After years of failed attempts, 3D movies can now deliver a compelling home viewing experience through video glasses. Sean Hollister, a senior editor at The Verge, reports that the technology has finally caught up with the format's promise, more than 15 years after James Cameron's Avatar became the highest-grossing film worldwide. The key advance is hardware that provides a separate full screen for each eye, eliminating the resolution and brightness losses caused by theater polarized glasses, active shutter glasses, and devices like the Nintendo 3DS.
Hollister began testing Xreal One Pro glasses last year. The glasses primarily project a large flat screen for connected devices, but holding the right button enables independent left and right views for side-by-side 3D content, yielding a full 1080p image per eye. Side-by-side 3D toggles also appear in video player apps for VR headsets including the Meta Quest and Steam Frame. The Apple Vision Pro and the upcoming Meta VR Glasses can natively stream 3D films. Titles such as Moana, Zootopia 2, Gravity, Pacific Rim, Tron: Legacy, and Into the Spider-Verse show pronounced depth, and James Cameron's concert film for Billie Eilish, shot with 16 twin cameras including four remote-controlled AGITO camera rigs, impressed during a Meta VR Glasses demo. A Google and Xreal Aura demo showed the documentary Galapagos: The Last Eden.
Content quality varies. Few recent live-action films were shot with twin cameras, and poorly converted 3D produces a billboard effect of flat layers. Buying 3D movies also remains difficult. 4K Blu-ray does not support 3D, leaving 3D Blu-rays as the last physical option, typically limited to 1080p at 24fps without HDR. Hollister bought Cave of Forgotten Dreams on eBay and had a rare copy of Into the Spider-Verse shipped from Thailand.
Streaming is improving. The Apple Vision Pro launched in 2024 with 4K, HDR, spatial audio, some Avatar films at 48fps, HEVC encoding, free 3D upgrades for many previously purchased 2D films, and Disney Plus's large 3D catalog. Meta director of entertainment Sarah Malkin told The Verge that Meta Quest 3S, Quest 3, and the new Meta VR Glasses will stream those films. By the Meta VR Glasses' spring launch, hundreds of 3D films will be available to rent or buy through Meta's TV app, with pricing in line with 2D UHD films, she said. Malkin also said the glasses' three-hour battery estimate should cover a full film in Theater mode from a full charge.
Until then, Hollister rips discs, using an external USB Blu-ray reader, MakeMKV, and BD3D2MK3D to produce high-quality Full-SBS files.
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