• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  
• Video Codec: MVC (3D); AVC/MPEG-4 (2D)
  
• Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
• Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
  
• Subtitles: English, Dutch, German, French, Mandarin (traditional), Mandarin (simplified), Polish, Spanish
  
• Region: A (B? C?)
• Rating: TV-MA
  
• Run Time: 46 Mins.
• Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D)
• Studio: A&E  Entertainment/NewVideo
  
• Blu-ray Release Date: January 24, 2012
• List Price: $29.95
  

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BestBuy.com:

Purchase WWII in 3D on Blu-ray at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
2D HD: [Rating:4.5/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Film

[Rating:3.5/5]

There’s a little known fact that the electronics industry seems to want to keep quiet and that is that this “new” 3D that they have been pushing for the last couple of years has actually been around for over a hundred years. Even the polarized 3D that is used in movie theatres today was first popularized in the theatres of 1950s. No, it wasn’t the cheap red and cyan anaglyphic 3D that everyone thinks was in use. Those were traditionally used only for comic books and television broadcasts. In fact, stereoscopic 3D has been around so long that it was available for use during World War II and Hitler used it to his advantage for his Nazi propaganda machine.

The History Channel documentary WWII in 3D finally uncovers that 3D imagery from the archives and presents it in this brief 44-minute documentary for today’s “new” home 3D technology. There have of course, been advancements over the years that help bring this imagery alive in a way like never before. The documentary is less a rehash of the well known facts of the war than it is a look into the Nazi propaganda machine and these amazing images.

Much of the imagery are stereographs (3D photographs) taken by Hitlers official 3D photographer, and, I tell you, it looks very eerie looking at a 3D image of Hitler staring right back at you. Most intriguing is an uncovered 3D film used by the Nazis to train shoulders how to use their dreaded 80mm flak gun. Now, seeing the German soldiers in live action 3D, fully restored, is even more oddly unsettling somehow than the 3D still photo of Hitler.

In all, despite its brief ¾ of an hour run time, this is certainly a WWII documentary well worth sitting through and it did in fact reveal a few facts a long the way about the war I’d never heard before as well, making it a must for anyone with 3D capability interested in this genre.

Video Quality

2D HD: [Rating:4.5/5]

3D Effect: [Rating:4/5]

The 2D HD transfer is nearly flawless with strong, artifact-free details a film-like appearance in the restored photo and film footage and clear life-like look to the new HD footage.

For the 3D, necessarily, the stereographic photos don’t have as strong a dimensional depth as the rest of the documentary. For the rest, however, there is a good, natural sense of depth on the new, 3D-captured HD footage and, as for the restoration of the WWII era 3D film footage, it looks to have an amazing amount of depth and natural grain with little to no noticeable crosstalk.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

There is one audio track available and that is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. It is fairly straightforward with clean and upfront narration in the center channel and wide stereo spread of sound effects and music across the front and some audible atmospherics in the surrounds.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:0/5]

There are no supplements included with this release.

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3.5/5]

WWII in 3D may not be the most informative documentary on the war you’ll ever come across, but without a doubt watching it is almost like stepping through a time machine and viewing scenes of the war from a perspective that until now only those who were there and lived through it could have seen. It is that feeling that makes it a must-see experience for anyone with a 3D setup.

Additional Screen Captures

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[amazon-product]B005ELVCVQ[/amazon-product]

BestBuy.com:

Purchase WWII in 3D on Blu-ray at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
2D HD: [Rating:4.5/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]

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