3D Vision Blog

Enabling proper 2D subtitles to be shown while playing a 3D video with the 3D Vision Video Player (or the Stereoscopic Player) may sound easy for some people, but it seems that much more have trouble setting this up properly, so here is a quick and up to date guide on how to do it. What you need first is to download the latest version of the 3D Vision Video Player or the Stereoscopic Player and the latest version of the ffdshow filter/decoder pack.

Start the 3D Vision Video Player, go to the File menu and select the the Settings option from there. Click on the Decoder setting and extend the list called Other, select the Video Processor option and click on the Add button. From the list with filters you will see in a new window you need to select the ffdshow subtitles filter and click on the Ok button. At this point you are halfway there, you’ve told the player to load the DirectShow subtitles filter when you play a video, but there are some more things still left to be done in order for everything to start working as you want it and for you to see the subtitles.

Now you need to open a video file with the 3D Vision Video Player in order for the subtitles filter to be loaded, so that you can configure it to display subtitles in 3D properly. You don’t need to open a 3D video with subtitles at this point as you will only be configuring the filter, so open the video and hit the pause button, then look in the system tray at the lower right end of the monitor for a small square red icon with the text FFV on it (you may have multiple of these, not just one, if the video is also being decoded with ffdshow). When you move the mouse cursor over these icons you will see a balloon with information, just do a double left click on the one that says ffdshow subtitles filter and you should see a configuration menu like the one above.

When you see the ffdhsow subtitles filter configuration menu you need to put a tick in the box before Subtitles in the left menu, so that you will actually activate the filter to show the subtitles and then click on the Placement menu and put a tick in the checkbox in front of the Stereoscopic option, this will make the subtitles show in both the left and right eye frames, so that they will look properly. That is pretty much all you need to do in order to make the 2D subtitles work and display properly over a 3D video, you can play with the other options if you wish to customize the way the subtitles are being shown. By default the subtitles are shown at screen depth (zero parallax), but with the help of the Parallax slider you can make them appear inside the screen or outside of it, however you should not be playing with this if you don’t know what you are doing to prevent yourself from making the subtitles unintentionally harder to read. Just leave them with the default zero parallax, it should work just fine with 95% of the cases and change the subtitles parallax only if a specific movie needs it.

Now you can just open the 3D video file with the 3D Vision Video Player like you do normally and if you have subtitles with the same name as the video file (video.mp4 for example) and a proper text format such as SRT (video.srt for example) in the same folder of the video file they will be loaded automatically and displayed on the screen over the video. If you still don’t see the subtitles, they go back and check if you’ve done everything in the guide properly. Very similar alternative solution is to activate the Subtitles from the ffdshow decoder configuration, however this will be active only when you are using ffdshow for decoding the video. By using the method described above with the ffdhsow subtitles filter you can use different video decoder and still have the subtitles shown, so the use of the external DirectShow subtitles filter is the more flexible solution.

SpatialView has launched their 3DeeCentral library of free and paid stereoscopic 3D content for 3D PC, mobile and internet connected devices. The content they offer is in the form of 3D photos and 3D videos and it should include the following genres: adventure, animation, music videos, nature, travel, sports and science fiction, although at the moment it is still quite limited and does not cover all of these. 3DeeCentral is accessible either through a 3DeeCentral application for iPhone/iPod, but in order to be able to watch 3D on your iOS device you also need a special accessory or through a client software for Windows 7-based PCs that is equipped with Nvidia’s 3D Vision, passive polarized display or together with a pair of simple anaglyph glasses.

For the owners of iPhone 3GS and 3-rd gen iPod, SpatialView is offering for a limited time only, a free 3DeeSlide when you first log in to 3DeeCentral, after you confirm (activate) your account. Otherwise you will have to purchase the 3DeeSlide accessory for your iOS device for $9.99 USD. Note that the iPhone 3G, iPod touch 2nd generation and all older devices are not supported and will not be supported in the future too. Support for the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation will be announced at a later date. Spatial View is currently working to develop a glasses free 3D Stereo solution for the iPad.

If you want to try the 3DeeCentral on your computer, then you must have Windows 7 operating system as the application will not work on older Vista or XP OSes, it doesn’t matter if your Windows 7 is 32 or 64-bit as they are both supported. After downloading and installing the application (it also installs the Xvid codec) you will have to register a free account and then you are ready to start browsing the 3D photo and 3D Video library that 3DeeCentral offers. The Windows version of the software for accessing the 3DeeCentral supports viewing of the 3D content for users that have 3D Vision, passive polarized solutions or red-cyan anaglyph glasses on a normal display. The software comes with a special player developed by SpatialView that should play the content you’ve downloaded, although I had some trouble running the software to actually play the free images and videos I’ve downloaded to test, but you might have more luck than me.

