3D alternative content possible with DVI?

[Jake Piety]

Hello! I am my theatre’s “resident tech nerd” and I’m currently learning everything I can about our setups. One thing I’ve always wondered is if it is possible to playback 3D alternative content from a 3D Blu-Ray using DVI in from an HDMI source, as the IMS on our Barco DP2K-20c doesn’t have HDMI in. In Communicator, I’ve seen input selections for “DVI-3D” but I’m unsure if I would need anything outside of a single DVI cable. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Carsten Kurz]

What type of IMS do you use in that Barco? The projector manual should list the available 3D signal types. Typically, series-2 electronics support a range of 3D signal types.

[Jake Piety]

I am not sure of the type, I found

[Jake Piety]

I am not sure of the type, but I found the manual and it mentioned something about it being twin DVI. Would a DVI splitter work for it?

[Randy Stankey]

I think that they are talking about "Dual-Link DVI."

If you look at the end of the connector, there will be six pins in the center of the array that are populated or not. (Or the pins may be populated but not connected.)
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Single-link DVI can support resolutions up to 1920x1200 pixels. Dual-link DVI can support up to 2560x1600 pixels.
It is also possible to send two independent video streams to two different displays. That is the way my computer supports dual displays. The left display uses one half of the dual-link cable and the right display uses the other half.

It is my guess that, in order to support 3-D over DVI, dual-link is needed; one for each half of the three dimensional image.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

^^^ What Randy said.

Further, going back to my Bel Aire screening room days, a cable from How Dummies Make Interconnections to DVI cannot carry or support dual link DVI. IIRC there were a few companies with active converter boxes that could transcode HDMI 3D into dual DVI, but they were pricey and hard to find sometimes.

IMHO HDMI has no business being used in anything other than consumer products, but here we are. In the race to technological bottom HDMI is the leader in the running for stupidest ideas.

Dual SDI was one of the most robust interfaces for professional use, and should have never been phased out. (Same with component 5 wire video.)

[Leo Enticknap]

Barco made a device called the ACS-2048, specifically designed to work with the dual DVI inputs of its Series 1 and 2 projectors. ACS stands for "alternative content switcher," although this is a bit misleading, because the thing can also upscale sub-1080p sources (principally PAL and NTSC) to DCI 2K. Using the dual link DVIs into a projector's CCB, it can support 12-bit 4:4:4 out, but I'm not sure about 3-D, or even if and how one can get 3-D into it.

Primarily because it can't do anything with embedded audio, and also because it hasn't been supported for updates for ages (it's stuck on HDCP 1.4, for one thing), they can be often be had for very little on Ebay. But if you're willing to work around its limitations, it can be quite a powerful tool. I don't know about its 3-D capabilities (if any), though.