3D Vision Blog » 3d vision ready

The New Star Trek Game Will Apparently be 3D Vision Ready

Bloody — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:53:03 +0000

The new Star Trek game that is expected to be released sometime in Q1 2013, right in time for the next Star Trek movie in 3D, will apparently support stereoscopic 3D as well. More specifically the game would be 3D Vision ready as the demonstration made from Namco Bandai at its Global Gamers Day suggests, as the game has been demonstrated running with 3D Vision. And apparently the new game will be really something worth playing in the form of a FPS based in the vast Star Trek universe. The good news is that it will not be some quickly made excuse just taking advantage of the Star Trek name intended just to promote the movie, but an interesting and fun to play game with original story connected with both the previous and the new movies, but we’ll probably have to wait until E3 for more information. Aside from the PC version that will probably be 3D Vision ready, the new Star Trek game will also be available for PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles, however we are yet to learn if these will also support stereo 3D or not.

Playing Deep Black: Reloaded and Depth Hunter with 3D Vision

Bloody — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:35:11 +0000

My attention was recently pointed at two interesting new games developed by the independent game developer Biart with 3D Vision support – Deep Black: Reloaded and Depth Hunter. So I took a quick look to see what the games are and how they work in stereoscopic 3D mode as the developer is saying they offer official 3D Vision support. The game Deep Black: Reloaded is actually even 3D Vision Ready and that rating from Nvidia is well deserved as it really looks great in stereoscopic 3D mode. Now, there is something very important that I should mention here before actually starting to talk about the game Deep Black: Reloaded and that is the fact that it is an arcade third person shooter with arcade being a key here. Deep Black: Reloaded won’t offer you some sort of a deep and very engaging storyline, but it will offer you several hours of fun with the single player mode walking around in different environments in 40 different missions (haven’t played them all yet). The game comes with surprisingly good graphics and effects with a lot of underwater action, something that we’ve rarely seen in games lately and there is also a multiplayer mode available (not that usable actually as it is not server based). Back to the stereo 3D, the game is performing great, everything important renders well properly in stereo 3D such as the scenes, lights, shadows, even the crosshair and enemy markers are rendered in 3D. And as any good 3D Vision Ready game should be you can easily max out the depth and get really impressive volume without having to tweak the convergence as the default setting for it is really good (convergence is not locked). Another important thing here is that there is a demo of the game available that you can download and try to see what to expect from the full game, before actually having to play for it…

The other game from Biart, Depth Hunter is a bit more specific as it is essentially a virtual underwater spearfishing game (not sure if it can be called a simulation), so it might not be to everyone’s liking. In it you are essentially hunting for different fish species underwater with a mechanical harpoon with some other things to make it a bit more exciting, and aside from the tasks you have to do there is also a free mode that allows you to explore the multiple different locations freely. Depth Hunter is rated as Excellent in 3D Vision from Nvidia and it also renders and looks very nice in stereo 3D mode, although the sea bottom and the underwater surroundings and in the water itself may be lacking a bit of extra details and extra objects, so the stereo 3D experience may not be so impressive here. Still the game renders properly in stereo 3D mode with 3D Vision and you can also easily crank up the depth a lot, playing with convergence might also help a bit at times here, it is also not locked. While not quite the James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge the game Depth Hunter in stereo 3D mode can be quite fun for some, but it can as well quickly bore other people, the good thing is that you can download the demo and try it out first.

