The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - 2013 Pre-orders

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by BigNickUK

it is my understanding this is not the case, hence my why question....when 3D is on the same disc as 2d the 2d is just one half of the 3d image, it uses the MVC codec so you do not lose quality by having the 3d and 2d on the same disc

I think the MVC coding stores one full frame and the differences between that and the alternate frame, rather than two complete frames. Even so, I doubt that there'd be a lot of wiggle room for that extra material on a near 3 hour movie with lossless audio, so the safer option is splitting the movie which I have no problem with.

I hope it's got the proper 2D disc in the 3D package, because I'll be watching the 2D version with Motionflow activated on my TV to try and get a feel for what the HFR version (which I didn't manage to see in the cinema) would look like.

Don't get me wrongo, normally I detest motion interpolation modes on TVs, but there's a 'Clear' option on recent Sony sets which IIRC adds a mix of duplicate and blank frames instead of fake inbetween ones. It gives the picture a natural smoothness without the horrible motion artefacts of the other modes, and the motion clarity is stunning at times. I watched Mann's Miami Vice a few days ago and was floored by how sharp and how real it looked.

That said, Clear mode still doesn't fit film-based movies because the motion still looks wrong, but there's something about digitally shot stuff that really works. I think it's due to the respective differences between film and video regarding the shutter angle; no matter how 'film like' the motion blur is on a digital show it's still got that video style cadence to it.

Unfortunately only the Smooth and Standard Motionflow settings - which look like gash no matter what you're watching - are available in 3D mode, so I'll be viewing that version without any extra processing. (Clear is not available in 3D because it uses backlight blinking to create the blank frames, which is a no-no for 3D because the backlight is set to maximum automatically.) So I'll be watching the 3D version as is, and the 2D version with some motion-enhanced goodness.

And for £17.99, it'd be rude not to.