CyberLink has released the new version 12 of their PowerDVD video player software that also supports the playback of 3D videos and Blu-ray 3D movies. The new version 12 comes with some improvements and new features part of which are related to the stereoscopic 3D support that the software offers. PowerDVD 12 finally comes with support for converting normal 2D Blu-ray movies into stereoscopic 3D format in real time, so you may be able to enjoy some of your favorite 2D movies autoconverted in 3D format (if you are a fan of autoconversion to 3D). PowerDVD 12 also comes with support for 3D videos using the MK3D video format (file container). The new version also lets you choose your preferred 3D viewing method for viewing YouTube 3D videos, and you can also playback 2D videos from YouTube converted in stereo 3D format, using the TrueTheater 3D autoconversion feature of the software.
One more important change with the new PowerDVD 12 software is the stereo 3D support also becoming available to a Pro version of the player and not only available anymore in the Ultra version. The PowerDVD 12 Pro and Ultra pretty much offer the same set of stereoscopic 3D features, although the Ultra version still has some more extra features. Just a reminder that the Standard version of PowerDVD 12 does not have support for any of the 3D-related capabilities of the product and you will not be able to play stereo 3D content with it. PowerDVD 12 Ultra is available with a price of $99.95 USD and the PowerDVD 12 Pro is available for $79.9 USD, and upgrades from previous PowerDVD versions are available starting at $44.95 USD. Not that much reason to upgrade if you already have PowerDVD 10 or 11 Ultra and use it mainly for the playback of Bly-ray 3D or other 3D videos as the the focus this time seems to be placed mostly on extending the autoconversion from 2D to 3D. There is also a trial version available of the player that you can download and try the new features of PowerDVD 12.
PowerDirector is a video editing software targeted to normal non-professional users that want to be able to quickly and easily edit their videos with good results without the need of having extensive knowledge or experience in video editing. The new version 10 of the software now offers an easy to use and quite comprehensive support for working with stereoscopic 3D photos and video that you’ve shot with a 3D-capable photo or video camera and you want to present in a nicer way. PowerDirector 10′s 3D support starts with the importing of 3D photos and videos, editing the video as as easy as you’d edit 2D video and having a 3D preview of it and then exporting into common video formats or directly burning on a 3D DVD or Blu-ray disc. You even have some preset 3D titles, 3D particles, 3D effects and 3D menus available that are easy to use and there is also a support for easily converting 2D content to 3D (using PowerDirector’s TrueTheater 3D feature) and incorporating it together with the content that you’ve shot in 3D format. You could even upload the 3D video you have made using the software directly on YouTube in 3D format. Have in mind that you need to get the PowerDirector 10 Ultra version of the software in order to get all the 3D features available as the Deluxe version of the video editor does not have support for working with 3D content. PowerDirector 10 Ultra is currently available for $99.95 USD (you can upgrade from previous version for less) and there is also a 30-day trial version available that you can download and try. I did give the trial version a spin to see the software in action and to try out how it works with different 3D content, especially with the importing of MVC encoded video and the export for Blu-ray 3D media…
I’ll be starting with what 3D file formats are supported by the new PowerDirector 10 software, the good news is that pretty all of the common formats for both 3D photos and 3D videos recorded by 3D-capable consumer devices are supported and can be imported in the video editor. Regarding 3D photos you can import pictures in MPO and JPS file format, no PNS support yet, but I haven’t seen a device recording in it, however you can for example record higher quality stereo 3D screenshots from games with 3D Vision in PNS format. In terms of support for importing of 3D video files, you get support for MVC encoded files (including the ones recorded with Sony HDR-TD10 3D camcorder and JVC GS-TD1 3D camcorder) and Dual-Stream AVI files and 3D videos in these two formats should be auto recognized by the software. Other than that pretty much any common file container and compression should also be supported with the 3D videos in Side by Side and Over/Under (either half or full frame) and you can manually select these via the menu you see above by right clicking on the video if it does not get automatically recognized as a 3D one.
