Digital 3D is a non-specific 3D standard in which films, tv shows, and video games are presented and shot in digital 3D technology or later processed in digital Post-production to add a 3D effect. One of the first studios to use digital 3D was Walt Disney Pictures. In promoting their first CGI animated film Chicken Little, they trademarked the phrase Disney Digital 3-D and teamed up with RealD in order to present the film in 3D in the United States. A total of over 62 theaters in the US were retro-fitted to use this new system.

Even though some critics and fans were skeptical about digital 3D, it began to catch on and now there are several more digital 3D formats such as Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D and MasterImage 3D. In 2008, IMAX announced that it would be releasing digital versions of its films and now IMAX 3D can be shown digitally in an IMAX digital venue. The first home video game console was the Sega Master System in which a limited number of titles where capable of delivering 3D.

A first peak of 3D film production started in 1952 and continued to 1955, during a time which was known as the golden era of 3D film. Anaglyph red/blue 3D glasses were used in theaters along with Polarized 3D glasses, and was among the many gimmicks proposed by movie studios - like cinerama and cinemascope - to bring audiences to the theater and in order to compete with television. A later process that used red/green glasses came in the 1960s, this too lost out. Time and time again 3D has been used to promote theaters, however the advent of widescreen formats and widescreen TVs eclipsed these efforts.

After announcing that Home on the Range would be their last hand drawn feature in fear that Pixar would not re-sign for a new distribution deal, Disney went to work on Chicken Little. Not only did make it using CGI but also presented it in 3D. Disney heeded a suggestion by the RealD company to use their system and, after looking at test footage, decided to proceed. In 2005, Chicken Little was a success at the box office in both 2D and 3D screenings. Two more films followed in their classic feature animation - Meet the Robinsons and Bolt - along with several others. Since then many film studios have shot and released many films in several digital 3D formats. In 2010, Avatar became the first feature film shot in Digital 3D to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and was also nominated for Best Picture.

Before the advent of digital cinema, converting 2D images to 3D was mainly used for computer graphics because converting for film was impossible. Following the release of Chicken Little, Walt Disney Pictures decided to that it would re-release the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas in digital 3D. The film was rescanned and then each frame was manipulated to create a left eye and right eye image, doubling the number of frames. Disney wanted the film done in time for a Halloween release and the work was costly but proved successful. 2D to 3D conversions have become faster and a convenience to filmmakers who do not like to deal with any kind of 3D camera system whether it shoots film or digital video. Some critics state that such things should not be done as it feels fake at times and would say that if a film has been converted to 3D, they would rather see its original flat 2D version instead. Some critics and fans do say that it is a work-in-progress but there is no major standard for converting 2D to 3D as of this date. CGI animated films can be converted to 3D by going back to the source models as long as they are still in existence. A small number of films shot in 2D are set to be re-released in 3D both in theaters and straight-to-3D Blu-ray.

The standard for shooting live-action films in 3D haven't changed much due to the standards of how true 3D Film is shot. It involves using two cameras mounted so that their lenses are about as far apart from each other as the average pair of human eyes, recording two separate images for both the left eye and the right eye. In 2008, Journey to the Center of the Earth became the first live-action feature film to be released in Digital 3D. This film was later followed with several other films shot in Live-action. The 2009 release of Avatar was shot in a 3D process that is based on how the human eye looks at an image, it was an improvement to a currently existing 3D camera system.

CGI animation is where most Digital 3D features come along, in 2009 the release of Monsters vs Aliens was the first 3D feature by Dreamworks animation and used a new digital rendering process called InTru3D which is a process developed by Intel to create more realistic 3D images despite the fact that they are animated. InTru3D is not a way that films are exhibited in theaters in 3D, the films created in this process are seen in either RealD 3D or IMAX 3D.

