OK, I decided to get to the bottom of this once and for all. I dropped the pure video streams from both the 2D and 3D versions into Sony Vegas Pro, which is professional editing and authoring software. I then captured the same frame that we've been discussing (from each version) completely unaltered and posted them on my website. Here is the link:
http://www.jsmusicandsound.com/test.htmlThe top picture is from the 2D version, below it is the 3D version. As has been reported, the 3D version is brighter.
For fun, I also applied a computer and video level filter to the image within Vegas so everyone can see what I'm talking about when I refer to video and PC levels. Those images are at the bottom.
For anyone who wants to examine the original, full size screen grabs, the files are available here on Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ixgkhqt9q08m ... zZs1a?dl=0REMEMBER, all this will show you is what the actual video file looks like on your computer. It does not necessarily reflect how the image will look on your TV. I am posting this so anyone interested can see what the pure video stream looks like, and compare that to other screengrabs (like those on Blu-ray.com).
I'd post the images here, but I don't seem to have attachment privileges.