3D How the Studios, Theatre Owners, and TV Manufacturers All But Killed 3D (1 Viewer)

[Paul Hillenbrand]

With projectors you can only use active shutter.....

Dual Lens Polarized Passive 3D projectors are in-use in most movie theaters and they are also available for the home market.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Dual Lens Polarized Passive 3D projectors are in-use in most movie theaters and they are also available for the home market.

Yes, i know Runco makes one but they are very expensive and require a special screen which is also very expensive.

 

[SFMike]

There is still 7 days to get on the DIMENCO glasses-free TV offering that is being promoted on Kickstarter. I would love to see a demo of their product as their large 3D posters work well. I'm very tempted.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/996026139/dimenco-no-glasses-3d-tv-in-your-home-for-899

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

Add another log to the "How They Killed 3D" fire.

I replaced my poor PlayStation 3 with a PlayStation 4 one Saturday (about a month ago) when my PS3 suddenly died. Now, imagine how appalled I felt upon inserting The Lego Movie in 3D in my PS4 this evening and only then discovering that Blu-Ray 3D is not supported by this next-generation console. It never even occurred to me that this would be the case, what with Sony's firm support of 3D across the board.

Fail.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Add another log to the "How They Killed 3D" fire.

I replaced my poor PlayStation 3 with a PlayStation 4 one Saturday (about a month ago) when my PS3 suddenly died. Now, imagine how appalled I felt upon inserting The Lego Movie in 3D in my PS4 this evening and only then discovering that Blu-Ray 3D is not supported by this next-generation console. It never even occurred to me that this would be the case, what with Sony's firm support of 3D across the board.

Fail.

Not only is 3D not yet supported but the PS4 fails several HD tests that the PS3 sailed through, read a review about the video quality below.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/ps4-201312173519.htm#comment-476418

From that review:

If you play 1080i content on the PS4, you’ll find that the system deinterlaces it, and does a poor job of it. There doesn’t seem to be any semi-advanced motion-adaptive deinterlacing on the PS4 at all, with the entire screen (and not just the moving areas) being deinterlaced with a fairly crude algorithm.

Unsurprisingly with all of this in mind, there is no provision made for film mode deinterlacing (detecting the presence of film content stored in an interlaced signal). Just so it’s clear, here are the tests from the 60hz tests on the Spears & Munsil disc:

[*]2-2 (30fps inside 60i): Fail
[*]2-2-2-4: Fail
[*]2-3-2-3 PF-T (24fps inside 60i with MPEG metadata): Fail
[*]2-3-2-3 (24fps inside 60i): Fail
[*]2-3-2-3: Fail
[*]2-3-3-2: Fail
[*]3-2-3-2-2: Fail
[*]5-5: Fail
[*]6-4: Fail
[*]8-7-8-7: Fail
[*]Time-adjusted: Fail
[/list]
So it's fine if you just want 1080p 23,976hz blu ray playback, that's most discs on the market but not good for some 1080i titles that we have in Europe and also not good for DVD content from Europe, nor of course is it good for 3D playback, i would imagine in time that firmware upgrades can make it much better.

 

[jcroy]

Not only is 3D not yet supported but the PS4 fails several HD tests that the PS3 sailed through, read a review about the video quality below.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/ps4-201312173519.htm#comment-476418

From that review:

If you play 1080i content on the PS4, you’ll find that the system deinterlaces it, and does a poor job of it. There doesn’t seem to be any semi-advanced motion-adaptive deinterlacing on the PS4 at all, with the entire screen (and not just the moving areas) being deinterlaced with a fairly crude algorithm.

Unsurprisingly with all of this in mind, there is no provision made for film mode deinterlacing (detecting the presence of film content stored in an interlaced signal). Just so it’s clear, here are the tests from the 60hz tests on the Spears & Munsil disc:

[*]2-2 (30fps inside 60i): Fail
[*]2-2-2-4: Fail
[*]2-3-2-3 PF-T (24fps inside 60i with MPEG metadata): Fail
[*]2-3-2-3 (24fps inside 60i): Fail
[*]2-3-2-3: Fail
[*]2-3-3-2: Fail
[*]3-2-3-2-2: Fail
[*]5-5: Fail
[*]6-4: Fail
[*]8-7-8-7: Fail
[*]Time-adjusted: Fail
[/list]
So it's fine if you just want 1080p 23,976hz blu ray playback, that's most discs on the market but not good for some 1080i titles that we have in Europe and also not good for DVD content from Europe, nor of course is it good for 3D playback, i would imagine in time that firmware upgrades can make it much better.

If I had to guess, such a system would also completely fail on interlaced video sources where the "cadence" changes every few seconds.

One of the worst for constantly changing cadences that I have encountered, is the region 1 dvd season set releases of the tv show Babylon 5. On my present setup, the cadence changes between 3:2 and 2:2 quite frequently on too many B5 episodes.

 

[Jari K]

Yes, PS3 is still my choice with Blu-ray movies/tv. It also does 1080i => 1080p, but haven't seen any major issues.At least some PS4 issues are corrected, though:http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-ps4-vs-xbox-one-which-is-the-better-media-player

 

[atfree]

For me personally, 3D will never be an enticement simply because I can't see it (I have an eye condition, regular vision is fine, but 3D just doesn't come through for me). I've read that between 5-10% (and one study actually said upwards of 20%) of the general population can't view 3D.

