Rethinking movie and tv media and players in Covid-19 times

[tripletopper]

I have a unique problem. If you read my story you know that the first chance we tried to get Dolby 5.1 we heard installation was going to cost $10,000. Around that time my personal offline friend was competing on a television video game game show. A sponsor was Triton a surround sound headphone company.

[Show spoiler]I asked if those surround sound headphones can accurately pick out direction in three dimensions. His honest opinion he never played first person shooters but in first person shooters that is almost a practical requirement for a professional gamer. And he was doing decent despite that. Dad opened up his game on many levels

I asked if it would have similar effects on movies and TV shows, he said why not?

So I tried it and in the age of DVD a lot of my movies worked.

Then progressively over time it less wild me it wasn't until 5 years ago I found out why.

Both Triton and their major competitor Turtle Beach rely on the fact that you're using Dolby 5.1 digital toslink inputs and directly convert the signal into binaural audio, a two channel surround sound track that is accurate in three dimensions that simulates your real hearing.

But the problem was if the movie was encoded in DTS or lpcm you either got a two-track standard stereo cutin the case of lpcm, or in the case of DTS, silence.

up until recently most movies were using DTS my collection is about 70% DTS. it seems like most of the home theater experience assumes that just because it's theater like it's better than a cheap imitation. But is that really true?

I had similar issues with 3D picking the wrong side of the Nothings versus the Red And Cyans.

Some people say it's too late to refight the 3D War. But I say now is the perfect time to rethink movies TV's music and video games.

Thanks the covid-19 it seems like communal theater is a dying art if not dead already. Since the industry is going through change, maybe this is the perfect time to bring up headphones around 2D-compatible 3D, and bandwidth Thrift.

these are the basic things I think that should be done by the industry now that covid 19 is shuffling the deck.

1. Use 2 track binaural surround instead of just DTS or Dolby

[Show spoiler]instead of making the English track DTS only and foreign tracks Dolby only, let's make more languages on the same track have a worldwide version and have them all be in binaural audio. I don't care whether it's standard Dolby headphone Dolby Atmos headphone or dtsx headphone. Once it's post-decoded, all you need is two ears and over the ear headphones that could standardize the space around your head. (And a local analog FM radio transmitter to avoid delays in lip sync)

You could fit more languages if you only use two tracks per language as opposed to six or more tracks per language. You could also have the main language of the localized disc be in full Dolby or DTS and then the other languages effectively being surround sound if you're willing to wear headphones. Another advantage of binaural surround is that listen through communal headphones it sounds exactly like standard two-track stereo, or at least close enough that you wouldn't know unless you compared back to back within 5 minutes of each other. So now you don't need a standard twi track mix when for the same amount of data the binaural mix will work just as well.

2. A more peaceful coexisting 3D strategy.

This could be divided into two or three parts but all these parts prevent people from taking sides in the interdimensional civil war.

2a. Optional add-ons to existing equipment.

[Show spoiler]One of the problems we had in our family was that we had a TV in 2009 brand new and then in 2010 the 3DS were released. I knew the only way we were going to get 3D in this house (especially with the 2011 talk about the 2012 Super Bowl being in 3D being killed due to lack of 2D friendliness) wants to buy what eventually became the Model T of 3D TVs the Sony PlayStation 3D TV. It was the perfect solution for many college students and people who suck big money into big TVs and haven't saved enough for a big 3D TV. Plus if you read a later point size isn't everything.

I know that Sega made the Sega scope 3D to work with any CRT TV. You didn't have to buy a specific brand with a specific port for it to work with the Sega Master System 3D. It works with the most common and ugly best at the time standard for TVs. I know the main issue why it can't repeat itself is because of timing of these modern displays, but I have a couple ideas how you could sync the Left Right shutter with the beginning of the frame so that the left and right shutter in time changes with the left and right eye alternating. You just have to find a way for for something to sense that a new frame is beginning. If something in the video out is delayed by a few to a few hundred milliseconds indicates when the delayed frame starts if we can harness that then it would be in sync with the video. isn't that what an arc does for sound sync the audio with the video? In addition to lip syncing purposes shouldn't be used for left right stereoscopic frame seeking purposes too?

However that only works with shutter based systems. Some people prefer polar 3D. It may not be as simple as it sounds but I know based on previous experience in the 80s with a book of optical illusions showing stereoscopic techniques for kids there were two pieces of polarized filters that were included in a standard paperback kids book. Also the images for that particular demonstration were printed on something that gave the appearance of polarized paper. If polarized paper and polarized viewing filters can fit inside the paperback then why can't we just add polarized filters to existing 2D TVs?

