Category Archives: 3D

My next 3D project will be attempted in Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013

The Civil War battle re-enactment video I uploaded last night, was edited in Sony Vegas Movie Studio 12. Vegas MS has decent 3D support except for some issues that make synchronizing dual camera tracks a bit tougher. Once two tracks are paired as a 3D stereoscopic pair, there is no way to shift one of the tracks over by individual frames, which may be necessary if they were not precisely synchronized. However, I have found version 12 of the Vegas Movie Studio to be rock solid for 3D editing (unlike prior versions).

Magix Move Edit version 17 was also very solid for 3D editing. But their 2013 edition, renamed to Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013, was filled with bugs. Even basic 3D features appeared to have not been run by a software tester – they just didn’t work. A later update fixed most of those problems, but, as widely reported online, there continue to be problems exporting video output to MP4 files. It seems this might have to do with trying to use GPU hardware acceleration – or not – or maybe which brand of GPU is installed on the computer.

Based on some experiments, a simpler solution is to just output to Windows Media (WMV) format files. Seems much faster than MP4 encoding and so far, no problems encountered. I will do some experiments before I do this next project in MEP. MEP has a nice feature for 3D editing and that is automatic dual track alignment, based on the sound tracks, plus after pairing, the tracks can be shifted left or right, one frame at a time.

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3D+2D TV: A 3D display that’s watchable without glasses, without ghosting

This makes no sense: 3D+2D TV: A 3D display that’s watchable without glasses, without ghosting | ExtremeTech.

You could wear a pair of glasses with the same polarized lens in both the left and right eyes and you’d see just one of the images.

Or you could wear a pair of LCD shutter glasses that turns the left and right eye lenses open simultaneously, so you see just one of the images.

And throw out the unused image (in other words, the 2D viewer sees only the left images).

Now you’ve got 3D and 2D viewers on one system, albeit, with half resolution one way or another for the 2D viewers. If they care. But that’s true of this 3D+2D TV system too, only its more complicated.

Which is why I don’t get this.

Is 3D delayed again until 4K TV comes out?

Fujifilm has officially discontinued the Fujifilm 3D W3 still camera. This is the last of their 3D cameras. (See http://3d.coldstreams.com/?p=2264)  The W3 continues to be available as they ship from inventory; the Amazon new price has fallen to about $160. Panasonic has also discontinued sales of the Lumix 3D1 except for a large quantity of Japanese language-only versions being sold through numerous electronics distributors in Japan and on EBay and Amazon. I own one of the Japanese language versions and its easiest enough to use without speaking Japanese as most of the menus are icon based.

The are no more integrated 3D still cameras being made, except for 3D still capability on some video cameras, some toy cameras, and the paired GoPro Hero2 with the 3D sync cable. Alternatives are to use two older Canon cameras with the StereoData Maker version of the CHDK hacking software and a simple USB synchronization cable.

3D still photography is much simpler than 3D video photography. But 3D stills suffer from the same hurdles as 3D video – the viewer needs special glasses or 3D displays with special glasses. While the BBC is postponing most of their 3D production work now, for 3 years, Sky 3D says they are continuing at full speed ahead on 3D work.

Dolby and Phillips say they expect to announce shipments of their first glasses free 3D displays early next year. However, glasses free 3D is probably not going to be common until the 4K push is thoroughly in gear. That’s because 2K is sort of half resolution HD (one way or another) and 4K provides super detail for 3D. I have seen glasses free 3D 4K displays at CES and they are amazing. But the technology is not yet ready for mass manufacturing at moderate price points. In 2 to 4 years, the 3D 4K glasses free technology should become available at moderate prices. We hope.

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