When talking about a good general audio and video player three names quickly come up in my mind – Media Player Classic, GOM Player and KMPlayer. All powerful both in terms of features and options available to the user and easily playing back most audio and video formats, but this goes as far as 2D video. The it seems that these players could soon also support 3D video playback, for example the GOM Player has gotten stereo 3D subtitle support some time ago and more recent beta builds of the KMPlayer also do come with support for stereo 3D subtitles as well as stereoscopic 3D video playback capabilities as well. Have in mind though that when talking about stereo 3D subtitles support with these players it means support for plain text file subtitles used for 2D videos that are just being played back properly at screen depth in 3D mode. Regarding the supported stereo 3D input formats the KMPlayer can handle videos in Side by Side or Top/Bottom (Over/Under) and can display them in multiple anaglyph output modes as well as Row or Column Interleaved format. So you wither need a pair of anaglyph 3D glasses or a passive 3D display that can work with direct Row/Column Interleaved input such as LG’s 3D monitors and 3D HDTVs, unfortunately there is no support yet for 3D Vision for example. So next up is Media Player Classic starting to get some stereoscopic 3D support as well…

The KMPlayer also has some sort of an online service for accessing 3D videos called 3D Movie Plus, however I was not able to see any videos available as in the example screenshot above, so this may only be working in Korea for example. And while neither the GOM Player, not the KMPlayer are yet even close to offering what the Stereoscopic Player supports in terms of stereo 3D video, they are still much better in 2D video playback. So if you have never used Media Player Classic, GOM Player or KMPlayer, then I’d recommend to check them out at least because of their 2D multimedia playback capabilities.

- For more information and to download the latest KMPlayer with stereo 3D support…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Workaround for 3D Vision Video Player Not Willing to Play a Video (5)
• Using Subtitles for 3D Videos Played with the 3D Vision Video Player (13)
• Using GOM Player for 3D Video Playback with Subtitles on 3D HDTVs (1)
• The Bino 3D Video Player Now for Windows and with XBMC Support (2)
• sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03 (15)

If you have used the LG Optimus 3D (Thrill 4G) or HTC Evo 3D smartphones or even own one yourself you might not be too happy with the built-in 3D video player that comes with these devices. Unfortunately there aren’t many alternatives available, at least on the Android Marketplace, but I’ve stumbled on one interesting Chinese player called 3DVplayer. The official website of the player is available only in Chinese, but the player itself also comes with English translation of the interface. You need to download it and install it manually on your device, follow the link below to get the APK, then transfer it to your 3D-capable smartphone and install it through a file manager.

The player comes with two modes of operation – one for playing back online 3D videos and a mode to play stereoscopic 3D videos that are available on the device, the online mode brings you a library with some apparently free to watch 3D clips. It works well with Side by Side video stored on the device and the network playback may be a bit slow as apparently the 3D videos are stored somewhere in China and your connection to them may be a bit slow. Still the 3DVplayer is worth checking out if you own an Android-based 3D-capable smartphone such as the Optimus 3D or the HTC Evo.

- To download the 3DVplayer for your Android-bases 3D Smartphone (APK)…

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• Is Samsung Also Preparing a 3D-capable Smartphone or Not? (3)
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Today CyberLink officially released their new PowerDVD 11 media playback software for PC with the new version being announced as an universal player that is designed to be the only application you’ll need to view Blu-ray and DVD movies, videos, photos and listen to music. PowerDVD 11 comes with a lot of new features including support for playback and transfer of content from iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android phones and tablets to PC. In addition to support for media from smartphones and tablet devices, the new PowerDVD can also play from remote media sources such as DLNA servers and popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. Furthermore PowerDVD 11 users owning an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android-based devices can download and install the PowerDVD Remote application that will turn their mobile device into a remote control for the PowerDVD playback functionality tight from the comfort of their sofa.

Among the interesting new 3D-related features you will get in the top version of PowerDVD 11 are for example: Playback of recorded 3D TV (ISDB-T Standard), 3D Photo support (MPO/JPS), TrueTheater 3D functionality for for photos including ones from Facebook and Flickr, and the ability to Upload 3D video to YouTube. I’ll be doing a review of the new functionality added in the PowerDVD 11 Universal Media Player in the next few days, so expect more information about the new version of the PowerDVD media player very soon.

