Price Qty

Get FREE shipping in the US for orders over $35 + FREE returns within 30 days

Get FREE shipping in the US for orders over $35 + FREE returns within 30 days

Vote for Your Favorite Setup and Help Us Crown the Best Game Room!

Vote Now

Vote for Your Favorite Setup and Help Us Crown the Best Game Room!

3D Projectors and 3D Glasses: What to Know Before You Buy

As filmmakers and digital content producers increasingly explore the potential of 3D video, there has been a growing need for consumers to ensure that they are able to view the 3D content properly. This question is particularly relevant when deciding to purchase a projector.

In this article we will look to answer the following questions:

·     Can I watch 3D movies on a projector?

·     What type of projectors can play 3D movies?

·     How do I make my 3D viewing experience comfortable?

·     How do I choose suitable 3D glasses to pair with my projector?

Can I watch 3D movies on a projector?

The simple answer to this question is yes, there are many projectors on the market that support 3D viewing. The question then becomes how to identify which projectors support 3D viewing.

What type of projectors can play 3D movies?
3D Ready

Given the volume of marketing surrounding consumer electronics, it’s hard to find out whether a projector actually supports 3D viewing. Making it harder is that there is no standard terminology used for 3D projectors approved by any industry consortium or association. With that in mind, the easiest way to identify if a projector supports 3D viewing is if it is labeled as “3D Ready.” 3D Ready means the projector supports at least one of the available 3D input formats, it will support 3D viewing.

Full HD 3D

Commonly seen phrases such as “Full HD 3D” or “Full 3D” are just marketing terms meant to spruce up straightforward concepts in order to bolster the image of their product. “Full HD 3D” means a projector that supports Full HD resolution and is 3D ready. Similarly, “Full 3D” does not denote any special 3D feature or capabilities, but actually means the same thing as Full HD 3D.

How do I make my 3D viewing experience comfortable?

Once you have identified which projectors on the market support 3D viewing, the next item is how to make sure that you get the best quality, in terms of comfort and image, when watching a 3D movie. But before we get into the specifics of quality, we need to introduce the basics of 3D.

Humans can perceive depth because our left and right eye each see a different view of the same object(s), which our brain then synthesizes to create the sense of depth and distance we are accustomed to, a phenomenon known as stereoscopic vision. This concept is the foundation of 3D video, as all variations of 3D video rely on presenting slightly different views of the same scene to the left and right eye. The ability of each element involved in viewing 3D video to simulate this phenomenon determines the quality of the 3D video.

This capacity to produce optimized 3D video that is comfortable to view features high-quality visuals, depends on various factors that include the format of the 3D video, the glasses used, and the overall quality of the projector.

3D Signal Format

To recreate the experience of stereoscopic vision, where each eye sees a different image, 3D projectors rely on a solution called frame sequential 3D (or page flipping) where the video projects alternates between a frame to be viewed by the left eye and a frame to be viewed by the right eye in sequence until the video ends. Each frame is then directed to its corresponding eye via the 3D glasses worn by the viewer, which we will discuss later in this article.

However, it is the 3D signal format that determines how each frame of the video is transmitted from the output source to the projector. The type of format used for the video will affect the quality of the 3D image. As of today, 3D video technology has settled on a few formats used to transmit 3D video which are supported by the majority of 3D ready projectors on the market. They include Side-by-Side, Top-and-Bottom (or Over-and-Under), and Frame Packing.

Side-by-Side

The Side-by-Side format takes each frame transmitted to the projector and splits it in half vertically so that the left half of the frame contains the image meant for the left eye, and the right half of the frame contains the image meant for the right eye. Once the 3D ready projector receives the transmitted frame, it then takes each image within the frame and converts them into the individual frames intended for each eye and projects them out via the frame sequential 3D projection process.

Top-and-Bottom (Over-and-Under)

The Top-and-Bottom (or Over-and-Under) format is similar to the Side-by-Side because each transmitted frame is split in half and each half is reprocessed by the projector for frame sequential 3D projection. But in the case of Top-and-Bottom, the transmitted frame is split in half horizontally with the image for the left eye contained in the top half and the image for the right eye contained in the bottom half.

