Sonic Solutions and RealD today announced a strategic alliance to develop and release new consumer solutions for the home creation, publishing and playback of personal 3D video content, as well as the enjoyment of 3D entertainment. As part of the collaboration, Sonic is integrating the propriety stereoscopic RealD Format into its RoxioNow entertainment platform. Once titles become available for online distribution, the RealD Format will be used to deliver stereoscopic 3D entertainment directly to connected consumer electronics devices. In addition, the RealD Format will be featured in Roxio consumer software applications for the creation and consumption of 3D quality home movies. The new 3D-enabled products and services are expected to be available this summer.

The RealD Format is an enhanced version of a side-by-side 3D format that uses a set of filters and other technology that multiplexes a left eye and right eye 3D image stream into a single channel for delivery of high-definition 3D content using today's HD infrastructure to any 3D-enabled display type.

Sonic's collaboration with RealD is part of the company's Total 3D initiative, which is aimed at furthering the 3D home market through a range of 3D-enabled products and services for PC OEMs, consumer electronics manufacturers, and retailers. Earlier this year, Sonic unveiled professional tools for 3D encoding, authoring and formatting in the Blu-ray 3D format and released Roxio CinePlayer BD, a 3D-capable media player for Windows that recently received Blu-ray Profile 5 (3D) certification from the Blu-ray Disc Association. CinePlayer BD will ship on new 3D-enabled systems from ASUS and MSI later this year.