PC Screen or Live Video Conversion to 3D

Introduction

In addition to converting video files to 3D, Stream to 3D also supports 3D conversion from live video sources such as video played on your PC screen, webcams or video capture devices. This is enabled through the Stream to 3D application itself, together with its utility program Live Capture Source Creator.

The Live Capture Source Creator utility program generates files representing live video sources which the Stream to 3D application can then read and convert into 3D video output, applying the same functionality as for standard video files. It is only necessary to create a live video source file once for each live source, this file can then be reused for any sessions involving that source.

The video below shows a brief example of capturing the PC Screen, which is playing a Youtube video, and watching it in 3D in Virtual Desktop within an Oculus Quest 3 Headset. As shown in the example, the video can be watched in 2D and 3D at the same time, using two virtual monitors, or the monitor showing the 2D video can be removed/hidden:

Live Capture Source Creator

This utility enables support for live video and audio sources, including specialised built-in support for capturing video directly from one of your PC displays via screen-capture-recorder and its audio companion, virtual-audio-capturer.

By optimising resolution, frame rate, and audio settings, you can also tailor Stream to 3D’s performance to match your hardware capabilities.

Step-by-step Guide:

1. Launching the Live Capture Source Creator

Open the Stream to 3D Live Capture Source Creator from the main Stream to 3D application folder, as shown in the image below.
Recommendation: Create desktop shortcuts to both this utility as well as the main Stream to 3D application for easy access.
The utility's Help menu or pressing F1 will take you back to this guidance if needed.

2. Selecting a Video Source

From the Video Source dropdown menu, choose your desired source. Supported video source options include the PC Screen (via screen-capture-recorder), webcams, USB cameras and video capture devices. The devices that are presented will depend on those connected and enabled on your system (as DirectShow video and audio sources):

3. Video Source Characteristics

Upon selection, the application automatically populates:

Native Video Frame Rate
Video Resolution

For screen-capture-recorder, the current settings are displayed (as read from the registry) and marked as (current). These settings can be modified later within the Stream to 3D application. Other sources offer fixed resolutions and frame rates provided directly by the device hardware:

4. Configuring the 3D Conversion Sample Frame Rate

The 3D Conversion Sample Frame Rate defaults to the native frame rate of your selected video source. You can adjust this value to improve performance if your hardware struggles at the default rate. A symptom of your system struggling with performance would include your converted 3D video playback appearing excessively fast due to dropped frames. In such cases, consider selecting a lower resolution or frame rate:

5. Selecting Audio Source and Delay

Select your preferred Audio Source from the dropdown menu.
If audio-video synchronisation issues occur, specify an Audio Delay (in milliseconds). This setting provides a permanent offset correction for the source. You can further adjust this within Stream to 3D later if necessary:

6. Saving the Live Source Configuration

After configuring your video and audio sources, click Save Stream to 3D Live Source File.

Choose a destination and save your configuration file with the extension .s3dsc (set automatically).
This file can be reused for future captures from the same source.

4. Processing the Live Source in Stream to 3D

This is a PC screen video capture example. It uses Virtual Desktop and an Oculus Quest 3 VR headset.

The example uses Stream to 3D's Play functionality. This performs real-time conversion to 3D, outputting the 3D video to one of the monitors/displays of the PC.
As capturing from and displaying to the same single PC screen at the same time is not possible, the example assumes that the system has at least two displays. This could be a laptop with an external monitor.
If you have only one display, you can use the Convert function, which converts to a file from your PC display. You could then watch the 3D video file after conversion has completed or during conversion (if accessing the 3D file from another device via a share). Alternatively, you can use a HDMI plug to create a secondary display (this is the approach applied here) or use software to simulate an external display.
The actual system employed here consists of a laptop with an Nvidia 3060 GPU and a secondary display provided by a dummy HDMI plug.
The primary and secondary displays are visualised in an Oculus Quest 3 headset via Virtual Desktop software. This allows both the primary and secondary display to be viewed in VR. The primary display is the laptop's main display (1080p resolution). This is used to play the source 2D video (in this case, a Youtube video displayed via a browser). The secondary display (the HDMI plug) is configured as a 4K display (3840x2160), which provides sufficient resolution for Full 3D formats such as Full SBS (at 1080p per eye).
Stream to 3D should be launched on the secondary display. This is where the 3D video will be displayed. The Play function, when used with the Configuration Wizard, will detect the resolution of the display on which Stream to 3D is running and generate 3D output compatible with this resolution. Stream to 3D will also ensure that the media player will launch on the same display as Stream to 3D. Stream to 3D will minimize, by default, during playback.

The video below was recorded in the Oculus Quest 3 headset and shows operation of Stream to 3D with Virtual Desktop and two virtual desktop displays:

Launch the main Stream to 3D application and open your created .s3dsc file, for example via the Play main menu option as illustrated below:

This is a PC screen video capture example, enabled by screen-capture-recorder:

All of Stream to 3D's functions—Play, Capture, Stream, and the Wizard —are available for use with live sources.

You will next see the Duration Dialog, a new feature specifically for live sources. Here, you can edit:

Frame rate at which to sample the live video for 3D conversion (defaults to native frame rate).
Capture duration (default: 2 hours). This is to automate the capture process if left unattended, you will be able to terminate the capture earlier if desired.
The Help button, will take you to the guidance here.

Pressing Play will take you to the next dialog. For this PC screen video capture example, you will be presented with the screen capture settings. These settings allow you to:

Specify the PC screen display from which video will be captured (important for multi-monitor/display setups). This is zero offset (zero is usually your main PC screen).
Specify a region of the screen to capture, specified by the top left hand corner (x,y pixel co-ordinates) together with the width and height of the region in pixels.
Define the maximum native frame rate at which the underlying screen-capture-recorder technology will record video.
Specify audio capture preferences (whether or not to record audio).
Minimize Prior to Capture: Indicates whether or not to minimize the Stream to 3D application before initiating screen capture. This is particularly useful in single display systems, as if Stream to 3D is not minimized then it becomes part of the captured video.
The Help button, will take you to the guidance here.

Pressing Play will then take you to the Configuration Wizard (if you have it enabled). In the Wizard, you can next choose to continue configuration or you might want to to view the details of the video capture source first, to verify its characteristics:

Subsequent workflow steps follow the standard Stream to 3D video conversion process.

For details on Stream to 3D Play functionality:
For the main documentation page:

An example output from webcam to 3D conversion is shown below:

A screen-capture-recorder example

The screen-capture-recorder source offers additional customisation directly through the Stream to 3D application:

The enhanced Stream to 3D functionality for screen-capture-recorder, shown below, allows you to:

Specify a region of the screen to capture.
Define the maximum native frame rate.
Select which PC screen display to capture (useful for multi-monitor setups).
Specify audio capture preferences.

A screen-capture-recorder conversion example

Next, the user should press Convert and select the destination file for the converted 3D video:

Stream to 3D automatically includes a unique timestamp in the output filename. This ensures media players recognise the new video as distinct, preventing playback issues (such as attempting to continue playback from last known position for that file).
By default, the main PC screen (Screen Display Index = 0) is captured. You can capture another monitor by specifying its offset index (zero-based).
To continue, press Save, exit Full Screen mode in Stream to 3D (Alt+Enter), and minimise the application.

After your desired capture period, you can return to Stream to 3D, which will show progress as below. The Finish button will allow you to complete video capture and conversion at a convenient point and play the resulting video:

Performance Considerations

Near real-time conversion performance depends heavily on hardware capability, video resolution, and frame rate. Adjust settings appropriately based on your system’s capacity.

Click here to go to the Usage and Configuration home page.