How to Convert Your 3D Blu-rays for Watching on Apple Vision Pro

Update: MakeSBS3D now has a manual in six languages that explains every control, page by page. This post walks through the process once.

3D movie fans on the Mac have had a rough time for years if they wanted to watch their 3D Blu-ray collection in a VR headset. The only reliable path ran through Windows — with MakeMKV to extract the disc, and BD3D2MK3D to generate a side-by-side file for VR playback.

On macOS, things weren’t so simple. A handful of apps claimed to perform this conversion, but they either flat-out didn't do what they claimed on the tin, or seemed sketchy and filled with malware. For that reason, some (like myself) kept a PC around for this single purpose.

I am trying to improve the situation for Mac users with my app MakeSBS3D. Paired with MakeMKV, it gives you an end-to-end Mac workflow for creating 3D video files from your own legally owned discs without the need to reach for that PC. Since version 1.1.0 it can also convert the movie directly from the disc.

MakeSBS3D requires an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 15.6 or later, and can output either Full Side-by-Side video (ideal for players like SKYBOX or Moon VR Player on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest) or Spatial Video, Apple’s native 3D format for immersive playback. The interface is in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Swedish, following the Mac’s language or a choice under Settings → General.

Extract the 3D MKV with MakeMKV

The first step is to create a digital copy of your 3D Blu-ray movie that preserves the stereoscopic video data. This is where MakeMKV comes in.

• Open MakeMKV and insert your 3D Blu-ray into your Blu-ray drive. The app will scan the disc and list the available titles.
• Once it’s done, look for the main movie title — typically the largest file.
• Select the title and expand it by clicking the small caret (▶︎) next to it to reveal all available tracks and streams.
• Under the Video section, manually check the video option containing the text “Mpeg4 MVC”.

• Finally, choose an output folder and click Make MKV to begin the rip.

The process usually takes less than an hour, and when it’s finished, you’ll have a single 3D MKV file containing both left and right video views, plus audio tracks.

Convert the 3D MKV with MakeSBS3D

With your 3D MKV file ready, the next step is to launch MakeSBS3D and convert it into a format suitable for 3D playback on headsets or 3D-compatible devices.

• Open MakeSBS3D and click the Open button or the main information area to get a file browser to find and select the 3D MKV file(s) you'd like to process. Another option is to simply drag and drop the files into the main information area from the Finder.
• MakeSBS3D scans each file to verify that it’s a valid MakeMKV file.
• Select the verified files you want to process.
• If MakeSBS3D asks where to save the result, pick a folder. A default output folder can be set in Settings.

Output

In the Output section, you can select output folder and file name. You also get to select output format:

FSBS-3D Side-by-Side (.mp4)

• Recommended for most.
• Converts by streaming, uses minimal disk space, and completes faster.
• Works with the widest range of 3D playback apps (e.g., SKYBOX or Moon VR Player on Vision Pro or Meta Quest).

MV-HEVC Spatial Video (.mov)

• Converts to a Full SBS intermediate, then to Spatial Video.
• Takes longer and requires more temporary disk space.
• Produces a file in Apple’s native 3D format.

Below the format are three checkboxes:

• Boost mid levels lifts the midtones scene by scene, for movies that come out too dark. It adds an analysis pass before the conversion starts.
• Swap left/right eyes is for discs where the two views come out reversed.
• Keep original audio copies the audio tracks untouched instead of re-encoding them to AAC stereo. Normalization is not applied when this is on.

Audio

The Audio section controls which language tracks are included, and the amount of audio processing that is applied.

Channels

Select Main, All, or Select for which audio channels should be included. Select will reveal checkboxes for all audio tracks for precise track selection.

Normalization

Normalization lets you control the amount of dynamic range between silent and loud parts. None or Light maintains a higher dynamic range. Medium and Strong uses increasingly aggressive settings. Medium is the default and provides a good overall compromise.

Video

The Video section lets you set which video encoder is used and what overall quality setting is applied.

Encoder

Encoder lets you select which video encoder should be used:

• H.265/HEVC is newer and provides better video quality with smaller output files for a given compression level and is therefore the default option. It's slightly slower to process though, so if you're in a hurry, you might want to choose H.264.
• H.264/AVC is provided as an option for if you're in a hurry, since it's faster than H.265. It produces larger files though, and at a lower quality for a given compression level.

Quality

Quality sets how hard the video is compressed. The presets run from Maximum (CRF 18) to Low (CRF 28), with Medium (CRF 25) as the default. A lower CRF gives better quality and a larger file, and Custom… lets you pick the value yourself.

Subtitles

The Subtitles section lets you burn a subtitle track into the picture.

Burn-in

None burns in nothing. Select lets you pick any subtitle track under Track. When the movie has a forced track, the one that only covers dialogue in another language than the movie's own, a Forced option appears and is selected for you.

The defaults for video, audio and the output folder are under Settings → Defaults, and every new file starts from them. Settings → General holds the interface language, the automatic update check and the license.

Processing

• When output options look good, click Start to convert the currently selected file or Start All to process all opened files.
• While running, MakeSBS3D displays progress percentage, conversion speed, elapsed time, and estimated remaining time.
• Stop halts conversion at any time, and Eject clears the current file list.
• In the trial, conversion stops after the first 5 minutes and the file name ends in _TRIAL.

Once conversion completes, your movie file will be ready to be transferred to your VR headset for playback in your movie theater player of choice. 🎉

Direct from the disc

If MakeMKV is installed, MakeSBS3D can also do the MakeMKV step for you. A Disc button appears in the toolbar when MakeMKV is in your Applications folder.

• Insert your 3D Blu-ray and click Disc. MakeSBS3D lists every 3D title on the disc with the name and cover art the disc carries. The main movie, the largest title, gets the plain name and is selected. Extras and short features get the same name with their title number and length added, so no two outputs share a name.

• The titles then sit in the Sources list like MKVs and take the same settings; Start All converts every one. When you start the conversion, Extracting shows while MakeMKV writes the title, then the conversion takes over, and the disc is ejected once its titles are done.
• Disc images (.iso) and BDMV folders are read the same way: open them with Open, or drop them in the main area.
• The extracted MKV is removed with the other temporary files when the movie is done. To keep it beside the movie, turn on Keep the MKV extracted from the disc under Settings → Defaults → Disc.

License

The app is free to try. Without a license it converts the first 5 minutes of each movie, which is enough to check that your files come out right. A one-time purchase unlocks full-length conversion: choose License… in the MakeSBS3D menu to buy a license key or enter one.