Both the Deep Black: Reloaded and Depth Hunter games are based on Biart’s biEngine that has support for stereoscopic 3D rendering with 3D Vision. I’m mentioning that fact, because this has been made by a small independent game developer and they have managed to do quite well and integrate stereoscopic 3D support in their game engine, so the question is why do the much bigger and with more resources game developers are not following this good example. Oh yes, I forgot that most of them think that the stereoscopic 3D gamers are still a small niche, so there is no point in putting just a bit more resources and efforts to make their game engines stereo 3D compatible and ready for the future. The stereoscopic 3D gaming community will just keep growing and growing, and the people that are part of it are going to be playing more and more important role, so totally ignoring them might not be a good idea. Big game developers seem to get blinded by the money and forget that they need to provide what gamers want and expect, after all this is where the money comes from, while there are more and more new small independent game developers appearing everyday and they are offering nice and interesting games worth supporting by the people…

- For more information and to download the Deep Black: Reloaded demo…
- For more information and to download the Depth Hunter demo…

Funcom’s MMORPG The Secret World Will be 3D Vision-ready

Bloody — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:24:39 +0000

The Secret World is an upcoming MMORPG game from Funcom (makers of Anarchy Online and Age of Conan), that promises to be one of the best looking MMORPG games that will also be actually interesting to play. It seems that Funcom has worked a lot with Nvidia on adding a bunch of new technologies to make the game’s graphics look as realistic as possible and to take advantage of the latest technology available. And thanks to that we are alсo going to be getting native stereoscopic 3D Vision support as well as multi-monitor Surround support. The game The Secret World should be released on June 19th, 2012.

- For more information about the upcoming MMORPG game The Secret World…

ATEN Has Announced 2/4-Port 3D Vision Ready KVM Switches

Bloody — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:03:02 +0000

One more possible limitation for people with 120Hz 3D-capable monitors using Dual-Link DVI interface has been removed with the announcement of the first 3D Vision-ready KVM switches from ATEN. The new two- and four-port USB Dual-Link DVI KVMP (CS1782A/CS1784A) switches support the transmission of 3D video signals from various sources to a 3D-capable 120Hz LCD monitor and feature a USB 2.0 hub for flexible extension of peripherals. These KVM switches should allow you to easily have from two up to four different 3D-capable computers connected and used with a single 120Hz 3D-capable monitor with the help of a KVM switch, something that you could not do due to the higher bandwidth requirements associated with the use of 1080p resolution with 120Hz refresh rate with previous DVI KVM products. The new 3D-capable KVM switches from ATEN are also HDCP compatible, so you should have no trouble watching Blu-ray 3D movies as well through the KVM. The new ATEN CS1782A ad CS1784A KVM switches also come with support for bigger 2D monitors with a resolution of up to 2560×1600 @ 60Hz, so if you have a 30-inch 2D monitor with such a high resolution then these new KVM switches may be of interest to you as well.

- For more information about the 2-port 3D KVM switch, and for the 4-port 3D model…

List of Upcoming 3D Vison Ready PC Games Expected Soon

Bloody — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 10:20:56 +0000

I haven’t written about upcoming 3D Vision ready games for a while now, but considering it is not always something game developers announce early in their game development stage, it is expected to get such information close to the title’s release. So here are a few games that will be 3D Vision ready or support 3D Vision with Excellent rating that are going to be available soon and that are worth checking out if you are wondering what your next game to play in stereo 3D mode should be…

Bulletstorm. I know this game has beet released already for about two weeks, but the thing is that at its release there were no newer drivers from Nvidia and a 3D Vision profile for it to enjoy the game in stereo 3D mode as it was originally intended. In the past week Nvidia has released two beta drivers 267.24 and 267.31 with the needed profile, so if you want to play it in stereo 3D you need to download and install one of them. The game is quite nice and feels really great when played in stereo 3D mode, especially when you are doing all the stunts with your character around the virtual world you play in.

Homefront. This is an FPS game that is soon expected to be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and to be more precise on March 15th in North America, March 17th in Australia, March 18th in Europe and April 29th 2011 in Japan. However only the PC version of the game will support 3D through 3D Vision, with the version for computer gamers also featuring more additional extras as compared to the console versions. So the developer apparently took the time to really make the PC version something that is worth playing and not a crappy console port, but that of course needs to be verified.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Brotherhood is the direct sequel of the previous Assassin’s Creed II and is the third game in the series, the console versions for PS3 and Xbox 360 are available since November last year, but the PC version is expected on March 18th in Europe and on March 22nd in North America. The reason for the delay of the PC version is due to optimizing the game for better stereoscopic 3D gameplay as well as some extra features, including multi-monitor support for AMD’s Eyefinity technology.

