Sony to revamp movie classics for 3D era

Sony is planning to take old movies, convert them into 3D and bung them out on Blu-ray Disc, all in a bid to boost consumer interest in 3D TV technology. The move - which to many film buffs will recall media companies' past efforts to colourise black-and-white classics - could kick off as early as April. "We'll probably be …

[blackworx]

Meh

As someone with (according to my optician) "a very interesting prescription" and no 3D vision, I was hoping this whole 3D thing would be the usual flash in the pan but sadly it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. Waaah!

[Marvin the Martian]

Good point.

And in deference to our blind brethren we'll outlaw television. And radio with a view (oops) for the deaf.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Marvin

Who's a clever boy then? You are! Yes you are!

[Anonymous Coward]

RE:Meh

You'll still be able to see it in 2D you know!

A friend of mine went with his wife to see Avatar in 3D and despite it being in 2D for him, he still enjoyed it ;)

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

There must be some mistake

"Sony is planning to take old movies, convert them into 3D and bung them out on Blu-ray Disc, all in a bid to boost consumer interest in 3D TV technology."

Surely, you must have meant "to boost consumer interest in BD technology"?

[Ian Stephenson]

There....

"Sony is planning to take old movies, convert them into 3D and bung them out on Blu-ray Disc, all in a bid to cash in on old content, AGAIN, without having to go to the trouble of generating new content."

...fixed it for you.

[Rob]

@ Ian - Sorry I tried...

... but it would only let me upvote your post the once.

Consider this the x1000 upvote

[Dirk Vandenheuvel]

Fail

And Sony tries again to repackage the same shit to sell it to the same moro-- errr... early "adopter" and technophiles.

I want OLED and giant touch screen TVs first... not this 3D nonsense.

[Goat Jam]

huh?

OLED? OK, but a giant touch screen TV? Do you use a rubber tipped broomstick handle to operate it? Or what? En-quiring minds etc

I wouldn't need a rubber tipped broomstick to touch Paris

[Robert Carnegie]

Jane Russell Brigitte Bardot Raquel Welch... mmm

Other titles for recalculation in better or worse 3-D...

Specs, Lies, and Video Artifacts

The Magnificent Stereograms

All Quiet on the West and Front

Tritanic

Stand Out By Me

Gone Out With the Wind

The Three-Dimensional Matrix (for maths or computation fans)

343 (likewise, being 7 cubed)

The Wizard of Ozone (and only chemists will get the joke there)

Textures of Lily (actually a single by The Who, never mind)

A Round World In 80 Days

The Titfield Tesseract (or is that 4-D? ah well, have to wait then)

Twelve Angular Men

I Spit In Your Eye

[Marvin the Martian]

For the mathematically inclined?

Ugh, what an atrocious title: "The Three-Dimensional Matrix".

But everybody knows a 3 (or higher) dimensional matrix is called a tensor, so yes, "The Tensor" with Keanu Reeves I'd go watch.

[Ian Ferguson]

Great!

Looking forward to the 3D versions of Schindler's List and The Elephant Man.

The only classic movie I want to see converted to 3D is Flash Gordon. All others are less than pointless.

[Goat Jam]

and Barbarella

Actually, the opening credits will do . . .

[asdf]

image flashes in my mind is

Jim Carrey as Ted Turner saying I hope you enjoy my colorized classics and if you don't tough sh_t I own the films and can do whatever I want with them. Ugh Orson Welles is offically rolling over in his grave.

[blackworx]

Argh

"Orson Welles is offically rolling over in his grave"

...just made me think of a greenscreen 3D wire mesh of a human form spinning round in an "underground" box.

FFS I think a pint is well overdue.

[Jaques Croissant]

yuck

Just another reason to wish f'king Sony could DIAF. If nothing else, maybe we could generate sustainable energy from poor Orson Welles spinning in the ground.

[Robert Carnegie]

I didn't intend

to put the suggestion of Jane Russell, Brigitte Bardot etc., right after the mention of touch screen TV!

[cpf]

I forsee problems

Such as but not limited to: truly turning a 2D video track into 3D is impossible.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pah...

...when it all comes to new technology, we all no it's porn that drives it.

In one way this could be great, another could be very horrible indeed....

[Mectron]

Sony(and the rest) will never learn

let me see:

1. Movie theater

2. VHS

3. Pay per view

4. DVD

5. Pay TV

6. Broadcast TV

7. HD DVD

8. BD

9. BD 3D

10. Digital D/L

how many times they expect consumer to pay for the SAME MOVIE?