Frame Packing

Both Side-by-Side and Top-and-Bottom 3D video formats involve splitting the transmitted frame in half and placing an image meant for projection in each half. However, this means that each image’s resolution is only a fraction of the original transmission resolution, for example for a frame in Full HD resolution using the Side-by-Side format each image will only have a width of 960 pixels (half of the 1920 width of FHD). The projector then upscales these partial resolution images in the conversion process to produce the resolution of the projector.

Both splitting and upscaling results in the degradation of the video content’s original resolution. To resolve this issue, the Frame Packing format was introduced. The Frame Packing format abandons the splitting process utilized in the Side-by-Side and Top-and-Bottom formats and instead combines the two frames – one for the left eye and one for the right eye – at their full resolution into a single “packed frame.” With Frame Packing there is no upscaling and no image degradation involved.

Because Frame Packing involves frames packed with full resolution images, the data and bandwidth needed for this format is larger than those needed for Side-by-Side or Top-and-Bottom. As a result, the Frame Packing format is more commonly used in Blu-Ray 3D movies, while the Side-by-Side or Top-and-Bottom formats are typical for streaming or downloaded content.

How do you choose suitable 3D glasses to pair with my projector?

3D glasses are responsible for ensuring that the alternating frames in the frame sequential 3D ecosystem are seen by the correct eye. There are 2 major types of 3D glasses on the market today: passive 3D glasses and active 3D glasses.

Passive 3D Glasses

Passive 3D glasses are glasses that use polarized lenses to filter the light from the projection screen so that only a portion of the projected image is “shown” to each eye. The advantage of using Passive 3D glasses is that the glasses themselves are relatively inexpensive when compared to active 3D glasses, while the disadvantage is that due to the filtering effect the image quality associated with passive 3D glasses is poorer than the image quality of active 3D glasses. Another thing to note for passive 3D glasses is that because they rely on a different optical principle than the frame sequential 3D system used by most projectors on the market, the use of passive 3D glasses requires purchasing an additional polarizing module to convert the images projected by the projector into images that passive 3D glasses support. The costs associated with purchasing such a module make the use of passive 3D glasses quite prohibitive for the average consumer.

Active 3D Glasses

Active 3D glasses are glasses that use lenses that rapidly turn transparent or opaque depending on which frame is being projected by the 3D ready projector. In other words when a frame intended for the left eye, based on the rules of frame sequential 3D, is projected the left lens on a pair of active 3D glasses will turn transparent, while the lens on the right eye will turn opaque, and vice versa for a frame intended for the right eye. The lenses themselves can discern which eye each frame is intended for due to an IR sensor embedded in the glasses which receives a signal from either the projector or an external IR emitter indicating the correct eye for each frame.

Due to the technology and components employed by active 3D glasses their prices are higher than passive 3D glasses. But since they are meant to work with the average 3D ready projector by design, they do not require the additional purchase of a costly polarizer module and are the default glasses for use with 3D ready projectors on the market today.

What do you look for in a pair of active 3D glasses and how do you choose the best active 3D glasses to go with your projector?

There are various factors to consider when purchasing a pair of active 3D glasses, such as making sure you purchase glasses produced by the same manufacturer as your projector. This is because most glasses are calibrated to work best with projectors of the same brand. A precisely calibrated pair of glasses ensures that the lenses work in sync with the projector and respond and react to each frame at just the right time.

Regardless of whether you purchase glasses made by the manufacturer of your projector or not, there are still many other factors you can consider that will help you select a pair of glasses that will make your 3D viewing experience more immersive including the following:

- Panel (Lens) Response Time

- Transmittance

- Viewing Angle

- Contrast (Suggested Ratio of 1,000:1 to 1,500:1)

- Lower Power Consumption

- Water Resistance

- Weight

- Ergonomics

Xbox X Sports Home Cinema Projector TV Projector Gaming Projector

Was this article helpful?

Yes No
TOP