Cel-Soft limits the scope of bad 3D

The new Cel-Soft Cel-Scope3D is a software based 3D stereoscopic analyser that should help productions avoid bad 3D.

"It is only too easy to make bad 3D, because any misjudgement of the convergence produces dreadful results," said MD, Robin Palmer (pictured).

Left/right focus-difference and colour-balance-difference displays created by the Cel-Scope3D allow camera matching to be checked quickly.

It measures depth and disparity and allows users to set a depth budget (by pixels or percentage), and warns when you go over it. It can also log to a text file a record of what the depth was at any time, for review in post.

The live 3D analysis displays include depth analysis with depth budget markers, vertical disparity, depth histogram and vertical disparities histogram. These can be colour-coded to correspond to the false colour used on the depth map, to quickly pinpoint problem areas.

It can preview 3D as full-resolution luminance or any other anaglyph format (up to six at once), does colour matching in real time and audio analysis for up to 16 channels (with surround sound streams shown in a polar display).

It is designed for use on set, with live inputs, and in post production, to review and play back 3D media files. Quality-control tests can be performed on live stereoscopic video sources in any SD, HD or 2K format from standard capture cards or FireWire inputs, or from file playback.

Displays can be scaled and arranged as six or eight windows on one or two PC monitors and also on a 3D monitor. It also supports touchscreen control. An optional 3D recording facility allows dual stream 3D be captured direct to hard disk in a number of formats.

Costing €3,500, the software runs on powerful Windows PCs (four-core or six-core i7 processors and Nvidia graphics cards are recommended).

"What we're offering is, I believe, better, more flexible and more affordable," than its rivals, added Palmer. It has already been bought by the EBU to do 3D testing.

Besides being a stand-alone product it is also being licensed to other companies for use in an embedded role, and will also be available as a plug-in for one or more popular editing and grading systems over the coming months.

By David Fox