Playstation 3D

Times Square in 3D on Earthcam on the Playstation 3D Display

One thing I happily discovered this year was that the site Earthcam.com was broadcasting this year’s Times Square ball drop in 3D.

As I’ve mentioned before, my PC’s video card has 3D capability but it doesn’t seem to be playing well with the Playstation 3D Display. But happily, after I followed the instructions I wrote for watching YouTube in 3D on the Playstation 3D Display, I was able to watch the whole thing live even without a 3D video card.

Again, the basic process is to mirror your screen so that your PC and your Playstation Display shows the same thing, turn on full-screen 3D view (in the case of Earthcam, by clicking on the radio button in the lower right-hand corner of the video which says 3D Mode to 3D TV) which will show a full-screen side-by-side image, and then selecting “Side By Side” mode on your Playstation Display.

After that, you can just sit back and enjoy the show with your glasses on your Playstation Display. This year, I had my regular TV showing Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve and the Playstation Display showing Earthcam’s feed. The timing was remarkably close–Earthcam was only a second or two off.

Overall, Earthcam’s feed was a bit choppier and lower resolution than the HD picture, which is to be expected of course. As the countdown got to under a minute, the connection got really choppy; my guess is they probably underestimated the number of people pulling up the feed and didn’t anticipate the bandwidth they’d need to broadcast to so many people. But even so, I was astounded by the 3D. The confetti literally seemed to be floating in the air and overall the 3D effect was excellent.

If you missed it, no worries, they have a complete archive of the evening and the countdown at http://newyears.earthcam.com/ so you can countdown the New Year anytime you wish, this time without millions of people competing with you for a clear picture. There’s also a YouTube video which shows some of the highlights:

In addition, their everyday Times Square camera has a 3D view now so you can just leave the camera on and watch the people of New York City all the time on your Playstation Display.

Just another way to play with your 3D Display connected to your PC without necessarily having a 3D card.

 

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