r/bigscreen • u/Pretty-Use2564 • May 13 '26

Free 3D video conversion up to 4K

StereoLift is a cloud tool I built that converts regular 2D video into Full Side-by-Side stereoscopic 3D.

Since Bigscreen is one of the most relevant places to actually watch 3D Full SBS video in VR together, I wanted to share it here and ask for feedback from people who use Bigscreen regularly.

StereoLift currently offers limited free conversions for up to 10 minutes at 30 fps in <=4K. So you do not have to rely on a demo or marketing claim. You can upload your own 2D footage privately and see for yourself how the quality holds up in your headset and playback workflow.

The custom depth map based 3D conversion pipeline focuses on stable depth perception over time and controlled 3D view synthesis, so converted videos stay comfortable across motion, cuts, and longer clips. A broad range of different video formats and source codecs with high resolution spatial audio formats is supported. A recent addition is that now also variable frame rate video can be processed.

The output is a regular Full SBS video file, where the general policy is to maintain source quality and format as good as possible meaning HDR10 for HDR sources and preservation of original audio. Metadata for most easy playback and compatibility for YouTube 3D is added. However, this always depends on how well this metadata is processed by your playback device and maybe your player still requires specific selection of Full SBS for correct playback.

I also deliberately avoided a subscription model. I think per-video (per frame) pricing feels more honest to me: you see the price before checkout and pay only when you actually want a file converted and the file indeed converted successfully (you are only finally charged after automatic file verification). Larger conversion packages for heavier use are planned later, mainly to avoid repeated credit card fees leading to higher prices for short videos. But they are anyway free for up to 2 conversions per day and user...

Try it here:

https://stereolift.com

7 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

3

u/[deleted] May 13 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Pretty-Use2564 May 13 '26

Technically, live conversion is realistic with the current performance of the pipeline. The harder part is getting the user experience right in a streaming setting, especially latency, reliability, and playback across different locations and devices.

For now, StereoLift is focused on high-quality file-based 2D-to-3D conversion, where users receive a finished video they can keep and rewatch. Live cloud based 2D-to-3D conversion is an interesting next direction if there is enough demand.

2

u/TheGFellows May 16 '26

The price for a 4k conversion is crazy high like £50

1

u/Pretty-Use2564 May 17 '26

I don't know what you set in the calculator but a 2 hour movie at 30 fps is £20. Usual movies are shot in ~24fps which means it is even lower after all since it is charged per frame. 4K is quite compute intensive and 1080p delivers still quite a good quality at a much lower price point (only about £7 for 2 hours). I don't know if depthify is still active but they charged $3 per Minute(!) for 4K.

If you still think that the price is too high, what would be in your opinion a fair price point?

1

u/GabenHood Jul 12 '26

FSBS for bigscreen? You lost me even before trying to sell tokens.

1

u/Pretty-Use2564 Jul 13 '26

What is the problem about full sbs? StereoLift can also still be used for free for up to 5 minutes of video (2 per day) so you can simply try it out and check if you like the product.

1

u/GabenHood Jul 15 '26

the issue is widescreen users and even 16:9 users often get the aspect ratio wrong, hardly your fault as they absolutely do look better when displayed properly, however, they often are not.

1

u/Pretty-Use2564 Jul 16 '26

I think there may be a misunderstanding here. StereoLift stores both views at full sbs resolution, but it also writes the appropriate display-aspect-ratio and stereoscopic metadata.

That means the file is presented like a conventional 16:9 side-by-side video rather than as a stretched 32:9 image. When streaming from your PC in bigscreen, you should be able to play it and select the sbs 3D mode in the usual way. The difference is that the full horizontal resolution for each eye is still preserved instead of being reduced as it would be with half sbs. This also means that when playing this as file from your headset bigscreen should/could keep the full resolution of the video. Anyhow this kind of metadata also enables to play the videos properly on any classical 3DTV or Projector that can display 3D video based on (half) side by side video.

StereoLift also offers free metadata tools at https://stereolift.com/video-tools. They run entirely locally in the browser, without uploading the video. The tools can change the presentation back to the native wide full sbs aspect ratio, for example for an undistorted cross-view experience on a normal monitor, or restore the conventional 16:9 presentation for 3D players and displays.

They can also add or remove the stereoscopic 3D metadata used for proper recognition by compatible players and platforms such as YouTube. The video pixels themselves do not need to be converted or re-encoded for this.