At CineEurope 2012, XPAND 3D is announcing that all XPAND glasses fully support single and double flash high frame rate (HFR) viewing, answering the demand for HFR capability in 3D cinema systems.
Today, cinemas are showing 3D movies at 24 frames per second (FPS) per eye (48 FPS in total), with left and right images (fields) being sequentially displayed. Each field is also flashed three times (triple flashing), therefore the field rate—corresponding to the shuttering rate of the 3D glasses—is 144 Hz.
New 3D movies, shot at high frame rates, can be shot at 60 FPS or 48 FPS. These movies can be screened without any flashing, resulting in field rates of 120 Hz and 96 Hz, respectively. All XPAND 3D cinema products support single flash HFR.
“It is still too soon to know if flashing will be used with HFR content; therefore the technology to accomplish this is built into all new XPAND products,” said Maria Costeira, CEO, XPAND 3D. “If double flash is chosen, new 3D movies produced at 48 FPS will be screened by showing the same frame twice, resulting in 192 Hz field rate.
Every XPAND 3D system including legacy systems are already HFR single flash-ready. XPAND 3D is committed to providing exhibitor partners with comprehensive inclusive solutions and will support double flash HFR if this HFR practice becomes prevalent in the future. Going HFR double flash with XPAND 3D is an easy and cost-effective procedure. For more information about XPAND’s upgrade procedure, please send an email to
[email protected].