Moving to what preview modes are supported by the video editor, aside from the standard 2D mode of course. There is the standard Anaglyph Red/Cyan mode, 3D-ready DLP HDTV mode (DLP Checkerboard pattern), Micro-polarizer LCD 3D (Row-Interleaved -passive 3D displays) as well as 120Hz Time-sequential 3D LCD mode. The Time-sequential 3D mode is the one you can use with 3D Vision, yes it works with 3D Vision, only in full-screen mode, but it is compatible (it would be nice to also get 3D windowed mode supported as well). The ability to easily preview the video in 3D mode while editing it is a nice feature to have and this is probably one of the first more serious consumer oriented video editor software that supports 3D Vision. And with the use of the 3DTV Play software it could’ve been able to make it work with HDMI 1.4-equipped 3D HDTVs as well, however you don’t get the 120Hz Time-sequential mode available in the drop-down list when using a 3D HDTV and have 3DTV Play active. During the testing of the 3D preview with 3D Vision I had a few times the screen locking up either when entering or exiting the 3D mode, but this could easily be some sort of a driver version conflict as well, so it should easily be correctable.
PowerDirector 10 comes with a built-in 2D to 3D conversion feature that works for both 2D photos and 3D videos. It is an auto-conversion feature with some control left to the user, you have a depth slider that may help you get stronger or weaker simulation of the volume in the image. To get to the 2D to 3D conversion feature you need to right click on the 2D photo or video you want to convert, then choose Edit Video / Power Tools from the menu and select the 2D to 3D option. The 3D photos and videos have this option disabled by default and in the timeline the converted to 3D photos and videos get visually marked, so that you easily distinguish the converted to 3D videos from the ones shot in 3D.
When you are ready with your video edit and want to export the result you have two options, to export a video file or to burn the 3D video on an optical drive or record it on other type of external media. For file export you have support for Side by Side and Anaglyph red/cyan options and the following file formats:
WMV – Side by Side full and half resolution, and anaglyph; only four preset resolutions available.
MPEG4 – Side by Side half resolution only and anaglyph; you have a few basic profiles available, but can create and customize your own.
MPEG-2 – Side by Side half resolution only and anaglyph; you have a few basic profiles available, but can create and customize your own.
H.264 AVC – Side by Side half resolution only and anaglyph; you have a few basic profiles available, but can create and customize your own.
MOV – Side by Side full and half resolution, anaglyph; you have a few basic profiles available, but can create and customize your own.
If you want to export the video in 3D format on an optical drive you have a few more common options available for that and the interesting thing here is that PowerDirector 10 also supports Blu-ray 3D export with MVC compression, although that is apparently not available in the trial version, because I got a strange error message when trying to export in that format (Error code: eC0030011). Another important thing regarding the export for Blu-ray 3D media is the need for hardware acceleration from the video card, otherwise you will not be able to use the feature (you get a different error message), so do check what video cards are supported for the acceleration. When exporting in 3D format for an optical media you get two options available, either directly to burn on the disc or to save the exact file structure of the disc on your hard drive for testing and burning later (if you don;t have a Blu-ray burner on the video editing system for example). The options you have for 3D disc export are as follows:
3D DVD video disc – supports small 1.4GB, single and dual-layer DVD discs; in Anaglyph Red/Cyan or Side by Side half resolution format.
3D Blu-ray disc – supports 25GB, 50GB, 100GB and 128GB BD optical media; 3D-BD (Blu-ray 3D) format and in Sde by Side half resolution format.
3D AVCHD disc – burning on DVD and removable media storage; in Anaglyph Red/Cyan or Side by Side half resolution format.
If you think the software might be useful for your needs you can download the 30-day trial version of Cyberlink PowerDirector 10 and test it. You are also more than welcome to share your experience with the software should you decide to try it or if you are already using it for something that includes 3D video editing.
