3D Vision Blog » Anaglyph Glasses

New sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03 MT

Bloody — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:04:15 +0000

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…

sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03

Bloody — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:29:33 +0000

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…

Anaglyph, Shutter, Polarized Glasses or Autostereoscopic 3D Solution

Bloody — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:10:38 +0000

You are new to stereo 3D and you wonder where to start from? There is the very cheap and widely available (meaning easy to get) anaglyph red-cyan glasses that can be used with pretty much everything – printed on paper images, normal displays of all sizes, traditional projectors etc. On the other hand there are other solutions like autostereoscopic displays that do not require glasses, and solutions using passive polarized glasses or active shutter glasses, but all these are expensive and have some specific requirements and may not work well with each other if you try to combine things that are not originally intended to be used together. So what should you start with and what should you expect from each of these? I’ll try to give some ideas and of course my personal point of view on these, so that if you are new to stereo 3D you will be able to get some ideas. And the reason for that is that I get a lot of questions on topics like that…

Anaglyph Red-Cyan Glasses
The anaglyph output with red-cyan being the most common and widely used, but also available with other color filters is usually the starter solution for people that want to test the 3D effect for free. Yes, I do really mean for free as all you need is a pair of Red-Cyan anaglyph glasses and you will be ready to try it out on your computer and the chances that you have these glasses already are quite high. These come bundled with some products, magazines, newspapers, even some video cards etc., but even if you don’t have them already, you can get a pair of paper anaglyph glasses very cheap from eBay or any other online store around you that sells some sort of 3D-related products. The good thing here is that you can use a normal 60Hz display for showing anaglyph content in 3D, as this method relies on overlaying the 3D information – two different colored layers over each other and the color filters of the glasses you are wearing separate them to create the illusion of depth. The side effect of having color filters on your glasses is that you loose some of the color information from the original image, also it is more tiring for the eyes and not suitable for longer usage.

On the question if I’d recommend to try first in 3D anaglyph and then going to something that requires a significant amount of money to buy I’d say yes, do try it first in anaglyph as you can do it for free or pretty much free. However you should be prepared to not expect to be overwhelmed by the result you get from anaglyph and you should be aware of the fact that there are numerous other solutions that will produce much better results and will offer you better experience. So do not judge for stereo 3D in overall if you get a bit disappointed from anaglyph when you try it, just know that “the real thing” is much better. And even though I use polarized and shutter-based 3D solutions much more, there are times when I get back to using anaglyph as it is simple, easy and most of all very convenient for some tasks like when aligning the left and right view from a 3D video you’ve captured. As for software, you can go for 3D Vision and the free 3D Vision Discover mode or iZ3D and their free anaglyph mode as well to try games in stereo 3D mode. Just remember, if somebody asks you to buy hardware for anaglyph 3D, then say no, it is good only if it is free or you just payed a very small sum for the glasses, there is no point in purchasing hardware or software just to watch stereo 3D content in anaglyph mode!

Passive Polarized Solutions
These were more popular up to a few years ago and mostly among professional users that needed stereo 3D in their line of work. With passive polarized monitors you usually have a special filter applied on the monitor that can polarize differently the even and odd lines of the screen so when wearing a special pair of glasses with two differently polarized filters for the left and right eye you will see two different images that will be fused into a 3D one. The obvious drawback here is that you get just half the horizontal resolution per eye, because you use a single display/panel. And the obvious plus is the fact that the passive polarized glasses do come quite cheap for a pair and you can easily have more users able to see the 3D effect on a single displays without a lot of additional cost. Some of the other possible issues concerning the monitors include lower viewing angles, some crosstalk still present, etc. When talking about projectors and passive polarized glasses, the solution here usually relies on dual projectors with different polarization, so unlike with monitors you get the full resolution, but these solutions are more expensive, because you also need to get a special type of reflective silver-screen in order to keep the light polarization. But here there are also multiple technologies, especially when talking about usage in 3D cinemas both for the type of polarization of the glasses as well as the projector(s)/screen(s) combination, so I’ll not go too much into details about these.

Solutions with Active Shutter Glasses
These were quite popular in the era of CRT displays, but lately they are seeing their rebirth as a preffered solution with the appearance of LCD/Plasma screens that offer the high refresh rates that are required by the technology. Here you have the screen showing a fast sequence of images, both for the left and the right eye and the glasses that you are wearing actively switch between the left and right eye showing only the frame that is intended for each of them. However the prices of displays that can use a higher refresh rates are higher than the price of a similar size for a normal monitor and even a single pair of glasses is quite expensive, especially compared to the passive polarized ones, as here you have some electronics and not just a few “pieces of plastic”. With the shutter glasses you get the full resolution of the display in stereo 3D mode, however there is still some crosstalk/ghosting. And then again purchasing more than a single pair of shutter glasses can prove to be quite expensive, but still this combination is considered as the best solution for the moment.

