display
Built-in Freeview HD
3D Blu-ray Player
3D Glasses
Samsung 3D TV: Free 5 year guarantee
Samsung BD-C6900 Blu-Ray Player: Free 2 year guarantee
Samsung 3D Glasses: Free 1 year guarantee

Sony, LG and Samsung are all planning on launching their first 3D TVs into the UK over the next few weeks. Content is already available via the preview Sky 3D channel, the TVs are due any day and so that just leaves the 3D glasses to complete the three dimensional package.

In an ideal world we would all like glass-less 3D television however the technology is probably five or so years away so in the meantime we’re going to have to adopt high-tech glasses if we want to experience the full 3D effect.

Each manufacturer will have their own set of active 3D glasses. These glasses communicate wirelessly with the 3D TV set where LEDs in the glasses will flicker from light to dark hundreds of times per second to create the three dimensions effect. The glasses will retail at around £100 a pair, making it quite expensive for your average family of four. However I’m sure it won’t be long before shops are offering packages that include spare pairs.

Having had the chance to try on some of the different glasses at the recent Gadgets Show Live at the NEC I found them initially to be quite uncomfortable (mainly because they were all too big for my head) however after a short time I barely noticed I was wearing them, a bit like sunglasses really. As you can imagine because of all the technology they were quite chunky and not the most stylish of glasses in my opinion.

Although I’m sure this won’t be the case for too long as I don’t think it will be long before one of the manufactures gets a designer on board so you can have a pair of designer 3D glasses to sit alongside your designer sunnies. That would surely make them a lot more appealing, well it worked with mobile phones didn’t it?