Actual screen resolution due to parallax barrier?

[kzibart]

Based on how parallax barrier works, each eye only sees every other horizontal pixel of the display. So if the display is 960x540, each eye is actually only seeing a stretched-out 480x540 resolution image.

Hopefully the parallax barrier will be dynamic (only blocking pixels for 3D content), in which case 2D content will still be represented fully by the 960x540 display. But 3D content's effective resolution will only be half that (unless they're actually packing a whopping 1920 horizontal pixels, which I seriously doubt).

And in the unlikely event that the parallax barrier is permanent, even 2D content would suffer the same decreased 480x540 resolution, just with each horizontal pixel duplicated so both eyes see the same thing.

HTC can technically call the display qHD (960x540) even if each eye only ever sees half of that. Just keep in mind that 3D content won't have the full effective resolution, and I really hope 2D content doesn't suffer the same fate as well.

 

[Auzo]

Based on how parallax barrier works, each eye only sees every other horizontal pixel of the display. So if the display is 960x540, each eye is actually only seeing a stretched-out 480x540 resolution image.

Hopefully the parallax barrier will be dynamic (only blocking pixels for 3D content), in which case 2D content will still be represented fully by the 960x540 display. But 3D content's effective resolution will only be half that (unless they're actually packing a whopping 1920 horizontal pixels, which I seriously doubt).

And in the unlikely event that the parallax barrier is permanent, even 2D content would suffer the same decreased 480x540 resolution, just with each horizontal pixel duplicated so both eyes see the same thing.

HTC can technically call the display qHD (960x540) even if each eye only ever sees half of that. Just keep in mind that 3D content won't have the full effective resolution, and I really hope 2D content doesn't suffer the same fate as well.

First, as seen on the video's on you tube, the the parallax barrier is not persistently on so in 2D mode you should see the full qHD resolution.

Secondly, resolution halving is not inherent to parallax barrier technology. You can use parallax technology to do alternating frames to each eye (at full res) as described in this document. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CB4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.col.org.cn%2FviewFull.aspx%3Fid%3DCOL08010022-02&rct=j&q=parallax%20barrier%20does%20it%20half%20resolution&ei=dsqkTZ2NKorgrAG3t82GCw&usg=AFQjCNErP4TtfxSoTlN60wt7BPJM5UoNAQ&sig2=QKbPClgza7zrT5ic_Rbe6w&cad=rja

We'll have to wait and see how HTC implemented it.

 

[kzibart]

It's good to know that the full qHD screen's 2D output won't be crippled by its 3D capabilities. And thanks for the article on alternating frames vs. alternating pixels. I just hope the framerate on that technology is sufficiently fast to prevent the major headache I could see it causing.

I'm sure most consumers don't care about the technical details of how the 3D image is created, and I doubt HTC and Sprint are intentionally trying to mislead consumers about the resolution of 3D content. It's just so new that there's probably no standard way of representing such things that consumers can easily understand. Hopefully though as the technology becomes more common, consumer-friendly buzz words will be coined that will inform those of us who actually care.