Well, for the past couple of weeks my family and I were introduced to the awesome powers of 3D.  First, we decided to go and see Alice in Wonderland in 3D.  It was a beautiful work of art, twisted characters, and awesome 3D.  We were so impressed that we then decided to go and see Avatar.  We didn’t want to see it at first because we thought it looked stupid.  But, we heard a lot of hype and liked Alice.  Other than the fact it was a really long movie (to me, anyways,) it was another great movie.  All the better that Sigourney Weaver was in it (although, I think that Aliens is still her strongest work…)

So, I just had to get the 3D experience at home.  I did a little research and found the ‘VirtualFX 2D to 3D Television and Game Console Converter’ for about $90 on Amazon.  For my overall experience thus far, I am pretty impress.

The idea behind this technology is to display two different images on a CRT TV by exploiting TVs that interleave (draws the odd rows first, then draws the even rows.)  So, when you look at the image on the screen, it looks very shaky.  Then, it uses special LCD ‘shutter’ glasses.  These glasses receive an infrared signal from the 3D box which syncs the glasses with the TV signal.  So, while the odd rows are drawn, the left eye is covered while the right eye sees the image.  When the even rows are drawn, the right eye is covered while the left eye sees the image.  It takes 2 2D images to produce a 3D image.

The box included a 3D movie called ‘SOS Planet.’  The movie was originally viewed as an ‘amusement attraction’ in IMAX Theaters.  Although the movie itself was terrible, the 3D effects were outstanding.  Seriously!  I was pretty amazed just how much the 3D objects really stand out of my TV.  I mean, I was sitting about 10 feet away and there was this octopus with it’s tentacle a half a foot away from touching my nose.  Just like going to a show, the glasses are not the traditional 2 color (red and blue) but instead just tinted a little so the viewer can get the appreciation of seeing everything in all colors.  For my experience, if every movie was made this way, I would never go to flat screen (well, coming from someone who hasn’t seen the new 3d TVs and don’t have the money to get one…)

The box also has the ability to take a 2D image and convert it to 3D on the fly.  As expected, this is not nearly as good as watching a movie that was shot in 3D using a special ‘stereophonic camera.’  I watched a couple of 2D movies, watched some live TV and played my Wii (Zelda, of course) to test out how well it does.  I must admit, I was pretty impressed.  You can set the phase of the image.  In one setting, the 2D image was given depth so that it looked like my TV was hollow and the image was on a wall in the back of my TV.  If there was a small object that moved (such as a bird,) the small object looked like it was sticking out of the back wall.  If there was a shot that included the floor that the characters stood on, you can really get a great effect of the depth in the room (or outside.)

Switching the phase makes everything stand out instead of pushed in.  According to the instructions, you are only supposed to change this if you are watching a 3D movie and the objects go into the TV instead of popping out.  However, it looked fantastic with Zelda: Twilight Princess.  If I would place my character behind another from my view point, that character would stand out of the TV.  While walking away, that character really looked like it was getting closer to me.

The box has many different settings for 2D to 3D mode.  However, most of the settings look like watching a 2D image through a bending mirror.  The two modes I like the most is ‘Music Video’ mode or ‘Action 1′ mode.  There is an option to tell the box that the input is a video game, but I use the other two modes to play.

There are some drawbacks to this box.  First of all, you are seeing two images with 240 lines instead of one image with 480 lines.  This means that the images are not as sharp.  In fact, some of the objects that were at a distance in the 3D movie looked a little pixelated.  Also, the flicker rate of each eye is reduced to half that of watching normal TV.  So, you will see flickering, especially in some of the brighter scenes.    When the box renders 2D images to 3D, the objects look flat and not in 3D.  Also, when watching 2D to 3D images, it looks like that there are white outlines on the ‘glass’ of the TV while the rest of the image is pushed in.  I played the 3D movie through my computer and hooked my computer to my TV.  That did not work well.  It works well when played in a normal DVD player.  However, watching online 2D Netflix movies through my computer on my TV worked just as well as watching a 2d movie through my standalone DVD player.  This box only works on old skool CRT TVs.  It does not work on plasmas, LCDs, projectors, etc.  That is because these TVs do not interleave (or do not refresh fast enough.)

For the most part, I am impressed with it.  I just wish there were more 3D movies to watch.  In fact, I think the only real ‘movies’ to watch are ‘Spy Kids’ and ‘Sharkboy and Lavagirl.’  I really, really hope that the newer 3D movies will come out on DVD that are 3D and will work.  The 3D format that works with the box is called ’3D field-sequential.’  I do believe that the newer 3D TVs will use some sort of shutter technology, the new 3D movies will come out to DVD in 3D due to popularity and will work for my box.  However, only time will tell.

Amazon has a pretty good guide as to what movies that are currently out will work and which will not.