Key Features in the new PowerDVD 11:

- Play any HD media: Whether it’s Blu-ray, upscaled DVDs, videos or photos, PowerDVD 11 can play them all flawlessly with optimized CPU/GPU hardware acceleration. And new ultra-fast Instant Seek lets you search for movie scenes in your DVDs in a flash.
- Play any 3D media: Experience the hottest new movie and video technology with Blu-ray 3D and native 3D video support. You can even convert your 2D DVDs, videos and photos and enjoy them in 3D.
- Play media from anywhere: From Apple and Android devices through to online media, DLNA server content, and Blu-ray and DVD discs, PowerDVD 11 plays it all.
- Play in upscaled quality: CyberLink’s unique TrueTheater enhancements allow you to upscale the image quality of your movies, videos, while TrueTheater Surround gives you a surround sound experience using only stereo speakers.
- Play social media: Watch TrueTheater-enhanced video from YouTube and view Facebook and Flickr photos and slideshows all from the one application. Easy, convenient and a great time-saver – no more searching!

The new PowerDVD 11 is already available online, supporting the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Russian and Portuguese. CyberLink offers OEM versions to PC and CE manufacturing customers, while a free trial download is also available from the CyberLink website. In order to get all the features available, including the Blu-ray 3D movie playback you will need to get the PowerDVD 11 Ultra that is available for $99.95 USD. The slightly more affordable PowerDVD 11 Deluxe version is $69.95 USD and while it still supports most 3D functions, you will not be able to play Blu-ray 3D movies with it. If you own a PowerDVD 10 Ultra license you can do an upgrade to the new 11 Ultra version for $59.95 USD.

- For more information about the new Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Universal Media Player…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• CyberLink’s PowerDVD 11 With a Stereo 3D Menu in Cinema Mode (4)
• Workaround for 3D Vision Video Player Not Willing to Play a Video (5)
• PopBox to be the First Consumer HD Player with Stereo 3D Support (0)
• Movavi 3D Media Player With Support for Nvidia 3D Vision (1)
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sView, the a free stereoscopic 3D video and photo player that supports most of the popular stereoscopic 3D formats developed by Kirill Gavrilov just got a small, but important update. The latest version of the player uses a more recent build of FFmpeg libraries with multi-threading decoding enabled, improving 3D video playback on systems with multi-core processors. The sView 2009 stereoscopic 3 media player is available for both Windows and Linux and it also supports 3D Vision among other more popular stereo 3D output methods.

- To download and try the updated sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03 (15)
• Stereoscopic Player Version 1.5.5 is Now Available (3)
• Workaround for 3D Vision Video Player Not Willing to Play a Video (5)
• Nvidia 3D Vision Video Player 1.5.5a Has Been Released (8)
• Using Different Anaglyph Glasses with GeForce 3D Vision (20)

sView is a free stereoscopic 3D video and photo player that supports most of the popular stereoscopic 3D formats. The software is being developed by Kirill Gavrilov and is available for free for non-commercial use. It uses OpenGL for the 3D visualization, but it also has support for 3D Vision as well as a lot of other stereoscopic 3D hardware such as: different anaglyph glasses, dual or mirror displays, row or column interlaced monitors, DLP checkerboard pattern, the iZ3D monitor, generic shutter glasses, and even the Vuzix VR920 HMD. Something that you may also like is the presence of the player menu even in full screen mode, especially useful when using with 3D Vision as this mode requires you to be in full screen. For example even the latest Stereoscopic Player and the 3D Vision Player still don’t have control menu available when you are in full screen mode. And having the ability to skip forward or return back is something that is often needed as a feature. But in the sView player you also get other options available in full screen mode, they of course hide automatically when not needed, but as soon as you move the mouse they reappear. For viewing stereoscopic 3D photos you need to run a separate executable, but the functionality it offers is pretty similar, it is just limited to viewing photos, and the photo player also supports viewing with 3D Vision.

