The Olympic Games will kick off with what is sure to be a spectacular Opening Ceremony today at the Olympic Stadium. Tickets for the London 2012 Olympics are of course going to be red hot this summer, and so the majority of us will likely have to watch the games from the comfort of our own homes.
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| BBC reveal sparse 3D schedule for London 2012 Olympics |
No doubt there will be plenty of disappointed folks out there who couldn’t get hold of tickets to see the Games, but watching the event on the box doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have to miss out on any of the atmosphere. Thanks to the BBC, for the first time in the history of the Olympics, British viewers will be able to watch a selection of live events and highlights in all their tri-dimensional glory for free.
The BBC’s 3D broadcasts might be rather sparse in comparison to coverage offered by the likes of Eurosport and NBC in the USA, but the upside is it will be available free of charge to any viewer who has access to a 3D-capable HDTV display as well as high-definition channels, irrespective of the digital television platform they’re on (Freeview HD, Freesat HD, Sky+ HD and Virgin Media).
The Beeb’s 3D Olympics coverage is part of their continuing “Summer of 3D”, part of a two-year trial that has already covered the Wimbledon final, and will also feature a 3D simulcast of The Last Night of the Proms in September, and the highly anticipated Planet Dinosaur 3D, to be screened next month.
The Olympic Games is the main event however, with extra-dimensional coverage scheduled to begin today, the 27th of July with the Opening Ceremony, a three-hour broadcast starting at 8.50pm. The UK public service broadcaster also confirmed that it will be screening the full Closing Ceremony together with a special Olympic Games review programme in 3D at 8pm on the 12th of August, the final day of the Games.
Both ceremonies are sure to be spectacular events in the third dimension, but by far the biggest highlight will be the most eagerly anticipated event of all Olympic sports – the Men’s 100 metre final – which takes place on the 5th of August. The BBC is offering live 3D coverage of its build up to the race, post-race analysis, and of course the main event itself in a one-and-a-half hour programme to be screened at 8.30pm.
In addition to the above broadcasts, 3D fans will also be able to enjoy a one-hour daily highlights package show each evening from 11pm. All the aforementioned 3-dimensional programmes will be aired on BBC HD (channel 54 on Freeview; 109 on Freesat; 169 on Sky; and 187 on Virgin).
It’s excellent that BBC is showing 3d coverage for free,its tax
Well paid,well done to the team.
Will BBC HD be given extra bandwidth so it can transmit HD 3D or to get that will you have to watch Eurosport’s coverage on Sky 3D for HD 3D?
Paid a lot for 3d tv tuned and retuned but no freeview channel 54. Is it another of those London town only things?
Tunes into BBC 3d station on sky, but opening ceremony only shown in 2d. I have HD subscription and a 3d TV. What a let down!
3D broadcast on channel 54 from Oxford transmitter is excellent. Shame I’ve only got 2 pairs of 3D-specs so the family only let me watch 3D in short bursts. Looking forward to future broadcasts.
Watching now on an Asus 3D Projector courtesy of a DVB-S2 tuner card, nVidia graphics card and nVidia 3D vision glasses, with a bit of VLC streaming and Stereoscopic Player to boot. Bit of effort but well worth it!
Roger. It was in 3D on BBC HD (169 on Sky as the article stated). I assume you put BBC One HD on instead (channel 143 on Sky), they showed it in 2D.
Can anyone tell me how and where to buy 3D glasses to watch the coverage ?
Rubbish 3D we have passive system all I saw was a split screen.
@jerry – you have to set your 3D setting to “side-by-side” and then the TV merges the L&R images to create the stereoscopic effect….
I tried to watch the opening ceremony in 3D on Eurosport but had to switch to BBC HD as the two commentators on Eurosport drowned out the music, sounds and speeches with their unending and annoying comments. Too much, too loud and totally unnecessary.
Watched all of the 3D coverage on the BBC Freeview. It was a really good and our first experience of £D on our new Samsung TV. I hope that there will be much more 3D on Freeview in the future. Picture was excellent and effect brilliant.
Got to say the info given out to watch in 3D has been absolutely pathetic! So you go to channel 169 on Sky, it’s in HD but where is the 3D? Switching our set to 3D only gives the options to convert 2D to 3D or Side by Side or Over under. None of these works. Ok we didn’t do the 2d to 3D because that would be pointless and in any case if the transmission were in 3D the set would have auto detected it. WHERE is the 3D?