I understand there might have to be a specific polar filter and an insult system for individual model of TV. Hopefully enough TVs in the line share enough common family traits to make it practical.

And one more thing that might be coming to use is using VR helmets as personal 3D viewers. Maybe some 3D Blu-ray players can have a Google cardboard app which plays the 3D version into your cell phone while being held in Google cardboard well at the same time putting a 2d version on the more communal screen. That's the way we could all watch 3D movies together with me watching in 3D and mom who gets 3D allergic watching in 2D.

2b. Don't segregate 2D and 3D. I can think of three sub examples of this one dealing with blu-rays two dealing with tv. One with 2D friendliness and one for bandwidth savings.

2bi. Blu-rays should have 3D content buried within it . .

[Show spoiler]just like blu-rays have Dolby or DTS (but usually not both) it's there to be unlocked but if you don't unlock it it's a perfectly fine 2D movie. people like the fact they could save money by not including 3D but I can't save money by not including DTS or can't choose a Dolby version of the same movie.

One fault with 2D compatible 3D movies is that you can't choose the default eye that is the correct eye. Some directors have their strong eyes their left others have it as a right. Plus individuals have stronger left eyes or right eyes individually and what happens to the 2D version if they don't share the same common strong eye? The only 2D compatible 3D formats I know of always defaults to Left Eye. Some people don't like left eye only presentations. Maybe right I would be better. Maybe it depends on the individual who is left-eyed or right-eyed. And the weird thing is most 3D movies don't even take advantage of the fact that all 2D is is 3D with one of the eyes poked out like Thor:Ragnarok. You don't have to segregate 2D or 3D or decide or balance or anything like that if 3D could slipstream and work like 2D. The main problem is that the 2D cut is different from either of the two eyes of the 3D cut. That sounds like waste having a separate 2D cut when easily poking out one of the two eyes will do just as well as a job. It would not segregate the market it would make every disc 3D for those who want it and 2d for those who don't.

2bii 2D-Friendly 3D TV standard.

[Show spoiler] In 2011 on sports talk radio, I heard people complain in a suburb of my local city which is traditionally very old world that if the 2012 Super Bowl were in 3D they would be unable to watch the Super Bowl because it would ruin the 2D broadcast of the Super Bowl. That's pretty bad publicity for 3D if the only viable format to broadcast in 3D is 2D incompatible.

we should have learned this lesson in the difference between 1940s color TV and 1950s color TV. 1940s used UHF and UHF used RGB originally exclusively. And in the 1940s the word go easy ways to convert RGB signals to be watched in black and white on VHF TVs. So they were literally two separate systems.

the TV industry do in order to get color they had to satisfy the knuckle draggers (not an insult, I'm a knuckle dragger when it comes to one particular technology that will be mentioned later.). in the '50s color was silently in the background to everyone except those who could buy a Mercedes in the '50s. (Yes a color TV what's 10 times the price of a black and white and since black and white TVs were the cost of cars back then, you get the idea). Yep most of the general public who are watching TV were unaware of the fact that the shows could be in color but you don't have to participate in color to enjoy the shows the only thing you don't get is the color. And back then other than the Uber Rich it wasn't worth mentioning color.

By the time the 1960s came around color TVs were only twice the price of black and white TVs so when it came to buying a new TV people thought heck why not go color. the NBC peacock logo originally was devised to show they were the first national network in black and white compatible color.the last time I remember a black and white TV was a portable black and white TV in the '70s by then most TVs were color except for such portable TVs, mainly because it was cheaper just to throw in color on every TV as opposed to making two separate lines of each model one in color one and black and white. Currently 720p is like that, and 1080p is like that. If you go beyond a certain size TV probably 4K is like that. Dolby and DTS you could add if you so choose as extra equipment.

2biii. Save bandwidth while making a 2d compatible 3D broadcast.

[QUOTE]What is the minimum frame rate needed to run a TV. According to atsc 60 frames. And TSC had both a 60 frame progressive mode using video games and a 30 frame interlace mode used to make TVs look better.

Because of this most of the TV industry produces their shows in 30 frames per second.

And a funny thing is many companies still do not because of the inability to go to 60 frames but they just like the look of 30 frames better artistically over 60 frames.