Crysis 2. This is a much anticipated title due to the popularity of the franchise and the fact that the developers of the game have worked on adding native stereoscopic 3D support in their game engine, allowing them to make the game 3D-ready on consoles as well as on the PC, so the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will also support 3D. Now since the game uses an internal rendering technique for producing the 3D views – some call it “fake 3D”, but the end result is very decent and apparently does not lead to significant performance drop (crucial for console gamers), on the PC the 3D Vision is only used for the visualization. Still the game is worth checking out, there is already a Multiplayer demo available for a while that you can try in 3D if you still haven’t, before the actual game arrives later this month, more specifically on March 22nd in North America and March 25the in Europe.

Fable III. Another game already available in a version for Xbox 360 since October last year, but coming with a PC version on May 17th in North America, May 19th in Australia and May 20th in Europe. The reason for the delay of the PC versions – exclusive extras being added in the PC version, such as a special hardcore mode of gameplay as well as support for 3D Vision. Is the extra time dedicated for the PC version worth the wait, we’ll have to wait a bit more to see, but the game can definitely benefit for a goo stereo 3D mode support a lot, so keep your fingers crossed here.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. This is a fantasy RPG game that is expected to be available on May 17th and it is the only one that will be PC only, meaning no console versions – it has been made for PC gamers. The information about stereoscopic 3D support is not widely commented yet, but there is an official confirmation that the game will support 3D Vision and hopefully the game will be even better than the first Witcher.

Now, you probably see that lately more and games more games are coming out first for consoles and the PC version gets some delay and is released after a few months with some extras. This may seem as a bad thing for some gamers, but I’d actually prefer it that way if the extra time is taken to make the PC version of the game able to take advantage of the extra graphics power a PC can provide, the game controls are optimized for PC gameplay and so on. I prefer a little delay, but to get a good PC game and not some rushed and crappy port from a console version, what about you?

Review of the 27″ Acer HN274H 3D Vision-ready LCD Monitor

Bloody — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:33:36 +0000

Acer HN274H is going to be the first 27-inch 3D-capable 120Hz LCD monitor as well as the first one to feature support for both frame sequential stereo 3D over the Dual-Link DVI interface (used by Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology) as well as stereoscopic 3D support over the HDMI 1.4a interface (all three ports that the monitor has). The bigger size of the monitor as well as the enhanced support for using stereo 3D content from a PC, as well as consumer devices such as Playstation 3 console, a standalone Blu-ray 3D player or a 3D-capable Set-Top-Box is what is making it a very interesting product. You can say that this monitor can successfully compete with 3D HDTVs in some aspects, especially if you are looking for a more affordable 3D-capable display. But is the level of quality in stereo 3D mode comparable to that of a 3D-capable HDTV and is this new monitor better than the already available other 3D LCDs in terms of further reduced crosstalk/ghosting? These are just some of the questions that I’m going to try to answer here…

I’m starting with the unboxing video of the monitor that I’ve already posted a few days ago, you can watch it if you’ve missed it as it covers things like what is the monitor bundled with as well as what video input ports it has and where they are located. The 27-inch size of the display kind of makes it perfect to cover your whole vision while you are sitting in front of it in a normal way – like about 20 inches (50 centimeters) from it. So you can say that 27-inch is the perfect size for a 3D-capable computer monitor that you are going to use on a desk, for larger size you should consider a 3D-capable HDTV that will be sitting further away from you for the best possible experience. And then there is also a matter of the bandwidth requirements that are covered by the DL DVI interface at Full HD, but going a step further to lets say 2560×1600 would be a problem for 3D content transmission as well as providing enough FPS in games even with high-end GPUs. But let us see what are the specifications of the new Acer 3D display…

Acer HN274H Specifications:

Panel Size: 27″ (69 cm) Wide Screen 16:9, TN, LED backlight
Native Resolution: 1920×1080 pixels
Pixel Pitch: 0.3114 mm
Brightness(Max): 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio (Max.): 100,000,000:1 (dynamic)
Viewing Angles: 170° H / 160° V
Response Time: 2 ms (GtG)
Video Inputs: Dual-link DVI-D, VGA, 3x HDMI 1.4a
Power Consumption: 45W On, 1.7W Sleep, 0.65W Off/Standby
Integrated Audio: 2x 2W stereo speakers
Monitor stand: tilt +30°~-30°
Dimension (WxHxD): 25.5″ x 18.5″ x 7.6″ (648.1 x 468.5 x 192 mm)
Weight: 13.2 lbs (6 kg)

What I want to direct your attention to in the specifications is the maximum level of brightness that is rated at 300 cd/m2 and the maximum dynamic contrast ratio of 100 million to 1. You should have these values in mind so that you can compare to what I was able to measure during the testing of the display as there were some interesting difference, mostly int he level of brightness… but that of course also reflects on the contrast ratio. And one more thing, the dynamic contrast ratio is not available when you are using the 3D mode, it is automatically forced to off state no matter if you have activated it in 2D mode or not. The value of 100 million to 1 of course seems way too high, especially considering the fact that specialists say that after a certain number it is not only hard, but impossible to measure and that is something in between 1 to 5 million to one according to different sources. Still having a LED backlight with ability to independently control the LEDs behind the LCD panel and not edge LEDs can allow you to get higher dynamic contrast depending on what is being displayed. And just one more clarification as a lot of people are confused by this, there is no such thing as LED display, these are LCD displays with LED backlight instead of the more traditional CCFL backlight, but these are still LCD displays. Go ahead and blame the marketing on this confusion.

Not, lets take a quick look over the menu of the monitor and what options and settings you have available in both 2D and 3D mode. The two menus you see on the pictures above are the ones that are available to you in 2D mode, notice the contrast level is 50 and the color temperature is set to Warm (6500K). The dynamic contrast control function (ACM) is disabled by default, there is no option to control OverDrive from this menu (you can from the Service Menu, but more on that in a moment). The IR Mode option is there, because the display has a built in IR transmitter, but besides the Normal mode (on by default), the other Consumer and LAN modes do not change anything and they are not mentioned as something more specific…

Taking a photo in the infrared spectrum shows the integrated IR emitter in the top frame of the display, in the middle, without having to open the monitor to see it. Of course peeking through the plastic does not produce great image quality and level of detail, but it is enough to see what the emitter looks like and that it has four LEDs used to sen the synchronization signal to the active shutter glasses. The interesting thing is that since the IR emitter is integrated into the display, there is no need for the use of external device, but there is also no need to connect any USB cables between the monitor and the PC, no matter if you are sending 3D content over the DVI or the HDMI interface. Of course you can also use an external IR emitter should you need to, but plugging in such in the PC will disable the built-in one the same way as if you try to connect two emitters to the PC at the same time one gets disabled. The built-in IR emitter and the 3D Vision active shutter glasses that are bundled with the display are used for both when playing games in stereo 3D mode or viewing 3D content from your PC over the DL DVI interface and when using a 3D-capable consumer electronic device connected through HDMI 1.4a interface. Acer HN274H works just fine with 3DTV Play, although you should not need to use that when using your PC as you can get even 120Hz at 1080p resolution when using the DL DVI interface, so you don’t have to limit yourself to either 720p 50/60Hz or 1080p 24Hz 3D modes that the HDMI 1.4a supports for 3D. With that said you should not have trouble using even AMD-based video cards over the HDMI 1.4a interface just like you would with a 3D-capable HDTV with the 3D Vision glasses, so you can say that this monitor is kind of an universal solution. Console gamers should also be happy due to the fact that they can use PlayStaion 3 consoles in 3D mode together with this monitor, and it will work with standalone Blu-ray 3D players for watching movies and even for watching 3D TV with the help of a 3D-capable set-top-box. You should also be able to connect 3D-capable consumer cameras and camcorders to preview photos and videos you’ve taken in 3D and so on…

Now I’m going to take a quick look at the Service Menu as there is some interesting and important information that you cam find there and some more advanced users might want to play with the settings. However I should advice you to be careful what you are playing with in that menu and if you don’t know, you better not touch anything and just use the information provided to you like how many hours has the monitor been used. Below you will find a short guide on how to enter the Service Menu, I’m using the term “button” as besides the Power button all the rest are capacitive (tough) buttons and not physical ones.