[this]

Not enough information, surely

I can't see there being enough information available in a 2d image to generate believable 3d consistently. Presumably relative movement of parts of the image could work in some cases, given enough computing power, (maybe NASA's got some spare time?) but I reckon the result would be even more nauseating (literally) than 'genuine' 3d.

[Stuart Halliday]

Making 3D

IIRC MPEG4 using movement vectors to aid compression. So I guess this is how they can make a 2D film into 3D?

How does a machine decide a head movement for example isn't it getting closer?

An article about the technology behind this would have been nice.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I've seen it, it's wretched"

I've seen a couple of the better "automatic conversion" efforts, and they are fairly terrible.

Maybe people should try making some decent fking films, rather than going all Ted Turner on the stock of old ones...

First they came for Orson Welles.. but I wasn't Orson Welles, so I said nothing..

Then they came for Tarkovsky, but I wasn't...

etc. etc.

Wretched, miserable stuff.

[Alpha Tony]

Am I the only one...

..underwhelmed by 'The 3D revolution (tm)' ?

I mean alright it's a bit of a novelty to go and watch movies like 'Up' or 'Avatar' in 3D... But in reality it doesn't add that much to the experience. Holywood have jumped all over it because it is a USP to get people into movie theatres and prevent piracy (of 3d showings of the movies at least), but really... hand on heart I don't want all my content in 3d. It would be a pointless waste of time and money.

[Frank Bough]

Oh God

not another craptastic TV technology 'revolution'. Have you noticed that HD hasn't actually gone mainstream yet? Have you noticed that virtually all movies are now shot in 2.35:1 ratio so they STILL don't fit on our TV screens despite the decade long migration to 16:9?

[Anonymous Coward]

16:9 was not for movies

16:9 was not invented and brought to market for movies... It was (officially) a compromise to fit most formats used at the time (in a one-size-doesn't-fit-anybody kind of approach) and in practice just something to encourage people to replace their television and spend money on a new set, when they didn't actually need a new one.

Then it was HD ready then full HD, then full HD + 3D (shutter glasses) then probably full HD + 3D (polarising glasses)..

How many time does Sony want you to buy a new telly?

[SynnerCal]

Friday afternoon idea

Bodging 3D onto 'classic' films merely to shift a few more BD disks is just plain stupid. Surely, if you're the kind of gal/guy that wants to see classic movies like Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The African Queen, Psycho etc - then you'll be "purist" enough to want to see them as the director intended, NOT as some marketing bozo in Tokyo/Hollywood wants.

Okay, I'd be content to see films that came out in the cinema in 3D (red/blue glasses) in the new 3D format, but for lord's sake leave the others unmolested guys! Plus - with the limited knowledge I have - I would have though these old 3D films would convert easier than a film designed for 2D.

For a perfect explanation of my feelings on this "Classics in 3D" idea see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjwaqZfjIY

which says it perfectly!

[StooMonster]

Classic Star Wars 3D

You know that the Star Wars films are coming in 3D don't you? I've also read that The Lord Of The Rings is being made 3D to coincide with the release of The Hobbit.

Makes me think of that scene in SPACED where Simon Pegg burns all his Star Wars stuff in a pyre.

[Anonymous Coward]

yep

George Lucas needs to be banned from touching any of those films again, lest this happen:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/9/22/

[Mike Flugennock]

aaauuugggh. somebody, kill me now

I thought these doorknobs had learned their lesson with the colorization fiasco.

Oh, well, thank Dog I've still got my old VCR.

[Mike Flugennock]

While I totally agree that this is a load of BS...

...there's still this little teeny part of me that's curious to see Pink Floyd's "Pompeii" concert flick in 3D.

[Rob]

Why wait....

... grab some LSD and I'm sure that will achieve a similiar effect.

(please not the joke icon, in no way am I endorsing the use of LSD in conjunction with PInk Floyd, mental stability issues may arise)

[LeBeourfCurtaine]

Time this cash cow was tied into another fad

Namely carbon-credit-crunch-footprint-recycling schemes! As pointed out, each time the latest 'innovation' in viewing pleasure is touted in the age-old quest for cash (a.k.a. new money for old rope), the distributors should be forced to employ an exchange system for your old media (vhs, laserdisc, dvd, blu-ray, and so on), at minimal cost, given that you've already paid for the 'license'. PC makers have to offer disposal of old kit so the same should apply to physical media and the devices that they're played on. Organisations such as the MPAA seemingly want to have their cake an eat it, so let's ally ourselves in another cause for the greater good and fight obesity as well!

Cynicism as social baton?