3D Vision Blog » 2d to 3d

Would You Watch the Movie Wrath of the Titans in 3D?

Bloody — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:23:01 +0000

If you’ve seen the Clash of the Titans in 3D last year you might’ve left the movie theater very disappointed, both from the movie being nothing special and the fact that the 3D was actually quite bad, so bad in fact that when talking about bad conversion to 3D of a movie most people directly associate it with that particular title. And indeed the conversion from the 2D footage that was originally shot for that movie to 3D wasn’t done good and the fact that the movie was full of special effects did not help much the conversion to 3D. And now it is time for the sequel of the movie called Wrath of the Titans (3D) and yet again it was not shot in 3D, but was instead shot in 2D and them converted to 3D in post, so are you ready for another disappointment? Haven’t seem the movie myself yet, and I’m not really sure that I’d go to see it after the disappointment from the first one and the first reviews about the Wrath of the Titans aren’t doing it any good without even mentioning the 3D of the movie. So would you go and watch it and in 3D or not, knowing that it is converted to 3D and with all the bad reviews from the previous movie?

The Movie Jurassic Park Will be Getting Converted to 3D

Bloody — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:17:22 +0000

Roughly 20 years after the original premiere, the classic movie Jurassic Park will be seeing its re-release on the big screen, converted in 3D format. The premiere of the 2D to 3D conversion of the movie has been announced for July 19th, 2013 or a bit more than a year for now. There was already information about the possibility of the conversion to 3D for Jurassic Park circling around for a while now, but now it has been officially confirmed by Universal Pictures as they have apparently convinced the director Steven Spielberg to also take active part in the conversion. This will be the first of Spielberg’s directed movies to get the 2D to 3D treatment following in the footsteps of Lucas’ Star Wars and Cameron’s Titanic 3D conversions. And if you ask yourself if the 3D conversion of Jurassic Park will be any good, hopefully it will be as there is enough time to make it good, but we’ll have to wait and see…

YouTube Now Offers 2D to 3D Video Conversion Functionality

Bloody — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:46:55 +0000

YouTube has announced new interesting functionality for the stereo 3D community, namely the ability to convert the 2D videos you have uploaded into 3D format automatically with just a few clicks. This is of course a beta functionality and as with other autoconversion solutions it might not work perfect with all kinds of videos, so you should try with different videos and see what works best for you. You should also be aware that the level of quality that the 2D to 3D conversion YouTube offers will not be as good as properly shot video with a 3D camera. But since still not a lot of people do have 3D-capable recording hardware YouTube’s 2D to 3D conversion feature probably is a way to help push more 3D content. The embedded video above is something I’ve shot with a 2D camera and converted into 3D using the YouTube 2D to 3D conversion feature. Have in mind that when you request a 2D to 3D conversion your original 2D video will remain and it will get a 3D button available in the YouTube player. And when you hover your mouse over the 3D button it will say “Converted from 3D”, a good way to differentiate 3D videos uploaded as such as converted to 3D videos, but probably not good enough to quickly differentiate them. The conversion process currently can take a while, especially if you have a longer video file that you want to see converted to 3D, so be patient…

And now for a quick guide on how to use the 2D to 3D conversion feature of YouTube. First off you need to login to your YouTube account and open the video you want to convert into 3D from the list of videos you’ve uploaded. You need to be on the page with the video details that you normally open when you are watching a video on YouTube, not on the page with all your uploads listed in your account. What you need to do now is click on the “Edit info” button that you will see right below the YouTube logo (the first button), make sure you click this one and not the Edit video button.

after clicking the “Edit info” button you will see a new menu shown at the position you’ve had the button you’ve just clicked. Now you have on the “3D Video” button in order to tell YouTube you are going to be working with a 3D video, this is also the new way of telling YouTube that a video you have uploaded is in 3D format and not using the yt3d tag anymore. For the 2D to 3D conversion feature to appear you need to select the “Single image in frame (normal video)”, if you select the 2 images in the same frame it would mean that a video you’ve uploaded is already in 3D format and you just need to let YouTube know what is the right format.

