Dolby 3-D glasses

[Mike Blakesley]

Since we got our laser projector, we don't use Dolby 3-D anymore. I don't think there was even an option -- and I didn't see the point in putting in the Barco 3-D system when the only 3-D movies with any traction these days are the Avatar ones. It would have cost $9000 for the add-on plus we'd have had to put in a silver screen for who knows how many thousand more.

I wonder, is there any possibility that there may someday be a Dolby 3-D add-on for the Barco projector where we might use these glasses in the future? With my luck, I would trash all these glasses, and then the next week receive an email touting an all-new 3-D interface that uses the Dolby 3-D glasses for only $995!

So if there's any inkling of a possibility they might make a comeback I'll hang on to them. Otherwise, I wonder if anyone is even using Dolby 3-D anymore?

[Harold Hallikainen]

I can't predict the future, but i don't think you need a silver screen for Dolby 3D since it uses color separation instead of polarization.

[Scotty Wright]

In Seattle, the SIFF Downtown, formerly Seattle Cinerama, uses Dolby 3D for its 6p dual laser projection setup. SIFF Uptown still has an auditorium with the old xenon version of Dolby 3D.

For IMAX GT Lasers like at the Boeing, IMAX licenses Dolby 3D for the 6p light separation. Compared to Dolby, the lenses in the glasses are swapped and imax applies anti-glare coatings.

There’s a couple theaters south of here, OMSI in Portland and AMC Vancouver Mall (formerly Cinetopia) that used to have Dolby 3D, but word through the grapevine was they let their licenses expire during the pandemic and Dolby wouldn’t allow renewals once business came back.

[Steve Guttag]

Mike,

Your best bet is to sell them to an existing cinema that still has the Dolby 3D system for xenon. The color primaries are NOT the same between the xenon system and the 6P laser system(s). And, even between Christie and Barco, the 6 primaries are not the same.

I would think that the odds of anyone, at this stage in cinema's technical life, of developing a Dolby 3D system that is compatible with the current crop of laser light sources is near zero. With xenon, you had the full light spectrum to work with and the bandwidths of the primaries could be chosen. With laser, you have the wavelengths of the lasers being used to work with. And those are even being mucked with to try and combat speckle. If you ever get a chance to see a spectrograph during color calibrations, you'll see multiple peaks on red and green (And it will vary by projector brand). All of this works against developing a similar system.

And, let's face it, 3D isn't a big draw. Even the Avatar movies are, as is typical of sequels, going down in popularity. Worldwide BO is just shy of $500M but the bulk of that is international with the US only contributing just over $100M. We'll know better in the next week since the week leading into Christmas is normally dead as people are doing holiday things...they haven't gotten annoyed with their family enough to head out to the cinema, yet.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I doubt there will be a straight way forward for the SP4K series ever to work with Dolby 3D. The laser plates in those devices give off a "3P" output fixed at certain wavelengths. The only possibility I see is a secondary device with laser plates, tuned to different wavelengths and a set of glasses with filters specifically tuned to those wavelengths. That would render your current glasses useless anyway.

The only system that works with your current install is a shutter-glass system, using active shutter glasses. A polarisation system like RealD could also work with your current setup, but would require a silver or "silver doped white" screen. Still, light efficiency of most polarised laser 3D systems I've seen is pretty awful.

If you have sufficient light budget to do shutter glass-based 3D and you really really want to do 3D, then I'd go for that route, as it's clearly the least intrusive way and if done right, one of the better 3D images overall.

You're currently playing Avatar 3 in 2D, do you think you'd have sold one extra ticket if you'd played it in 3D? Have you even had any inquiries from guests why you aren't playing it in 3D?

[Ed Gordon]

There are quite a few Dolby 3D glasses for sale on ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304713018048

Worth a try selling them rather than throwing them in the trash...

[Stefan Scholz]

As Steve explained, the chance is near zero for Infitec glasses/ Dolby 3D to fit a laser projection system.
Even with Xenon, it's been a system for very small screens only, the light efficiency has been extremely low. Combine that with a matt white screen, the result, largest projector for small screens.
To go back to 2D always meant swapping the bulb from the largest in 3D mode to the smallest allowed for 2D mode.

My opinion, Avatar, a watered down sequel, might be the only title grossing in mid range, not as much as the previous ones, but ok.
Is it worth ruining the general image quality by using high gain metal coated SpeckleMax(R) screens, allow hot spotting, and images that only look ok from a few seats in the house?
Go back to theory, a stereoscopic film presentation, relying on glasses, is the last thing you want. This was common knowledge in 1950, but all alternatives were dismissed, for reasons of cost. If it is cost, that prevents a great stereoscopic attraction, then do not do it at all. Either correct - or not.
Go for a perfect flat image instead.

[Steve Guttag]

To be clear, Dolby Vision does support dual-projector Dolby 3D...but again, those glasses are unique to the process and with dual projector, one is no longer either filtering light or alternating which eye is on screen. What I don't see is anyone continue to develop a 6P laser for a diminishing market that will be light-source specific (projector brand). So, as to Mike's post, his glasses won't work on anything BUT a xenon based system as they have the matching filter wheel for the matching primaries. All new laser based systems lack that and use the inherent primaries of the laser light source chosen for the specific projectors.

[Mike Blakesley]

You're currently playing Avatar 3 in 2D, do you think you'd have sold one extra ticket if you'd played it in 3D? Have you even had any inquiries from guests why you aren't playing it in 3D?

