If you know someone who enjoys watching movies, send them a special treat with a 3D movie on Blu-ray or standard DVD.

Over the past few years there has been a resurgence in the popularity of 3D movies shown at the theater. There have been special 3D movie versions of Chicken Little, Beowulf, The Robinsons, Monster House, The Nightmare Before Christmas and many more. To show these movies in 3D at a theater requires special projection equipment that most theaters do not have, so many movie fans are not even aware that 3D versions were being shown. The technology is very costly. You also currently need to wear special polarized glasses to see the 3D effect in movie theaters.

The bad news is that the majority of movies are never recorded in 3D for home viewing with standard DVDs or Blu-ray. The good news is that a few are available and they are a special treat for movie fans.

One problem is that the special equipment required cannot be duplicated in the typical home theater. But there is a workaround that has made a few movies available in 3D. No special equipment other than special glasses is needed for most 3D movies on DVD. Rather than using the gray linearly polarized glasses and special polarized stereoscopic projectors, movie makers opted to use a 3D technique that has been used in 3D movies for over 50 years. The method used is called anaglyph technology, which uses offset images and special glasses using different colored lenses to create the 3D effect. It works fairly well, bit does not always produce the same depth of field that you will see in a movie theater.

The most recent 3D movie to be released is Journey to the Center of the Earth with Brendan Fraser. It was released in 3D on standard DVD and Blu-ray. Blu-ray is where you are likely to see the best effects. This movie was made to show off the 3D effects and is probably a bit mediocre without it. When you buy this version, you get both the 2D and 3D versions, along with four red/green anaglyph glasses for viewing. The 3D version is a Limited Edition, which means it will probably only be available for a few months. If you like sci-fi, this is the one to get.

The Polar Express is an animated family film that was released in 2005. It is available in both standard DVD and Blu-ray versions, but if you want the 3D version, it may be a separate version. Some copies include both the 2D and 3D versions, but not all of them do. The copy that we bought from Amazon does include both the 2D and 3D versions, so if you do not like the 3D version, you can still watch an excellent Christmas tale in 2D. The 3D versions of Polar Express include four red/cyan anaglyph glasses for viewing. This is a Tom Hanks movie and like most of his productions we found it to be very entertaining.

Make sure that you read any special instructions that come with any of the anaglyph 3D videos. The Blu-ray copy of The Polar Express advises you to turn the lights down and turn up the brightness settings on your television. According to the instructions, you can just set a plasma or LCD HDTV to Standard Mode rather than Cinema Mode.

Another recent 3D movie that has a 3D version on both standard DVD and Blu-ray is Hanna Montana’s Best of Both World’s Concert, which was produced by Disney. If you have a young teen who likes Hanna Montana, this is the 3D DVD to get. It is also available in both standard DVD and Blu-ray. This movie was reported to be a huge 3D theater success.

There is a range of mostly older 3D movies available on standard DVD that use a 3D technique called HQFS (high quality field sequential). We have not yet checked those out, but there are quite a few available. Just click on one of the Amazon links above and do a search for “3D DVD” or “HQFS” and you will see the list of available movies.

Disney plans to release a series of 3D theater movies over the next couple of years. Perhaps they will release a number of these in 3D versions for home viewing. Meanwhile, enjoy the 3D movies that are currently available.