Now what is left to do is click on the tick the box in front of the “Enable 3D conversion for this video” and then click on the “Save Changes” button. It is very important that you save the changes, because unless you do that the conversion to 3D of the video will not start. After clicking the Save button you will see a message that the conversion has started and it will take a while, and it does take a while, especially for longer videos, so you can take your time and do something else and not stay on the YouTube page constantly refreshing. It is good idea to start with shorter videos at first just to experiment and not wait that much time for the conversion to finish just to see that the 3D effect isn’t that good after the conversion.

Have in mind that while YouTube’s 2D to 3D conversion feature does quite good it is not a complete and recommended replacement for a standalone software that does a 2D to 3D conversions, especially if you want to convert long and high-resolution videos or even movies. When you upload a video to YouTube it gets recompressed to further reduce size and there is some loss of quality and 2D to 3D autoconversion solutions are sensitive to image quality. So if you try to autoconvert a lower resolution and not very good quality video to 3D due to the processing by YouTube after the upload and in the 3D conversion process (you have no control whatsoever on that at the moment) the resulting clip may be a total disappointment. And with all that said, you should also be well aware of the fact that although autoconversion solutions making 3D video from a 2D source may seem quite convincing at times it is still inferior to video shot with a real 3D hardware. So don’t go converting 2D to 3D video just so that you can complain it isn’t very good, we all know that very well already…

Acer GR235H is a New 23-inch Passive 3D LCD Monitor

Bloody — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:27:01 +0000

Acer is one of the most active maker of 3D-capable computer monitors and they just announced another 3D model, this time it is a more affordable 23-inch Full HD display using passive polarizing filter or FPR (Film-patterned Retarder) technology and passive 3D glasses. The monitor comes bundled with a pair of 3D glasses and the TriDef 3D software that you need to use for gaming in stereo 3D mode and the playback of 3D multimedia content. There is also apparently a built-in 2D to 3D autoconversion functionality that you can activate from the OSD menu on the monitor and as it is not tied to software you should be able to use it with just about any content such as non-3D photos, movies and even games. The monitor uses a LED backlight and comes with a 2ms TN non-glossy panel, it has only VGA and HDMI inputs (they should be HDMI 1.4) and has built-in speakers, you can see the detailed specifications below…

Acer GR235H 3D Monitor Specifications:

- Display size: 23-inch (diagonal) 3D LCD
- Active Display Area: 509.76×286.74mm
- Contrast Ratio: 100,000,000:1 Max. (Dynamic)
- Brightness: 250 cd/m2
- Response Time: 2ms
- Maximum Resolution: 1920×1080
- Maximum Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
- Pixel Pitch: 0.265 mm
- Panel Technology: Twisted nematic (TN), 6bit + Hi-FRC
- Number of Colors: 16.7 million
- Screen Treatment: Non-Glare
- Viewing Angles (CR = 10): Horizonal: 170°, Vertical: 160°
- Input Signal: VGA, 2x HDMI (with HDCP)
- Speakers: 1.5W x 2
- VESA Wall Mounting: 100 x 100 mm
- Power Consumption (Energystar On): 31.7W (typical)

Apparently the monitor is hitting Europe this month with a price of €222 Euro as well as some Asian markets and will probably soon be available in other regions as well. I’ve actually heard about this model quite a long time ago, so I was a bit surprised that the announcement was delayed so much (it was expected to appear around March), but then again Acer had some delays with all of its 3D-capable models released this year. What is still missing is the new 27-inch Acer HS274H HDMI 1.4-enabled 3D monitor using Acer’s active shutter glasses that was also expected to be released earlier this year, even a bit before the GR235H. But now it seems that LG will have some more competition in the area of passive 3D monitors, although the big winner from all this is apparently DDD as all of the new passive 3D monitors seems to be bundled with their TriDef 3D software.

Gimpel3D is a Free 2D to 3D Stereo Conversion Editor for Images

Bloody — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 11:57:48 +0000

Gimpel3D is a free application that can help you convert a single 2D image or image sequence into stereoscopic 3D written by René Gimpel. Have in mind that this is not like the traditional 2D to 3D autoconversion solutions that do everything by themselves, you have to do a lot of things manually to make it work, but the end result can be much more convincing than that of an automatic conversion software. Gimpel3D uses a combination of traditional approaches as well as a proprietary projective modeling system that is used to actually remodel the 2D image into a something that resembles a true 3D scene that can be rendered into a realistically looking stereoscopic 3D image. The user works in true proportional space where the scene can be viewed from any location and the scene is edited geometrically in space using tools specifically designed to work with the perspective projection of the image. So in order to be able to work with this software, some previous experience with 3D modeling and animation software packages may be of great help. And if you are totally new into stereo 3D, then this software may be quite hard to understand and use, so you better start with something more automated.

