A stereo display device comprising: a display panel ; a backlight having independently addressable portions; and a shutter arrangement for a viewer, having independently controllable shutters for the two eyes of the viewer; a controller for controlling the addressing of the display such that a stereo image is addressed in one field period, and for controlling the timing of operation of a shutter arrangement; wherein the controller is adapted to address the display to present left and right eye images in sequence, and to control the backlight, wherein the images are addressed line by line and the backlight is operated in line-by-line manner with a different addressing rate to the addressing rate of the images, wherein the backlight is addressed at a faster speed than the image addressing ; wherein each field comprises one left sub-field , one right sub-field and a common sub-field ; wherein the common sub-field shares only the common content of left and right images, the left sub-field represents the left image content which is not in common with the common image and the right sub-field represents the right image content which is not in common with the common image, wherein the common sub-field is central to the left and right sub-fields, and the shutters are controlled to allow light to both eyes during the display of the common image; wherein the controller is adapted to control the fractions of the frame period allocated to the left sub-field, the right sub-field, and the common sub-field; and wherein the fractions of the frame period allocated to the left, common and right sub-fields are varied depending on the image content. a display panel ; a backlight having independently addressable portions; and a shutter arrangement for a viewer, having independently controllable shutters for the two eyes of the viewer; a controller for controlling the addressing of the display such that a stereo image is addressed in one field period, and for controlling the timing of operation of a shutter arrangement; wherein the controller is adapted to address the display to present left and right eye images in sequence, and to control the backlight, wherein the images are addressed line by line and the backlight is operated in line-by-line manner with a different addressing rate to the addressing rate of the images, wherein the backlight is addressed at a faster speed than the image addressing ; wherein each field comprises one left sub-field , one right sub-field and a common sub-field ; wherein the common sub-field shares only the common content of left and right images, the left sub-field represents the left image content which is not in common with the common image and the right sub-field represents the right image content which is not in common with the common image, wherein the common sub-field is central to the left and right sub-fields, and the shutters are controlled to allow light to both eyes during the display of the common image; wherein the controller is adapted to control the fractions of the frame period allocated to the left sub-field, the right sub-field, and the common sub-field; and wherein the fractions of the frame period allocated to the left, common and right sub-fields are varied depending on the image content. <EOS>