3D Vision Blog

There are a lot of people that expect this year to finally see 1080p 3D-capable projectors on the market with more affordable prices, thinking about upgrading their current 720p 3D projectors or directly going for such a solution with gaming in stereo 3D mode as one of the main things to do on a big screen. Currently one of the most affordable 1080p 3D projector is Sharp XV-Z17000 available for about 3-4K USD, but even this is considered high for more mainstream users not looking to build a home movie theater, but instead planning to use the projector for gaming. Especially considering that there are some mainstream 3D-capable 720p projectors such as the Acer H5360 available for just about $600 USD, so paying 2-3 times that price for a projector supporting 3D and 1080p resolutions sounds reasonable, but more not so much.

Leaving the still higher price for 3D support and 1080p resolution as features available together in a projector, there are some other important things that you should consider if you are looking to buy an 3D Full HD projector for gaming. Having an industry standard such as HDMI 1.4 is good for a lot of things, but can also bring some issues because of some limitations it implies on hardware that is using it. And you can expect pretty much any 3D-capable 1080p projector for consumers that is expected this year to be based on that particular standard. For movie lovers that should not be a problem as the HDMi 1.4 standard supports high enough bandwidth to push 1080p at 24Hz in 3D mode, but for gaming in stereo 3D mode this is simply not enough and you should go back to 720p resolution where you can get 50 or 60Hz per eye in 3D mode. So what is the point in going for a 1080p 3D projector using HDMI 1.4 if you plan to use it for gaming – absolutely no point in doing that. You better stay with a much more affordable 720p model if you have one or go for such 3D projector for playing games in stereo 3D mode, and you can of course play 3D movies in 1080p resolution on it without very significant visual quality “loss”.

In 720p resolution you would have to use some Anti-Aliasing to smooth the jagged edges in games, something like 4xAA should be quite close to what you get at 1080p resolution without AA in terms of edge smoothness, although there would be still some difference in the level of details you get. But in general playing at lower resolution may also help you get by in stereo 3D mode even with not a top-end video card with a decent framerate as compared to playing with the same hardware on 1080p display for example. And having a bigger projected screen helps a lot for the immersion as compared to a much smaller 3D monitor for example that may have higher resolution, not to mention the fact that 3D DLP technology is practically crosstalk/ghosting free in 3D mode.

Having a 3D-capable projector using HDMI 1.4 has the advantage that it should be compatible with much wider range of hardware, not only PC (Nvidia’s 3D Vision and AMD’ HD3D technology), but also standalone consumer electronic devices with support for 3D such as the PlayStation 3 console, or a Blu-ray 3D player. The disadvantage when using HDMI 1.4 is that it only supports 720p 50/60Hz 3D mode and 1080p 24Hz 3D mode, the rest is only in 2D mode and you cannot use the projector at 120Hz in 2D mode like you can do with projectors using HDMI 1.3 or VGA interface for example (this can vary greatly on the specific projector).

So if you are waiting for an affordable 1080p 3D-capable projector to become available in order for you to use it for gaming in stereo 3D mode and not for 3D movies, then you should probably reconsider your decision…

If you still haven’t noticed, Acer is among the top companies pushing products supporting 3D technology lately, aside from all the top CE brands such as LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony etc. of course. Earlier this month the company has announced the successor of their popular 3D Vision-ready Acer H5360 projector with 720p native resolution – the Acer H5360BD. The main difference between the two is that the new Acer H5360BD 3D DLP projector comes with support for the new HDMI 1.4a interface – an industry wide standard supporting stereo 3D. This is a very good news for everyone looking for an affordable widescreen HD projector that supports 3D, and that can not only be used with 3D content coming from PC, but also from consumer electronic devices such as standalone Blu-ray 3D players or game consoles like the PlayStation 3. The Acer H5360BD projector has a native resolution of 720p (1280×720) and 16:9 aspect ratio, 2500 ANSI Lumens maximum brightness and 3200:1 contrast ratio, together with up to 4000 hours of lamp life.