- For more information about the free Gimpel3D 2D to Stereo 3D Conversion software…

Trying out the DVDFab 2D to Stereo 3D Video Converter Software

Bloody — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:53:46 +0000

Not long ago I’ve tried the DVDfab Blu-ray 3D ripper software and was quite satisfied by the easy of use and good results that the software is providing. The same company also has software for doing automatic 2D to 3D video conversions, so I’ve decided to try that as well expecting the same satisfying results…

At first I was a bit confused as to where the 2D to 3D conversion functionality is in the menu, but I’ve quickly discovered that it is a part of the normal Video Converter menu. If you are going to convert normal video to 3D one you just need to activate the “2D to 3D” checkbox, after you open the 2D video file and you are ready to start converting with the default settings. There are a few built in profiles that you can select from a drop down menu, so you should be able to get decent results even if you are a total novice to video conversion.

If you are a bit more advanced user you can also play with the individual settings for the codecs and formats that you want the audio and video output to be encoded in, not that much options, but all the more basic ones are there such as audio and video bitrate, output framerate adjustment, deinterlacing of the source material if interlaced etc. You can also include subtitles from an external file that will get hardcoded in the video, although that may not be such a good choice for when encoding a 3D video, even though we are talking about 2D to 3D autoconversion here. When playing back 3D video files you can also have the subtitles loaded from an external text file, at least when playing the video on a PC, but if you are playing it on another device you may want them to be a part of the encoded video.

When you hit the “Video Effect Settings” button you are presented with an extra menu for more basic resizing and cropping, as well as adjusting the 3D output parameters of the output video. Of course the 3D options panel here is the most important, because from it you can choose the output format of the autoconverted 3D video. It can either be in Side by Side, Top/Bottom or into two separate video files each containing the left and right eye frames respectively. You can also choose between full frame output (original frame size) or half frame output, where you get the left and right frames with either half horizontal or half vertical resolution (squashed) in order to both fit into a common frame size such as 1920×1080 or 1280×720. The last part of the 3D menu is the most important one for the conversion, here you have two sliders where you adjust the “Visual Depth” and “Gain” of the output image, the names of these two however may not give you very clear idea on how to adjust them in order to get the best results (not well documented either). So it is up to you to play a bit with different settings in order to find what works best for each video file, the only problem is that you need to process the whole video before seeing the result, as there is no option to select just a few seconds to be processed from the whole video. So it is best to first cut a small part of the video in a video editor for testing in the 2D to 3D conversion and then load it in the DVDFab software to play with it.

With this software you also get CUDA accelerated decoding and encoding on some of the video formats which can help you get faster conversion times as compared to processing only with the CPU, fo course that will only work if you have a CUDA-capable Nvidia-based video card… and a faster one. And when you are finally ready to start the conversion with anticipation to see the result in stereo 3D you are presented with a nasty and meaningless for the normal user error message. I’ve tried with quite a lot of different video files and about half of them were giving me this weird error message, although the video files play perfectly on the PC I’m doing the conversion on and they are not damaged, and the other half were converted without issues. So you may also get such problems and I was not very pleased that quite a lot of my test files gave me an error when trying to convert, if it was just one or two out of 20 it should’ve been Ok, but half… anyway, the end result after a bit of tinkering with the conversion settings was actually quite good.

So what is the verdict about the DVDFab 2D to 3D Video Converter Software: quite easy to use by normal users, offers some extra features for more advanced users, has support for the basic 3D output formats, a bit limited on extra functionality that can be helpful. The lack of proper explanation about the two sliders controlling the 3D effect, the most important part of the conversion process, isn’t good at all as well as the fact that I’ve was unable to convert half of the 20 test files I’ve prepared. But the end result of the successfully converted files was actually quite good, so you may as well try to see if it will work better for you and hopefully in future releases of the software these issues will be addressed by DVDFab.