I was never anti-3D, just apathetic. I think the only issue I had was when the studios started spending $ on converting older, non-3D films into 3D BD releases when they wouldn't spend the $ to put out a lot of classic catalog films on BD at all!

 

[RolandL]

... I think the only issue I had was when the studios started spending $ on converting older, non-3D films into 3D BD releases when they wouldn't spend the $ to put out a lot of classic catalog films on BD at all!

That's because it would cost more and they would make less sales if they did the classic film.

 

[RJ992]

I was never anti-3D, just apathetic. I think the only issue I had was when the studios started spending $ on converting older, non-3D films into 3D BD releases when they wouldn't spend the $ to put out a lot of classic catalog films on BD at all!

But it did give us superlative 3D transfers of DIAL M FOR MURDER, CREATURE FROM BLACK LAGOON, MAN IN THE DARK, WIZARD OF OZ, and HOUSE OF WAX among others

 

[Dick]

Yet, for all the doom and gloom about the future of 3-D, the format has way-y-y outlasted the two major previous attempts to popularize it: the 50's and the 80's, both of which lasted only 2-3 years. And new 3-D productions are still in the works. True, this has much to do with advances of technology, but it still seems to have some legs.

 

[StephenDH]

Yet, for all the doom and gloom about the future of 3-D, the format has way-y-y outlasted the two major previous attempts to popularize it: the 50's and the 80's, both of which lasted only 2-3 years. And new 3-D productions are still in the works. True, this has much to do with advances of technology, but it still seems to have some legs.

It may also be because they can charge punters extra for it and get away with it.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Yet, for all the doom and gloom about the future of 3-D, the format has way-y-y outlasted the two major previous attempts to popularize it: the 50's and the 80's, both of which lasted only 2-3 years. And new 3-D productions are still in the works. True, this has much to do with advances of technology, but it still seems to have some legs.

Truthfully, the 3-D fad of 1953 was over in a matter of months, so far as popularity with moviegoers. The bookends were the world premiere of BWANA DEVIL on Thanksgiving 1952 and the release of REVENGE OF THE CREATURE in March 1955.

But so far as when people actually saw the films, installations began in the early months of 1953 and by the fall, interest was rapidly declining. The last production in Hollywood wrapped up in October.

If you'd like to know the details, you might find this article of interest: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/what-killed-3D

 

[Jari K]

So when did the "current" 3D timeline started?

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

So when did the "current" 3D timeline started?

The "golden era" (1952–1954)Revival (1960–1984) in single strip formatRebirth of 3D (1985–2003)Mainstream resurgence (2003–present)

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Paul, your middle periods are broken up better into sub periods, which Wikipedia does in its article, but not in its headings.
The early 70s marked a period of experimentation with two single strip formats: SpaceVision and its variants (35mm over/under) and Stereovision (35mm side by side anamorphic and 70mm side by side); like the 60s, there were some titles produced between the surges, but not many
1981-83 was the resurgence of over/under 35mm, with an outlier in 1985 (Starchaser: The Legend of Orin)
1985 and beyond was dominated by theme park 3D (usually some form of 70mm) and IMAX 3D (70mm 15 perf horizontal running film)
Digital 3D 2003-present
Both the early 70s and the early 80s had some classic films rereleased in single-strip formats.
We are currently in a situation of 11 years of digital 3D, with the beginning of mainstream and widespread 3D production and exhibition beginning around 2005-6, which is the longest unbroken streak of mainstream 3D in the marketplace. I would characterise the IMAX era as "event" 3D.

 

[RolandL]

Great web site for list of 3D movies - 3dmovielist

 

[FoxyMulder]

Great web site for list of 3D movies - 3dmovielist

I see they added Peter Jackson: Sea Of Monsters, i wonder what Percy would think of that one.

 

[SFMike]

Another example of corporate lack of 3D support is the end of the 3net channel on DirecTV. 3net of course was a joint venture of Discovery Communications, Sony and IMAX all of whom, except IMAX have given up promoting 3D TV for quite a while. As a fan of 3net it isn't surprising as there had been no real new additions to the show lineup for at least the last 2 years. There was also a complete lack of an advertising base. I would always periodically check the station listings for new shows but it was a continued recycling of the same shows over and over 24/7. Many of these shows were quite good. I think "Bullproof" was the best 3D series to come out of the short lived 3D TV period. But a station needs some new programing now and then.

Of course without new programing and a total lack of promotion from Sony, Discovery or DirecTV it isn't surprising that no one was watching. It still makes me sad though as the mishandling of the 3D TV launch has set 3D in the home to a near halt. DirecTV still has it's pay-for-view 3D channel. Right now you can pay to see "Need For Speed" in 3D while it is not being released in the US on blu-ray 3D. I guess this is the wave of the future, 3D TV movie rental instead of blu-ray release of 3D films. At least until they feel that revenue stream isn't strong enough and they end it. How much promotion does the DirecTV 3D pay-for-view channel recieve?

The saddest thing to me is how the channel just disappeared from the DirecTV lineup. No formal announcement, no discussion on the internet or on the boards, just poof it's gone and no one seems to care. Just another failed investment for Discovery Communications, Sony and IMAX to write off their 2014 taxes. Another indication for the industry to point to as a reason to say 3D is dead.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

And how many vintage 3-D films from the vaults of Columbia/Sony did you see on that channel?