I’m starting with Nvidia as they are are probably going to be very active about 3D during Computex 2010. The first announcement from them is the new GeForce GTX 465 GPU and the availability of cards based on it from ASUS, EVGA, Galaxy, MSI, Palit, PNY, Zotac and others with an estimated retail price of $279 USD. Amazon is already taking pre-orders for GTX 465 from Asus and Evga, but Newegg is a bit ahead with GeForce GTX 465 available from MSI, PNY, Gigabyte, EVGA, Palit, Zotac and Asus. The new GTX 465 GPUs come with 352 CUDA cores (stream processors), 1024 MB GDDR5 video memory with 256-bit memory bus and they can be a good more affordable alternative to GTX 480 and GTX 470 for stereo 3D gaming as they still pack quite a lot of processing power.
Until now, getting the NVIDIA 3D Vision experience was mostly for the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) enthusiasts who could purchase a 120Hz, 3D Vision-Ready certified display, install a suitable GeForce graphics card, add the 3D Vision shutter glasses kit and install all of the drivers. But today at Computex during his keynote CEO of NVIDIA Jensen Huang announced the creation of the new 3D PC category, so that consumers can buy a completely configured 3D PC and get a 3D experience right out of the box. And this idea seems to be getting a broad industry support from companies like Asus, Acer, Dell, LG, Toshiba, ViewSonic and many system builders. The prices for the 3D PCs will begin at about $1,500 USD and that price will include everything that you need: 120Hz monitor, 3D shutter glasses and pre-installed drivers. This is about half the price of a new 3D HDTV, making it the least expensive way to enjoy 3D content at home, but if you do purchase a 3D TV later (or if you already have one) you’ll be able to connect your 3D PC to it via HDMI 1.4 to enjoy your stereoscopic 3D content on the big screen using the Nvidia 3DTV Play software.
Another very interesting announcement came from Microsoft who announced that their product Silverlight (an alternative to Adobe’s Flash), a web content development platform now supports streaming 3D content over the web to NVIDIA 3D Vision-equipped computers. NVIDIA and Microsoft also demonstrated a high definition stereo 3D music video (We Are The World 3D) streamed over the internet, but we are expecting to get more details about that very soon.
ASUS is demonstrating its new 15.6″ Asus ROG G53 3D gaming laptop (with 120Hz LCD panel) that has full support for 3D gaming and the new HDMI 1.4 output (does not come bundled with 3D Vision glasses), a new 17.3″ Asus ROG G73Jw 3D-ready laptop that may come with the recently announced GTX 480M GPU combined with a 1080p 120Hz LCD panel. As well as the Asus G51Jx-EE 3D-ready laptop that probably has the Nvidia IR transmitter integrated to support the 3D Vision active shutter glasses. The Asus Eee Top ET2400 All-in-One with 3D capabilities was also shown as wells the Asus CD5390 PC said to be the “world’s most powerful gaming solution,” equipped with two GeForce GTX 480 in SLI and ready for a 3D Vision Surround setup. And we’ll probably also see the 23″ Asus VG236H and 27″ Asus PG276H 3D-ready 120Hz monitors too.
MSI is introducing their 24″ Wind Top AE2420 All-in-one PC with 3D support, a built in 120Hz LCD Full HD panel and touchscreen support (with multi-touch functionality). The PC comes bundled with a pair of active shutter glasses for the 3D functionality, but the more interesting thing is that the GPU inside is ATI Mobility Radeon HD5730. And this raised the interesting question if this will be one of the first implementations with the anticipated shutter glasses from BitCauldron and ATI stereo 3D support? According to MSI their Wind Top AE2420 3D comes with MSI’s exclusive 3D Infinity shutter glasses (whatever they are) and there also seems to be a built-in function for converting 2D videos in to stereo 3D.
Cyberlink will be showcasing Blu-ray 3D Movie Playback that is expected to be available very soon (via a free update) in the PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D software player and the 2D-to-3D DVD Video conversion technology that is already available in the product. Corel WinDVD Pro 2010 with 3D Blu-ray will also be demonstrated at Computex, as the company just announced that its DVD playback software has received Blu-ray 3D certification from the Blu-ray Disc Association. The customers who already own Corel WinDVD Pro 2010 will receive the new 3D capabilities with a free update later this year, so we are still out of luck with no Blu-ray 3D software player actually available on the market yet…
, but Newegg is a bit ahead with