- To download and try the sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• New sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03 MT (1)
• Stereoscopic Player Version 1.5.5 is Now Available (3)
• Workaround for 3D Vision Video Player Not Willing to Play a Video (5)
• Nvidia 3D Vision Video Player 1.5.5a Has Been Released (8)
• Using Different Anaglyph Glasses with GeForce 3D Vision (20)

The Linux and Mac OS X 3D Video player Bino now is also compiled and available as a Windows build with an installer, so no need to compile it yourself to try it on Windows. There is also a new plugin available for the Bino 3D video player for people using the XBMC multimedia center software that adds support fro playing back 3D videos directly from the XBMC software. Just a reminded that the Bino player is not currently compatible with 3D Vision, although the player does support OpenGL Quad Buffer Stereo on compatible video cards, and it can also play using anaglyph, interlaced or Side by Side output.

- To download and try the free Bino stereoscopic 3D Video Player…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Bino is a Free Stereo 3D Video Player for Linux and Max OS X (8)
• Workaround for 3D Vision Video Player Not Willing to Play a Video (5)
• The Multimedia Player KMPlayer Now With Stereo 3D Support As Well (4)
• sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03 (15)
• Stereoscopic Player Version 1.5.5 is Now Available (3)

If you are looking for a video player for Linux or Mac OS X that supports stereoscopic 3D video playback, then Bino might be just the right thing you need. Bino is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL version 3 or later. The player supports Side by Side, Over/Under, Field Sequential input and output formats as well as OpenGL quad-buffered stereo on compatible professional video cards. You will not be able to use 3D Vision however, unless maybe if you have a Quadro video card. There is also support available for anaglyph red-cyan output using the Dubois method for the color output. Another interesting feature of the Bino player is the support for multi-display video, e.g. for powerwalls, Virtual Reality installations and other multi-projector setups. If you have used the software before or decide to try it you are welcome to share your feedback in the comments below.

- For more information about the free Bino stereo 3D video player…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• The Bino 3D Video Player Now for Windows and with XBMC Support (2)
• Movavi 3D Media Player With Support for Nvidia 3D Vision (1)
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Movavi 3D Media Player is a relatively new commercial video player that can play both 2D and 3D videos in most of the popular formats. What is interesting about this player is that the stereoscopic 3D support it offers is also compatible with Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology. Aside from playing videos on 3D Vision, you can use the player to also display the video on normal non-3D-capable monitors in the popular red-cyan anaglyph 3D format. The player itself has some nice features, such as support for playlists for example, support for GPU acceleration of the video playack as well as easy tools for doing some minor video adjustments…

As I’ve already mentioned, the player is a commercial software, but you can download a trial version and test it for 7 days, before deciding to stop using it or purchasing a license. So I did download the trial and ran some videos through the player to see how well it will perform and try its features. What I can say is that for certain the player offers some nice touches that are missing in the free 3D Vision Video Player, but on the other hand it is also missing some of the more advanced options available in the free 3D Vision Video Player as well. The Movavi 3D Media Player is not so flexible on the type of 3D formats it can support as input, may have some issues with half horizontal Side by Side videos regarding the use of the correct aspect ratio as compared to the 3D Vision Video Player. The Movavi 3D Media does not have a graphical command menu overlayed when in 3D mode, or a right click menu with options for easier control, so you still have to switch to windowed mode change something and then back again in the full-screen mode. The last option is something that might’ve justified the purchase of the software for some people, but the lack of such features for a commercial software that also needs some further development may as well keep you a happy user of the free 3D Vision Video Player. Another thing that might be good for some not so advanced users is the fact that Movavi 3D Media Player is handling better with the support of different containers and codecs for the video files, less problematic than the 3D Vision Video Player, but also does not have the advanced filters and codecs tweaking menu that can also be quite helpful if you are a ore advanced user… especially regarding the use of additional DS filters.

