I've seen so many mixed messages so far, that I'm unwilling to consider anything a guarantee until hardware and firmware are coexisting in consumer's homes. If both fat and slim PS3's have the video bandwidth to do it, that's great, but I still worry that we're going to run into some really weird issues with any existing v1.3 hardware elsewhere in the signal path. As for OPPO, I've heard the exact opposite: they don't believe it will be possible to add 3D support to either of their existing players via firmware.


I was talking specifically about existing surround receivers and processors. If the internal bandwidth doesn't exist to handle two 1080p signals concurrently, a firmware update won't fix it. Likewise, video processing that wasn't meant to pass such signals may not be able to be "fixed" after the fact to support it. There are already products on the market that can't pass 1080p/24 and even a few that can't pass 1080p without interlacing to 1080i and re-deinterlacing to 1080p. Those are almost guaranteed to choke on a 1080p 3D signal, and identifying such units is a difficult and tedious process (the ones I'm thinking of are all v1.3). Also consider how quickly the 3D standards have come together - folks can't have designed with this standard in mind because the standard was still a complete mystery. There's no telling what the 997 would have supported regarding 3D video signals. The fact that the 998 will have v1.4, on the other hand, means that it isn't an issue either way.


I still think that putting Ethernet in HDMI is the silliest idea I've heard in a long time. The implementation makes no sense to me, and I don't see the benefit of doing it. However, HDMI v1.4 always had provisions that related to video bandwidth and were specifically meant to be applicable to 3D. Nobody cared because no standards existed that could use that part of the spec. Personally, I still don't care much as I'm not real keen on 3D at home, but it is going to be important for Outlaw from a marketing perspective over the next several years.


I think that work-arounds are likely, but I also think that it is wise for Outlaw to move to v1.4 for the 998.


Which titles that are already out are compatible with the new 3D protocols? (I don't mean the red-blue junk that a few existing 3D releases have used, I mean the active shutter glasses.) I didn't think there were any existing titles. I'd be interested to see an article on that, as it has completely slipped under my radar and I have no idea how they could have produced such discs without the standard already being in place.