3D MVC Option

[RobertSmith]

Hi,

I've figured out a reliable test for whether or not your player is using the 3D from a 3D MKV, or is instead using its own software 3D conversion. [The short version: only Stereoscopic Player does it right, in terms of the 3D video.]

Using Gravity 3D as your test disc:

The opening text should be flat. It should not appear in 3D, it should not appear warped, just flat. PowerDVD 13 and TMT6 show this correctly when viewing from an ISO, but when viewing the MKV, the text gets wavy and the title of the movie shows up in 3D. Which means that those applications are applying software 3D conversion when reading MKV files, instead of using what's on the disc/in the file.

I don't like other aspects of Stereoscopic Player, but it does read the 3D MKV video correctly.

Because of this, for now I'm sticking with making ISOs for my 3D content.

Great post, THY !!!

p.s I'm also doing ISOs for my 3D content d.s

[Batiatus]

I still don't understand why everyone in here doesn't just buy a mede8er player and be done with it. Mine plays AVC/MVC 3D mkv files ripped with MakeMKV with no issues on my Samsung 3D tv. I'd never mess with trying to get blu-ray software on a pc to play these 3D mkvs properly. Way too much to configure and sort out.

I have 2 HTPC's costing over 4 grand. If both Stereoscopic and the Med8ter can play MVC MKV then most certainly other software can and will be able to play it with full support unlike the rinky-dink Russian program. It's also about getting the code into open source so other programs can share the experience. Thus far it appears to be stalled but buying another media player is NOT the solution for me.

[Dazkine]

If you want MVC MKV i would buy a Mediaplayer that can play these files. There is no free MVC software decoder on the horizon. So nobody knows when software like XBMC is able to play these files, perhaps never..

[rplotkin]

Like Dazkine said, there is no free MVC software decoder.

Batiatus, I'm in a similar situation with a serious PC. Stereoscopic Player can play these files, and it costs around $90, which has to do some with their development costs, and some with their licensing costs for MVC. Because of the latter, I wouldn't expect XBMC to natively support MVC for a while (even though the today-released version 13 does have some 3D support). When you buy a Mede8er, I imagine you're paying some baked-in licensing fee. MVC is not going to become open-source software, as far as I can tell, and you'll need to chalk up some additional expense to get this working. I agree that when there's not a simple solution for a powerful PC, it's mind-bogglingly frustrating.

I don't know if TMT or PDVD will work to figure it out; that would likely depend on their code quality and demand from the community. If their code is currently separating blu-ray playback from non-BD playback (which I now think is likely), it might take significant development effort for them to separate it out.

I'm working on a solution now that incorporates (the purchased) SP for XBMC. Will see what I can figure out. The difficult part for me is getting the commands from an IP-controlled XBMC sent into SP, but that's a different topic.

[Batiatus]

$90 can buy software that can do all kinds of crazy and amazingly simple things. Stereoscopic can't even handle the most BASIC of player controls. Yes it would be a decent option IF it was a quality player. It's little better than using MS Paint to edit photos and it costs similar to software like TMT and PowerDVD. Stereoscopic should be a $20 program at most and even then BASIC player controls should be fully supported.

[mattias83]

$90 can buy software that can do all kinds of crazy and amazingly simple things. Stereoscopic can't even handle the most BASIC of player controls. Yes it would be a decent option IF it was a quality player. It's little better than using MS Paint to edit photos and it costs similar to software like TMT and PowerDVD. Stereoscopic should be a $20 program at most and even then BASIC player controls should be fully supported.

Agreed. Stereoscopic Player is a terrible piece of software - it lacks many basic features that any media player should have. And it's complicated as hell to configure. I've gone through all that long ago and never touch it anymore.The best solution is to buy a good media player that supports MVC MKV, like the one I mentioned on the previous page. Regardless of how expensive a person's PC is, it's all up to the software how well it will play these files. My media player plays them extremely well with no issues. It does have spotty blu-ray ISO/BDMV folder support due to licensing issues, but if you rip to MVC mkv with makemkv it plays them perfectly. That $200 media player plays these mkv 3D files far better than any htpc setup, and it connects to my HDTV via HDMI 1.4. It also supports full DTS HD-MA and Dolby TrueHD audio.

[shanndogg]

Looking for confirmation- currently, Stereoscopic Player is the only software based player for 3D MVC MKVs? I see that PowerDVD 14 (which I believe is a recent release) lists it's compatible with MVC and MKV- has anyone tried this version?

[Batiatus]

That is interesting news. I will have to look into it. But you are correct, to this point we know the Stereoscopic is the only player that will properly display MVC MKV files. But it's a TERRIBLE player and VASTLY overpriced. Patience.

[Batiatus]

That is interesting news. I will have to look into it. But you are correct, to this point we know the Stereoscopic is the only player that will properly display MVC MKV files. But it's a TERRIBLE player and VASTLY overpriced. Patience.

[Batiatus]

I found this response post asking about MVC MKV and it seems (loosely translated) that both PowerDVD13 and 14 CAN play MVC MKV but the problem lies in the header being created by the ripping software (MakeMKV).

This is a list of values for the Video Stereo Mode section of the header.