At the moment the 3DeeCentral has 43 3D videos in total out of which 9 are free for download and the prices for the paid content is between $0.99 and $4.99$ USD with the videos being mostly animation and documentary. The 3D image packs you have access to at the momenta are 6 in total out of which only 1 is free for download, for the paid packs you’ll have to be ready to pay between $0.99 and $2.99 USD. You should start by downloading the free 3D content, before actually deciding if everything is working fine for you and if you’d want to pay for other content if everything works Ok. SpatialView is looking for 3D content creators that are willing to be able to sell their 3D content to end users through their platform, so if you making good quality 3D videos and 3D photos and are interested, then you can contact them.

- To download the 3DeeCentral application for iPhone/iPod from iTunes App Store…
- To download the 3DeeCentral application for Windows 7 only PCs (32/64-bit supported)…

It seems that Nvidia’s 3DVisionLive portal is further evolving into an online community where owners of 3D Vision systems can watch and share 3D movies and 3D photos. The new version of the portal allows the visitors not only to watch online directly through their browser 3D movie trailers, music videos, sport clips, and video shorts as it was possible up to now, but now also to post and view high-quality, high-resolution 3D photos. This way we are finally getting something that was missing on the stereo 3D scene, an user community where people can share 3D content that they have generated – good or bad, it doesn’t matter. And although we are still a bit far from a 3D-capable Flickr alternative, this is certainly good news for all 3D enthusiasts and normal users that are just getting into shooting 3D photos and 3D videos as the number of these people increases. And with the general lack of stereoscopic 3D content, user generated 3D photos and 3D videos are an important step, especially considering the fact that we already have quite a few consumer oriented products capable of producing very decent 3D content. With Fuji being on the top at the moment with Sony and Panasonic trying to quickly catch up and other big names in the photo and video consumer products industries expected to soon follow their lead. Especially as other smaller and not so specialized companies are pushing their own affordable solutions for capturing 3D photos and 3D videos like Aiptek, Viewsonic and others…

The 3D video part requires you to have the latest 3D Vision and GPU drivers as well as the Microsoft Silverlight plugin installed in order to be able to watch them streaming directly in the browser and not in full screen, without having to download the videos first. And if you have made a stereoscopic 3D video that you want to share, you can send an email to get in tough with the team managing the website to feature your video there. This functionality has already been available for some time, but recently a lot of new 3D video content has been added, so if you haven’t checked it lately, then you should go and take a look.

On the other hand, the new 3D photo functionality that is being introduced today is much more advanced and user friendly in the term that you can register a free account and upload directly your 3D photos. And if you just want to browse, you can do so, just make sure you have the latest R265 drivers (266.35 beta) that are just released in order to get the new functionality that will allow you to see the 3D photos in 3D directly inside the web browser. Without this driver you will get a warning that something is missing instead of the photo being shown as on the image above. Besides sharing your 3D photos and browsing the 3D photos of other users, you can also rate and comment them. You also have the ability to create albums with the option for them being public or private. Also when uploading the photos you have control over what is format you have the photos in like if it is two separate files for the left and right, if it is in parallel or crossyed viewing format, if it is in MPO file format etc. You can also upload in anaglyph format, but I would not recommend that as the player on the website can do the conversion to anaglyph on the fly. And by uploading in anaglyph format you will be limiting the viewing options only to anaglyph format. Currently, as the 3D photos part is just announced, there are not that many great 3D photos, mostly pictures made and uploaded by Nvidia, some from games in stereo 3D mode, and you can also find some new and interesting 3D pictures from Cesar Sommer. But you can quickly join in and share some nice 3D photos you’ve made in order to significantly increase the number of photos available, I’ll do so with some 3D photos I’ve taken with my Fujifilm Real 3D W1 camera.

Aside from being able to watch the photos in stereo 3D mode directly in your browser using 3D Vision, you are also able to see them in Anaglyph red-cyan mode if you have a pair of anaglyph glasses with this widely used color filter combination. This, although not providing so good experience as 3D Vision, will also allow you to enjoy the photos in 3D. Besides in the smaller traditional view, you also have the option to get the photo displayed with bigger size, but not in full screen (by hitting the magnifying glass button). Just a reminder that for the anaglyph mode you will not need to have specific hardware or software installed, besides the anaglyph glasses. The new release 265 drivers are required only in order to use the 3D Vision mode inside the browser window (not in full screen), so do not forget to also download and install them!

Nvidia will showcase 3DVisionLive.com at CES 2011, January 6-9, in Las Vegas (Booth # 31431 – Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 3). In addition they will also be announcing and demonstrating a number of new 3D Vision-equipped PCs, displays and other devices at CES, including the first 3D Vision-enabled all-in-one PC, the ASUS All-in-One PC ET2400XVT, which is now available at select online retailers. So if you are visiting CES this year, then you should take a look at Nvidia’s booth for some interesting things.

- Take a look at the new and improved 3DVisionLive 3D user community…
- To download the latest 3D Vision Driver CD version 1.44 with the needed new drivers…