Autostereoscopic 3D Displays
Now, there is a lot of talk going on about this type of solutions that do not require the user to wear glasses in order to be able to see the 3D image. It certainly sounds nice and more convenient than having to wear some sort of glasses like with the other solutions, however don’t think we are ready for going to autostereoscopic 3D displays for now. This technology is still quite new and not developed well enough to satisfy general demand and requirements, including in therms of price. The autostereoscopic displays have a number of issues that need to be corrected, before they can become the mainstream technogoly for 3D and that will probably require at least 5 more years. I’m talking about the limited number of viewing positions they offer (the place where you have to be to be able to see the depth of the image being displayed), the lower resolution (this is associated with the number of views you get) and most of all the price has to become much more affordable than it is at the moment. Sure, there are number of small portable multimedia devices that do have an autostereoscopic 3D display and they are not much more expensive than the rest of the non-3D supporting equivalents. However these displays are with a small size, small resolution, usually a single viewing position and due to their quite small size they do not come that expensive. But for a multiuser solution in the form of a big 3D HDTV the price even with what the current technology offers will be at least a few times more expensive than a good 3D-capable LCD or Plasma HDTV with shutter glasses. So there is some more time for that technology to catch up and if you want to experience stereo 3D now, then you should not be waiting for the time of autostereoscopic 3D solutions to come. You’ll quickly get used to wearing the glasses and stop considering that as an inconvenience.

Street Dance 3D DVD in UK, but With the Wrong Anaglyph Glasses

Bloody — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:29:56 +0000

The movie Street Dance 3D is available in UK with anaglyph 3D version, however they’ve mxed up things a bit as reported by Gareth from Stereo3D.co.uk who bought the movie and discovered with a surprise that the video is encoded for red-green anaglyph glasses, but the bundled pair of paper anaglyph glasses is red-cyan. This comes as quite a surprise, considering the fact that the anaglyph glasses are branded for the movie and are packed inside the DVD, so the mistake is not made by the retailer, but most likely is coming from the DVD packaging company that put the glasses for the movie using the wrong color filters. It may come as a surprise to them but not all 3D is equal, and not all anaglyph 3D is the same – there are multiple formats and solutions and you should be very careful not to mix up things like that, because nobody will be happy when the 3D does not work as it is supposed to. And if the 3D does not work because of such mistake and the user is not aware of where the problem comes from, he might as well get bad opinion about the 3D in general… although anaglyph 3D is not the best form of 3D it is still the most widely usable and affordable at least when you match the right color filter for the glasses with the content encoded with the right anaglyph format. This might be just an issue with the UK 3D anaglyph release of the movie, but the problem might as well be bigger, so if you’ve got the movie and have the same problem please do report it here…

The Belgian Sport Newspaper La Derniere Heure / Les Sports in 3D

Bloody — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:44:00 +0000

Today marked an interesting new first (in Europe at least?) in stereo 3D as the Belgian Sport Newspaper called La Derniere Heure / Les Sports, that translates in English to something like Last Hour Sports, has released its first completely 3D issue. Of course they’ve used paper anaglyph glasses that are provided free of charge with the newspaper as this is the cheapest and easiest way to provide stereoscopic 3D images on plain paper. By the newspaper going in 3D I mean that all the pictures inside it were shot in stereo 3D and printed in anaglyph format, thus needing the free anaglyph glasses provided with the paper to be viewed by the reader. The idea took about two months of experimenting to find the best solution and provide the best results to the readers, and the publishers report that their advertisers liked the idea too. It is interesting to note that during the preparation for example the paper that today’s issue has been printed was not the normal paper used for printing and this was needed in order to provide better results for the anaglyph 3D photos. It is still unclear if the newspaper will continue to be published with 3D photos in anaglyph format, it probably depends a lot on the reaction of the readers. You can see some anaglyph stereo 3D photos published on their website and available for free viewing, but have in mind that it is in French language only!

- To visit the website of the newspaper La Derniere Heure / Les Sports (in French)…

3Dfier is Now Available for Anaglyph and Passive Polarized Displays

Bloody — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:54:12 +0000

The guys from RadiantStar – the company that is making the 3Dfier DirectShow filter for realtime 2D to 3D video conversion have just released two new versions of the filter to compliment the already available one that was designed for 3D Vision owners. One is for Passive Polarized Displays like the ones found on Zalman Trimon 3D monitors and Acer Aspire 3D notebooks and the other one is for Anaglyph red-cyan glasses. These two are currently available only as demo versions for personal testing and still are not being sold like the 3D Vision version. Also for these two you don’t need to use a stereoscopic player, you can just use them with a normal video player that can load the required DirectShow filters like Media Player Classic for example. And with the Anaglyph red-cyan glasses demo version there is no time limitation on how long it will play so you can watch whole movies with it.

