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  • How to force your DirecTV receiver to output 3D

    by 
    Ben Drawbaugh
    Ben Drawbaugh
    06.20.2010

    The entire point of frame compatible 3D is the ability to send a 3D signal via 2D equipment so that only the source and the display itself needs to be 3D aware. Now for a reason that we can't comprehend, DirecTV decided to try to make things simple and in the process completely disabled 3D for every customers except those who bought a select number of 3DTVs and have already upgraded their AV receiver to a 3D aware model. There is a solution though. You see DirecTV's receivers are simply checking for specific EDID information via HDMI, so a simple device like Gefen's HDMI Detective can trick the satellite receiver. All you have to do is connect the Detective to one of the officially supported 3DTVs (might require a trip to the TV store) and record the EDID information. Then you connect it inline to your DirecTV receiver and you can enjoy yourself some 3D -- or just watch the side by side image. This trick will probably also work for Samsung owners who want to use Mitsubishi's checkerboard converter and might even force your old HDMI equipped AV receiver to pass 3D -- Blu-ray's 1080p24 per eye signal actually requires less throughput than 1080p60 so it should work. It is an expensive test at $129, but at the very least it'll eliminate, or speed up, any HDMI handshake issues as well; so it might come in handy regardless.