This may be the solution to two problems. I don't know how atsc deals with 30 frame productions do they try to artificially animate the frame in the middle or do they just frame double a 30? The reason why I suspect the first is because before we got digital TV the wheel spin on The Price is Right looks very natural at any speed when the filming was analog. However when going to digital, I noticed I'm really fast spins that the animation of the wheel spinning despite the fact that it's a real physical wheel looks like a computer animated wheel. I can't pinpoint exactly but something doesn't look right.

So what do you do about these 30 frame productions? (assuming I'm right about this. I don't know if it's a 30 frame issue or not but the local broadcast affiliates did that correct me when I said that.)

Luckily there's a good second use for cutting the frames down to 30 frames per second. Using the bandwidth saved on those 30 frames by encoding a hidden second eye for 3d. If you were watching it on a standard atsc TV it would need to be a frame doubled 30 or a Sim 60. just like the extra soundtrack is hidden it has to be decoded so could the second eye. So shows as literally as cheap and commonplace as the 6:00 news could be in 3D, for one very simple reason: v Everyone likes the idea of 3D. The thing that 70% of the people hate or fear is a hard requirement to put on 3D glasses if you want to watch something as simple as the evening news. 2D compatible 3D erasers that problem where you could go into 3D and 2D as often as you want. the only caveat is if you have more than one person viewing who disagrees you're going to have to do default to 2D, not a big sacrifice for something as small as the news.

I believe people have both active modes and passive modes of watching media. They want to put on the 3D glasses when they're joined the media for the media sake, and just want a no fuss way to turn the TV into a babysitter or have background noise while doing dishes.
[/SPOILER]
The other issue is bandwidth.

[Show spoiler]The current way to solve the 2D 3D friendliness issue is to have a separate channel of all 3D content. First of all instead of one channel broadcasting the information you got two channels, and since our propensity is the throw band with the problems instead of trying to engineer our usage down, some of the minor channels are going to be left behind.

And the beautiful suggestion about my 30 frames x 2 Eye suggestion, it'll work in any resolution, any color depth, and the choice to add 3D would be bandwidth neutral assuming 3D was the big priority over High frame rates or high resolution.

the main reason I suggest that be a good place to save is because enough of the industry still films at 30 HZ where we might as well take advantage of that. And yes you can have 4K video and 30-bit color and you could double the Hertz to 120, but the rule for 3D is cut the hertz in half double the number of eyes. One channel could show both the 2D and 3D version instead of 3.

3. How to solve the twin problems of the unrecyclability of CRT TVs and the poor ping time on most non-crt displays:

[Show spoiler] Let's keep in mind that there's one group of people who still want CRT TVs in high enough the band, video gamers. They demand the submicrosent pig time of the CRT.

And guess what for gamers they're usually is a maximum TV size of what is acceptable. Most professional Gamers want a TV large enough where they could see a pixel if necessary but small enough so they could scan the whole screen at once. I think the PlayStation 3D TV had the optimal size right at 24 in diagonal when 16x9.

Who mostly doesn't want CRT TVs? Movie watchers. the only way a movie watcher would notice ping is if they try to pause something on the exact frame and don't have the ability to step backwards one frame at a time. So let's add frame forward frame back to all DVD players and DVRs, and only make CRTs in gamer sizes.

And guess what there's plenty of landfills with CRT TVs mostly of Cinema sizes. And there's one dirty little secret about CRTs: the CRT glass can only be recycled into other leaded glass, and the only practical application for leaded glass today is CRT TVs with their submicrosent ping time.

Until they make a 24 inch TV with sub millisecond ping time, short enough for anything except a CRT light gun game, this would be the most practical solution to clear our landfills of toxic waste and put practical use to that land waste. Just convert Big Cinema size CRTs to smaller gamer size CRTs.

This is basically my call to reevaluate home theater in the era of covid. Just because it's not exactly like the theater doesn't mean it's inferior. For example, headphones surround offers just as good surround directional Fidelity or di-fi as I call it. Even better if it was a dollar for dollar measurement.

Severely with 3D shutter base 3D looks more convincing and also gives the TV the CRT look which even though it does dark and whites it darkens darks proportionately more, as well as doesn't have the head tip to the side Double exposure problem.

And if the industry wants to film in 30 Hertz let's make it easier and do something else productive with the same bandwidth like add 3D that is 2D friendly.

Finally if you need to absolutely positively see what you're doing before you hit the button on a video game CRT TV does two things at once recycles unwanted Cinema size TVs and clears landfills, while offering that some microsecond ping time