3D Vision Blog

Last year’s Masters Golf Tournament has been broadcasted in 3D online and apparently they’ve decided to do it again this year, they’ve already started on 6th this month actually, but you still have the time to catch up until the last broadcast in Sunday. The video stream is in Windows Media format and the 3Dvideo is packed in Over/Under format, so you should be able to play it on a 3D-capable desktop PC or a 3D laptop directly, or even from a normal computer to a 3D HDTV if you have one.

The 3D coverage will be available during the following windows:

Wednesday 6 April 2011: 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday 7 April 2011: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Friday 8 April 2011: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Saturday 9 April 2011: 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Sunday 10 April 2011: 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

And although the golf may not be the best sport that everyone likes, at least outside of the US, it is still something that you can check out of sheer curiosity just to see how the 3D works with sports broadcasts. I know I’ll be doing just that as I’m not that big fan of Golf, but I can say that I’ve played some and that I’m not very bad at it actually, so with some more time and training… who knows.

Here is the URL you need to open in the 3D Vision Video Player, the Stereoscopic Player or any other compatible with the MMS streaming protocol player in order to get the streaming 3D video content from the 2011 Masters Golf Tournament:

mms://a1980.l858434369.c8584.g.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1980/8584/v0001/reflector:34369

And you are of course welcome to share your feedback in the comments below, is it working for you, how well does it work, do you like what you see, what do you think about sports in 3D in general and golf in 3D more specifically and so on…

- For more information on the 3D Online streaming feed of the Masters Golf Tournament…

Neil Schneider from MTBS3D has pointed out something quite interesting, regarding the upcoming Hockey Night in Canada that will be broadcasted in stereo 3D too. Namely the fact that the broadcast will be in Side by Side format, but not all of the 3D HDTVs out there have the option to activate the stereoscopic 3D mode (automatically or manually) if the currently selected video input is not an HDMI one. And as you probably know HDMI output is a more recent addition to the Set-Top-Boxes, so older models will most likely be only equipped with analog Composite or Component video outputs and yo might not be able to activate the 3D mode due to that fact if your TV set only supports 3D over HDMI. You can of course choose to get a replacement unit that has an HDMI output if you have a broadcast that is going to be in 3D and want to be able to watch it, but what will happen if you figure it out at the last moment and you have no time to make things work. Another possible issue can be present even if you have a newer Set-Top-Box that does have HDMI output, but you haven’t been using that as the image quality seems the same even over the Component connection and you don’t have an HDMI cable handy. But you can much easily go out and quickly find an HDMI cable in the nearest electronics shop and thus solve the possible issue you may encounter with this.

So here comes a question and something that I want to ask owners of 3D-capable television sets to try on their devices, so that we can help other users that may be facing the issue described above as well as maybe even help 3D HDTV manufacturers to consider fixing that issue where it is present with a system software update for their products. So do try to activate the 3D mode in Side by Side or Over/Under mode manually when you switch the TV to use input from a connector other than any of the HDMI ports available – try the component, composite, SCART if you have them present and report your findings in the comments below. Please provide the brand and the model of the 3D TV you have and if you could activate manually the 3D mode or not…

The FIFA World Cup 2010 has started and some lucky people are able to watch some of the matches in stereo 3D thanks to Sony filming and broadcasting the event in stereo 3D, but unfortunately this is not available in everywhere. So here is a short sample recorded from 3D TV stream from the football/soccer game between Argentina and Nigeria, showing the goal that ensured Argentina’s win in the match. The original broadcast was quite bright and had some ghosting around the players running on the green field, so I’ve applied some “ghost-busting” to improve the situation. Also the stream is in 1080i (interlaced) and squashed half resolution, but I’ve recompressed it into a full 1080p, deinterlaced and in Side By Side format, although the quality is not like it would’ve been with a true 1080p broadcast. There is very little pop-out as you’ll see and the depth you get in the wider shots is not that much, but still a good preview on what you can expect from future sports broadcasts in 3D… and they will probably improve more and get better with time and experience. As usual don’t forget to share your comments below if you download and watch the video and feel more than welcome to share any video in stereo 3D format you’ve made or found somewhere…

- Download WC 2010 3D TV Stream Sample Video – mirror 1 – mirror 2