So far everything sounds great, but there is something very important that you should be aware regarding the new Acer H5360BD and this particular thing is the major difference between this model and the older one, aside from the addition of HDMI 1.4a support. That difference is the fact that the new Acer H5360BD projector is not 3D Vision ready, meaning that you will not be able to officially use the 3D Vision shutter glasses with it like you can with the previous Acer H5360 model. This particular thing is related to the addition of HDMI 1.4a, and as this projector features this interface for stereo 3D data transmission, although you are not able to use it with 3D Vision, you can use it with the 3DTV Play play software. Using 3DTV Play with the projector would still require to you use a pair of DLP Link glasses to actually see the projected stereo 3D image, as again the 3D Vision glasses are not going to be officially compatible with it. So when using the Acer H5360BD projector with your PC as a source of 3D content, along with the 3DTV Play software, you would be pretty much be using it like you would with a 3D HDTV that also requires its own shutter glasses and in the case with 3D DLP projectors you need a pair of glasses supporting DLP Link (no matter what the brand is). And since the projector is 720p, you would be able to get it to run with 60Hz per eye when in 3D mode, something that is supported at that resolution over the HDMI 1.4a interface, so no worries about the framerate for gaming.

The HDMI 1.4a support that the Acer H5360BD supports should also ensure compatibility with AMD’s HD3D technology, at least in theory, no guarantees about that unless this is tested. Nvidia has already confirmed that the projector is already supported in the latest 3DTV Play Update Utility v1.0.0.18, so that is for sure. Have in mind that the Acer H5360BD projector should be starting to be available on the market sometime in April with a price probably slightly higher than the current price of the previous model Acer H5360, positioning it as probably the most affordable 3D projector to feature HDMI 1.4a support on the market.

It seems that the Optoma 3D-XL adapter may have a cheaper alternative that can be available on the market earlier, but with a bit more limited functionality. There is a new company called Video Innovation Products (VIP) that should soon start shipping their VIP 3D-Gamer conversion adapter that can have HDMI 1.4(a) stereo 3D input and output frame sequential stereo 3D that can be understood by 3D DLP projector. This means that you should be able to connect your PlayStation 3 console via this adapter to a 3D DLP projector and play games in stereo 3D mode. The adapter is just converting between the formats, so for the projector you would still be using a pair of traditional DLP Link glasses. The adapter might also be able to turn your 3D DLP projector into a compatible with 3DTV Play for gaming as well, although that needs to be verified if it will work when the converter becomes available in the beginning of February. The price announced for the VIP 3D-Gamer video conversion adapter is $199 USD and you can buy it also bundled with a pair of DLP Link glasses for $259 USD (the glasses do look very much like 3D Vision) or a separate pair of glasses for $79 USD each.

The VIP 3D-Gamer product is designed only for gamers and supports only the 720p 50Hz/60Hz 3D modes as input over HDMI 1.4(a), it is however not compatible with the 1080p 24Hz 3D resolution used for movies. This simply means that you will not be able to use this adapter together with a standalone Blu-ray 3D player to watch on your 3D DLP projector, but the company apparently has another more flexible solution for 3D movie lovers. They should also soon start offering a 3D-Displayer and 3D-Theater products that will offer more features and support both the gaming and movie playing in stereo 3D coming from all kinds of 3D-ready devices using HDMI 1.4(a) and being played back on a big screen supplied by a 3D DLP projector, as well as some other ore advanced features. But these products will probably be more expensive and will probably compete with the Optoma 3D-XL adapter both in terms of features and price and they will most likely be released at the same time too.

But back to the coming very soon VIP 3D-gamer product. Aside from only supporting 720p 50/60Hz 3D input you will also need to have a 3D DLP projector that has and HDMI input and that is with native resolution of 720p (able to output 720p in stereo 3D mode) like for example the Acer H5360 or Optoma HD66. The adapter itself is apparently powered over a mini-USB port, so you will probably need to have a device to plug it in or an USB power adapter, but the USB port might as well be usable for lets say firmware upgrades. You should also have in mind that that Side by Side or Above/Below inputs are not being supported as of this moment as only the HDMI 1.4(a) frame packaging format can be translated into frame sequential stereo 3D. And as will all image processing devices you should be aware of the fact that adding the VIP 3D-Gamer adapter may introduce slight additional lag on top of any possible lag that the projector may already have. Now let us wait a bit more and see what the first people that get the device will report about it…

- You can check Video Innovation Products’ (VIP) official website for a bit more information