3D Vision Blog

At the 2012 CES Sony has announced a new more compact 3D-capable consumer camcorder in the form of Sony HDR-TD20V, a camera apparently based on the last year’s HDR-TD10, but with reduced size in order to make it more compact. According to Sony the new HDR-TD20VE is around 66% of the size of its predecessor, and while it is not bad to have the camera becoming more compact, there is something that suffers from the size reduction. I’m talking about the fact that the interaxial distance of the new model (Sony HDR-TD20V) has been further reduced to about 21 mm, and while this makes it more suitable for shooting closer things in 3D, if you shoot more distant things they will be looking flatter than with the older HDR-TD10.

Sony HDR-TD20V 3D Camcorder Main Features:

- Up to 4hr Full HD 3D on 64GB memory
- Dual 1/3.91 type Exmor R CMOS Sensor and dual BIONZ processor
- Dual G Lens with 10x optical zoom; 12x extended zoom (3D) / 17x extended zoom (2D); 33.4mm wide angle (3D) / 29.8mm (2D)
- Optical SteadyShot with Active Mode
- Up to 20.4 effective megapixel still photo (2D only)
- 5.1ch surround sound with Auto Wind Noise Reduction and Closer Voice
- 8.8cm/3.5″ wide Xtra Fine 3D LCD touchscreen
- Stereo speaker with S-Master Amplifier technology
- Connect and quick charge with built-in USB cable
- GPS with detailed mapping

The new Sony HDR-TD20V apparently is also not capable of recording 3D photos, you can capture only 2D photos with even higher resolution than with the older model (HDR-RD10) that also was not capable of taking 3D photos. The new model HDR-TD20V is also only capable of recording in 50i/60i (depending on region) 3D mode, so still no 24p 3D recording option… or with order words Sony just made the 3D camera more compact and with a bit smaller interaxial, there is not much improvement in the functionality it offers. The Sony HDR-TD20V should be available on the market around the end of March this year with the same price as the Sony HDR-RD10 is currently available at.

Earlier this year when JVC has announced during NAB 2011 their JVC GY-HMZ1 3D ProHD Camcorder the company has stated that it should be available on the market with a price of less than $2500 USD, but now that the 3D camcorder is actually available the price looks even more attractive. The JVC GY-HMZ1U ProHD 3D camcorder has an official list price of $1995 USD, but you can actually purchase it with a price closer to $1700 USD (if you live in the US that is). The new JVC GY-HMZ1 3D ProHD camcorder is actually based on the not long ago announced consumer 3D camcorder – JVC GS-TD1, with pretty much the only difference being the fact that the HMZ1 version has support for 24p 3D recording mode as well as dual XLR microphone inputs. JVC has also announced that the consumer GS-TD1 model will be getting a software update by the end of the year, so it may also get 24p 3D mode available at that time. But since the new JVC GY-HMZ1 3D ProHD camcorder is not much more expensive you may also get that feature even now to make your life easier when editing and exporting the 3D video recorded with the camcorder. The only problem with the JVC GY-HMZ1 3D ProHD camcorder is the fact that since it is considered a professional product it may take more time to appear on some smaller markets or not become available at all, even if the consumer JVC GS-TD1 model is present there.

- For more information about the JVC GY-HMZ1 3D ProHD Camcorder….
- You can get the JVC GY-HMZ1 3D ProHD Camcorder from Amazon for about $1720 USD…

Peter Wimmer, the author of the Stereoscopic Player, has released another interesting and useful 3D tool, namely the MVC to AVI Converter that can convert MPEG Transport Stream files (*.mts and *.ssif) as well as MP4 files (*.mp4) that use the new H.264 MVC codec used in Blu-ray 3D discs as well as some consumer 3D camcorders into AVI files with different compression. The idea of the converter is that it can easily convert the still hardly supported by any editors H.264 MVC 3D video files into a format that is widely accepted and can be easily used. Have in mind that this tool is not a Blu-ray 3D ripper and it will not remove any content protection that might be applied to a Blu-ray 3D media, the software is targeted more for users of 3D cameras that record in the MVC 3D format.

The Multi-view-coding (MVC) H.264 encoding format is slowly starting to get adopted by more devices and software, but still working with 3D video files in it can be a real pain. So with the help of the MVC to AVI Converter you can get two separate AVI files, one for the left and one for the right eye as well as the original or PCM decompressed audio in the left video file that you can easily import in your favorite video editor or further process to make them in Side by Side format for example. The tool supports different codecs that you have installed on your system for the video compression, so you have some flexibility.

Have in mind that the MVC to AVI Converter is a commercial software, but you can download a free trial version to try, it however places a watermark on the outputted video, so it is just for testing, before deciding if you need it. A private non-commercial license will cost you 19 Euro (~27 USD) and for a commercial license for the software you will have to pay 49 Euro (~70 USD).

- To download and try the MVC to AVI Converter 0.2.0 software…
- And here you can download a short test MVC H.264 compressed video…