Half SBS, explained without the hand-waving
If you have ever opened a 3D file and found two nearly identical pictures side by side, you were looking at half SBS. It is the format almost every headset player expects, and it is what DepthSnap writes.
The layout
Both eyes are stored in one frame, left eye on the left half, right eye on the right half. "Half" refers to the horizontal resolution of each eye: for a 1920-wide frame, each eye gets 960 pixels, and the player stretches each half to fill its own display.
Half vs full, in numbers
| Format | Frame size (from 1080p source) | Per eye | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Half SBS | 1920×1080 (or 1920×540 for 16:9 content kept wide) | 960×1080 | Almost every headset player, YouTube's 3D mode, most TVs from 2011-2015 |
| Full SBS | 3840×1080 | 1920×1080 | Archival, high-bitrate local playback, some projection setups |
| Half TAB / OU | 1920×1080 (stacked) | 1920×540 | Players that label formats "top-bottom" or 上下 |
Why we write half SBS
- It is what players ask for. Skybox, DeoVR, 4XVR, Pico Video and VITURE all treat SBS as 960-per-eye by default; a full-SBS file often needs a manual resolution tweak.
- Bitrate goes where it matters. Doubling the width doubles the bytes for a difference you cannot resolve through a headset lens in motion.
- The eye cap is honest. Our depth model runs at 392-518 px per pass, so writing 1920 per eye would be inventing detail that is not in the estimate.
If you need full SBS anyway
Convert as usual, then upscale the result 2× horizontally in any editor — the two eyes are already separated, so a simple scale keeps them aligned. Nothing in a headset needs it; do it only if a specific player or projector insists.
Ready to try? Convert a clip or a photo, then check the result with the wiggle view before you put it on.