Even though 3D technology is still on the periphery of the industry, it would be wise to begin incorporating appropriate measures now to allow your home theatre to be upgraded at a later date.

But, American manufacturer Digital Projection vice president of home cinema George Walter asks: “How do you plan for the future without a crystal ball?”

More importantly, how do you pre-wire a setup to ensure it is fully 3D capable?

“3D signals will undoubtedly be digital and the digital packet will be something less than double the current HDMI 1.3 standard. So, to support the highest quality 3D sources and displays, in addition to the BNC cable for the left eye/right eye sync, we suggest you pull one of the following cable sets from the source rack to the projector:

• Two HDMI 1.3 cables – It is a good idea to pull a third as well, to support troubleshooting and to assure you have a backup should one of the first two cables fail.

• Two single-link DVI cables – Again, it is a good idea to pull a third, to support troubleshooting and to assure you have a backup should one of the first two cables fail.

• One dual-link DVI cable – Note, the dual-link DVI standard can accommodate both the left eye and right eye 1080p signals via the two wires contained within the single cable, so you are pulling less cable, however, the cost of dual-link DVI cables and distribution hardware is significantly more expensive than distributing via single-link DVI or HDMI 1.3.

“Consumer 3D standards are still emerging, and at this point, it looks like the long-term 3D signal distribution solution may be HDMI 1.4. Like dual-link DVI, a single HDMI 1.4 cable will carry both the left eye and right eye components of a 3D 1080p signal. Unfortunately, no HDMI 1.4 cables or distribution hardware exist in the market at this point. Meanwhile, we all have 3D installations to complete!

“But, when HDMI 1.4 becomes available in products, we recommend that our customers not immediately start pulling HDMI 1.4 cables instead of the options referenced above. Given the initial problems with HDMI and HDCP, which were pretty costly to many integrators, we believe it would be wise to wait until there is certainty that all of the bugs have been worked out of HDMI 1.4.”

From a projection standpoint, 3D@Home Consortium Board member and Insight Media president Chris Chinnock says in order to replicate the professional cinema experience in the home, the dual stack approach to projection has several advantages over a single projector.

“For one, such an approach can yield a lot more light in 3D mode, which is a major drawback of almost all current 3D technologies. In addition, the dual stack approach enables the use of all three types of projection technology (DLP, LCoS and 3LCD) to create a 3D system.

“The main drawbacks are the added cost of two projectors and alignment issues. Recent advancements make alignment much simpler, but there is still a cost.

“Single projector 3D solutions are more attractive in general, but will always be dimmer that a dual stack solution using the same projector. In a home theatre environment, where light output is already low, going to 3D will produce a lot less light – typically only 15-20% of the 2D light. As a result, dedicated 3D home theatre projectors will need to have a lot more light in 2D mode to have the headroom for comfortable 3D viewing.

“Single and dual projector solutions can be configured as front or rear projection. Front projection home theatres are primarily a high-end solution, but rear projection TVs (RPTVs) are a mainstream solution. Samsung and Mitsubishi have already shipped perhaps 2 million RPTVs into consumer’s homes that are capable of showing 3D content with active shutter glasses, but most consumers are completely unaware of this capability.”