- To download the latest 3Dfier DS filter demo versions for personal evaluation…

All 3D Glasses Block a Bit of the Light, but How Much Exactly

Bloody — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:24:26 +0000

Everyone is talking about their 3D glasses not blocking as much light as the competitors or not stopping any light at all etc., but does anyone know how much light gets actually blocked when you wear a certain type of 3D glasses? I did a little quick and dirty test to check just that by placing a light meter at a distance of 20 inch (about 51 centimeters) away from display in a completely dark room with no other light sources. Then on the display (120Hz ViewSonic VX2268WM) was shown a completely white image (jps) displayed on the whole screen and I’ve taken out measurements of the light reaching to the sensor of the light meter directly and through a few different types of glasses. The light was measured in Lux units as this way I could measure the intensity of light that reaches your eye without any glasses and when wearing a certain type of 3D glasses based on different technologies…

And here are the results:
- 22″ ViewSonic white, no glasses – 47.2 lux
- 3D Vision active shutter glasses – 41.3 lux (shutters constantly open)
- 3D Vision active shutter glasses – 5.9 lux (per eye with switching shutters)
- Passive circular polarized glasses – 32.1 lux (the glasses from Acer Aspire 3D)
- Anaglyph anachrome red-cyan glasses – 21.9 lux (for red), 22.3 lux (for cyan)
- And a with pair of plain black sunglasses – 15.4 lux

And a little update with more:
- Plain paper anaglyph glasses red-cyan – 7.4 lux (red), 21.3 lux (cyan)
- 3D Vision Discover (anaglyp red-cyan) – 6.3 lux (red), 17.8 lux (cyan)
- Pulfrich paper glasses (clear-black) – 3.5 lux (black lens)

As you can see there is a significant difference in terms of the amount of light that reaches the eye of a person when using different kind of glasses for viewing 3D content with 3D Vision getting the least amount of light passing through. This is normal because of the switch on/off cycle of the shutters in these type of glasses, this however dos not mean that the technology is bad or something like that… it means that just like with other tech you need to compensate with more brightness of the image coming from the screen. But with a passive polarized glasses like the ones from the Acer Aspire 3D you can get more light to the eyes of the user and this is quite important as usually the screens of the laptops are offering less brightness than their desktop counterparts. The comparison with the plain sunglasses is also important, so that you can get a general idea on how things look through the different types of 3D glasses by just taking a look over through your sunglasses and taking into consideration the numbers above. Another thing to note is the difference between the light passing through both color filters on a normal pair or paper anaglyph glasses compared to plastic anachrome glasses (the later have better color reproduction).

3D Vision Discover Anaglyph Glasses Quick Test

Bloody — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:22:36 +0000

I’ve finally managed to get a hold of a pair of 3D Vision Discover anaglyph glasses to do a quick test and of course to compare them with a normal pair of paper anaglyph glasses to see if there is any difference. According to Nvidia the 3D Vision Discover glasses are with optimized color filters which should generally improve what you see and minimize color ghosting, although even with normal glasses the result is very good.

Normally you can get the 3D Vision Discover glasses bundled with some games as a promotion, for instance World of Warcraft or Batman: Arkham Asylum, bundled with some new video cards and of course from different trade shows where Nvidia is participating. Unfortunately these are still not available everywhere, so you may have some hard time finding the glasses just to try them out… actually it might be even easier to try the 3D Vision shutter glasses easier that the anaglyph ones as was the case in my country, but anyway. If you can’t get a hold of 3D Vision Discover glasses, just try to get a pair of normal paper anaglyph ones… the results are pretty close.

What you can notice even before putting the glasses on is that they are a bit bigger than the normal anaglyph paper ones and this is realized with the idea to be more comfortable and suitable for different size and aspect of displays. The red and cyan color filters are quite bigger on the 3D Vision Discover and if you take a closer look you’ll be able to find a bit of difference in the tint of the cyan filter, which is actually a bit more bluish here. There is also a very slight difference in the red color filter, but it is much harder to distinguish with a naked eye compared to the normal white paper anaglyph glasses. How this affects things when using the 3D Vision Discover glasses compared to the plain normal ones is a different story, but you should know there is some difference…

If you try the two types of anaglyph glasses one after another quickly you’ll barely notice any difference or not notice anything at all. This is because generally both pairs of glasses do provide quite good results, especially considering they are free or very cheap to get and do not require too much from the user like in the case with the better shutter glasses alternative. You need to take a bit more attention adn then you’ll start to notice where the 3D Vision Discover glasses do provide better results as the difference is actually in the small details. Still these small details are the things that can improve significantly the experience you get form the 3D Vision Discover, so it is important to have an idea what to look for if you are really interested. In general what the 3D Vision Discover glasses do is to decrease the color ghosting you see through the red and cyan filters or at least make it less apparent and annoying to the user. The color ghosting here refers to seeing some sort of red or bluish “shadow” or a “double image” of some objects. So with the 3D Vision Discover you see less color ghosting and if there is a place with some ghosting around a certain object the colors is less brighter and the ghosting is harder to notice… and easier to be ignored.

