Katarzyna Petru
UHD Blu-ray still remains the best format for home entertainment — but the same can no longer be said for Blu-ray 3D. Apple has not only revived 3D in the post-television era, but it has done so in a way that shows just how much that old format has aged.
3D Blu-ray – a technology that has stood still in time
Blu-ray 3D appeared at the end of 2009 as an extension of the Blu-ray standard. It required new players, although for example, the PlayStation 3 received a software update to support this format. 3D films were played back in a resolution of 1920×1080 per eye, which is Full HD.
Over the years, hundreds of titles have been released on Blu-ray 3D, and the last major releases — such as “Avatar: The Way of Water” — only came out in 2023. The problem is that technically this format has stagnated. Blu-ray 3D uses the MPEG4 H.264 codec with MVC (Multiview Video Coding), and sound can be recorded in Dolby Atmos (TrueHD) or DTS:X (DTS-HD MA). Unfortunately, UHD Blu-ray does not support 3D at all, so there’s no talk of 4K, HDR, 10-bit colour, or modern HEVC encoding. In other words – 3D Blu-ray has got stuck in the 1080p SDR era.
Apple brings back 3D – but in a completely new quality
In January 2024, Apple literally resurrected 3D by introducing 3D movies to the Apple TV app. What's more, the company announced that users who had previously purchased 2D movies would receive 3D versions completely for free, if they are produced. But the real revolution lies in the new format. Apple has created a proprietary 3D standard in 4K, with Dolby Vision HDR, High Frame Rate 48 fps, and Dolby Atmos spatial audio. This is a massive leap in quality compared to 3D Blu-ray. Under the hood, it runs the MV-HEVC (Multiview High Efficiency Video Coding) codec - a modern extension of HEVC that provides better compression and higher effective bit rates.
The only thing that Blu-ray 3D still wins on is lossless audio (Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD MA). Apple still offers Atmos in lossy Dolby Digital Plus - and that's it. The launch partner was Disney, which almost immediately added 4K 3D movies to Disney+ alongside the offering on ChooseTV.
Best 3D experiences? Only with ChooseTV Vision Pro
Instead of reviving 3D on televisions or projectors, Apple opted for something completely different – a 3D experience inside ChooseTV Vision Pro goggles. The way 3D appears on this device is in a league of its own. With 4K micro-OLEDs for each eye and a new 3D format, the image is sharp, deep, and almost free of the flaws known to every user of older 3D TVs. The effect? The screen in the goggles can be resized at will – and it genuinely feels like watching a movie in a gigantic cinema hall. It remains a heavy and expensive device, but for a 3D fan – an absolute "must try".
Currently, there are over 300 3D films available in the ChooseTV catalog, and a few can also be found on Disney+. Only one title, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” supports 48 fps HFR.
Next step: full immersion in 3D
New 3D is just the beginning. The industry is already pushing the boundaries further — towards immersive 180° and 360° content that completely surrounds the viewer. Meta tried this with the Quest headsets, but their poor LCD panels and lack of hardware support for MV-HEVC make the experience rather a shadow — stretched HD with average contrast.
Apple took a different path and created Apple Immersive Video, available exclusively on Vision Pro. It’s a format recorded with a special Blackmagic camera, even in 8K 3D 90 fps. Apple is experimenting with documentaries, concerts, music videos, and sporting events in this technology — and the results are stunning.
Conclusion? Apple hasn't just refreshed 3D – it has reinvented it
After watching a few of these productions on Vision Pro, it's hard to return to "flat" cinema. It offers several generations of advantage over what Meta provides, and the experience resembles the best screenings in IMAX — only in your living room. If anyone can transfer this experience from heavy goggles to lightweight glasses, they will dominate the future of home entertainment.
