Official Omega 3D passive projection system thread

There has been great detailed talk about passive 3D and especially dual projector passive 3D in this thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1280393

and some good talk here as well, but I wanted to start a thread here for any specific questions or talk about this method of passive 3D.

The basic working concept of the Omega 3D passive projection system is based on multiband optical filters similar in a basic way to Dolby but has several advantages over that. Mainly no massive color correction that some here have found out by trying to use the Dolby lenses.
Next is the extinction level that far surpasses polarizing and lastly no need for a silver screen as it is a chromatic optical multiplexing system and not based on polarizing.

the reason Dolby is hard to get native color balance is that three of the six bands ( three left and three right ) are near the limits of color perception leaving three bands in the most sensitive part of color vision ( cyan thru low reds ) leaving one eye seeing mostly green and the other a pink/ mgenta. this also makes for uneven enregy balance. now all this is corrected to a large degree in a cinema with the required Dolby color processor/ server and the right projection filters that are not readily available to consumers.

This makes Dolby almost a split anaglyph system when seen though a photopic response view.
The Omega filter system uses ten bands making for more balanced color perception over the entire visible spectrum and yields more even energy balance that other chromatic filtering systems.

Here is a new video about the omega 3d system. its great it is working so well for people who have tried it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10xwn...feature=relmfu

the color uniformity on the omega filters depends on the throw ratio to some degree. if its 1.8:1 or so its as good as the projectors being used. on short throw LCD units ~1.2:1 - 1.4:1 there can be some slight variation to the edges due to angles of light going thru the filters. as far as motion handling and black levels that will be up to the projectors as the filter system dose not alter those aspects at all.

I would be interested in a review of this Byteworks unit. it dosnt actually sound that good with only 1000:1 contrast. the specs dont add up saying it draws 350 watts when there is a 700 watt lamp ?? the integrated HTPC is interesting. i dont see how it could do 3D well with large LCD pannel like that. the omega filters could work if you have two of these and place a large filter in front of each lens but then ypu still need a separate way od de multiplexing the 3d to the two and they already have a pc in them ?? not sure.
for a good looking large area ( 5m ) passive 3D rig you would be better off with some used Barco light cannons, a pair of them and set them up like one of the recent posters on here. ive seen good used Barcos cheap on ebay. mostly kind of large for most home instalations but look amazing im sure.
you can get glasses from omega in larger quantities and for less than the listings on ebay. you just need to contact directly.

the reason i dont think this will be a good projector for 3d is that the large single LCD pannel may not have a very good refresh rate or response time for 3d with quick movement. the low contrast takes away form the image
what i meant by light cannons is a general term for projectors with a lot of lumens. there are some good 720p used cinema and simulation projectors like the barco sim 6 like this one for $175

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Barco-Realit...item1c271a49ac

with a pair of these you could fill a large screen with more than enough light. if you look in the thread about the ultimate passive 3d system near the end you will see someone else usign these exact units with the omega filters mounted internally behind the lens with great results.
if you have custom software that can split the 3d signal i would be interested to know more about it. there are a few choices but not many that can demultiplex 3d for a dual projector system.

the "wings" on the glasses have been tested and developed as needed to reduce back reflection. they are not pretty but it dose make them work better. besides if your drawn in to the 3d movie you dont notice or want to notice what is around you.

i am working on a design of a dual light engine projector and hope to start working with someone to produce such a unit. but for now the dual projector setup is great.

there is no real limit i have seen to the amount of lumens you can put through the omega filter set. in large cinema instalations we have had done with these filters a wheel of left and right filters is placed at the focal point of 7k watt xenon lamps with no issues. to illuminate the largest screen used with our filters so far, two 2k 3chip DLP projectors were used with 7k watt lamps in each and a 90mm dia filter was placed in front of each unit. i dont know how many lumens that was but its clearly possible.
large displays of other kinds like art instalations sounds very cool.

glasses are something i would love to change and improve. but it takes funds i dont have at the moment. we have a lot of these frames made for mass production and cinema use. it was not my first choice in design either. i know how to make a far better frame for the eye optics and have it be less bulky and atractive but it will take time.
i have re-fitted the lenses to other frames for my own testing. in fact there is a post in the other thread with pictures where i did this. back reflections, side reflections and light leaking in from exit signs are all parts of what we designed to block. these being dielectric filter coatings have reflection as part of the high performance function. the right geometry of the optics can go a long way at reducing the issues and minimize the ammount of plastic needed.
it is a goal that i am working on.
if you want a set of larger filters we have them for placing out in front of larger optics. just look for the large kit on ebay or we can customize a set.