- For more information about the 2D to 3D Video Converter Software…

Turn Your 3D PC into a 3D HDTV with the AVer3D CaptureHD TV Tuner

Bloody — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:47:24 +0000

If you already have a computer with 3D Vision-ready monitor and 3D Vision shutter glasses and are considering to get a 3D HDTV you may want to reconsider and get a TV Tuner that will bring additional 3D functionality, turning your PC into a 3D HDTV alternative. I’m talking about the AVerMedia AVer3D CaptureHD Hybrid TV Tuner that supports Analog and DVB-T broadcasts with built-in 2D to 3D conversion as well as the ability to display 3D content on compatible hardware. Furthermore this 3D TV Tuner can capture up to 1080i over Component and HDMI interface, so you can connect a Set-Top-Box that outputs 3D programming as well. You can say that pretty much the only thing that is missing is 1080p and HDMI 1.4 support, but if you already have a monitor like the Acer HN274H you would be able to connect devices using the frame packaging 3D format directly to the monitor. But even if you don’t have a 3D Vision system, you can still use the tuner’s 3D functionality with a passive 3D display or even with a normal one using the free pair of plastic red-cyan anaglyph glasses bundled with the TV Tuner.

The AVer3D CaptureHD TV Tuner uses PCI Express slot (not the older PCI), so make sure you have one available on your motherboard. If you look at the back of the tuner you may notice two HDMI connectors, but make no mistake only one of them is an actual HDMI input, the other one is just shaped like HDMI, but is used for connecting an extra cable for all the analog inputs that the card supports for capturing. As I’ve already mentioned the HDMI capture supports up to 720p or 1080i maximum resolution and you cannot record HDCP protected content, the component capture is also limited to 1080i resolution, the rest are lower resolution inputs. The card itself is half-height and although the standard bracket is for a full-height expansion card, there is a half-height bracket also included that you can use if you are building an HTPC with the AVer3D CaptureHD.

Moving to the software bundled with the tuner, it is called AVer MediaCenter 3D and is not just for using the tuner’s capabilities, but also allows you to play videos, photos and music you already have stored on your computer. Unfortunately no support for stereo 3D or 2D to 3D conversion of those is yet available. The 3D input playback and the 2D to 3D real-time conversion are only supported for the Analog and DVB-T TV, as well as the different inputs that the card supports. The latest version of the software that you can download from the manufacturer’s website is a bit strange, as every time you try to activate a 3D function it gives a warning that it is only supported for the TV functionality, but after that it activates for the video input you are getting captured as well.

The AVer MediaCenter 3D supports 2D, anaglyph red-cyan, micro-polarized 3D and 3D Vision as outputs for the content using the 3D functionality of the software (either being received in 3D or autoconverted in 3D). It only works with Side by Side or Top-Bottom input, so you get no HDMI 1.4 and frame packaged content. You can also tweak a bit the strength of the 2D to 3D autoconversion functionality and apparently that conversion is optimized for TV broadcasts as it is a bit strange in terms of realization, but it works quite well anyway.

With the AVer3D CaptureHD TV Tuner you can for example connect your Xbox 360 console and play games that support 3D output natively by using the Side by Side or Over/Under outputs from the console, but you cannot connect the PS3 and use it in 3D as it uses HDMI 1.4 frame packaging for outputting the stereo 3D content and this product does not work with such input. There is a little bit of extra input lag introduced when you play games through the capture functionality and if you display also adds a bit more you may get annoyed by the delay, so be careful with that. The 2D to 3D functionality can also be used for consoles or other devices connected to the capture ports of the TV Tuner, but have in mind that in order for it to work well you should have good quality and higher resolution if possible. Regarding analogue and DVB-T programs in 2D that you want to watch autoconverted in 3D, make sure you have good quality image as otherwise the converted image might not look that good.