In general I was not so pleased with the Movavi 3D Media Player so that I would recommend it as a replacement for something that you get for free, namely the 3D Vision Video Player, but it does also have its appeals. The normal price of a personal license of $44.99 USD (there are occasional promos with big discounts, currently available for $24.99 for a limited time) is something that I won’t be paying for the software at its current stage of development, but if the company keeps up adding features and improving the player it a few months it might become a good alternative of the free player. But you better try the player by yourself, as I said you get a free trial for 7 days which should be enough for you to compare it and decide for yourself.

-To download the trial version of the Movavi 3D Media Player…

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By now you should be well aware that the 3D Vision Video Player and the Stereoscopic Player sometimes can behave a bit strange when you try to play some stereo 3D video files, even though you have the right codecs installed and setup in the player. This strange behavior can sometimes be annoying, especially after you mess with the codecs and the player settings in order to fix the issue, but nothing seems to help in resolving the problem. So instead of trying to recompress the video file to more “friendly” formats and thus having to wait more or loose some of the original quality you can try another alternative workaround that may help you play the 3D video…

I’m talking about the use of a simple AviSynth script to warp the video into an AVI compatible stream that should help you play the 3D video file in the 3D Vision Video Player or the Stereoscopic Player. You need to download and install the free AviSynth for this method to work. Then you need to create a text file (name it for example workaround.avs) and enter the following line in it:

DirectShowSource("sailboats-stereo-3d.m2t")

You can either place the AVS file in the same directory as the video file and just change the name of the video, in this example sailboats-stereo-3d.m2t or to enter the full patch to the video file and have the AVS script anywhere you like. Then you just need to open the workaround.avs script in the 3D Vision Video Player or the Stereoscopic Player instead of directly the problematic video file, you need to choose the 3D format and then the video should start playing. Of course this workaround may as well sometimes behave weird and not work, but it doesn’t take time and it won’t hurt to try it out if you are getting trouble with some stereo 3D videos you want to watch.

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Nvidia 3D Vision Video Player 1.5.5a Has Been Released (8)
• The Nvidia 3D Vision Video Player Has Been Updated to Version 1.6.9 (2)
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• sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03 (15)

Last month Sigma Designs and RealD jointly announced their partnership in order to introduce the upcoming availability of support for the stereoscopic RealD Format in Sigma Designs’ Media Processors. This integration should enable manufacturers of set-top boxes, televisions and other consumer electronics such as Full HD multimedia players to play high definition stereo 3D content with no additional hardware required. This was very important announcement as the media processors produced by Sigma Designs are quite well spread and used in most of the standalone Full HD multimedia players like Popcorn Hour, NMT Media Tank, Western Digital TV (WDTV), Dvico TviX and a lot more. I still haven’t seen that promised stereo 3D support available anywhere, but it will soon start appearing in new devices and firmware updates for the already available models. Sigma Designs’ media processors are lately getting serious competition from Realtek who also introduced their own similar products that are already available in some devices, but Realtek still hasn’t said anything about upcoming S3D suppot…

And while we still don’t have the stereo 3D support in any of the mentioned above devices, we got an announcement from PopBox who are saying that they will ship their PopBox devices 3D-ready at launch (they are based on Sigma Designs media processors), so consumers will be able to enjoy 3D content on all 3D-ready HDTVs. The PopBox devices make it simple and affordable to play all the movies, music, home videos, and photos from your home PC, network-connected devices, and content streamed from the Internet, on your High Definition TV. PopBox is expected to be available very soon, and is currently available to pre-order at Amazon.com. PopBox has retail price of $129.99 for the normal version, without WiFi, and the PopBox Wireless model is available for $149.99.

Considering that the PopBox builds on the success of Syabas’ Popcorn Hour lineup of Network Media Tanks, the Popcorn Hour A-200 and C-200, all Popcorn Hour A and C series devices will also have access to the RealD 3D Format to enable the support for stereo 3D video playback on compatible 3D-ready displays, but they will need a free firmware upgrade to get that additional functionality. And we are most likely not going to have to wait much longer after PopBox hits the market and we get an update for PopCorn Hour in order to see other manufacturers of similar products based on Sigma Designs’ media processors to start adding stereo 3D support.

- To visit the official website of PopBox device made by Syabas Tehcnology…

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