New 2D to 3D Video Converter

[cgos]

I'm curious about the new 2D to 3D Converter. The page for it says something about making side-by-side or top-bottom frames and has examples of both.

A long time ago, I found I could make my own 3D pictures by taking pictures of a scene from slightly different viewpoints (like taking pictures of the same scene without moving your head, once while looking through the viewfinder with the your right eye and once while looking through it with your left) then set the resulting two pictures side-by-side and then crossing your eyes to combine the images.

The examples shown are not 3D. I've examined the examples, and the images in the side-by-side and top-bottom are identical. If the images are identical, you cannot obtain a 3D effect. Each image must be taken from a slightly different viewpoint to obtain a 3D effect. Does the software create the differing viewpoints dynamically from the information available in adjacent video frames? I've often wondered if that could be done.

How does it work?

[Mona]

Hi cgos,

Please check for tutorial and other information about 2D to 3D Converter.

Regards,
mona

[signals]

The details of the internal functions I'm sure are proprietary.

[cgos]

Thanks for your reply signals. However, it was no help at all.

[cgos]

Thanks Mona. I read the page you posted and it was some help.

When the video is encoded to 3D, will it play on a regular monitor? What I mean is, if you encode it side-by-side, will the frames show up, side by side? If you tell it to encode to 2 separate files, is one for the left eye and one for the right?

That page is also wrong about not being able to see 3D with the naked eye. As I stated in my previous post, I have made my own 3D pictures so that all I need to do is cross my eyes a bit so that the images merge. It does produce a 3D effect without the need for special glasses.

If the 3D converter will create separate videos for the left and right eyes, I could play them on two separate monitors, cross my eyes to merge the images and watch the video without the need for special glasses.

Then my only concern would be my eyes getting stuck permanently cross-eyed. Oh-oh, flashback to the movie The Jerk and the lawsuit over the side-effect of the Opti-Grab.

[billbell52]

I have one of the first TVs that supports 3D. It is a Samsung DLP HDTV. It uses a checker board pattern. Samsung originally planned to use checker board then switched to side by side (I think). Here is a link to a pdf that goes into a lot of detail on how it works.

http://www.dlp.com/downloads/Introducing%20DLP%203D%20HDTV%20Whitepaper.pdf

[cgos]

Thanks billbell52. The whitepaper you linked talks about the checkerboard method only but it did tell me that both images are alternately displayed on the screen and that special glasses are definitely needed.

Has anybody used the 3D converter? Do you like it? What, if anything, don't you like about it?

Before I buy it, I want to know what I am getting into. Do some movies/programs convert better than others? Or does it work the same for every movie/program that has been tried? I'm very curious about its ability to convert Inception.

The last thing I want to know is about the output to two files option. Are those two files the left and right frames?

[GregiBoy]

I don't think it is worth the money.

The tests that I have run comparing the frames show no displacement whatsoever.

I harken this to the old days of black & white TV when you pasted a film over the screen with a blue, brown and green tint and convinced yourself that you were watching a colour TV.

[signals]

Thanks for your reply signals. However, it was no help at all.

It was designed so that you would not have unreasonable expectations about getting details of the inner workings of DVDFab. The product has a 30-day free trial, use that to evaluate it.

[glenns]

I don't think this program is worth the money as it stands now.It lakes depth i converted 4 movies 2 in CG that should have given give great results.My Sam sung Tv has a much better built in on the fly 2d-3d converter it has more depth than the converted result of this program.I believe this program need more work beta testing before it was released as the 3d is not good at this time.I don't feel their their description of this program meets the result of the conversion and would advise you try it before you buy it.I brought a lifetime subscription to this program on their reputation with their other great programs and didn't try before i brought it and feel very let down by this team only on this one product.

[sunny]

Hi glenns,

Did you drag the slider bar to the right end for virsual depth and Gain? The larger number, the deeper depth you gain. Hope this helps.

And for cgos,

If you choose "output two separate files" you will get two files one is for left eye, another is for right eye. Please put them and play them on your two separate monitors to see the result.

Sincerely,
--
Sunny

[glenns]

Hi Sunny:
The virsual depth slider is by default all the way to the right therefore no one needs to set it to Maxuim or all the way to the right.Their is almost no depth at all in the result.As i said before my Sam sung 3d TV's on the fly 3d is way better.Their is depth to the picture.You should look at these Samsung TVs so you get a idea as to what the picture should look like.If you look at the picture in 2d side by side with the samsung TV you see two overlapping pictures before you turn the 3d glasses on when you do the same using a processed film with your program before turning on the 3d glasses looking at the two side by side pictures you see almost no separation their for the resulting video is not very 3d like at all theirs almost no depth in the resulting processed video as if the two side by side pictures were the same not taken from slightly different angles as 3d should be.More work needs to be done for this product to work right.Please go and see a samsung TV and turn its on the fly 3d on and use with any video source and you will see much greater depth and 3d likeness then maybe you could adjust the program to give greater depth.As for the Gain your tutorial never explains what this slider is for,what it does and when it should be used so you can explain this to us but it didn't seem to make a difference where i set the Gain control the result is poor 3d.I brought a lifetime subscription to this with out trying it as your reputation on your other products is very good however i feel very let down from the team on this product as it stands.Also thanks for not deleting my message because i am unhappy with this one product Glenn.

[superduper]

The 3D converter seems to lack Frame offset

Frame offset does look in the next frame to see if objects are moving.
This helps in getting depth information to calculate the depth of the objects.

The downside of frame advance that is could add ghosting effects or has strange effects in scene changes.

PS. The "Gain" slider is to brighten up the images, this is that all 3D glasses have a brightness dimming effect.
15-20% for shutter glasses will be fine.