Convert a H-SBS mkv video into Colorcoded 3D with Sony Vegas 10 pro.

Updated: The method here does  NOT generate ColorCoded videos, only the yellow/blue anaglyphic ones. So the 3D effect and color rendering is inferior to the true ColorCoded video.

I am writing a new tutorial, which uses only free tools to do the job. No more Vegas.

 Original text:
We are stepping into a 3D imaging era. Every year you will see a ton of 3D movies being released. More and more consumer-level 3D cameras/camcorders emerge on the market. It's a good chance that you might come across some 3D video files in a popular format: H-SBS.

H-SBS stands for Half Side-By-Side. H-SBS videos use the same video and audio codec that other videos use, except they show left eye images and right eye images side by side, each is squeezed to half of the width of the screen, as the below image shows. It's a screen capture from movie "Rio", from Twentieth Century Fox Animation.

The advantage of this kind of format is obvious: it can deliver 3D images without creating any new format, and be totally compatible with all regular 2D video/pictures. However, it also reduce the horizontal resolution by half, degrading the video quality a little bit, but in my experience, the sacrifice is completely worth it: it's very hard to tell the difference.

To play this kind of 3D video/pictures, usually you need to have a 3D TV or LCD with expensive LCD shutter glass, and a HTPC that could understand this kind of format. Being a poor guy I can't afford to throw away my 65" projection TV, ebay all my LCD monitors and buy all new 3D ones. So in the search of finding a way to play 3D video on regular monitors I discovered Colorcode 3D, which it's the best way to do the job. Please, go to their website and buy their paper glasses, (don't get the plastic ones), and you will see why. Their amber/blue glasses cost you only $4 for 2 in Amazon, absolutely worth a try.

However, it's impossible to find a tutorial online about the way to convert the popular HSBS 3D video into a Colorcode3D video. Recently I started to use Sony Vegas 10 pro, and I discovered that it had 3D video editing capabilities and Colorcode encoding feature. So this is a tutorial for the guys who have purchased Sony Vegas 10 pro only.

The video file I use is a sample from Movie "Rio". The file name is "Rio.3D.2010.1080p-sample.mkv".

First, to handle the mkv file, you should have MKVExtractGUI and mkvtoolnix ready.

Use MKVExtractGUI to extract only the video from the mkv file, as shown below.

After that, change the extension of  "Rio.3D.2010.1080p-sample_Track1.h264" from "h264" to "264", the result is "Rio.3D.2010.1080p-sample_Track1.264".

Open Sony Vegas 10, and import this file, in "Project Media" tab, right-click this file and choose "Properties". Change the "Stereoscopic 3D mode" from "Off" to "Side by side (half)", as shown below.

Drag the video to the video track.

Click on File->Properties or hit Alt-Enter, the project properties appears. Change the Template to "HD 1080-24p ..." to match the original video resolution and frame rate. Change "Stereoscopic 3D mode" to "Anaglyphic (amber/blue)" as shown below, then click "OK".
I am not sure about the "Crosstalk cancellation", when I set it in the middle, it does seem to reduce the ghosting a little in the final result.

Now you can do all the video editing you want, maybe put your logo in it or add some special fx. My suggestion is to add a "Bright/Contrast Video FX" to it. Increase the brightness a little to balance the reduced light when you wear glasses.

After all is done, you click on File->Render As , choose "Sony AVC" as the save type, then click on "Template" and choose "Internet 1920x1080-25p", don't click "Save" yet.

Instead, click on "Custom" and change the "profile" to "High", change the "Entropy coding" to "CABAC", and change the "Frame rate" to 23.976, in order to match the original format. Lower the bit-rate to "9,000,000" is also a good idea. If you have a powerful graphic card, you can change "Encode Mode" to "Render using GPU if available".

Now you can give the video a name like "Rio.3D.Colorcode.mp4" and click on "Save". It could take a long time to render the video, so you just relax and go get some coffee. With my i7-2600 PC it will take about 4 hours to render this 1 hour and half video.

After the rendering is done, close Vegas (no need to save), open MKVMergeGui, which is part of MKVtoolnix, and drag the "Rio.3D.Colorcode.mp4" to it, then you drag the original "Rio.3D.2010.1080p-sample.mkv" to MKVMergeGui as well. Uncheck the video stream from the original and use only the audio stream. In this example I also uncheck all those subtitle tracks except the English one.

Now all is ready, click on "Start muxing", and you will get the mkv video file in colorcode3d format. Enjoy!

P.S. Sony Vegas seems to have difficulties handling the big .264 file. The first time you click on the file, you need to be patient because it will generate a .sfvx file in the background. Then you need to turn off the thumbnails in the video track, which is in Options->Preferences-Video Tab, just change "Thumbnails to show in video events" to "none". It will solve another non-responsive problem. And remember, under no circumstances you should move the cursor in the timeline. Vegas will take a long time to show you the video frame at that cursor. Better just leave it at 0.