| Author | Message | ||
     Christoph Bungert (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 43 Registered: 4-2006  Rating: N/A |
Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum with 3D-plug-in first impressions I got the latest ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum with 3D-plug in. The ***Sim3D*** 2D-to-3D conversion for 2D-DVD's is running, but the results are - as expected - not very useful. Basically the whole image is a bit off the screen plane. Furthermore the lower half of the image comes closer to the viewer in expectation of lower objects usually closer to the camera. This may make sense for certain landscape shots, but most of the time it's annoying. Looks silly if a person is in the frame and the lower part is bowed towards the viewer. Sim3D doesn't work for standard Blu Ray yet. The ***Blue Ray-3D*** mode does work fine with the only disc I got so far: 'Cloudy with a chance of meatballs' (german version). The handling isn't that comfortable yet. Stereo3D works in full screen mode only of course. There are no control-elements and no on-screen informations (e.g. run-time, chapter). Just one message and a few hot keys (I found page-up/down for chapters, cursor left/right for fast forw/backw so far). Very nagging: each time the stereo3d-mode is entered or left the movie starts from the beginning, even if the option 'continue from last scene' is activated. Frame-sequential 3D-DVD's aren't supported. This is disappointing. I have always problems to find fitting DVD-codecs which work for Peter Wimmer's 'Stereoscopic Video Player'. The nvidia 3D video player is just - if I'm not mistaken - an OEM version of Peter's Player. By the way, it seems the TMT3 codecs can't be used for these either. The biggest drawback, which isn't Arcsoft's fault, is the fact that the early bunch of 3D-ready LCD's: Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ 120 Hz 1680x1050 ViewSonic FuHzion VX2265wm 120 Hz 1680x1050 ViewSonic FuHzion VX2268wm 120 Hz 1680x1050 aren't supported in Blu Ray 3D mode. The problem is this: these monitors support 100/110/120Hz and HDCP, but not both at the same time. HDCP/BluRay requires 60Hz here. I tried and failed to get 3D Vision working at 60Hz. (I didn't try that hard though.) You can either run Blu Ray or 3D, but not both. This is a mess. Samsung, Viewsonic and nvidia promoted these monitors for 3D Vision. Nvidia announced future Blu Ray 3D support very early, so this just isn't fair. They should do something about this. I knew there's a problem with HDCP early on, but I thought they would offer a solution, especially for Blu Ray 3D. I couln't imagine they would abandon the Samsung and Viewsonic monitors that early, because most 3D Vision users should have one of these! Why copy-protect an uncompressed (!) 120 fps (!) high res (!) video data stream? Who would possibly pirate this? Actually, I own the Samsung 2233RZ and as a workaround I'm now using my old multisync CRT (tube) monitor for watching Blu Ray 3D. Analogue VGA is HDCP free. However - if I'm not mistaken - future Blu Rays may have an analogue copy protection flag activated which prevents analogue output. Another workaround would be to get rid of HDCP by software, such as AnyDVD, which is illegal, at least Germany. I'm still hoping for a workaround by Samsung or nvidia. Version tested TMT3-Platinum version 3.0.1.180 with SIM-HD 3D-plug-in with Sim3D and Blu Ray 3D Supported sources for real stereo 3D: Blu Ray 3D Side-by-side Over-under (no frame sequential, no line sequential) Supported output devices: Anaglyph nvidia 3D-vision DLP-TV chequerboard horizotal line-interleave Christoph Bungert stereo3d.com (Message edited by admin on July 03, 2010) |
