Just thought i'd ask this question.

Whats the point in BD Packs that contain both 3D BD and BD discs. I was under the impression that 3D BD can be played in a BD player without problem. I did this with Mega mind 3D in my laptop. So why have the 3D and BD copy in the box ?.

Do they actually have an extra physical disc in the pack? None of the 3D discs I've bought have, but then again I haven't bought many!

It would be pointless, unless there are some non-3D BD players out there that can't cope with 3D discs and for which no firmware updates are available.

I'm not too sure tbh. I know there wasnt an extra disc in the box when I bought Mega-mind. Its just that most are advertised as having 3D BD and BD copies in the box, unless they mean its on the same disc.

like this for instance

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers...7576398&sr=8-1

Aw I see now lol my mistake. that'll be this thread dead them lol

The Harry Potter 3D version had 3D BluRay, BluRay, DVD and bit of paper for digital copy

But is the 3D and BD copy on the same disc

Not got the set myself, but reading the description it comes with 4 discs, 3xBluray and 1xDVD. I can only take from that the 3D and Bluray are on separate discs.

kind of a waste then isnt it. I just assumed that the 3D n BD would be on the same disc.

It depends what they've done. 3D has a 50% overhead compared to 2D which means that if you have a 2D only disc you can get better quality than from a 3D disc so not a waste as long as they've made use of the extra space.

That's a good point. But in that case, you'd think they would make a song and dance about the higher bitrate used on the 2D version.

The description on blu-ray.com does comment on both transfers, calling the 3D version less than spectacular, while the 2D version gets a big thumbs by calling it magnificent.

You'd probably only know this if you visited this blu-ray's site or one of the many message boards, so not wildley known, I wonder if that's the way they prefer it, if 3D gets a bad rap and the 2D version is reported to be so much better it's no going to help with 3D sales.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Harry-...Blu-ray/23574/

3D Bluray discs are not playable on non 3D players.
And if your tv is not 3D either you'll be lucky to get to the menu.

I have several 3D Bluray discs and they all have separate discs for each version.

Don't confuse them with the old anaglyph system with the red and blue glasses .
The remake of Journey to the Centre of the Earth is one such release with both 2D and 3D on the same disc

Yes, they are.


No, you won't.


Nobody is.

Not quite. It's the 3D post-conversion that is described as less-than-spectacular, rather than the image quality per se. I don't think they directly compare the image quality of the 3D version in 2D mode with the 2D only version.

A quick search brings up discs that are 3D and 2D on the same disc, like....

....Avatar, Resident Evil Afterlife, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, Piranha, Open Season, Monster House, Ice Age.

It looks like discs have a single encode using AVC-MVC where the AVC decoder can decode a single 2D image and discards the rest of the data, whereas a MVC decoder will decode all views and generate a 3D video.

I does look like there are various ways 3D (not the anaglyph system) are packaged - 3D/2D on the same disc, though you don't own any they do exist - 3D + 2D on separate discs, and those that clearly display they only play in 3D, though these were normally the promo discs given away with players/TV's, they were not for resale as far as I know.

There are quite a few of them - Street Dance, My Bloody Valentine, Haunting Of Winchester House, Piranha, Animals United, Shrek (The story Continues), Call of the Wild, Lovers Guide, Legend of Harrow Woods, Garfield Pet Force, Spy Kids etc. At first they were normally found on DVD and came with glasses, now it seems some of them can be found on Bluray, but all the ones I've seen advertise it's the Red/Blue system and the copy comes with glasses, some even say it on the front cover.

http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/1...D/Product.html

Just read the article again and you are indeed right. The 3D version is just underwhelming in regards the 3D affects, the overall picture quality of both transfers are very good.

I have the 5-disc Tron set and it has a separate Blu-ray for the 3D version of Legacy. It can only play on a 3D enabled player and tv, otherwise you get a black screen telling you that your setup doesn't support 3D.

That's interesting. The Blu-ray 3D specification was designed to be backwards compatible with 2D players; the MVC codec is an extension to the AVC codec supported by all players. So they must have deliberately crippled the disc to make it behave that way.

I think it may be down to the two ways 3D can be recorded. Side By Side is compatible with anything, two full res screens one after the other in effect an apparent doubling of the frame rate is something else.

If it's worth anything the PS3 needed a firmware upgrade to play 3D discs.

I don't think that's right. As I understand it (and I'm too lazy to seek out and plough through the actual specification), the encoding on the disc will always be the same, and the methods you describe are simply to do with how the 3D data is presented to and rendered by the display. Blu-ray 3D itself is display agnostic.


Not really. That made the PS3 able to process 3D. It should still have been able to play 3D discs in 2D mode, even before the update.

The only joker in all of this seems to be the Tron disc (and therefore presumably others) which I think must have been deliberately authored to only work in 3D mode. I would have thought that was non-compliance with the Blu-ray standard, but perhaps they get away with it by providing the 2D disc separately.

A search for "blu-ray 3d-only" reveals that there are in fact quite a lot of these discs. It also reveals ways of overcoming the limitation!

I've seen it suggested that the reason for the separate 3D-only and 2D versions is that the 2D version can differ significantly from the one-eye view that would be derived from the 3D version.

The plot thickens.

When is a 3D Blu ray disc, 3D that you can play on a 3D ready TV?

I just got a 2nd hand copy of The Final Destination and it is the old red/blue 3D rather than Side by Side 3D.

I found mention of 'floating black bars', nothing to do with aspect ratio, but something to do with objects on the edge of the picture, someone tried to explain it by saying, hold a finger in front of you, now open and close left/right eye alternately and you will see your finger move left to right. I suppose this could affect the 2D picture because it only takes the data from one eye, the image is not centralised but shifted either to the left/right depending on what eye the data is taken from. Maybe it's these floating black bars that are appearing onscreen is why they have changed the way they package 3D movies by including the 2D version as well.

I'm assuming the dual 3D cameras are positioned as our eyes are when filming, so technically the two images are not 100% identical, there will be a shift of the image either to the left/right depending on what camera you look through, it's only in the correct position when both images are together.

That in itself would make sense, the best camera location, zoom etc for 3D is likely to be different from that for 2D. If the presentation is optimised for 3D it's unlikely to be the perfect for 2D so having a separate disc would be best for those of us not wanting 3D even if they don't use the extra space available.

The thing is, if you've created your 3D version natively (everything done with a 3D camera), then there is no "correct" 2D viewpoint, unless you create it in post-production, or perhaps use an even more complicated camera with an extra lens in the middle (is there such a thing?).

So now I'm wondering if all the films with a separate 2D version are ones where the 3D version was created in post-production. That means you get the definitive 2D version on one disc, plus the bastardised 3D-only version on a separate disc. It makes sense.

Perhaps somebody less lazy than me could check...