I was a little worried about that, since we played the last two Avatars in 3D. But...out of all the hundreds of people we've had in since the new one opened, not one single person coming to the movie has asked about 3D. I had one woman (in her 50s) stop me on the street yesterday and ask me if we were playing it in 3D...I said no, and she said "Good...we're probably going to be there this weekend." So maybe not having 3D has actually helped us sell some tickets.

i don't think you need a silver screen for Dolby 3D

That's true, you don't -- which is why we went for Dolby 3D in the first place. But there is no Dolby attachment for the Barco laser machine we have now, and you DO need a silver screen for the 3D units that do work with the Barco. Even if one was developed, as Steve notes, these glasses probably wouldn't work with it.

Is it worth ruining the general image quality by using high gain metal coated SpeckleMax(R) screens, allow hot spotting, and images that only look ok from a few seats in the house?

Nope, and our picture looks outstanding right now, so I think we'll just leave it alone.

There are quite a few Dolby 3D glasses for sale on ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304713018048

Worth a try selling them rather than throwing them in the trash.

That's a great idea....I have a whole case of brand-new unused ones with the plastic lenses, and probably a hundred of the "original" glass lens type. A few of those have very slight scratches, but most of them are pristine. I wonder if real afficiandoes would prefer the glass lenses? I always thought they seemed to perform a little better.

[Marcel Birgelen]

If you want Dolby 3D and laser, you're currently stuck on the Barco DP4K-xL series (already end-of-sale) and Christie CP44xx-RGB series. Dolby 3D for Xenon was pushed to end-of-sale somewhere in 2018, but replacement glasses are still available. With this kind of setup, Dolby 3D actually is pretty light-efficient, compared to the dual-filter Xenon setup, which made Dolby 3D about the least efficient 3D system.

Infitec themselves actually support a broad range of projection setups and do have glasses for them. The problem is, most of them aren't DCI compliant. For now, you're stuck with a handful of suppliers willing to produce pure RGB laser projectors with light sources that have different primaries...

Dolby Cinema was originally based on a modified Christie Eclipse pure RGB (2 x 3P) projector stack, using a dual-stepped light engine (with 6 DLP chips in total). The new Dolby Cinema projector will be based on the improved Christie Eclipse G3, also a pure RGB machine with 6 DLP chips per projector. Those machines are so expensive, they truly only make sense in the most premium of setups.

That's a great idea....I have a whole case of brand-new unused ones with the plastic lenses, and probably a hundred of the "original" glass lens type. A few of those have very slight scratches, but most of them are pristine. I wonder if real afficiandoes would prefer the glass lenses? I always thought they seemed to perform a little better.

Personally, I always hated the plastic ones. They have a slightly wider field of view than the original glass ones, but they're easily scratched and they have even more of this typical glare/color fringing effect at the edges of the field of view. I think the glass ones are far superior.

[Steve Guttag]

Mike. Note, if you REALLY wanted to run 3D...don't forget that active glasses are also an (expensive) option. You get to keep your screen and laser light. You just have the expense of the glasses/batteries to keep up. Naturally, you'd still have the sanitation costs like you did with Dolby 3D.

Real-D DOES have bright-white screens now in lower-gains (I think 1.4 or 1.5 is the lowest gain) that retain polarization. So, there are 3D options without the drawbacks of the silver screen. But, as your information survey suggests, the market isn't there.

[Mike Blakesley]

But, as your information survey suggests, the market isn't there.

Yeah, plus there is also the hassle of it -- distributing the glasses, collecting them, sanitizing them. I admit to being curious about how much better the image would have looked with the laser than it did with the xenon, but my curiosity doesn't sell tickets! Even 3D TV is pretty much by the wayside.

The Avatar movies seem to be kind of anamoly. I looked up the showtimes at the AMC in Billings and they have all three premium screens up there showing it in 3D...only two smallish auditoriums (one in each plex) are offering 2D shows. Every other movie, they'll stick 3D shows in the standard auditoriums with shitty showtimes (like Zootopia 2 at 8:45). I'm sure Disney was demanding 3D Avatar shows in all the auditoriums that were capable of it at James C.'s insistence.

[Steve Guttag]

Almost none of my clients still run 3D. The ones that do are in larger complexes.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

That's a great idea....I have a whole case of brand-new unused ones with the plastic lenses, and probably a hundred of the "original" glass lens type. A few of those have very slight scratches, but most of them are pristine. I wonder if real afficiandoes would prefer the glass lenses? I always thought they seemed to perform a little better.

If you've already amortized out/written off the cost of the glasses, maybe just give them away as a novelty item during the Avatar run, or in conjunction with another promotion. Or if you rent your theatre out for special events (like gaming parties) give them out as souvenirs. As for the glass ones, they would (or should ) be more valuable so selling them would be the best option.

Selling them on fleabay probably isn't worth it, considering the low price they'd get and the hassles of packing and shipping them individually or in smaller quantities. That depends on how much they have already cost you, the time it would take to sell and ship them, and the cost of shipping and fleaybays stupid fees.

I'd buy a pair of each (one plastic and one glass) just for the novelty factor. PM me.

[Scotty Wright]

Dolby Cinema was originally based on a modified Christie Eclipse pure RGB (2 x 3P) projector stack, using a dual-stepped light engine (with 6 DLP chips in total). The new Dolby Cinema projector will be based on the improved Christie Eclipse G3, also a pure RGB machine with 6 DLP chips per projector. Those machines are so expensive, they truly only make sense in the most premium of setups.

Do you know if they have a 3D solution for the new Dolby Cinema system? It’s only a single projector install, so I’m not sure how one would be possible with Dolby 3D.