Frequently Asked Questions
TriDef Media Player
What is TriDef Media Player?
TriDef Media Player enables the playback of a wide range of 2-D and 3-D movies and photos, including open format media files on variety of 3-D Displays.
For full details, please refer to the on-line documentation.
What types of DVD does TriDef Media Player support?
TriDef Media Player supports 2-D, 3Di and side by side DVDs.
Your existing 2-D DVDs can be viewed in stereoscopic 3-D by pressing 'D' several times until "DVD Input Type: 2D" is displayed.
3Di DVDs can be viewed by setting the "DVD Input Type" to "3Di (Left)" or "3Di (Right)".
TriDef Media Player also supports side by side format DVDs. Press 'D' until "Side By Side (Left-Right)" or "Side By Side (Right-Left)" is shown.
3-D anaglyph DVDs can be viewed by pressing '2' and using your anaglyph glasses as normal.
IMAX3D DVDs are presented in either 3Di or anaglyph format. If red and blue fringes are visible around objects, then the DVD is in anaglyph format, otherwise try "3Di (Left)" or "3Di (Right)".
What is a 3Di DVD?
A 3Di or '3D interlaced' DVD is a special type of DVD that contains two views of a movie, as seen from different angles (that is, a person's left and right eye). As there is no recognised standard for the format of these DVDs, in some cases the 'Left' view appears first, and in others the 'Right' appears first. Therefore, TriDef Media Player has both "3Di (Left)" and "3Di (Right)" options. Press the "D" key to toggle between the available DVD Input Types.
Why can't I play a particular DVD?
A supported DVD Decoder must be installed.
Check that the DVD is for the correct Region, that there is no Parental Control block and that the DVD itself is not damaged.
What is a DVD decoder?
A DVD decoder is a plugin that provides DVD playback functionality to TriDef Media Player.
Please see the DVD decoders support page for more information.
How do I change my DVD region?
DVD region codes are used to restrict playback of certain discs to a particular geographical region.
Your DVD-ROM drive must be set to the appropriate region in order to play the DVD. In Windows Vista, the DVD-ROM drive's DVD region can be changed as follows:
- Click Start -> Control Panel -> Device Manager.
- Double-click "DVD/CD-ROM drives", then right-click the appropriate DVD drive and click Properties.
- Select the DVD Region tab, make the desired changes and click OK
Note: You must have Administrator privileges in order to perform this change.
Why does the image not appear to be in 3-D?
- Your 3-D Display may not be configured correctly - please refer to Troubleshooting
- You may be in 2-D Mode. Press the "3" key
- If you have a 2-D DVD, press the "D" key and set the DVD Input Type to "2D"
- 3-D Scene Depth may be set so low there is little or no 3-D effect.
Why does the 3-D effect look wrong?
If you are playing a 3Di DVD the field order may be set incorrectly. Switch the DVD Input Type to either L+R or R+L using the "D" key.
The 3-D Settings may be too extreme for comfortable viewing.
Some images which have near objects at the top of the screen and far objects at the bottom of the screen do not work well with TriDef Playtime technology, but these are rare.
The NVIDIA Stereo Drivers can interfere with TriDef Media Player. Normally TriDef Media Player can switch these drivers off automatically as required, but on extremely rare occasions you have to do this manually.
Make sure these drivers are turned off before you start TriDef Media Player:
- Right click on the desktop and choose Properties
- Choose the Settings tab
- Click the Advanced button
- Choose the GeForce4 tab
- Look in the options on the left. Under GeForce4, select the Stereo Properties option.
- Look for the Stereo Enable Mode section.
- Choose either 'Disabled' or 'Enable with hot key' (this makes it easier to switch on or off)
- Click OK to close as required.
Why do some media files or DVDs not playback smoothly?
Please ensure your system meets the requirements for playback of the media file.
Your system may not be capable of playing the selected 3-D Media in its current configuration. Try decreasing the video card's color depth to 16-bit. If you have always had these performance problems, then you may need to upgrade the video card and/or other system components.
If your CPU contains multiple cores (eg, Pentium D, AMD Athlon X2), then you may need to update your CPU drivers.
Please see the manufaturer's website www.intel.com or www.amd.com. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base article for further information.
Alternatively, the machine may not have enough capacity to run TriDef Media Player and other applications concurrently. Make sure that no other applications are running when using TriDef Media Player, if performance is an issue.
Make sure that DMA Mode (Direct Memory Access) is enabled for the Hard Drive. See the Microsoft Windows documentation for information on enabling DMA.
The performance of many programs, including TriDef Media Player, is likely to be poor if you are running a laptop on batteries. It is recommended that movies are played while on mains power.
Playing media directly from a CD-ROM or over the network can also affect playback performance and should be avoided if possible.
I have separate left and right video files (or image sequences). How do I view these in 3-D using TriDef Media Player?
If you have a left-right side-by-side or above-below .avi, you should be able to play these in TriDef Media Player by simply naming the file according to the TriDef naming conventions.
If, however, you have separate left and right video files, TriDef Media Player cannot play these directly. You will need to combine the media into a single file. To create a single left-right or above-below .avi file from indivdual left and right videos or image sequences, you need to use a tool, such as Avisynth.
Avisynth is a scripting language that provides support for several video input modes and has many processing options.
One you have installed the AVISynth program, open up a text editor (eg, Start->Run, enter "notepad.exe"), copy and paste the following 3 lines of AVISynth script, then save the file as "test-ab.avs":
left = ImageSource("left/%03d.png",0,99,24.0)
right = ImageSource("right/%03d.png",0,99,24.0)
return StackVertical(left, right)
The first two lines of the script load the individual left and right frames from a sequence of png files, assuming they are arranged in subdirectories named "left" and "right", with 3 digits specifying the frame number, ie:
left/000.png
left/001.png
..
left/099.png
and
right/000.png
right/001.png
..
right/099.png
The "0,99,24.0" parameters specify that it starts at frame 0, finishes at frame 99 and is to be played back at 24 frames per second (you should change these parameters as appropriate).
Then the StackVertical command places the left and right images together in a single frame (with the left above the right).
You can then test whether this .avs file works by right-clicking on it and choosing "Play with TriDef Media Player". The file should now play and you should see the desired 3-D effect.
If the 3-D effect is reversed (ie, objects that should appear far away instead look close), then the images have been generated or labelled incorrectly. Either re-generate the image sequences from the correct viewpoints, or move the files from the "left" directory to the "right" directory, and vice versa.
If you started with left and right video files instead of image sequences, the lines in the .avs script that contained "ImageSource" should be changed to "DirectShowSource" or "AVISource". ie:
left = DirectShowSource("left.mpg")
right = DirectShowSource("right.mpg")
When you have a working .avs file that provides the desired 3-D effect, you should now create a new stand-alone, compressed version of this video. The reason for this is that the .avs solution may require too much CPU power to play back the video at full speed. It also requires that the original left and right image/video files (.png, .mpg, etc) remain available, so you can't just copy the .avs file to another computer.
To create this stand-alone video, you can use any video compression tool that accepts .avs files. One such tool is
VirtualDub. With VirtualDub, you can open the .avs file, choose compression settings and save the video as "test-ab.avi". Detailed guides on how to use VirtualDub to save XviD AVI files are available on many websites.
The resultant .avi file can then be played with TriDef Media Player on any computer that has XviD is installed.
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