Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 3D TV & "conversion" of 2D material to 3D

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-10-2010, 07:09 PM:

I happened to accompany a friend to Best Buy -- he was buying a TV -- so naturally I had to take a gander at the 3D presentation rooms they had set up. Everyone probably already knows by now my love affair and infatuation with anything 3D, so I won't belabor the fact that I think the 3DTV on those big screen Samsung and Panasonic TVs looks breathtaking. And the glasses that some poo-poo are so light and well designed, 30 seconds after I put them on OVER my prescription glasses, I didn't even know they were there.

BUT WAIT -- then the salesman usherd us into the exclusive room and said he would show us the set that had SIMULATED 3D. And I said, "Forget it; that's going to be dog poo." Of course I put on the glasses to prove to myself that I was right.

All I can say is that the HARRY POTTER movie that was running in 2D then switched to simulated 3D, and by the electron gods, it WAS in 3D and the depth made sense; in other words, what was supposed to be in the back ground, WAS in the back ground and what was suppose to be in the foreground, WAS in the foreground. And everything that was in between was where it was supposed to be.

So I ask, HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! What kind of software processing can do this in real time without human intervention? I always assumed that when they 3Dize a 2D movie for 3D release, it takes a horde of CGI geeks working feverishly to render it in 3D. I would have bet a kidney that this would simply be impossible to do by a chip in a TV set...but there it was, impressing the hell out of me.

Has anyone else seen this 3DTV conversion process? Anyone have any clue how this is done in real time? I have to say, although there was something that told me it didn't look as natural as real 3D, it still looked amazingly good for phoney 3D. I just would love to know what clues in a 2D image the computer was using at to decide what gets to be placed further back and what needs to be place in front.

I took off the glasses to try to see what was happening and saw that the separation of the elements in the picture had some unsteadiness going on -- the distances between the left and right images of an element would vary, and that's not good. It will strain the eye muscles and can cause headaches; perhaps this varying of the distance between Leye/Reye objects is what caused me to feel there was something off with the process and makes it feel not as natural as real 3D, but that said, still, they have got it still pretty damn good and I want to know how.

Posted by Alex Shultz (Member # 5027) on 09-12-2010, 12:36 AM:

I seem to remember hearing something while listening to some podcasts where they described this. I think the podcast was Home Theater Geeks (http://twit.tv/htg). Anyway, they had several episodes talking with different people that were big in the 3D industry.

I think what happens is they look at things in the frame before and the frame after to see how things change so they can decide what should be in front of other things and how much in front it should be. I don't know how long that delays the display of the image (by at least on frame, I guess). I suppose that something where the camera is locked down and nothing is moving would defeat the 3D conversion. It would also not be very compelling to watch.

That's all just from memory and maybe I dreamed it.

The podcast is pretty cool to check out if you like any of the home theater stuff. The episodes about 3D have some guys that do work in the movie industry. I believe that in mid-August they did one about Dolby 3D. The was also one with the guy who invented the way we do 3D with the DLP chips.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-12-2010, 10:26 AM:

Alex, thanks. It makes sense. And thanks for the link -- definately I'll check it out.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 10-12-2010, 01:58 AM:

Wife and I went to the local COSTCO store in the TV section and saw the 3D TV's there..and the demo glasses to check out these presentations...

"ehhhh....!" Sorry, but 3D TV is just not it. The one TV (think it was a Sony, or Panasonic) that was playing "Cloudy/Meatballs" had some serious ghosting issues where "Real D" would benefit in making "ghostbusted" 3D TV's for this faddish and silly market.

the 240 hz, 60 inch SONY TV had a 1000% better looking display ....

-Monte