If you have already tried normal anaglyph glasses you should not expect that much of a difference if you obtain a pair of 3D Vision Discover and the issues caused by the anaglyph technology are still there. I mean that with every pair of anaglyph glasses you will kind of lose most of the color reproduction of the screen and the image you see with have some depth and pop-out effect, but it will seem almost as it is black and white. Still you’ll be able to perceive some colors, but not all of them and although you’ll be able to take advantage of the Stereoscopic 3D technology it is just something to try and then to get your interested in better solutions that of course have their price. You should also be aware of the fact that the anaglyph glasses do tire the eyes more and are not suitable to be work for hours non-stop without taking some break from time to time. And there is some after effect after you take them off, for a few minutes after that one of your eyes will be seeing in a bit colder tones and the other one in a bit warmer tones. So just try closing one of your eyes and then switching to the other to see this effect of the eye actually adapting to the color filter it has in front for some time. Of course after a few minutes without wearing the glasses everything is back to normal and you should not worry about some possible negative effects of that. Just don’t wear the glasses for too long, especially if it is your first time, because this is tiring for the eyes and the brain. After all this is a kind of new sensation that your body has not experienced so far so you need some time to get used to it and then you should be able to get even better results.

Don’t forget that anaglyph technology and the free 3D Vision Discover mode in Nvidia’s driver do not requite special hardware like a 120Hz monitor so you can pretty much try them on your current gaming PC or even laptop. The only requirement would be to have an up to date video card that is Nvidia based and for good enough performance it is best to have a VGA that can provide higher framerates. So still it is good to have a middle or high-end class video card for playing comfortably in more heavy on hardware requirements games…

- Here is how you can use the free 3D Vision Discover mode on Nvidia-based VGA…

Minoru 3D’s Webcam Anaglyph Glasses Quick Test

Bloody — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:02:26 +0000

Today my Minoru 3D web camera has arrived so you can expect a more detailed review of the product pretty soon, but before heading to the camera I decided to test the paper anaglyph glasses that come with the camera. With Minoru 3D you get 5 pairs of paper anaglyph glasses that are a bit different than the normal white glasses that are most widely spread, but after doing some tests they seem to provide pretty much the same results. The only big difference is the size of the color filters in the glasses that come with the webcam, they are a bit wider which does help when using widescreen displays, especially when using 16:9 ratio screens. There is also a very slight difference in the color of both the red and cyan filters on the two types of glasses, but there is almost no visible difference on what you see when viewing anaglyph images with both types of glasses. So if you buy a Minoru 3D web camera you can share some of the anaglyph glasses with friends or relatives so that they will be able to see you in Stereoscopic 3D when you are using the webcam. But they will be also able to use the glasses with the free Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision Discover mode on their computers for S3D gaming, provided that they do own a good Nvidia-based video controller…

Minoru – The Worlds First Consumer 3D Webcam

Bloody — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:46:55 +0000

Minoru (meaning Reality in Japanese) is an interesting product in the form of a web camera that uses two lenses and two CMOS sensors in order to be able to take Stereoscopic 3D pictures and videos. The camera is not much expensive than a good normal webcam and even looks cute and a bit strange especially while sitting on top of your monitor, but that makes it even nicer…

The camera is supposedly very easy to setup and use in both normal 2D mode (just like a normal webcam) and in 3D mode, where it can output and record not only in the most commonly used Anaglyph mode, but also Side by Side and Row Interlaced mode. This means that you can produce S3D images and videos for easy viewing with anaglyph glasses or with other more expensive and providing better results products and technologies such as Nvidia’s 3D Vision or IZ3D’s Monitors. When taking video you can use up to 1280×480 resolution (Side by Side for 640×480 in stereo 3D mode) with 15/30fps, but for achieving good results at 30 frames per second you’ll need good lighting around you. The software is Windows only (seems to be frequently updated), but there is something going on for Linux support too. The recommended price of the Minoru 3D Webcam is $89, 50 pounds or 80 euro, depending on where i the world you live, which is pretty affordable, so I’m going to order one of these and try it out pretty soon. With the camera you also get a 5 pairs of anaglyph glasses, bit I’m actually more interested in producing videos for viewing on the 3D Vision… ;)

- To get the Minoru 3D Webcam if you don’t have it yet…
- To view some anaglyph demo videos taken with the Minoru webcam…

3D Vision Blog » Anaglyph Glasses

New sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03 MT

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sView Stereoscopic 3D Multimedia Player Version 11.03

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