3d blueray, otherwise known as 3D blu-ray, is a whole new step forward in film and entertainment. Not only do you benefit from the incredible high definition and quality of blu-ray but you can now combine this with 3D moving pictures!

There are going to be four standalone players which support this new format but even better, if you are the owner of a PS3, it will be forwards compatible. This means that you will not need a new device or add on to your PS3 in order to watch the new movies. You will, however, obviously need an infrared emitter and the special 3D glasses!

Another amazing thing about this development is that only 50% more storage capacity will be needed for the new format compared to its 2D predecessor. This is because the association for blu-ray discs decided that the codec to be used would be the Multiview Video Coding format, also known as MVC. You still get the outstanding quality of 1080p but the space required is not as high as you might expect.

However, you shouldn’t hope for a big wave of 3d bluray movies to come out during this year. It will take some time for film studios to catch up and for demand to increase. So far, we only know in fact of a few films which have been announced for launch on the new format for bluray.

The four players you can expect to see coming out onto the market over the next months are made by Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba. As such, Sony will actually have a double foothold in the bluray 3d market when taking into account its PS3 – one of the most popular consoles right now. Having said this, the Panasonic player is the only one which is currently penned to have two HDMI sockets for outputs. This is a very useful feature as it means you will not have to replace your AV receiver – current receivers accept only HDMI 1.3 but the new regulation for these 3D blueray players will be HDMI 1.4.

Either way, in the next couple of years, 3D bluray will be the next big thing to have in your home as an entertainment system!