Question on 3D Capable TVs

[SE14man]

Hey people

Got a sony bravia which I think is not capable of playing 3D.

However can I buy a piece of hardware or connecting the PC to the TV using a software player and play a 3D movie that way?

Or does the TV have to be 3D ready?

[aedipuss]

you either get a 3d tv or no 3d is possible. except that crappy old red/blue glasses fake type.

[pandy]

If it support 120Hz(100Hz) modes at the input then can be used for 3D frame by frame (frame interleaving) - active LCD shutter glasses are required for this.

[usually_quiet]

Important information that pandy did not bother to mention because it might prevent someone from setting off on a wild goose chase for his amusement: Unless a TV is an active 3D set, the chances of it accepting 120 Hz input are small. If the TV is a typical 60Hz model and not a 120Hz model, the chances are zero.

Obviously, a 3D Blu-ray player won't work. A PC with a mid-range or better discrete graphics card capable of 120Hz output would be needed to supply the video, plus a software player capable of delivering interleaved output.

Finally, since active 3D glasses must receive a signal from the TV to sync with the picture, a regular TV won't work with them.

[Cornucopia]

Any 2D TV set can be used for 3D -- IF you are willing to watch it in Anaglyph (aka Red/Cyan, etc). But because most 3D enthusiasts now have been exposed to Active LCshutter or Passive FPR polarized 3D, they don't want to revert back to the 50s--80s way, as it does lose a lot of the impact & resolution.

Most 3D player softs on PC/Mac allow for anaglyph output (almost ALL hardware 3DBD players DO NOT).

Scott

[october262]

Get a Playstation 3 or 4 those should play 3D content.

[theewizard]

Green/Magenta called Triscopic offers better color than red/blue
And there is also blue/amber

But some complain is to dark

I've not seen the blue amber, but have experienced the Triscopic and prefer out to the red blue

[gll99]

Everything has pretty much been said about using a 2D tv to watch 3D and I concur but just to state another option and further to october262's point.

With 4k and UBD in my future, I didn't want to buy a 3D TV or a 3D BD player so I use my Playstation 3 and a cheap ($400 can$) lamp projector (BenQ (720p native accepts 1080p input) DLP 3D ready). It plays standard 3D BD in the usual frame packed BD format just fine (it can play sbs (converted and tested) and tb also). I bought 2 types of cheap DLP link active shutter glasses from Amazon.ca. For full effect best viewed straight on from a flexible seating distance in a theatre type darkened setting. Don't get fooled by the less than 1080p native projector it's plenty fine at 72" to 84" diag. from 7+ feet or so. Also be careful when shopping many off brand projectors that claim 3D but they are really saying Red Blue 3D with no conversion (those will not usually be dlp but use a small lcd screen and more recent models be LED also) which as was said, any old 2D tv set does anyway.

If money is no object then yes by all means get the 1080p model projector but I didn't want to spend too much and didn't need the largest size screen in my small space. The 3D depth effect is always fine but as far as things jumping out from the screen that is very much dependent on the scene and movie processing.

[Cornucopia]

Green/Magenta called Triscopic offers better color than red/blue
And there is also blue/amber

But some complain is to dark

I've not seen the blue amber, but have experienced the Triscopic and prefer out to the red blue

Meh.
On a scale of 0-10 S3D reproduction-wise,
RealD Active+PassiveCircular is like a 9.5
Active LCshutter Page Flipping is like a 9
PassiveCircular FPR is like 8.5
PassiveLinear is like 8
Checkerboard Active LCshutter is like a 7.5
Dolby Infitec (chromatic interleaving) is like a 7
CRT Active Interlaced is like a 5
Anaglyph is like 2-3.5, depending on which color diads are used and whether it is optimised, half, full, or "pure". And the order in this segment varies with personal acuity & tastes.
B&W (monochrome) anaglyph is even worse, like 1.5

So those anaglyph ones are really only good as a very last & temporary resort.

Scott

[Cornucopia]

Btw, PS3 does play bd3d as mentioned, but not via anaglyph.

Scott

[gll99]

Btw, PS3 does play bd3d as mentioned, but not via anaglyph.

Scott

To the OP ... yes Scott is correct the PS3 will not convert your 3D BR discs to anaglyph to watch on a 2D tv. It just plays them if you have a 3D display such as a 3D enabled TV or projector.

I do have another method though that is not too expensive if you already have certain things and don't mind the anaglyph route. I've used it and it works.

This will take a standard 3D BD disc and play it as anaglyph.

You need a computer (I've only tested HDMI output), a BDrom or BD writer and a player software ie... PowerDVD. I got PowerDVD10 when I bought an LG BD writer and upgraded free from Cyberlink to PowerDVD12. PowerDVD will let you output to 3D in many formats acceptable to 3D ready televisions and monitors but it has the added bonus of letting you select and converting on the fly to RED/Cyan so it can be viewed on any 2D display. Not as good as real 3D but better than nothing. In my case I had everything I needed so it was free to try before I bought the projector.

[netmask56]

Hey people

Got a sony bravia which I think is not capable of playing 3D.

However can I buy a piece of hardware or connecting the PC to the TV using a software player and play a 3D movie that way?

Or does the TV have to be 3D ready?

You haven't provided the full model number of your Sony Bravia - some are 3D some are not. If you have the manual that will tell you if it is a 3D model or not.

[pandy]

Anaglyph aren't a problem - can be easily created on the fly by ffplay and:

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Stereoscopic

https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-filters.html#stereo3d

Rest is purely open as TV model is unknown, glasses can be controlled by separate controller (they are available) - as there is only possible combination then they can be manually selected - rest should be OK as time delta between frames will not change.