Are any 3D movies available in 3D on DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Carlos Garcia]

I was wondering if any classic movies that were originally shot in 3D (like Dial M For Murder, House of Wax, or Creature From The Black Lagoon) are planned to be released on 3D for the DVD market anytime soon. Anyone?

 

[Steve Phillips]

There are a lot of threads on this already, a search should bring them up.

Bottom line....there are 3-D DVDs in a variety of formats ranging from poor red/blue anaglyph downconversions of movies originally seen in clear glasses polarized 3-D to higher quality field sequential discs which require a $30 pair of glasses and driver box to view.

There is a lot of non-legit product out there, so don't be fooled.

The vast majority of all 3-D movies, including the 50s films (there were 51 of them in the US alone between 1952-55!) were originally exhibited in polarized, clear glasses format which is not compatible with TV.

A few of the older ones have been downconverted to the inferior red/blue anaglyph format, but those versions look pretty bad and are not at all representative of the original 3-D versions. That's why the studios tend to release those classics flat on DVD, as it is a better option. In other words, if you've only seem the lame red/blue vesion of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, you really haven't seen the film in 3-D at all! The difference is astounding.

Field Sequential can approximate the theatrical experience more closely, offering full color or normal B/W images, but you do have to invest about $30 in some extra equipment and there are still some issues with the format. Still, it is miles ahead of anaglyph.

There is also a similar but more high tech format from Sensio, which requires much more expensive hardware but is more suited to high end home theater projectors. Sensio has licensed several of the IMAX type films and has also reently released a legit full color, excellent version of SPY KIDS 3-D.

SPY KIDS broke from tradition in that it was was shown theatrically (and released on standard DVD) in the poor anaglyph format.

The new Sensio DVD is 100% better, offering full color images with much better stereoscopic effect. I'd imagine that SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL will also be made available in both formats as well. The latter film will be much improved by full color 3-D images; as the current anaglyph theatrical version is almost B/W.

A search in this forum should bring up a thread about exactly what legit stuff is available; most of it is more recent IMAX type stuff.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

Thanks for all that great info, Steve!