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A first hand look at NVIDIA 3DTV Play and PowerDVD 3D
Home theater PC fans will tell you that one of the reasons they do what they do is because of the flexibility that comes along with a roll your own home theater PC. And so of course the latest HTPCs need to be able to play 3D movies, games and broadcast content. Now NVIDIA has been bringing 3D to PCs for years but the latest 3DTVs don't share as much in common with 3D PC displays as you might think. Some think this is as simple as getting a video card with an HDMI 1.4 port, but in regards to 3D it is just a spec and your existing video card you've had for years might just work. In fact what HDMI 1.4 means to 3D is simply that a device is capable of outputting specific 3D formats (all common 3D formats used less bandwidth than 1080p60 2D). Sure the hardware must be physically capable of transmitting the signal, but what we're really talking about here is software, not hardware. That's where NVIDIA 3DTV Play comes in. This little piece of magic will be free for those who already own an NVIDIA 3D Vision kit, but for the rest of us with NVIDIA video cards, it'll be $40. What's interesting is that 3DTV Play doesn't really help those with the 3D Vision kits, because it is specifically for 3DTVs; which require their own 3D glasses. Now if you really want to know exactly what 3DTV Play does help with, and how well it works, well you'll just have to click on through for that part.
PowerDVD Ultra 10 bring 3D Blu-ray to HTPC fans
Never wanting to be a step behind the stand alone Blu-ray players, Cyberlink just released the latest version of PowerDVD that adds a few nice features including support for 3D Blu-ray Discs (Update: at least, it will, when the Mark II upgrade arrives in a few months.) Now of course you'll still need a 3DTV and a video card that supports stereoscopic output -- which are actually pretty common -- and of course a 3D Blu-ray Disc. The last might be the toughest to come by though as none have reached retail shelves by themselves yet. Both Samsung and Panasonic are including 3D Blu-ray Discs with their 3D bundles, but that isn't much help to HTPC fans who might already have a 3D display. Assuming you have everything else, the $99 for the Ultra 3D version shouldn't be too hard to swallow but if you still aren't sure, you can try it out the 14 day trial before you buy.
