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Dual, simultaneous full screen QT with 2 projectors for 3D video?

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Hello,
I'm working for an artist who is interested in producing a 3D video project. Ideally we would use 2 projectors and polarizing filters to display different versions for each eye. I've not tried this before and it seems somewhat trivial with today's level of hardware and software but I'd like to check with others before rushing into this project...

Specifically has anyone experience presenting two different quicktime movies full-screen, synced-up on dual external displays? Would we need a special video card for proper performance? Software tricks?

The computer we'd use is a 'pretty fat' MacPro. I don't have specifics on it currently, but I know it's from the past year and if it needed extra RAM or anything, that wouldn't likely be a problem.

Thanks in advance for any insights you can share... :)
 
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As far as I know, QuickTime Player can't play two (or more) files in a synced manner. I don't know if the underlying technology could handle it either so that a programmer could create something custom.

I'm wondering why you think two projectors will work. You need to understand how this works. Entering, projecting avatar 3d, came up with some decent hits regarding projection. I think you need to understand the whole work flow.

Is the intent to play a live performance of some type, or to playback something already recorded?
 
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Two projectors will work as I'm rendering an animation twice, one version for each eye, then projecting them each through orthogonal polarizing filters. Viewers wear glasses with similar polarized filters and see one animation in each eye. Fairly common technology, see here: !3D Glasses Polarized 3D Glasses for 3D movies and amusment rides

What I need from the computer is a way to sync both videos...
 
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That seems reasonable.

I was thinking of RealD cinema that uses circular polarization which eliminates the need for two projectors. Looks expensive.

Tonight I'll ask some QuickTime programmers if they have heard of anything.
 
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One suggestion was to use Apple's QuickTime developer mailing list. One of the guys I talked to said he has seen this topic occasionally mentioned there.

Another fella mentioned a few things...

AJA demoed 3D at NAB this year. I think they are an edit peripherals company but I suppose a call couldn't hurt. Black Magic Design might be another alternative.

Also, VTR software was mentioned, but he didn't recall much about it. Perhaps he is talking about what is at this AJA page. It looks like it is designed to work with AJA cards.

Another interesting idea was to combine the separate left and right channels into an extra wide screen video with the left and right frames next to each other. Then having only one video to play, with your frames synced, output the image across spanned monitors (projectors) in full screen mode. I don't know if QuickTime player will do that in full screen mode.

You probably already know this, but, if the source is from a video camera or film, then syncing has to be done at time of capture. Apparently this type of video camera is very expensive. Also, the output devices should be color calibrated to match each other.

If you get this working, please let us know what you did. I know I'm curious and surely some lurkers are too.
 

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