[eiha]

I've got the exact same problem with hsbs/sbs.

If I had used Half-OU for sbs or vice versa I would have know instantly cause it would be a total mess(?).

It doesn't create a mess. I just tried to display a Half-SBS file on a 1080p monitor with preferred mode set to OU. XBMC switched to OU when I started the movie and displayed it as Half-OU. This means that XBMC actually moves the halves around and scales the new image back to the original size, which means that you lose a lot of the original video information in that process.

For example, let's say you have a Half-OU file, but XBMC is set to SBS. I don't know the correct order of these processes, but I think it would go something like this:

Start with Half-OU (1920x1080)
Split top and bottom halves, place them side by side to create half height SBS (3840x540)
Scale to Half-SBS (1920x1080)

So now the Half-OU file is displayed as Half-SBS, however each half was resized from 1920x540 to 920x1080 which actually means that you lost half of the original resolution.

Think of it this way: When you display a Half-SBS file, the tv has to scale a 960x1080 picture to 1920x1080 for each eye, so each frame is half-resolution. If you convert it to Half-OU first, each frame is scaled down from 960x1080 to 960x540 first and then scaled back up to 1920x1080, so each frame is only quarter resolution.

Yah, you are right on that one. But that isn't the case anyway. You see, I'm currently using sbs mode on my PJ (doesn't switch automatically, but thats fine) and have selected the sbs mode in system settings. All my 3D movies are hsbs/sbs.
All good so far. Now I can see the GUI ok through 3D glasses instead of the usual "close-one-eye-to-se-one-half-of-the-screen-and-close-the other-to-see-the-other-half". Nice.

The problem is when I start a 3D movie in sbs/hsbs. The movie shows just fine, but the quality is kinda like 3D in SD. I double check the stereoscope mode; still sbs mode). I deactivate the stereoscopic mode and restart the movie like I've usually done; voila! great quality but unfortunately back to the good old crazy OSD/GUI look. Why does xbmc interfere with the movie instead of just the GUI/OSD?

I guess it could be something wrong with my Openelec nightly build