Spy Kids 3 in 3-D on DVD — WOOOOOOOW!

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Joel1963, Feb 27, 2004.

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  1. Joel1963

    Joel1963 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Montreal
    Just rented the third Spy Kids movie last night on DVD. I also saw it in the theatre and thought the 3-D effects were pretty cool, but not quite IMAX category. When I saw it for sale and rent this week, I had low expectations. The few attempts at 3-D on TV that I saw over the last 15 years were pretty poor. I don't know if it was my TV at the time, but the effects were nearly non-existent.

    Well, that's all changed. I was nearly speechless when I watched Spy Kids on my 36" Sony last night. The effects were fantastic, sometimes better than in the theatre. Amazing depth in the TV, and the occasional effect or hand reaching out of the TV. The credit sequences were especially great. I hope that a hell of a lot more movies (DVDs) are done this way. This could change TV technology drastically. Thank you Robert Rodriguez (director)!!

    BTW, have there been any successful 3-D on TV attempts that I may have missed?
     
  2. Jamie Tate

    Jamie Tate New Member

    Location:
    Nashville
    Is it a red/blue encoding?

    Why does this video look better than others? What's the difference?
     
  3. Joel1963

    Joel1963 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Montreal
    Red/blue encoding? I believe so.
    The video looks great because it offers extremely realistic depth and occasions when objects appear to be in the middle of the viewing room. But I haven't seen other 3-D DVDs. I know there's a horror movie box set with 3-D glasses.
     
  4. Joel1963

    Joel1963 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Montreal
    BTW, it was a bit freaky seeing the 3-D and hearing the 5.1 surround at the same time. That extra bit of realism.
     
  5. fjhuerta

    fjhuerta New Member

    Location:
    México City
    Ouch... must resist... temptation.... do not buy this DVD... please... :D
     
  6. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY

    here are a few (I have the analglyphic Atomic Bomb movie - it's pretty good):
    3stereo.com

    some more

    I'm going to the 3-D festival this weekend in Suffern NY, I'm hoping that they'll be selling this in the lobby:

    Festival of 3-D movie trailers


    by the way - how is the Spy Kids movie (dimensions aside)?
     
  7. JonUrban

    JonUrban SHF Member #497

    Location:
    Connecticut
    You forced me :D to go out and buy this today! I will report back. I have a large 16x9 fron projection setup, so this could be cool!
     
  8. Joel1963

    Joel1963 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Montreal
    "by the way - how is the Spy Kids movie (dimensions aside)?"

    The movie's mainly devoted to showing off the dimensions, so the story and character development are quite weak. On the other hand, there's some nice touches of humor throughout, especially by Sylvester Stallone in four or more roles. The first movie remains the best, story-wise.
     
  9. Joel1963

    Joel1963 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Montreal
    My advice... rent first.
     
  10. Gardo

    Gardo Audio Epistemologist

    Location:
    Virginia
    Red/blue doesn't work with color 3D, does it? I'd have thought it was a polarized light process, as per usual for 3D color stuff.
     
  11. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    It does, but the quality depends on the film, the filters,and there has to be a good color balance in-between the reds and the blues. Sports Illustrated did one of their swim suit issues in anaglyphic (red/blue) stereo a few years ago that was quite nice :love:
     
  12. Gardo

    Gardo Audio Epistemologist

    Location:
    Virginia
    Is it better or worse than the polarized light process, in your experience?
     
  13. JonUrban

    JonUrban SHF Member #497

    Location:
    Connecticut
    Well, I tried it on my front projector. THe results are mixed, much like any 3D movie. Some parts, when your eyes focus correctly, are pretty cool. It takes a moment or two to get the sync right.

    There are some shots that might be called "stunning"!

    Haven't watched the movie yet, though. Gonna wait for a few nephews....
     
  14. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    Gardo - polarized is much clearer, and has better depth than anaglyphic stereo, which often has a layered look, where although there is depth between the layers, each layer is flat. Also, colors on analglphs tend to blur due to the right/left canceling of the colors
     
  15. MITBeta

    MITBeta New Member

    Location:
    Plymouth, MA
    So do you have to wear glasses to watch this Spykids movie or what?
     