0: mono
1: side by side (left eye is first)
2: top-bottom (right eye is first)
3: top-bottom (left eye is first)
4: checkboard (right is first)
5: checkboard (left is first)
6: row interleaved (right is first)
7: row interleaved (left is first)
8: column interleaved (right is first)
9: column interleaved (left is first)
10: anaglyph (cyan/red)
11: side by side (right eye is first)
12: anaglyph (green/magenta)
13: both eyes laced in one Block (left eye is first) (field sequential mode)
14: both eyes laced in one Block (right eye is first) (field sequential mode)

Should most MVC MKV files be flagged as 13? When looking at the header info is only lists a possible value of 0-11. Should the files be renamed to .MK3D instead of just .MKV?


Could this be the dream answer most of us are looking for, until the code becomes open source?

[shanndogg]

Very interesting- looking forward to getting this cleared up. Could we simply edit the header in mkvmerge to be compatible with PowerDVD 14?

[SamuriHL]

That's an interesting question. I hadn't tried PDVD14 yet, and clearly it's not going to work without the right header, but, does mkvmerge allow you to set header options for 3D?

[docchris]

I found this response post asking about MVC MKV and it seems (loosely translated) that both PowerDVD13 and 14 CAN play MVC MKV but the problem lies in the header being created by the ripping software (MakeMKV).

This is a list of values for the Video Stereo Mode section of the header.

0: mono
1: side by side (left eye is first)
2: top-bottom (right eye is first)
3: top-bottom (left eye is first)
4: checkboard (right is first)
5: checkboard (left is first)
6: row interleaved (right is first)
7: row interleaved (left is first)
8: column interleaved (right is first)
9: column interleaved (left is first)
10: anaglyph (cyan/red)
11: side by side (right eye is first)
12: anaglyph (green/magenta)
13: both eyes laced in one Block (left eye is first) (field sequential mode)
14: both eyes laced in one Block (right eye is first) (field sequential mode)

Should most MVC MKV files be flagged as 13? When looking at the header info is only lists a possible value of 0-11. Should the files be renamed to .MK3D instead of just .MKV?


Could this be the dream answer most of us are looking for, until the code becomes open source?

Not even close im afraid

go and look at the second post on page 6 of this very thread

MK3D is for older types of 3D content which can be displayed a number of different ways. It is basically a normal MKV file which has an additional flag added that indicates how the 3D content is to be displayed. They call it StereoMode flag.

http://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html

Stereo-3D video mode:
0: mono
1: side by side (left eye is first)
2: top-bottom (right eye is first)
3: top-bottom (left eye is first)
4: checkboard (right is first)
5: checkboard (left is first)
6: row interleaved (right is first)
7: row interleaved (left is first)
8: column interleaved (right is first)
9: column interleaved (left is first)
10: anaglyph (cyan/red)
11: side by side (right eye is first)
12: anaglyph (green/magenta)
13 both eyes laced in one Block (left eye is first)
14 both eyes laced in one Block (right eye is first))


Bluray MVC 3D content is not listed as one of the modes above. The reason for this is it is not needed. Bluray 3D has been standardized and is always in MVC format or it cannot be sold as "Bluray 3d". Therefore, MVC content is always in the same format and does not need an extra flag telling a player that it is 3D and how to play the content.

The reason they have standardized on MVC is because it is 100% backward compatible with 2D. 3D MVC content can always be displayed in 2D without any re encode or complicated settings. This is not the case with Side by Side or other 3D content types.

MakeMKV leaves 3D content in the MVC source format straight from the blu ray without any re encoding! Full quality 1080p for each eye! It just raps the video and audio data into a MKV container neatly and quickly. Great!

However, if you have older 3D content from DVD's etc before the blu ray MVC standardization.... Then that's when you will need the MK3D format. So indeed it has its place and need.

Stereoscopic player supports a number of 3D formats and if you have older content then it will accommodate for sure. It also plays Bluray MVC 3D content from the MKV containers that MakeMKV creates as well. I am not sure if Stereoscopic player supports the MK3D standard stereo flags automatically but it would be good if it did. You can manually set the source format type if it doesn't.

You can create MKV's that contain the stereo flags with MKVtoolnix. Look under "Format Specific Options" then "Stereoscopy".

I have had success playing 3D content in Stereoscopic Player using checkerboard mode or (3D Ready DLP-TV) as they call it. You must manually set you 3D TV to checkerboard mode as well. See your TV manual. This is not the same as HDMI 1.4 mode which is automatic for modern TVs and is what bluray 3D uses by default. (Power DVD) Stereoscopic Player at present doesn't support HDMI 1.4 properly. The Nividia mode as per a previous post didn't work for me. It automatically turns on the 3D and glasses via HDMI 1.4 but doesn't play properly in 3D because the picture is in Over Under Format for some reason?

[Batiatus]

That's an interesting question. I hadn't tried PDVD14 yet, and clearly it's not going to work without the right header, but, does mkvmerge allow you to set header options for 3D?

Yes it does. Though the exact value to identify it as I'm not sure though I posted the supposed values above. I did try and edit 1 of my MVC MKV headers Stereo Mode to option 13 and when I played it in XBMC it was flagged as 3D and asked me how I wanted to play it back. My system isn't on a 3D display at the moment and the 3D wouldn't work anyways but at least it's promising. I've downloaded the PDVD14 demo and will try it out soon. Finding an easy to spot demo it the key. I'll likely try with some 3D MVC MKV cartoons I've got rather than mess up my large movie files.

[docchris]

Its not the headers - go back and look at page 6 of this thread where they discuss exactly all the options (0-13) that were just posted here - they are not relevant to MVC