General 3D content creation questions

[Zach Nelson]

The availability of 3D-ready DLP projectors and active glasses like the xPanD 102's that work with those projectors is really exciting. But I'm left with questions on how to deliver the content to the projectors. Could some of you 3D experts shed a little light?

Say I have 3D content in the form of a set of 2 avi's, one file per eye - is there a special format I have to use to pump it into the DLP projectors? I've scoured the Texas Instrument's site and several projector manufacturer sites for knowledge and came up empty.

What if I wanted to hook up 2 video cameras live into a projector and tweak the alignment while wearing the active shutter glasses, how would that work? Since the projectors only have standard video inputs (component, HDMI), I assume the content would have to be encoded with markers or something.

I can't believe Google let me down - I can't find anything on this.

Thanks in advance!

-Zach

[Mark L. Pederson]

The availability of 3D-ready DLP projectors and active glasses like the xPanD 102's that work with those projectors is really exciting. But I'm left with questions on how to deliver the content to the projectors. Could some of you 3D experts shed a little light?

Say I have 3D content in the form of a set of 2 avi's, one file per eye - is there a special format I have to use to pump it into the DLP projectors? I've scoured the Texas Instrument's site and several projector manufacturer sites for knowledge and came up empty.

What if I wanted to hook up 2 video cameras live into a projector and tweak the alignment while wearing the active shutter glasses, how would that work? Since the projectors only have standard video inputs (component, HDMI), I assume the content would have to be encoded with markers or something.

I can't believe Google let me down - I can't find anything on this.

Thanks in advance!

-Zach

Typically - you create a 3D DCP. This is a 48fps interleaved file played on a digital cinema server into a 3D enabled projector.

Depending on the projector and 3D system - you can feed both eyes to the projector via two streams of HD-SDI - typically out of a stereoscopic enabled DI system such as Scratch or Pablo. You could also hook up two cameras directly to a 3D enabled projector - OR - two projectors in a over/under configuration where each has a pola filter - assuming you were using a polarized (non-shutter glasses) 3D system.

[Zach Nelson]

Thanks, Mark! That makes sense with the cinema projectors (Christie, etc).

But it seems like the consumer/pro-sumer projectors like a Viewsonic PJD6211 don't accept dual inputs - they expect some sort of magical interleaved 3D format that wakes-up the 3D functionality of the DLP chip. Is that the 3D DCP you're referring to?

(technically that projector has 2 D-sub connectors, but it's for 2 computers, not 2 simultaneous video feeds - unless I'm wrong....)

[vsv]

how to deliver the content to the projectors

Stereoscopic Player (http://3dtv.at/Index_en.aspx)


DepthQ Player (http://www.depthq.com/player.html)

[Zach Nelson]

Thanks - 3dtv.at has everything I need!

[David Wilson]

Definitely what vsv said.

Stereoscopic player is an astonishingly robust, hugely useful tool.

[Zach Nelson]

Odd thing about the Stereoscopic Player... there's no option to select an output device. What if I have 2 monitors and a 3D DLP projector ... weird.

[vsv]

Odd thing about the Stereoscopic Player... there's no option to select an output device. What if I have 2 monitors and a 3D DLP projector ... weird.


http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/1210/splayer.jpg

[Zach Nelson]

That controls the internal algorithm used to communicate with an external device, but it doesn't let you select the device itself. If I had 2 3D DLP projectors, I wouldn't be able to pick which one the player should use.

I was expecting it to enumerate the devices connected to the system like this:

Viewsonic DLP Projector [1]
Viewsonic DLP Projector [2]
Default Dell Display Device [1]

... I'll ping the author of the software for clarification - thanks vsv!

[Loyd Bateman]

what's the best solution for macintosh computers?? Thanks