Sensio 3D device: Jaws 3-D? Friday the 13th 3-D? Dial "M" For Murder? House Of Wax? (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

I saw this mentioned in passing on "another forum", and thought I'd bring it up here as well:


The below was taken from the 1/8/03 Press Release at WWW.SENSIO.TV, based on their unveiling at the most recent CES show:

 

[Chuck L]

You know David, I have always trusted you in your post and I will in this one as well. If this is so true, this is great because these films are crying for proper releases...I would be more than willing to invest into them.

 

[TonyD]

wouldnt it be great to see 3-d movies at home!!!

by the way david that sensio link has a comma in it at the end.

 

[Steve Phillips]

The Sensio system is basically similar to field sequential 3-D systems that have been around for some time...with one major improvement. They say that is is especially suited and compatible with HD material.

If this pans out, it could be a great thing. It is possible that a lot of the studios are taking a wait and see approach to 3-D; prefering to wait for much better quality technology which is just around the corner. Maybe HD-DVD rollout will take us over the 3-D edge.

I don't think they've got any licenses in place for any of those films though. They might be trying to pitch the studios on the idea, but we need to remember what were are hearing from them now are press releases and sales pitches.

 

[David Lambert]

Thanks Tony...fixed!

I agree that this is mostly a pitch. I'm not so sure they are actually working THEMSELVES to bring these films out on DVD (or any other format), as much as they are assuring the home user that they would have access to playing those films...IF the studios that owned them put them out in a 3-D format.

If you read between the lines, that's all he's saying. He in no way says outright that the Sensio company is dealing directly with the studios that own the named properties. He merely assures us that they "are making sure that retailers and consumers will have access to the best 3D movies from a library of approximately 150 existing titles on film". In this case, I read "access to" as being synonymous with "ability to play". Also stress that he said "on film", and not "available now or shortly on DVD".

I'm sure he WANTS us to infer that they are for-sure coming. It helps his marketing, right? But don't let anything in my post fool you into thinking it's a for-sure thing.

In fact, my first thought upon reading this and seeing Ft13th-3D listed was, "Wow...I wonder if Martin knows that they 'committed' him to this!" :wink:

 

[Peter Kline]

There is no mention about price for the system. It looks like we're talking about late this year at the earliest - if ever. Don't hold your breath!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

How does it work? LCD glasses that act like a "shutter" to only show one field at a time? How would this work with a progressive-scan display that does 3-2 pulldown?

-dave

 

[GregK]

How does it work? LCD glasses that act like a "shutter" to only show one field at a time? How would this work with a progressive-scan display that does 3-2 pulldown?

If you feed a 480p signal to a progressive scan device, it will not try to apply 3-2 pulldown or any type of field manipulation because the signal is already 480p, just like when you feed a feed a pro-scan output from a DVD player to a pro-scan display device. So again no additional field/frame coversion is required.

I had a talk with someone from Sensio a few months ago, and they claim to use a "proprietary" encoding method that encodes the 3-D image on DVD and is MPEG-2 compliant (friendly?). Of course they will not reveal exactly how they have encoded the material but I have an educated guess based on the following information from Sensio:

.The Sensio system will only work with progressive scan display devices. Standard interlaced sets are a no-no.

.The resolution for the Sensio system is locked in at 640 by 480 lines of resolution, this also applies for HDTV. But note that even at it's fixed quasi-NTSC spec, it does not have the resolution loss that interlaced field-sequential NTSC 3-D material does.

.The Sensio 'black box' takes any signal encoded with Sensio's patented encoding system and outputs a 60fps 480p output. And the price of this little ol' box?? Hold on to your pocketbook kids: $3000 ..Yes, that's the correct number of zeros!

Using the above information, I am guessing Sensio will store it's material on DVD or whatever storage format it rides on in a "split-field" progressive mode. The raw video output would look juddery and awful, even in 2-D, but the Sensio device recombines the correct fields back together with the use of flags perhaps in the vertical interval to generate a 60 frame 3-D image that in nature is frame sequential vs field sequential. This would be similar to what computer 3-D users often call "page flipping" 3-D, where frames vs fields are displayed on the display device to avoid a resolution hit. Field-sequential material can be upconverted to frame sequential, but of course lost resolution can never truly be recovered. In either case shutter glasses are still used.

Again please note some of the above conclusions are a guess on my part. For me, the $alty Sensio box (with zero software/titles being available at this time) makes it easy for me to stick with my field-sequential videos, camera and related equipment. When I upgrade to high def I'll just (properly) upconvert my present material.

..One fun trick I would like to try sometime is to view 3-D video material on my PC monitor using special software and "up" the refresh rate from 60fps to 85fps or even 120fps. For me, anything over 80hz produces zero flicker, and most shutterglasses can operate up to 120hz. Ditching the 3-D flicker completely is always a good thing...

 

[Darren Gross]

There's a spec breakdown on the site at

http://www.sensio.tv/en/specs/specsheet.jpg

If you read through the lines throughout the site, it would appear that the system only works with projectors not tube TVs and Progressive Scan DVD players must be switched over to 'interlace' in order for it to work.

It's a very clever press release, but it's extremely vague.

You'll notice that they mention that available titles to the consumer 'will include films SUCH AS' DIAL M FOR MURDER, HOUSE OF WAX and FRIDAY THE 13TH 3-D. Obviously there's no deal in place for any of these films. It's even mentioned further down that the company is 'continuing to build relationships with studios such as...' Nowhere are Paramount and Warner bros. listed, who are the owners of those titles.

I've heard it works great and I truly hope it's a successful launch and that hundreds of 3-D films are available in an HDTV format. It's going to take years though
for it to reach even vaguely reasonable prices and if they can't get a solid library of software, then they're dead.

 

[Torquil]

how about this for expanding your 3d library - 3DPlus from soft4d does a reaonably good job of generating depth from existing 2d DVDs. The website is a slow piece of crap, but the product does actually work - it works very well on tracking shots (where I'm guessing it just works out that objects in the background move slower than the foreground so adjusts the "depth"). Only works on a PC with 3d LCD glasses at mom - but surely could generate real-time 3d for the Sensio (guess) in the future (and by the time it becomes affordable by the masses).

I read some terrible reviews of it, but it is worth checking out for a taste of the future IMHO.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

.The resolution for the Sensio system is locked in at 640 by 480 lines of resolution, this also applies for HDTV. But note that even at it's fixed quasi-NTSC spec, it does not have the resolution loss that interlaced field-sequential NTSC 3-D material does.

That's what I meant by 2-3 pulldown being a problem...any field-sequential 3-D encoding would be destroyed by 3-2 pulldown.

However a frame-sequential method obviously would be progressive-scan friendly.

Interesting that the device itself is responsible for converting the 480I to 480P...so somewhere in that conversion it's managing to create the progressive-scan image with the 3-D sterescopic information in tact.

Can't wait to hear more!

-dave