3D cinema brief overview and demo of XpanD 3D system

1 February 2009
Comments: 5
Category: 3D, cinemas, DCI, dCinema
1 February 2009, Comments: 5

Here I do a brief description of some of the 3D systems available in Cinemas today.  I also show the Xpand-3D LCD system in action.  Note: the LCD type system I show in this video is commonly used by IMAX 3D systems and required active glasses that have a battery and LCD shutters over each eye.  These shutters change as a Infra Red pulse light, invisible to the eye, is flashed into the theatre and picked up by a sensor on the glasses.  This is the most portable of the 3D systems available in my experience.

I will do a in depth version of the 3D at a later podcast.

5 responses on “3D cinema brief overview and demo of XpanD 3D system

  1. Andrew Woods says:

    Again, very nice work. It is great to see the 3D systems actually in action. Keep up the good work!
    One small correction, IMAX did use shutter glasses in the past for their 3D installations, however my understanding is that over the last few years they have almost completely transitioned to using only linear polarised 3D in their theatres. This applies to both the film based IMAX 15/70 theatres and also the newer IMAX digital systems. I am not aware of any IMAX 3D theatres still using the original IMAX shutter glasses, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong. 😉

  2. Devon says:

    @Andrew – I spoke to one of the chief engineers for IMAX 3D regarding the shutter glasses and was surprised what he said – essentially (at the time) they proceeded with linear polarization because they were unable to produce a shutter-glass system that could withstand a wash cycle in a dishwasher (how they intended to clear them between viewings).

  3. Rob says:

    but it looks like there are still many listed on the XpanD site:

    http://www.xpandcinema.com/world-map/

    • jamieg says:

      Xpand has done well especially in Europe in the last 1.5 yours.
      They have now also introduced coded glasses.. Ie, so you cannot steal them and use them at home on the new 3D TVs coming out.

      But this does bring to light, that once active glasses are main stream and china makes them for cheap, it will make Cinema 3D also much more affordable for the exhibitor.

  4. Bruce says:

    @Andrew – I spoke to one of the chief engineers for IMAX 3D regarding the shutter glasses and was surprised what he said – essentially (at the time) they proceeded with linear polarization because they were unable to produce a shutter-glass system that could withstand a wash cycle in a dishwasher (how they intended to clear them between viewings).