In June 1986, Sega released the Sega Master System, part of the third generation of gaming consoles. The system had a card slot that provided power to a single pair of LCD shutter glasses, allowing certain games to be viewed in 3D; however, only 13 3D-compatible games were ever released, and when the system was redesigned in 1990 in order to cut down on manufacturing coasts, it lost the ability to support 3D. It was the first known electronic device released in North America to use LCD shutter glasses.

In July 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy, a 3D viewer that acted like a pair of goggles. Both left and right eye images were red, and put strain on the player's eyes; the system was a failure and was discontinued the following year. In December 2008, several 3rd party developers for the PlayStation 3 announced they would work toward bringing Stereoscopic 3D gaming to major gaming consoles using their own technology. In the coming months, both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 will be capable of 3D imaging via 3DTV and system/hardware updates. On June 15, 2010 at the E3 Expo, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo 3DS, the successor to the Nintendo DS series of handheld consoles. It will be the first gaming console to allow 3D viewing without the need for 3D glasses.

After the unexpected box office success of Avatar and a record number of 20 3D films released in 2009, TV manufactures saw the demand for 3DTVs go up dramatically and went in further into research and development. The first to announce was Panasonic, followed in April 2010 by an announcement from Sony that their 3DTV technology would be somewhat loosely based on RealD's technology. Each TV manufacture would make their own 3D glasses. The same month, Samsung released a 3D starter kit which included the purchase of 3 items with a discount a select retailers, the starter kit would include a Samsung model 3DTV, a samsung brand 3D capable Blu-ray disk player, and a box with two pairs of Samsung brand 3D glasses which included an exclusive 3D Blu-ray edition of Monsters vs. Aliens. Specifications for 3D also include the HDMI 1.4a standards. Some of these tv's can also convert 2D into 3D, but such features are limited as to how much depth can be generated. In June 2010 Panasonic announced Coraline and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs as bonus 3D Blu-ray titles with the purchase of any of their 3DTVs. On June 22, 2010, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs became the first 3D Blu-ray title to be released without any requirements to buy any new electronic hardware but free copies of this title will be included in 3D entertainment packages by Sony.

Several DVD and Blu-ray releases have already tried their hands at releasing the 3D versions of films by using an anaglyph format. One noted release prior to the advent of digital cinema is the 1982 film Friday the 13th: Part 3 in 3D, but other such films actually shot digitally like Coraline released on DVD and Blu-ray. Both included 2D and 3D versions and both where packaged with pairs of 3D glasses, it is currently being offered as a bonus 3D Blu-ray with the purchase of any Panasonic 3DTV. The Blu-ray Association ordered a new standard for presenting 3D content on Blu-ray that would also be Backwards Compatible with all 2D displays. In December 2009, it was announced that they had adopted the Multiview Video Codec, which would be playable in all Blu-ray disk players even if they could not generate a 3D image. The codec contains information that is readable on a 2D output plus additional information that can only be read on a 3D output and display. It is exactly the same when television stations started broadcasting in color while several TV owners still had black and white TV sets.

In late 2009, the Discovery Channel and The IMAX Corporation signed a deal to launch the first cable network that would broadcast in 3D on a 24/7 basis.^[1] 25 matches of in the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament where shot in 3D.^[2] DirecTV is the first of any satellite television or cable television to offer 3D programming, including pay-per-view movies on DirecTV channel 104.^[3] as well as ESPN 3D which is also carried by Comcast^[4] and AT&T U-verse^[5]

In 2008, 8 films were released in 3D. In 2009, 20 films were released in 3D. Several theaters now have two screens in order to show two films in 3D at the same time. Digital 3D is slowly becoming what widescreen became in the 1950s. In June 2009, a standard on how 3D content would be viewed on Blu-ray disk was decided called mvc, the forth codec will be backwards compatible in both older Blu-ray players and Non-3D displays. The first line of 3D Blu-ray titles are expected in Summer of 2010. Sony has announced a firmware update for the PlayStation 3 in Fall of 2010 that will give it the ability to playback full resolution 3D Blu-ray via an HDMI 1.4a out to a 3DTV.

• List of RealD 3D films
• 3D Film