Accessing the Service Menu on Acer HN274H LCD Monitor:

- Turn off the monitor by pressing the Power button
- Press and hold the leftmost “button” and then push the Power button to turn on the monitor
- When you see the image on screen you can release the “button” and press the Menu button (the middle one) to call up the Service Menu
- When you finish with the service menu you can turn the monitor off and then on again to be back in the normal mode

The interesting find here is the LCD panel type used by Acer, it is an LGD LM270WF3 (made by LG), although I’ve had some suspicions that it might be from Samsung before actually checking the Service Menu. The previous 3D-capable LCD monitor form Acer (GD245HZ/GD235HQ) used a panel made by CMO (Chi Mei Optoelectronics). Samsung is also apparently going to soon have a 27-inch model that will most likely use their own panels, so that we are going to have some choice and competition. It is interesting to note however that LG still hasn’t announced their own 27-inch 3D-capable monitor to use their own panels that Acer apparently already is using for the upcoming 27-inch HN274H.

One thing that I’ve noticed right from the first moment I’ve turned on the monitor was that it was very bright, but measuring the color reproduction as well as the maximum level of brightness kind of surprised me. 492 cd/m2 as a maximum level of brightness when the specifications say 300 cd/m2 for the monitor kind of surprised me and at first I though there is some sort of a mistake, so I’ve repeated the measurements multiple times restarting the system and doing factory reset of the display settings. Int he end the results were all very close to the 500 cd/m2 mark, so I can assume that the monitor should actually be rated 500 cd/m2. This of course was measured with Contrast setting of 50 which is the default for 2D mode and in 3D mode the default setting is 40 which means a little less brightness, but still quite high at about 400 cd/m2. Lowering the Contrast setting to 0, the minimum level of brightness for the display, leaves the display still very bright at about 269 cd/m2 and this also leads to reduced level of crosstalk/ghosting. And when having such high level of brightness it is normal to have higher color deviations as you can see from the measurement results before doing a color calibration…

After doing a color calibration with a setting to preserve the maximum possible brightness the results were quite impressive with significantly reduced color deviations and actual color reproduction turning to be quite accurate while at the same time maintaining a maximum level of brightness of 395 cd/m2. And due to the high maximum brightness levels that the monitor has the level of the black was also a bit high at about 0.6 cd/m2 while the actual level of contrast measured was around 700:1. The monitor exhibits some input lag, the values measured vary from 0 to 16 ms with an average of about 8 ms, something which is quite good considering that most of the 3D-capable 120Hz monitors do have some input lag anyway. Next comes the question about backlight bleeding, the Acer unit I reviewed has very even backlight with no brighter areas at any of the sides, so the LED backlight is apparently used quite good.

I’m starting with one of my more recent tests using special photos for finding the level of crosstalk by going to black and white, the test photos are available here, so if you wish you can compare your monitor as well. As you can see performance is quite good as compared to other monitors, but there is still some crosstalk present (the red in the left corner is just a reflection in the glasses). Have in mind that this is a specially developed test to show the issue and actually does not represent the real usage scenarios, as there the situations are usually not as extreme as with the test photos. In this test I’ve noticed something familiar from the test of the Planar monitor and that is the slight gradation in the white as you can see on the left part of the image. At first this made me think that this is again a Samsung panel and that we have something happening with them having even backlight with OverDriver active, however seeing that Acer uses a new LG panel made me think otherwise…

