'I refused to let 3D die!': Someone built a custom player for all 3D movie formats and is even futureproofing it to preserve the grandeur of 3D for whatever the future of projectors and TVs holds
Date:
Wed, 29 Jul 2026 01:00:00 +0000
Description:
An intrepid Redditor has built a 3D movie player that supports three
different generations of 3D, with an eye to the future of TV and projector tech.
FULL STORY
'... this format deserves better than a slow death' -- One of the
great tech disappointments of the last few decades was 3D TV. Like many movie fans I was excited by the possibilities, invested in a 3D TV, and watched the entertainment industry ensure that yet again, 3D movies were a short-lived trend. By 2013, it was already generally agreed that 3D TV was dead and that smart TVs and 4K were the way ahead.
Not everyone got the memo [I had mine until 2020 -Ed]. Over on the r/audiovisual subreddit , Jarod-The_Centre is determined to ensure 3D never dies so they have been making a free player that now "plays EVERYTHING in
3D" from Blu-ray to Apple spatial videos. And that's just the beginning of
its talents. If you're a fan of things pointing out of the screen for no good reason, Jarod's player is fascinating.
I refused to let 3D die ! So I spent months building a free
player that plays EVERYTHING in 3D: Blu-ray MVC, 4K HDR side-by-side, even Apple spatial videos. And it converts your 3D Blu-rays to Vision Pro
format... from r/audiovisual
What does the 3D player do? What doesn't it do?
The player, called SyLC 3D Player, is a Windows app that's now in its fifth release. It's designed to play three different generations of 3D content: Blu-ray 3D/ISO/MVC MKV; HEVC/H.265 3D up to 4K 10-bit HDR ; and Apple's MV-HEVC spatial videos. "The MVC of the 2020s, playing on your 2010s 3D TV," Jarod writes. "There's something poetic about that."
The app outputs in frame-packed 3D for compatible 3D TVs and projectors, and it can do something else that's really impressive: it can export 3D content
as MV-HEVC, so you can take a 3D Blu-ray and turn it into a spatial video for Vision Pro.
I love Jarod's explanation for making the app. "It exists because this format deserves better than a slow death, and because apparently I don't know when
to stop."
Jarod's in good company. Reddit's response to the latest announcement has
been really positive and packed with good ideas, so for example Acceptable-Rise8783 suggests that for future-proofing, the app should be able to "send the two fields separately but in sync through two HDMI outputs."
With 3D TVs and projectors becoming increasingly hard to find as they point out, "projectors are dropping support left and right because the chips that
do 3D are becoming hard to come by" the choice of viewing platforms will be reduced to dual-projector 3D or VR headsets.
The creator says this is something likely to appear in the player in a future version as the player already drives two windows simultaneously and it means that dual projectors is the most 'future-proof' option for 3D, and the app supports it as best it can.
The whole discussion is fascinating, and I think Jarod sums it up
beautifully. "Keep the faith. The format's not dead while we're still
building for it ".
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/televisions/i-refused-to-let-3d-die-someone-built-a- custom-player-for-all-3d-movie-formats
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* Origin: capitolcityonlinet.net * KY, USA (42:17/7)