How The PS3 Will Playback 3D Blu-ray Without HDMI 1.4

Back in January, Sony announced that the PS3 would support 3D Blu-ray movie playback. But at the same time, it was announced that in order to get 3D from your Blu-ray player to your TV, you’d need HDMI 1.4 to connect them. Considering how you can’t exactly upgrade a physical port with firmware, the two statements seemed to be slightly at odds with eachother. Turns out there’s a loophole…

Within the HDMI 1.4 specification, there are lots of subsections – one for HDMI ethernet channel, one for audio return channel, one for 4K support… and one for 3D over HDMI. Turns out that while you need all of those features to be capable of calling yourself a HDMI 1.4 standard device, the current 1.3 standard is capable of playing back 3D content. Obviously the PS3 will need a firmware update in order to be able to register that information, but after that it’ll give you 3D pictures for your 3DTV… although there is a catch.

When it comes to 3D Blu-ray playing from your PS3, you won’t be getting 1080p signals to each eye, you’ll only be getting 1080i. Without HDMI 1.4’s speed, version 1.3 just can’t push dual 1080p images through the pipes.

Still, it can push dual 1080i signals, and that’s still pretty decent. You’ll still need to upgrade your TV, but at least you can stick with the PS3 as your Blu-ray player of choice…