The specifications don’t seem to be available to the commons yet. The Blu-ray Association site that I would expect it on is linked. This short article comes from InAVate – Details emerge on Blu-ray 3D specification.
None of the articles mention it specifically, but I understand that HDMI 1.4 is required for Blu-ray 3D…one more upgrade…
MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views, and can provide full 1080p-resolution as well backwards compatibility with current 2D players. MVC was developed by MPEG to support multiple simultaneous views of a subject.
In general, an MVC encoder receivers N temporarily synchronised video streams and generates a single output bit-stream. The decoder receivers the bit-stream, and decodes and outputs the N video signals.
MVC works by exploiting the similarities between multiple video captures of a scene. By eliminating redundant information across camera views, MVC achieves a reduction in bit rate of around 20-25%.
[Editor: Sifting through the Bluray association buzzword bitstream is torture. If the standard is written like this, it will be a great purgative.]
Further data from Xhitlabs says:
The specification allows every Blu-ray 3D player and movie to deliver full HD 1080p resolution (1920×1080, progressive scan) to each eye, thereby maintaining the industry leading image quality, which further distances Blu-ray from high-definition options provided by Internet-based services.
The specification is display agnostic, meaning that Blu-ray 3D products will deliver the 3D image to any compatible 3D display, regardless of whether that display uses LCD, Plasma or other technology and regardless of what 3D technology the display uses to deliver the image to the viewer’s eyes. The compulsory thing for stereoscopic 3D is that those screens should support 120Hz or higher refresh rate.
The specification supports playback of 2D discs in forthcoming 3D players and can enable 2D playback of Blu-ray 3D discs on the large installed base of Blu-ray Disc players currently in homes around the world.
The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec, an extension to the ITU-T H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray disc players. MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead compared to equivalent 2D content, according to BDA; and can provide full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray disc players. The specification also incorporates enhanced graphic features for 3D. These features provide a new experience for users, enabling navigation using 3D graphic menus and displaying 3D subtitles positioned in 3D video.
What is important, the BDA has not announced any actual stereoscopic 3D-capable BD players. Nevertheless, the BDA stressed that Sony PlayStation 3 is stereo 3D-compatible with a simple update of its firmware.