Why am I suddenly buying up every 3D Blu-ray I can find after 3D became one of the biggest tech flops of all time?
3D movies are finally worth watching
It took decades, but the technology is finally ready.
My colleague Cameron Faulkner models a pair of Xreal glasses.
3D movies are finally worth watching
It took decades, but the technology is finally ready.
The Evolution of 3D Viewing
The technology’s finally ready for 3D movies to shine, more than 15 years since James Cameron’s Avatar wowed me on the big screen and went on to become the highest-grossing film worldwide. Video glasses are giving me the experience I’ve always desired.
I’ve always loved 3D movies, but viewing them was awkward. Walking into a movie theater with a pair of polarized glasses, I would only get half the resolution and roughly half the brightness, since those glasses had to split one reflected image between my two eyes. Almost every 3D technology cuts something you care about in half, whether it’s resolution or the refresh rate and flicker you get with active shutter glasses.
But what if you had a full screen for each eye? That’s what video glasses can provide.
The Xreal glasses have to be plugged into a USB-C source of 3D content, like a laptop or handheld or phone.
Standalone VR headsets like the Steam Frame, Meta Quest, and Apple Vision Pro also work.
Hardware and Immersion
Last year, I began testing a pair of Xreal One Pro glasses, which primarily give you a gigantic flat screen, like a private theater, for whatever you plug in. But that screen doesn’t technically need to stay flat. If you press and hold the right button, Xreal can give you independent left and right views for side-by-side content. With proper content, you get a full 1080p view for each eye.
There are side-by-side 3D toggles in popular video player apps for VR headsets like the Meta Quest and Steam Frame, too — and the Apple Vision Pro and upcoming Meta VR Glasses let you natively stream 3D films.
They’re breathtaking.
The water in Moana, a glass-covered clock in Zootopia 2, the helmets in Gravity, suiting up in giant robots in Pacific Rim, lightcycles in Tron: Legacy, comic book panels coming to life in Into the Spider-Verse — there’s just so much more depth to see.
When the ocean parts to let Moana through, it no longer feels like looking at a flat wall of water. It’s a living chunk of ocean with life swimming inside. The Lego Movie went from wow those are some realistic-looking CG Lego bricks on a flat screen to I just got teleported into an entire Lego diorama. In Avatar, the holographic displays in the ops room are mind-blowing. Even the flat rectangular monitors have 3D layers within.
Almost everything in Avatar
looks amazing in 3D, but the ops room is a special treat.
Image: Avatar.com
Cockpits and helmets and Tron: Legacy lightcycles and Mad Max: Fury Road’s convoy of battling vehicles — anything with transparent glass is a treat. There’s distinct detail on the faces inside the glass, the structures outside, beads of water or scratches on the glass itself, even reflections of the outside world, depending on the film.
Concert films and documentaries shot with specialized camera rigs look incredible in the Meta VR Glasses during a brief demo. The hardware brings viewers up close and personal with the content like few traditional recordings do.
Regardless of the hardware, it almost feels like I can reach out and touch a character’s face in 3D, feel their emotions and wrinkles and scars more vividly, once they have depth.
Or, in the case of Werner Herzog’s cult-classic 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams, I could appreciate how the world’s oldest surviving art isn’t flat — the 32,000-year-old cave paintings took form thanks to their three-dimensional canvas.
When I fired up Gravity for what I thought would be a brief test, late at night in bed, I wound up watching the entire film. It all feels a bit like when I bought my first decent set of headphones — I never knew what I was missing, but now I want to revisit all my favorites to experience them more deeply.
The Challenges of Content Availability
Not all 3D content is equal. Few live-action movies were truly filmed with twin cameras in recent years. In fake or poorly converted 3D movies, you’ll often see a billboard effect where it looks like there are flat layers of people or objects in the background instead of true depth.
Even fake 3D can intrigue. Watching scenes in Meta’s VR Glasses, eyes are often drawn to textured blankets, objects on mantelpieces, and background details.
in Meta’s VR Glasses, the kids were awkwardly billboarding — but my eyes were drawn to the couch’s textured blanket, the objects on the mantlepiece, the cartoon on the TV.
But the biggest catch is that 3D movies aren’t easy to just buy and play. Even though 3D films are still coming to theaters, you can’t necessarily stream them or buy a high-quality copy. 4K Blu-ray doesn’t support 3D at all. 3D Blu-rays were the last discs to offer 3D, meaning most physical 3D movies are stuck in the past at 1080p, 24fps, without HDR.
Even 3D Blu-rays aren’t necessarily easy to find, often requiring secondary marketplaces and expensive shipping for rare titles.
Streaming and the Future
Here’s the good news: The leading headset makers are starting to convince Hollywood it’s time to stream their 3D collections instead.
The Apple Vision Pro launched with the best 3D movie experience yet, featuring 4K, HDR, spatial audio, some films at 48fps, HEVC encoding, free 3D upgrades for many films already purchased in 2D, and exclusive access to a large catalog of 3D films on Disney Plus.
Soon, consumers will no longer need a $3,500 Apple headset to watch those films or convert them from old discs. Streaming options are expanding to more affordable Meta Quest headsets and upcoming Meta VR Glasses.
Meta’s headset will offer 3D movies to subscribers in major streaming apps, with rollouts beginning soon.
Upcoming headset launches will bring hundreds of 3D films available to rent or buy through dedicated TV apps, priced in line with typical 2D Ultra High Definition films.
Battery life on newer hardware is also expected to comfortably cover a full 3D movie when watched in Theater mode from a full charge.
The DIY Rip Route
In the meanwhile, some enthusiasts are experiencing 3D the hacky way: by ripping discs. Using external USB Blu-ray readers and conversion software, physical media can be transformed into high-quality Full-SBS files.
Loading those files onto portable gaming handhelds, plugging in video glasses, and firing up media players requires a lot of friction, but for dedicated fans, the immersive payoff is worth it.
Even when watching older movies, it feels like a taste of the future. But you know what they say: Everything old is eventually new again.
