Auto-3D How it Works

Content:

• How it Works
• Configuration

The GUI details

The MediaPortal GUI by default is not 3D capable. As soon as you look a 3D movie the complete GUI gets destroyed by your TV and looks very strange.

This happens because in 3D mode the TV expects two images he can somehow combine to a 3D image. If you play such a movie fullscreen your're safe. But as soon as parts of the MediaPortal GUI get visible - in most cases you notice this when changing volume or doing fast forward or something like that - you will see a very strange effect. This is because MediaPortal does not provide 2 images.

So some of the display code in the MediaPortal core got altered to be able to provide the 2 necessary images for the 3D mode. This works for all available 3D modes and can be switched on the fly.

Originally the plugin was only intended to automatically switch a TV into 3D mode when starting a 3D movie, but now the plugin can also switch the GUI.

As soon as the plugin recognizes that the core is capable of providing a 3D aware GUI, it switches the GUI into 3D mode when a 3D movie is started and back into 2D mode if the movie is stopped.

The TV details

Many TVs need to be switched manually into 3D mode. Sometimes BluRay players are able to switch the TV over a HDMI-CEC (=consumer electronics control) command, but this won’t work with a PC, as no graphic controller does support that.

Beyond any solutions with HDMI CEC adaptors working over USB there are 2 simple approaches supported by this plugin:

• Control API of the TV
• Control over USB-IR controller via EventGhost

The following TVs / Beamers are supported at the moment:

• Philips (jointSpace / DeVine)
• Samsung (Series 6 and above)
• Sony Bravia
• Panasonic VIERA
• LG 2011 and 2012/13
• Epson Beamers (EH-TW8000/TW8000W, PL Home Cinema 5010/5010, EH-TW9000/TW9000W/PL Pro Cinema 6010)

The 3D details

Most 3D movies are either in Side by Side (SBS) or Top and Bottom (TAB) format. Both formats also exist in a reverse order (SBSR and TABR).

To find out, if a movie has 2D or 3D format these methods are used:

• Manual selection via Menu
• Parsing of the movie title for 3D or more. This approach is the fastest one
• Video analysis if the movie. This approach analyzes a few pictures of the movie in real time and uses a special algorithm to find out if a movie is 2D, 3D SBS or 3D TAB.