Ok, we know that movie studios are totally ignoring all the millions of people that already have 3D HDTVs, 3D-equipped PCs, or event 3D-capable smartphones by not officially releasing stereoscopic 3D trailers for upcoming 3D movies online (with still very few exceptions). It seems that most of them don’t care about bringing these people in the cinema by showing them a glimpse at the 3D experience they have prepared for them in the movie theater, but at the same time they want to convince them to go and see a 3D movie by showing them a 2D trailer of that movie. Many 3D enthusiasts and 3D professionals are still wondering what is the stupid reason behind all of this and there could be a lot of these, some more reasonable, others not that much. For example the fact that a traditional 2D trailer with a lot of short and fast cuts does not work that well in stereo 3D, or that you need to find the right person for making a good 3D trailer, or the extra cost for making such a promotional material, or simply because you have crappy stereo 3D effects and want to cheat more people to go into the movie theater and get disappointed by the 3D effects they see. Who knows what it is exactly.
But why the hell you need to make only a 2D video trailer for an old blockbuster movie that you are going to be re-releasing converted in stereoscopic 3D? I mean you’ve seen the movie in 2D already, the whole movie and whether you liked it or not, there is no new footage in 2D that you can actually see in the “new trailer” and that video footage to make you go and see the converted to 3D version. Like in the case of the embedded official trailed for the Titanic in 3D that is coming on April 6th 2012, they could’ve just present the last part of the video with the text saying that Titanic is returning on April 6. But then again would millions of people watch an official trailer with just some text saying something that they’ve already read about, well the “new” 2D trailer for Titanic in 3D is here and millions have watched it already. But only talking about the movie in 3D even if it is by James Cameron himself probably won’t convince people that are not that big fans of the movie to go and watch it, for the movie fans however, 3D or not 3D they will surely watch it yet again, even probably multiple times. And one more thing, the original 2D version of the movie Titanic was a bit over 3 hours long (194 minutes to be exact) and going to see a 2D to 3D conversion that is over three hours might be a bit of a challenge for a lot of people. Watching a 3D movie like Avatar that is almost three hours long is one thing, but watching a converted to 3D movie like Titanic would be for over 3 hours, can turn out to be a big problem for a lot of people that are still fairly new to 3D and you can expect a lot of these… and if the 3D conversion is not at its best, then who knows.
Anyway, back on the 3D trailers thing. The problem is that it is not just one hit movie like Titanic, others are doing the same by pushing out “new” 2D trailers that contain no clue or information, let alone a glimpse of the experience that awaits the viewers when they go to the movie theaters to see the 3D conversion. And with all the negative media coverage that 3D conversions are still getting (some crappy ones fully deserve it) it may be quite hard to convince people that are not sure if they want to go and watch the new 3D return of a movie they liked a lot in 2D some years ago. Of course releasing a 3D trailer could be a double edged knife, because if you’ve done a crappy job with the 3D conversion or even with the trailer in 3D you can actually drive away viewers instead to attract their attention. So are movie studios too afraid not to mes up, or it is all about the money and they don’t care about the viewers as long as the numbers are satisfactory in the end… what do you think?
Here is an interesting 3D video of an old DHL advertisement, it is a 3D conversion of a 2D broadcast, but the results are really convincing, although the video quality is not perfect. This is an example of a proper conversion from 2D to 3D and how convincing it can be, so if you don’t know you might think it is actually a 3D clip. The conversion has been done by Vision III & Hnk 3D and they are offering the 3D clip for download on their website in both Side by Side format (half horizontal resolution) and in anaglyph Red/Cyan version. You need to fill in a form to get to the download of the video. You can watch the original DHL advertisement in 2D if you want to compare it with the converted to 3D version. The advertisement is a bit weird, but it doesn’t matter, just look for the stereoscopic 3D effect in it.
PowerDirector is a video editing software targeted to normal non-professional users that want to be able to quickly and easily edit their videos with good results without the need of having extensive knowledge or experience in video editing. The new version 10 of the software now offers an easy to use and quite comprehensive support for working with stereoscopic 3D photos and video that you’ve shot with a 3D-capable photo or video camera and you want to present in a nicer way. PowerDirector 10′s 3D support starts with the importing of 3D photos and videos, editing the video as as easy as you’d edit 2D video and having a 3D preview of it and then exporting into common video formats or directly burning on a 3D DVD or Blu-ray disc. You even have some preset 3D titles, 3D particles, 3D effects and 3D menus available that are easy to use and there is also a support for easily converting 2D content to 3D (using PowerDirector’s TrueTheater 3D feature) and incorporating it together with the content that you’ve shot in 3D format. You could even upload the 3D video you have made using the software directly on YouTube in 3D format. Have in mind that you need to get the PowerDirector 10 Ultra version of the software in order to get all the 3D features available as the Deluxe version of the video editor does not have support for working with 3D content. PowerDirector 10 Ultra is currently available for $99.95 USD (you can upgrade from previous version for less) and there is also a 30-day trial version available that you can download and try. I did give the trial version a spin to see the software in action and to try out how it works with different 3D content, especially with the importing of MVC encoded video and the export for Blu-ray 3D media…
I’ll be starting with what 3D file formats are supported by the new PowerDirector 10 software, the good news is that pretty all of the common formats for both 3D photos and 3D videos recorded by 3D-capable consumer devices are supported and can be imported in the video editor. Regarding 3D photos you can import pictures in MPO and JPS file format, no PNS support yet, but I haven’t seen a device recording in it, however you can for example record higher quality stereo 3D screenshots from games with 3D Vision in PNS format. In terms of support for importing of 3D video files, you get support for MVC encoded files (including the ones recorded with Sony HDR-TD10 3D camcorder and JVC GS-TD1 3D camcorder) and Dual-Stream AVI files and 3D videos in these two formats should be auto recognized by the software. Other than that pretty much any common file container and compression should also be supported with the 3D videos in Side by Side and Over/Under (either half or full frame) and you can manually select these via the menu you see above by right clicking on the video if it does not get automatically recognized as a 3D one.
