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The Official VEFXi 3D-Bee Owners' Thread

50K views 293 replies 61 participants last post by  Haisook 
#1 ·
OK - so I just got my 3D-Bee professional last week and jumped on here to report my thoughts and found no owners' thread yet.


So, here goes...


The 3D-Bee is a really nifty gadget that converts 2D input, such as your favourite 2D Bluray, or your favourite football game or car race, into some VERY impressive 3D. More on this below, but this device performed much better than I expected.


As some of you may know, my theater configuration is a dual-projector passive polarised system, so for Bluray 3D, I am using Optoma 3DXL boxes to split the signals into the left and right.


In a similar manner, my 3D Bee configuration requires a Dual-unit "Professional" version of the 3D-Bee SKU. This allows the unit to output a full 1080p60 or 1080p24 for each projector, left and right.


If you are using a regular "active" 3D TV or projector, then you would only need a single 3D-Bee device - such as their base model, the "Home", or their mid-range "Trainer" model.


The difference between these two units is that the "Home" model outputs two "flavours" of 3D style, the "innie" (Z-) style (where objects appear behind the screen), and the "outtie" (Z+) style (where objects can appear in front of the screen).


The "Trainer" model does the same 3D creation, but you can exaggerate the Z- or Z+ modes (called Z-- and Z++).


The "Home" and "Trainer" models are limited by the HDMI format, in that they can only output 3D at the bandwidths/resolutions supported in HDMI. These are 720p at 120hz (60p per eye) or 1080p60 where the frame is cut in half and shared for each eye.


To acheive true 1080p60 per eye, requires the "Pro" version that I purchased, which is actually two of the "Trainer" models, which have been preset to be the Left and the Right output.
 
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#153 ·
^^^


thanks...
gonna order today... as i've gone from a "3d is a gimmick, why would i want that?" person to a 3d addict..



edit: just for the record, it was the commentary about watching f1 in 3d that pushed me over the edge... i'm a racing nut (heck, i'll even watch lawnmower racing
) and f1 is at the top of my list... can't wait to see monaco in 3d...
 
#154 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by ccotenj /forum/post/0


^^^


thanks...
gonna order today... as i've gone from a "3d is a gimmick, why would i want that?" person to a 3d addict..



edit: just for the record, it was the commentary about watching f1 in 3d that pushed me over the edge... i'm a racing nut (heck, i'll even watch lawnmower racing
) and f1 is at the top of my list... can't wait to see monaco in 3d...

Wow, are you American? (I am) Reason I ask is I've run into fewer than a handful of F1 addicts like I am locally. Seems like if it's not Nascar, the Indy 500 (or any race Danica is in), most of us from the USA are oblivious. Sadly F1 seems to be the soccer of racing with most of my friends. Like soccer/football, of course it's wildly popular worldwide (except here.)


Anyway, the irony is seems many AVSers like us must love F1, since that's about 5-6 people who've commented on it this and another couple of threads I've followed here. AV geek= F1 fan? The irony is that F1 was the last major sport to switch to HD (just this past year), while we're already seeing native 3D sports broadcasts here in the states. Someone get word to Bernie, if he wants this next try at US Grand(s) Prix to go over well, the most technological sport going needs to embrace audiovisual technology too! Anyway sorry to go off topic...
 
#155 ·
^^^


yup... born and bred in the good ol' usa...



ime, in the usa, f1 fan = geek, period...
although i love ******* racing too, f1 appeals in a completely different way because of the technical aspect of the sport.... i've been hooked ever since i saw my first race many moons ago...


couldn't agree more on bernie embracing the a/v side of the technical world, but unless it puts scads of money directly into bernie's pocket, he's not going to be interested...



hmmm... avs party at the us grand prix?
 
#157 ·
Well I got mine come. I bought the trainer and I am mostly impressed.


With bluray or any source I have found the middle into the screen setting to be the best ( 1/2 full purple setting)


I have also noticed you can stick on a bluray and see if it is going to be any good for a conversion. It either works amazingly or looks no different with no depth to me.


