reauthor a 3d blu-ray to play in 2D mode?

[spotter]

So I have a bunch of netgear neotv 550, it's end of lifed by netgear and has issues, but overall it works decently well for my needs. letting me store my blu-ray collection on a NAS and play them in different rooms.

However, there's one problem. It doesn't handle all 3d blu-rays well. It can't play 3d, but what I'd like it to do is default to the 2d fallback mode that should be possible. Unfortunately there's a bug (I guess) in it that wont get fixed as no longer supported that seems to cause me to get the "your player is not supported, you need a 3d player" message.

Any idea if there's a way to reauthor it, and keep the menus, to skip whatever check is causing it problems? I know of anydvd's speed menu, and it does work, but it's not really keeping the menus. At that point I might as well just rip the main movie out as itself.

[spotter]

seems to be a disney issue more than a player issue. ok, lesson learned, disney 3d blu-rays are just meant for 3d players, even if they can play in 2d just fine.

[an3k]

2D content on Bluray is stored in m2ts files. 3D content is stored in a ssif file. Normally a 3D Bluray should also carry the m2ts files so the disc is playable on 2D players. If there is only the ssif file and perhaps some smaller m2ts files Disney is lazy.

You can repair this. Decode the ssif file, crop the right image off and save everything as m2ts. You also need to play with the playlists. After this is done you have everything (whole menus, movie, extras, etc.) in 2D and it can be played back from your NAS.

[spotter]

no there are m2ts files, the problem is, is that it does some check to see if the player is a 3d player and refuses to play (even 2d content) if its not a 3d player. If it's a 3d player attached to a 2D tv (i.e. total media theater / powerdvd) then it works fine. If it's my neotv 550, it doesn't. there are other threads about that here. I "got around" it with that disk by simply using anydvd's "speed menu", but that method sucks (though it be cooler if it had the ability to jump to the real menu from their constructed menu). The better method is to simply use Disney's "2D" disk. why they are shipping seperate 2d and 3d disks, I'm not quite sure. only thing I could tell from googling is that perhaps they are delivering on the 2d disk a "center eye" format and the 3d disks are right/left. but that's just a guess from what I read online. not quite sure.

[setarip_old]

@spotter

Hi! why they are shipping seperate 2d and 3d disks, I'm not quite sure.How about the most obvious reason, to sell more discs?

[spotter]

@spotter

Hi! How about the most obvious reason, to sell more discs?

except that I don't think they sell the 3d disc separately? I think all their SKUs that come with a 3D blu-ray also come with a separate 2D disc.

[setarip_old]

@spotter

You seem to be contradicting yourself: why they are shipping seperate 2d and 3d disks, I'm not quite sure. except that I don't think they sell the 3d disc separately? I think all their SKUs that come with a 3D blu-ray also come with a separate 2D disc.

[spotter]

I mean, why they have to include a separate 3D only disc that refuses to play in 2D players (even though it works fine in 2D on a 3D player) along with a separate 2D disc in the sku.

does that clear it up?

[setarip_old]

Different manufacturing setups/requirements, I guess...

[spotter]

Different manufacturing setups/requirements, I guess...

I was wondering if there was actually a quality difference that could happen. i.e. in a 2D display of a 3D copy you are seeing content only meant for one eye, which perhaps is adjusted a bit from what the "center" would be in a straight 2D copy.

[an3k]

I was wondering if there was actually a quality difference that could happen. i.e. in a 2D display of a 3D copy you are seeing content only meant for one eye, which perhaps is adjusted a bit from what the "center" would be in a straight 2D copy.
I don't know about your Blurays but for example I, Robot 2D and 3D Bluray are completey different. While the 3D contains the movie in 1,78:1 the 2D contains a wider 2,40:1 version.

[spotter]

though in that case the 3d is a fundamentally different film as it was a 3d conversion. for all we know, in the theaters it was a different aspect ratio too. does the 3d version play in a 2d player?

[SquallMX]

Some companies (Disney and Paramount) block the 2D playbayck because the 3D tech used creates small moving black bars, Fox, Sony and Warner use a different tech free of black bars. Additionally Disney is just evil, in some territories they sell the 3D disc at full price, so you have to pay up to 60 dollars for the complete DVD + BD + 3D BR experience.

A "easy fix" consist on replacing the mpls file of the "This disc can not be played" with a copy of the main movie mpls, this change will allow playing the movie in 2D mode (no menus or extras). Unfortunately because of the 3D structure replacing the files inside the ISO can be hard.

[tfboy]

Some companies (Disney and Paramount) block the 2D playbayck because the 3D tech used creates small moving black bars, Fox, Sony and Warner use a different tech free of black bars.
Really? Not that I don't believe you, but do you know of any titles or have examples you can point out?

As for the original question: even if the 2D and 3D versions have the same aspect ratio and you only require 2D, you can have it at a higher bitrate - typically 50% - as there's no right eye ssif to be stored. It's only the case on longer movies where the 50GB dual layer capacity can become an issue.

Also, some movies have tweaked brightness / gamma for the 3D releases as they sometimes boost the brightness on the 3D release to compensate for the light loss in active shutter glasses. I haven't been able to confirm this myself, but know of some 3D BD releases where viewing the 2D version is really bad (for example Dredd).

Otherwise, it's as others have suggested: marketing reasons.

[SquallMX]

Really? Not that I don't believe you, but do you know of any titles or have examples you can point out?


The Avengers:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/13351

Also, some movies have tweaked brightness / gamma for the 3D releases as they sometimes boost the brightness on the 3D release to compensate for the light loss in active shutter glasses. I haven't been able to confirm this myself, but know of some 3D BD releases where viewing the 2D version is really bad (for example Dredd).

Transformers 3 3D release has different brightness levels, so a locked 3D only release is justified. The thing with Dredd is that the producers always intended this to be 3D, so the 2D version was an afterthought, I watched the movie in a movie theater (2D) and the Blu-ray looks exactly the same, grainy, bright and over saturated.

[IanD]

AnyDVD HD settings has an option to simulate a 3D display whilst retaining menus. I'm not sure if it prevents 3D display if you eventually get a 3D player, but perhaps it can be reversed when that time comes: hopefully it is like SpeedMenu and detects which type of player is connected and gives the option.

Frankly, SpeedMenu is better because it completely removes any tricky authoring that might upset the likes of NTV550: basic menus are provided for access to extras, but they are only labeled with track numbers.

[DMagic1]

AnyDVD HD settings has an option to simulate a 3D display whilst retaining menus. I'm not sure if it prevents 3D display if you eventually get a 3D player, but perhaps it can be reversed when that time comes: hopefully it is like SpeedMenu and detects which type of player is connected and gives the option.

Frankly, SpeedMenu is better because it completely removes any tricky authoring that might upset the likes of NTV550: basic menus are provided for access to extras, but they are only labeled with track numbers.

That feature(simulated 3D) doesn't work on standalone players does it?