Panasonic is working on a standard to describe how companies should use Blu-ray discs to store 3D content. With a number of feature films each year being projected in 3D, and the growing availability of high definition displays capable of generating 3D images, Panasonic wants to proactively set up a format for how the complex video content should be stored on Blu-ray discs.

The company's proposal to the Blu-ray Disc Association describes a method where each pair of frames, one for each eye, is analyzed to find the similarities between them. Instead of having to store copies of each eye's view, which would take double the storage space, Panasonic's method stores one full image along with a set of transforms that generate the second eye's view from the first's. Since much of the scene will be similar, if not the same, to each eye, the process is able to store both frame sets using less than 1.5 times the storage space of a normal Blu-ray movie.

This method only describes how a 3D movie should be mastered to disc. The actual display of the 3D content is an independent process, left up to the display manufacturer. Movies should be viewable using polarized lenses, lenticular screens, or even head-mounted displays. The Blu-ray Disc Association should arrive on a formal standard within the next year, with commercial discs available by 2010.

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