Jingle all the way bluray has has very good depth.

castaway looks rather flat (I thought it would great.


It seems outdoor bright shots, cartoons are all fantastic on hdtv programs.



I have only watched maybe 30 mins testing so far. So this is really limited review.
 
#159 ·
Hmm. All this talk of 3d F1 is giving me an itchy credit card finger. MUSST......RESISSST
 
#161 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TK421 /forum/post/21444141


Hmm. All this talk of 3d F1 is giving me an itchy credit card finger. MUSST......RESISSST

resistance is futile...



push the "buy now" button... you know you want to...
 
#162 ·
posted this q in the radiance mini thread as well...


anyone using a 3dbee in conjunction with a radiance? if so, you got the bee before or after the radiance?


i'm thinking after will be best, but was wondering if anyone has any feedback?
 
#163 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by ccotenj /forum/post/21451334


posted this q in the radiance mini thread as well...


anyone using a 3dbee in conjunction with a radiance? if so, you got the bee before or after the radiance?


i'm thinking after will be best, but was wondering if anyone has any feedback?

I posted this in the Lumagen thread, but it might be useful to share it here as well:




During the period that I tested a 3D-Bee, I routed my Blu-ray player to an HDMI switcher. One output of the switcher went direct to the Radiance, and the other went to the 3D-Bee, which was then in turn connected to a different input on the Radiance.


The 3D-Bee will passthrough 2D video from Blu-ray or will convert it to 3D, but will not passthrough real 3D content. If you expect to watch genuine Blu-ray 3D discs, you'll need an option to bypass the 3D-Bee.


If you only have one HD display (with multiple HDMI inputs), instead of using a switcher like I did, you could connect your Blu-ray player to the Radiance, and then have one HDMI output from the Radiance go directly to your TV and the other to the 3D-Bee (which would go to the TV separately). That didn't work for me, because my Radiance is connected to two displays and already uses both HDMI outputs.


Make sense?


If it helps, I have a color-coded visual illustration of my connection map here .
 
#164 ·
^^^


got it there too...
thanks again josh...
 
#166 ·
Just received my 3d bee (trainer), had a few config issues but its running now, really cool. Here is my setup. Optoma HD66 to a Monoprice 4x2 matrix, ps3 with 3dxl, xbox 360, cablevision cable box. I also have a sharp 2d tv on channel (a) on the matrix. Optoma is on (b). The Ps3 worked right away with the bee if I put the bee between the ps3 and the 3dxl. But I could not get the cablevision box to come up with the bee even if I went direct from the cablebox to the bee to the projector. It seems like the bee was working but the projector would not switch into 3d mode or the bee was not telling it to. it was showing 2 pictures side by side. To fix it I put the bee last on the chain to the projector then the 3dxl then to the matrix in channel (b the optoma projector) now everything works, 3D on demand watched wipeout last night in 3d very cool, rangers were on msg in crystal clear huge 3d. Even watched a little of bones in 3d, The ps3 still works just like it did when the 3dxl was chained after it. My kid played the xbox Ncaa very cool 3d. One more note I noticed that with the bee there is no sync invert issues you can flip the glasses and it works both ways very cool. I dont understand any of this on the tech level but I did enjoy getting it to work.


I need to correct the order the 3dxl is last on the chain to the projector then the 3d bee then to the matrix,

my post above has the wrong order.
 
#167 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by pvega /forum/post/21451314


Please! Someone?

Just received my 3d bee (trainer), had a few config issues but its running now, really cool. Here is my setup. Optoma HD66 to a Monoprice 4x2 matrix, ps3 with 3dxl, xbox 360, cablevision cable box. I also have a sharp 2d tv on channel (a) on the matrix. Optoma is on (b). The Ps3 worked right away with the bee if I put the bee between the ps3 and the 3dxl. But I could not get the cablevision box to come up with the bee even if I went direct from the cablebox to the bee to the projector. It seems like the bee was working but the projector would not switch into 3d mode or the bee was not telling it to. it was showing 2 pictures side by side. To fix it I put the bee last on the chain to the projector then the 3dxl then to the matrix in channel (b the optoma projector) now everything works, 3D on demand watched wipeout last night in 3d very cool, rangers were on msg in crystal clear huge 3d. Even watched a little of bones in 3d, The ps3 still works just like it did when the 3dxl was chained after it. My kid played the xbox Ncaa very cool 3d. One more note I noticed that with the bee there is no sync invert issues you can flip the glasses and it works both ways very cool. I dont understand any of this on the tech level but I did enjoy getting it to work.


