I saw The Hobbit in High Frame Rate!!

Vanwa - what's an active 3D monitor? The theatres are now using circular polarization, I can't imagine how a monitor does that. A theatre requires a dual projector.

Short explanation of 'circular polarization' please?

does active 3D mean they are actually there in Middle Earth?

A full tutorial on polarization for the general masses.

Since light waves are not on a surface like water waves, they can oscillate in all directions, not just up and down. You can put in filters with vertically or horizontally aligned polymers so that electrons will be driven (with some friction) either vertically or horizontally, thus drawing energy out waves with those components.

The easiest way to use polarization to make 3D is to have one camera vertically polarized and one horizontally polarized, with the same thing done to each eye of the glasses. But if you tilt your head sideways, they will switch direction and the 3D will go all caterwampus.

Circular polarization combines both horizontal and vertical, but puts them 90 degrees out of phase in one eye, and -90 degrees out of phase in the other (sine plus cosine). The result is one eye sees a wave rotating clockwise, the other counterclockwise. If you turn your head sideways the 3D still goes a little caterwampus because the cameras are aligned horizontally not vertically, but it's less extreme.

You can test by putting two glasses over top and looking at a standard light source: if not circularly polarized you can turn one set of glasses and see it going dark then light. Circularly polarized glasses will show the same fraction of intensity (ideally 50%).

and that was like the special imax one?

Just about all 3D these days are polarized - red and blue glasses went out decades ago. Not sure when circular polarization came in. Not an IMAX thing, just 3D.

oh, okay, I just wondered what was so special about Imax then

The main thing about IMAX, aside from the sound (which is really its own thing), is how damn BIG it is. Here's a chart for comparison. Most theatres project using 35mm film or the digital equivalent, 2K. Projecting in 70mm is significantly better but rare since few films are shot with that kind of film. IMAX contains MUCH more information and also has a different aspect ratio (meaning the screen is more of a square than a rectangle). This allows IMAX both to display much larger and broader image, but also images that are much sharper in detail. Seeing this all blown up in front of you on a screen that is about eight storeys tall is a phenomenal experience.

omg... i so want to go to an imax movie........

but my friends seem ignorant to how amazing it is!

If you're able to convince them it's definitely worth the excursion just for the experience, even if you aren't a big movie person. Just be warned that there are some "fake IMAX" screens that use the brand name -- and are still a better than normal experience -- but aren't as good as the real deal.



You can see from the comparison how not only is the fake IMAX screen smaller, but the frame does not extend as far at the top or bottom. Fake IMAX has been on the rise in the US, unfortunately, but I don't know how common it is overseas. Like I said though, it's still a step up from your average theatre screen.

I saw it IMAX 3D, and it had HFR stamped on the poster where the line started, but I'm not sure if it actually was. I mentioned before how the 3D didn't work, so I just watched it in IMAX (and possibly HFR). To me, there was no difference between the normal version and the IMAX version, except it was bigger and brighter. It looked really fake to me either way, with the better quality only making it worse!

i think the imax in berlin is genuine geez... i need to get people with me !!

Hey Tin; as I mentioned in the first post I could understand the complaints about it looking fake due to too much reality, but in my opinion the higher reality won out over the fakeness. My argument was that because it looked so real, even a perfectly realized dwarf would have jumped out at you as incongruous because you are not used to seeing dwarves in real life. Just a theory, but I'm kinda proud of it.

halfwise wrote:Vanwa - what's an active 3D monitor? The theatres are now using circular polarization, I can't imagine how a monitor does that. A theatre requires a dual projector.

The monitor I have is an ASUS VG236H Nvidia 3D Vision ready monitor. Its refresh rate is 120hz, double that of most LCD monitors. The higher refresh rate and response time is better for video gaming, which is the main reason I got it. As for the 3D, it came with a pair of 3D glasses and an IR emitter. For the 3D to work you need a Nvidia GPU (mine is a GTX570.)

The glasses are basically shutters, allowing you to only see out of one eye at a time, while that respective image is displayed on the screen. The IR emitter tells the glasses which eye to shutter. In video games you can control the "depth" of the 3D. I usually start the depth off lower, and then turn it up higher. It works pretty good. I prefer it in single player games as you are not competing vs other players. (I have to win in multiplayer games)

Here are some good links. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_shutter_3D_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_3D_Vision

Oh yes, now I remember reading about that. It's clever technology, but too expensive for cinema audience I think. I suspect this may be why james cameron wants to go to 60 HFR 3D, it would fit in with your 120 hz refresh rate.

halfwise wrote:Oh yes, now I remember reading about that. It's clever technology, but too expensive for cinema audience I think. I suspect this may be why james cameron wants to go to 60 HFR 3D, it would fit in with your 120 hz refresh rate.

Yeah the glasses have batteries and aren't made out of cheap, "disposable," plastic. The polarized ones they hand out in the theatre can probably be mass produced for 20 cents each, the active 3D ones have some more complex things in them. It would also suck because you could not change settings for your own preference, (which I guess is a limitation with the way they do it now), which could be a problem because some people see more flicker than others with certain settings.

I have only seen the film once and that was in 3D HFR. I found it a very odd experience that I never actually got used to. On the one hand the detail and depth are like nothing I have seen before, but on the other it looked like an episode of Eastenders in HD so loses any sense of epic conveyed by the 24FPS that we are used to (the film feel).

I would like to see in 2D 24FPS just to see what it looks like there.

Well that's pretty easy to do compared to 3D HFR, Lance. Go give it a whirl: everyone here so far has done it in reverse order from you (except maybe Tin?).

I dont think the Hobbit is still in the cinemas here, or it might be but at midnight viewings. I know I wanted to see Cloud Atlas but its gone.

I just checked and The Hobbit is starting to leave the first-run theatres here. Even in the ones that are still playing it, there are only one or two showings a day, as opposed to half a dozen or more (sometimes much more) in the first several weeks. I never did see The Hobbit in HFR, but I might go out of my way to do so for DOS.

I wonder when the DVD release will be. I suspect we'll see the theatrical cut of the film on DVD sometime in the early summer. I don't know what their plan for the EEs is, though, especially since they have to go back and shoot extra scenes for film three sometime this year.

DVD release is 22 march. both blue-ray and blue-ray 3D too.

Shit, really? I hadn't heard anything about it. Has there been an official announcement?

yeah, google it, found it on tumblr

Haha, I already tried Googling it but all I could find were a couple of sites saying the release date was estimated but not confirmed for March or April. :/ My Google-fu may just be weak today, though.