By the way, also tried on Freeview HD but again no 3D.
Watched opening ceremony one the BBC in 3D but i have to say it was’nt as good as Sky 3D due to blurring when the camera panned or when viewing panoramic of the stadium (camera viewing from far away position, up on the stadium gantry maybe) BBC need to sort this out before they roll 3D out as standard.
Watched the entire opening ceremony on bbc hd on freesat and thought the 3d was excellent
This was our first live 3D viewing event which we managed to stumble on by accident and it was excellent. Could really do with the BBC giving 3D a bit more prominence, even if its just on their “whats on HD” rolling programme
we sat and watched the opening ceremony on virgin 108 ,complaining that we weren’t getting 3d as the instructions we had listened to the said that it would be broadcast on bbc high def channel we only found out today we should be watching it on channnel 187 hope this helps if anyone else has done the same
3D is brilliant once you work out how to adjust the telly, we had not worked it out for wimbledon. Opening ceremony was greeat, we felt we were sitting there. Stumbled on late night summary on 3d but please could we have it a bit earlier for us workers.I realise it cant go on iplayer so have to stay up late. MORE PLEASE and thanks for this coverage
Brilliant coverage of Olympic opening and highlights in 3D.Great reception here in Ireland. Well done.
I have a Humax CV3 Freesat receiver connected to an HDMI input on a Samsung 7000 set with 3D. A connection with Panasonic or Samsung DVD players works perfectly in 3D. The HDMI cables are the type recommended for use with 3D.
While trying to watch the Olympic Opening the only thing I could see was the two halfs 0f the screen and I could find no way to select or adjust anything to obtain a viewable 3D picture.
As I am having to use the Hannington transmitter I can not obtain access to channel 54. I get perfect HD (but not 3D) on Freesat 108 and 109.
This is a dreadful situation when the BBC has shown such a wonderful ability to present excellent and well produced programs both at the Jubilee Celebrations and this weekend.
There could be more advice on how people who have been using 3D sets and depend on the advert free science and nature programmes always presented only by the BBC.
We have done a lot to make advertise the 3D content on the BBC HD Channel so apologies to those that missed it.
Each 3D programme is billed in the EPG on each platform. As we are putting out every moment of the Olympics in HD, i.e. 24 additional HD channels, there will be a lot more information out there to look through – we have tried to make sure “3D” is always at the front of the billing to stop it being truncated.
A reminder that the 3D coverage to all broadcasters is being supplied by OBS so we can only feedback information and comments to them. However the slo-mo stings before each 3D programme and the short piece at the front of the daily highlights show is BBC produced.
The 3D schedule for the games is;
Opening – complete and simulcast with BBC One
Men’s 100 final evening – from approximately 20:00 until the highlights show at 23:00, simulcast with BBC One
Daily highlights – 23:00 for 1 hour, this is unique to 3D. The highlights package is repeated overnight
Closing – complete and simulcast with BBC One
ALL on BBC HD
Freeview 54
Freesat 109
Sky 169
Virgin 187
Andy
@Andy Quested: Thanks for taking the time to clarify. For the record, your 3D coverage of the Olympics opening ceremony was probably the best live broadcast 3D content we’ve seen on the calibrated Panasonic and Samsung 3DTVs we happened to have around for review, so well done to you and your team.
Warmest regards
Vincent
Good
Why not add an icon on the screen to alert us to 3d coverage. Red button pop up, maybe. Surely viewers can be informed easier than current efforts. If effort is made to film it in 3d, put some effort into informing us when it’s broadcast.
3D coverage of the opening ceremony on BBC HD was excellent. Show us more!
We have bought transmitter and 3D glasses for our Sony Bravia tv from Amazon – excellent value and very efficient service. Ordered Thursday evenining, received both by Saturday lunchtime. Now looking forward to watching the Closing Ceremony in 3D.
Saw the closing ceremony in 3D and was impressed.
Last Night of the Proms then some films at Christmas next.
Well done BBC.
Enjoyed the ‘taster’ from B.B.C., but to attract the masses surely a few suitable ‘Action-Movies’ are required. (Indiana Jones style, or maybe Pearl Harbour).
Can’t wait to see what the Beeb will offer over Xmas!
More information please.