I need to correct the order the 3dxl is last on the chain to the projector then the 3d bee then to the matrix,

my post above has the wrong order.
 
#169 ·
the bee is in the house...



set up was easy... one cable from the splitter to the bee, bee to a hdmi port on the pj... turned it on, and boom, 3d...


didn't get much of a chance to play around with it last night, however, initial impressions are that it was worth the coin... the different depth modes are interesting to play with, although the "deeper" the mode, the more ghosting... possible user error there with duty cycle on glasses, need to play...


question: anyone know if there are discrete ir codes for the different depth modes?


color me happy, at least for now... watched a bit of basketball and hockey last night during the short time i played with it, and it did the job... plan on spending some quality time with it tonight and over the weekend, so more in-depth impressions to come...
 
#170 ·
follow up after a few days of ownership... mits hc9000d pj, radiance mini 3d for processing, feeding 1080p to the bee... sitting approximately 10 ft from 110" screen...


watched all 4 football games with it this weekend... i'm suitably impressed... the 3d produced by this for football is actually "better" than the 3d from the native espn 3d channel...


using d-, it produces very similar "depth" to the native 3d feed... however, there's something cool in the 3dbee algorithm that makes it so that text doesn't ghost... nifty... almost NO ghosting, which compares very favorably to the native feed... even with the "3d brightness" option cranked up all the way in the pj, the ghosting stays away...


i pretty much settled on d- after playing around a bit with the other options...


d+ doesn't seem to produce any pop-out on football... also, i had to reverse the sync in the pj for all of the "+" modes...


d-- definitely produces more depth, and it's actually welcome... but the ghosting becomes very noticeable at this point... i need to play around with this a bit more, it's possible i could make this work with some glasses adjustments...


d++ same observations as above...


d--- again, same observation, but ghosting becomes unwatchable...


d+++ same...


i'm glad i bought this... it does what it says it will do, it was ridiculously easy to set up, and is a good bang for the buck... a bit more to come after i've had a chance to watch some movies...
 
#172 ·
I have tried forcing a 3d disc though the bee and you all you get is a black screen. The 3d bee CANNOT pass a 3d bluray and needs to be bypassed.



Quote:
Originally Posted by diamond design /forum/post/21500759


Can you test my theory I mentioned in the lumaegen thread about pass through for 3d.


2D/BP:

This button allows you to watch TV in 2D mode or to bypass (BP) the 3D-Bee

when viewing movies or games already rendered in 3D.


Try a 3d disc through the bee with this on if you can.
 
#173 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by diamond design /forum/post/21500759


Can you test my theory I mentioned in the lumaegen thread about pass through for 3d.


2D/BP:

This button allows you to watch TV in 2D mode or to bypass (BP) the 3D-Bee

when viewing movies or games already rendered in 3D.


Try a 3d disc through the bee with this on if you can.

sure, i'll do that tonight...
 
#175 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by pvega /forum/post/21439413


Hi all,


I´m planning to buy the Optoma HD600X-LV.


To use the 3D-Bee with this projector do i still need the 3D-XL adapter or it plugs directly to the Projector?



Thanks,

Hi pvega,


You don't need the 3D-XL. You need 3D-Bee::Trainer and it will output 3d video signal in 120HZ frame-sequential format, which is directly compatible with the projector input.


Hope that helps!
 
#176 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by pvega /forum/post/21501596


I´m noticing that everyone´s favorite setting is the "z-"


So, do you think the "trainer" is worth the additional 100$ or the best option is the "home" model?

insufficient data as of yet... if i can clean up the ghosting some, the z-- mode will likely get some use...
 
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