  16. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    If you want the 3-D effects, yeah - they've not invented a technology to make TV 3-D work without some form of device like glasses. There's also a 2-D version included in the DVD release, though. I can't imagine why anyone would watch it, though. It's a bad movie WITH the 3-D, and without the gimmick, it'd be borderline unwatchable...
     
  17. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

    Location:
    The West
    I saw it in the theater with my kids last summer and felt the same way. The first Spy Kids is a real gem, and it's wonderful to see such a loving, strong Latino family in a major film like this.
    This movie is only a gimmick, and a rather irritating one IMHO. (I wear spectacles and the 3-D glasses were simply annoying, made my head hurt too).
    Dan C
     
  18. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    With red-blue anaglyph, I have a very hard time tracking objects that are moving along the "z-axis". My daughter seemed to have better luck with it, but its hard to compare. I also have to cross my eyes a bit too much to resolve objects that are supposed to be in the front of the screen, which can sometimes give me a headache.

    I don't know if it's just my right-eye astigmatism (which is pretty bad) or an artifact of the system.

    Regards,
     
  19. Beatle Terr

    Beatle Terr Super Senior SH Forum Member Musician & Guitarist

    This was a new home theater experience for my family. Sometime in January our main TV just went on us in our living room. So we went to buy a new one and ended up with a 47 inch Flat HDTV by Panasonic. Anyway back to this DVD release, we all were totally blown away by what a trip it was to watch this in 3-D in my own living room. If you buy it now, there are 4 sets of glasses and there is also the 2-D version on disc 2 along with many extra features on both of the discs.

    Pretty Cool :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
     
  20. ashleyfan

    ashleyfan New Member

    Location:
    U.S.A.
    I saw it on my computer and it looks even better there (of course I have a 1986 RCA TV in my living room, so maybe that affects the quality of the visual image also). Robert Rodriguez mentions that there is also a polarized version of this movie which could only have been shown on 50 theaters in the U.S. because of how few are set up for that, but he says in the commentary that the polarized version is even better looks-wise than the anaglyph (the anaglyph can be shown on one projector whereas the polarized would require two running in sync. He also once again mentioned that he prefers digital projection because there are no artifacts which can get into the showing of the film, i.e., the film-print being shown too dark in a theater because of a faulty or deteriorating bulb).
     
  21. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Digital projectors can have bulbs, too. :) He also made the point that by shooting the film and doing his post-production work digitally, he has the entire film digitally archived in both the left eye and right eye versions, which gives him the flexibility to adapt it to all existing and probably most future 3-D formats. There is no worry that the left eye negative will deteriorate or fade differently than the right eye negative as there is, in fact, no negative.

    Regards,
     
  22. Pinknik

    Pinknik Senior Member

    Amen. Just wait until digital becomes the standard in movie theaters, and cheap managers run the bulbs dim to extend their life (do you know how expensive bulbs are in these things? I don't, but the bulbs for LCD/DLP data projectors aren't exactly cheap). Then, maintenance will be left up to the same people who are in charge of the film projectors today. No scratches, but dirty and poorly focused optics are bound to be the way of life in a lot of theaters. And the floors will still be sticky :) That said, Rodriguez makes a much stronger argument for digital production than George Lucas does.

    P.S. Did SPY KIDS 3-D actually get shown anywhere polarized?
     
  23. lsupro

    lsupro King of Ignorers

    Location:
    Rocklin, CA
    Ignore the temptation!
     
  24. Clay

    Clay Forum Resident

    Location:
    Saratoga, CA
    I would like to see a 3D movie and change my number of posts to 667
     
  25. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    I thought that I read somewhere that there was a few theaters that projected it polarized, but I can't find the link. "We printed the movie a full stop brighter, pretending that someone hasn't changed the bulb in six months," says the filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, who has also included instructions to theaters advising them to turn their projector lamps brighter.
     
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