Moving to what preview modes are supported by the video editor, aside from the standard 2D mode of course. There is the standard Anaglyph Red/Cyan mode, 3D-ready DLP HDTV mode (DLP Checkerboard pattern), Micro-polarizer LCD 3D (Row-Interleaved -passive 3D displays) as well as 120Hz Time-sequential 3D LCD mode. The Time-sequential 3D mode is the one you can use with 3D Vision, yes it works with 3D Vision, only in full-screen mode, but it is compatible (it would be nice to also get 3D windowed mode supported as well). The ability to easily preview the video in 3D mode while editing it is a nice feature to have and this is probably one of the first more serious consumer oriented video editor software that supports 3D Vision. And with the use of the 3DTV Play software it could’ve been able to make it work with HDMI 1.4-equipped 3D HDTVs as well, however you don’t get the 120Hz Time-sequential mode available in the drop-down list when using a 3D HDTV and have 3DTV Play active. During the testing of the 3D preview with 3D Vision I had a few times the screen locking up either when entering or exiting the 3D mode, but this could easily be some sort of a driver version conflict as well, so it should easily be correctable.
PowerDirector 10 comes with a built-in 2D to 3D conversion feature that works for both 2D photos and 3D videos. It is an auto-conversion feature with some control left to the user, you have a depth slider that may help you get stronger or weaker simulation of the volume in the image. To get to the 2D to 3D conversion feature you need to right click on the 2D photo or video you want to convert, then choose Edit Video / Power Tools from the menu and select the 2D to 3D option. The 3D photos and videos have this option disabled by default and in the timeline the converted to 3D photos and videos get visually marked, so that you easily distinguish the converted to 3D videos from the ones shot in 3D.
When you are ready with your video edit and want to export the result you have two options, to export a video file or to burn the 3D video on an optical drive or record it on other type of external media. For file export you have support for Side by Side and Anaglyph red/cyan options and the following file formats:
WMV – Side by Side full and half resolution, and anaglyph; only four preset resolutions available.
MPEG4 – Side by Side half resolution only and anaglyph; you have a few basic profiles available, but can create and customize your own.
MPEG-2 – Side by Side half resolution only and anaglyph; you have a few basic profiles available, but can create and customize your own.
H.264 AVC – Side by Side half resolution only and anaglyph; you have a few basic profiles available, but can create and customize your own.
MOV – Side by Side full and half resolution, anaglyph; you have a few basic profiles available, but can create and customize your own.
If you want to export the video in 3D format on an optical drive you have a few more common options available for that and the interesting thing here is that PowerDirector 10 also supports Blu-ray 3D export with MVC compression, although that is apparently not available in the trial version, because I got a strange error message when trying to export in that format (Error code: eC0030011). Another important thing regarding the export for Blu-ray 3D media is the need for hardware acceleration from the video card, otherwise you will not be able to use the feature (you get a different error message), so do check what video cards are supported for the acceleration. When exporting in 3D format for an optical media you get two options available, either directly to burn on the disc or to save the exact file structure of the disc on your hard drive for testing and burning later (if you don;t have a Blu-ray burner on the video editing system for example). The options you have for 3D disc export are as follows:
3D DVD video disc – supports small 1.4GB, single and dual-layer DVD discs; in Anaglyph Red/Cyan or Side by Side half resolution format.
3D Blu-ray disc – supports 25GB, 50GB, 100GB and 128GB BD optical media; 3D-BD (Blu-ray 3D) format and in Sde by Side half resolution format.
3D AVCHD disc – burning on DVD and removable media storage; in Anaglyph Red/Cyan or Side by Side half resolution format.
If you think the software might be useful for your needs you can download the 30-day trial version of Cyberlink PowerDirector 10 and test it. You are also more than welcome to share your experience with the software should you decide to try it or if you are already using it for something that includes 3D video editing.