light levels will be different with the omega filters. the stereo-bright fitlers are an interesting and somewhat efficient idea. but the ghositng levels are far greater than with most other stereoscopic systems. and green channel crossing is hard with some setups. even in their own technical info they state ghosign levels will be greater than other systems.
so to cut to the chase i would say 1000 lumens will not be enough for a screen the size of your wall ( 13') the omega filters may work ok on the 84" Da-lite.
so 1. maybe not for a screen larger than 84"
2. you dont need a gain screen but with low light maybe Da-lite cinema vision 1.3 gain would be good
3. i dont have any threads ive followed on screens yet as most of my rigs are on matt white or even painted walls with no issues. i will start following some screen threads though to keep up more,
4. how large depends on the lumens. ive been showing my passive system on a 14' white screen with two 2700 lumen DLP projectors and even with some ambient light its great.

its hard to beat the numbers of the stereo-bright system but you will trade lumens for no ghosting at all and on a white screen with no hot spots. in another thread back some time all the cinema system efficiencies were posted. i would have to look but the omega system when tested as the panavison 3D measured 18%- 20% compared to RealDz at 15% and Dolby3D at 12% so in that mind we are better on efficiency than most with no ghosing but you will need more lumens as you would with any of the cinema 3D systems like ours.
i hope this hepls your choice. i know buying higher output projectors is not a great thought but for a 13' wall it would be best.

Yes. i just built a new rig with two optoma HD20's 1700 lumens each and it looked great on a 120" 1,0 gain screen and it was even ok on my 177" screen but that was with no ambient light.

any kind of screen will work with our filter system. if you have a silver screen it will just have the normal hot spotting. the nice thing about the filter kit i make is it dose not need a silver screen but it works fine on them.

You know i agree with some of what you say. there is so much history with polarization so a lot of knowhow surrounds it. the color is better on a lot of the small mercury lamp home systems overall. polarizers are kind of less expensive if you go the linear method.
with the right screen and ideal polarizing filters matched to the right kind of projector you can get very satisfying 3D. but to do this you would spend more on the right projection polarizing filters and screen than the Omega filter system, or close to it depending on your setup.
I guess to some degree all of the issues with color and the omega system are with certain LCD based projectors, some LCD and DLP units fair better than others depending on how the color is produced. it is usually an issue with little yellow to red performance and large notches in the higher spectrums that cause the greens and reds to look different.
the system was developed extensively on cinema 3DLP xenon projectors with none of these issues. the only cinema LCD system if was refined for was the Sony 4k SXRD system and that needed correction to be good, still not as good as any of the DLP systems.
i have the spectrometers to test and refine this approach to 3D, if i had a large selection of projectors i could probably solve the color issues. at one point i made a 14 band system that would probably fair better for the LCD issues we see, and an older revision of the system that had different band placement of the 10 band designs may be better for the low red/yellow output.
when we started to sell surplus optics for this new area i guess i lucked out with my first DLP projectors having such full spectral output. i am able to adjust the color some to eliminate most of the color difference between eyes but most high end home theater units are not DLP, learning curve for me moving from cinema to home theater.
from careful testing in theaters we actually have better throughput than linear polarizing system 18-20% vs realD 15%from my own spectral tests this holds true on the DLP systems ive got but still this is a lot of loss and dose not compare to using pre-polarized light of some projectors and wave plates to make circular systems as far as lumens goes but as you state where we have it is in crosstalk or extinction. its hard to beat the levels we can get.

i know that with some DLP home cinema projectors ( some with lens shift ) our filter system works very very good on color. i am nearing finish of building a new dual stack using two Optoma HD20's built into an studio 19" 12U rack with the Geobox 501 demultiplexer and our filters. from the tests i just ran looking at color reproduction it is very good to where only the most trained eye can see hue difference and they are subtle.
there is little that can be done with some projectors when using a chromatic separating S3D system when the spectrum dose not match with the filter system. on this page

https://sites.google.com/site/passiv...tioninprolog20

you can see some of the issues that can come from all of the color separating filters on LCD system. some DLP wheels also create some problems as well but not to the degree some of the LCD units have at least for this filtering system. it is not perfect for all rigs but it could be given the right partners for developing a new set of bands and locations just as i did for cinema. for a lot of people it is a great option and im glad for all that have tried it an offered feedback good and bad.

by the way BlackShark great post with the pictures ! i think the test pattern showing color differance side by side is good. i would like to try that type of pattern as well so i can take some shots of the different projectors i can get my hands on. where did you get that?