YouTube just took its 2D-to-stereoscopic-3D conversion out of beta test and rolled it out in time for Easter 2012. With the click of a button, short-form high-definition videos uploaded in 1080p now offer the three-dimensional flavor as well.

"In the same way we made editing features available ... we want a way to give editors and users more tools," said YouTube spokesman Matt McLernon. Over the past year of beta testing, YouTube has fine-tuned back-end 2D-to-3D conversion, using a number of video characteristics such as color, spatial layout and motion for estimating a depth map for each from a monoscopic video sequence. From that depth map and the original frame, a stereo 3D left and right pair is created -- 3D magic!

If that's confusing, just know that you don't have to do anything but click a button to see a 3D version of an HD video on the site.

User's guide

• Select a Full HD video on YouTube (10% of YouTube videos are in HD). Select the 1080p resolution in the "gear" menu on the botton rigth of the video window.

      Note: this do NOT work with 720p or 4K ('original') qualities and it doesn't work either for videos with ANNOTATIONS.

• A '3D' button appears on the left of the 'gear' button. Click it (the 'Converted 3D' tip appears).
• Choose your 3D vision mode (i.e. red/cyan anaglyph glasses)

      Note : you can NOT use the 'HTML5' mode znd your Nvidia 3D Vision glasses. A pity his works only for 'true' 3D videos...

You may try the new conversion option with the 'Beautiful Nature Scenery' here under. You will notice that the 2D-to-stereoscopic-3D conversion looks OK when the camera moves and becomes rather flat when it stops.

DMAX, a large film screen made with Chinese independent technology, on Monday was put into commercial use in a cinema in the eastern province of Anhui (China), as developers hope to break the IMAX monopoly in China's booming film market.

IMAX is currently the most widely used big screen motion picture format and was created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. China has nearly 60 IMAX screens, each with a size of at least 22 by 16 meters.

DMAX, with a standard screen of 20 by 12 meters, is jointly developed by China Research Institute of Film Science & Technology (CRIFT) and China Film Co., Ltd. A DMAX screen had a trial run in a Beijing cinema last year.

According to Yang Xuepei, head of CRIFT, while embodying the country's independent core technology of big screen motion pictures production and image optimization, DMAX is also compatible with the most advanced technology overseas. Its 2D and 3D screening quality are as good as large screens of foreign brands. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Universal Pictures have respectively offered the original materials of ongoing blockbusters "Titanic 3D" and "Battleship" for DMAX screening conversion, Yang revealed Monday in Hefei, capital of Anhui, where the first DMAX screen was unveiled for permanent use.