- For more information about the AVerMedia AVer3D CaptureHD TV Tuner…

Star Wars: Episode I to be converted in 3D by Prime Focus

Bloody — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:46:56 +0000

Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) officially announced the company that they have selected after what they call an “exhaustive testing process” to do the conversion from 2D to 3D for the first movie from the Star Wars saga and that company is Prime Focus. Utilizing Prime Focus’ proprietary View-D process for the conversion the new release of the Phantom Menace is scheduled to hit 3D theater screens on February 10, 2012 is everything goes as planned. There is enough time for a really good conversion, so we can only hope that Prime Focus takes the time and does its job very well, because otherwise the relaunch of Star Wars Episode I in 3D can turn out to be a total disaster.

“It was incredibly important to me that we have the technology, the resources and the time to do this right,” said Star Wars creator George Lucas. “I’m very happy with the results I’ve been seeing on Episode I.”

Prime Focus has worked on films such as Avatar, Shrek, Tron: Legacy, Narnia: Dawn Treader and most recently Sucker Punch. The extensive conversion process is being done under the close supervision of John Knoll, Visual Effects Supervisor for ILM, and with the positive feedback from George Loocas who apparently sees very convincing results with the conversion to 3D we can hope for the best, but also prepare for the worst.

Star Wars Episode I Converted to 3D Now with an Official Release Date

Bloody — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:54:29 +0000

A few months ago came the announcement that Lucasfilm is planning to re-release all the episodes from the Star Wars saga in 3D, of course by using 2D to 3D conversion techniques to add depth int he movies. And that led to a lot of controversy among the fans, whether they would want to watch the new releases or not. And now we already have an official release date set for the first of the six movies in 3D as apparently Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox have set the date February 10, 2012 for the Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace premiere in 3D. The 2D to 3D conversion process will be supervised by Industrial Light & Magic (John Knoll from ILM in the video above) and considering the time that will be spent for the conversion we can safely assume, that it will be a good conversion. But will that make the not so liked by the Star Wars fans Episode I become more attractive when converted in 3D than it is in 2D is something that remains to be seen. What I can say is that I will most likely be watching the Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace in 3D just out of curiosity to see how well they did with the conversion in 3D, what about you?

Movavi Video Converter 3D for 2D to 3D Video Autoconversion

Bloody — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:49:51 +0000

Movavi Video Converter 3D is another commercial software that allows easy 2D to 3D video conversion with Side by Side output as well as multiple anaglyph formats. The software uses the same easy and familiar simple autoconversion techniques relying on frame offsetting and deformation in order to produce the illusion of real depth in a 2D video. The software is commercial, but you can download a free trial version and test it for 30 days, the trial just inserts annoying text over the converted video, but it should not be a problem when just evaluating the software. The software offers multiple video containers and compression formats and has predefined output profiles for multiple mobile devices, but is useful for outputting in anaglyph format only. The Side by Side outputted converted to 3D videos can be opened and watched with the 3D Vision Video Player for example…

You also get GPU accelerated conversion to speed up the process if you have the compatible hardware, like an Nvidia-based GPU and even Multi-GPU configurations are apparently supported for even faster CUDA acceleration. The 2D to 3D conversion process is user controllable through three different sliders: 3D depth, 3D Shift and Perspective, but these don’t have very precise numbering system to give you information on the settings you are using. These setting are the ones that control how the frame gets deformed or the offset for the frames for the left and right eye and unfortunately there are no some recommended settings that can help you get better results, it is only up to you to find the best settings that work for the specific video.

Another thing that I’m not too happy about the software, especially considering it is a commercial solution, is that there is no some sort of scene detection to adjust the left/right frame offsetting used to simulate the Pulfrich effect. As a result when you have scene changes in the video that you’ve converted that are done via cuts and some transition effects you may get uncomfortable feeling when watching the converted video. And considering that the Movavi Video Converter 3D Personal license is priced at $74.99 USD (although there are occasional promotions running for lower prices), the lack of some small, but important features to differentiate the commercial from the freely available 2D to 3D autoconversion solutions is not acceptable. Still, if you are interested in the software, then you are welcome to try it out and share your comments about it below.

-To download the trial version of the Video Converter 3D software…

3D Vision Blog » 2d to 3d

Would You Watch the Movie Wrath of the Titans in 3D?

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The Movie Jurassic Park Will be Getting Converted to 3D

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Acer GR235H is a New 23-inch Passive 3D LCD Monitor

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