After making another test, this time without shooting through the glasses’ lens with a black on white 3D test photo I saw a situation that very closely resembles that with the Planar SA2311W with the white not being evenly distributed, but gradating over different shades. Here as well increasing a bit the Contrast level from its default setting of 40 can help make the white seem more even and get rid of the gradation effect, but this can also increase the level of ghosting/crosstalk a bit. Disabling the OverDrive from the Service Menu did fix the problem as well, however this also leads to having more ghosting and you should not disable the OD in stereo 3D mode anyway. In the case with Planar’s monitor the gradation effect was hardly apparent in normal use, but with the Acer, probably due to the higher level of brightness there were some situations that I could see some side effects caused by it in real world use. I hope that panel and display manufacturers can take a note at this and find a solution, so that we won’t be seeing the issue anymore with the default settings on the display. Although you can usually see it only with some photos, that doesn’t mean that the problem should be there… as using the same extreme test photos on older models of 3D-capable LCDs the same problem with different gradation of the white was not present.

Moving to the the sailboats stereoscopic 3D test video, a real world crosstalk test to show you that the specific issue described above does not usually create any problems with normal use for stereo 3D content. Here there is almost no crosstalk/ghosting visible, although there is some slightly visible, but the end result is still very good, although it is probably slightly worse as compared to what most 3D HDTVs show as result here.

Moving to Tomb Rider: Underworld and one of my favorite scenes in the game that I use for checking the 3D monitors of the level of top and bottom ghosting due to the contrasting scenes that are more prone to having crosstalk/ghosting. Starting with the top ghosting, again good results with a very faint afterimage leaking at the top of the screen, although pretty close to the best performing in this test Planar monitor, the Acer’s ghosting is slightly more apparent, probably die to the increased level of brightness.

Moving to the bottom screen crosstalk/ghosting test, again by using the game Tomb Rider: Underworld, this time looking for color ghosting… another issue that is caused by the OverDrive function that leads to pixels not appearing as faint dark shadows in terms of crosstalk, but as much more apparent brightly colored afterimage. Again good results, very close to the results provided by the best performing in the test for now Planar monitor, although the color ghosting is a bit more apparent here as well, again probably due to the higher maximum brightness of the Acer.

I should state the fact that I don’t yet have information about exact release date and price of the 27″ Acer HN274H monitor, but if I have to guess it will most likely be available at end of February, beginning of March. And the prices could be something around $600 USD and 500 Euro as the monitor comes bundled with a pair of glasses and an integrated IR emitter. Do have in mind that these is not official information, but something that I’m assuming as a possibility, so the actual date and price can be different, but these mentioned by me above do sound reasonable… I’ve got some official information regarding the pricing and availability of the 27″ Acer HN274H with my initial forecast being close to the official numbers. The monitor should be available by the end of February with a suggested price of 689€ (Euro) for Europe and probably the same amount, but in US dollars for the North American markets. So the wait for it won’t be long…

In terms of features, the 27″ Acer HN274H monitor does a great job in offering the flexibility you’d expect with a 3D-capable solution that will work not only with your computer, but also with consumer electronic devices. The Acer HN274H comes not only as a good solution for gaming in stereo 3D mode on your PC with 3D Vision, but also for using with multiple consumer electronic devices that do support S3D, and the three HDMI 1.4a ports make it easier to have multiple devices connected at the same time. In terms of performance, the Acer did have some good and some not so good surprises in stock, but you should have in mind that I’m reviewing an earlier sample of the monitor, so the final production units might be better. The level of crosstalk/ghosting in stereo 3D mode is just slightly more than the Planar SA2311W which is still providing the best results. The reason that the Acer monitor has slightly more ghosting as compared to Planar is most likely due to the higher maximum level of brightness that the Acer has as compared to Planar, but all the tests I’m doing are at the default factory settings of the displays, so you can know what to expect out of the box. In overall, the 27-inch Acer HN274H 3D Vision-ready LCD monitor is a great choice for everyone considering a bigger and more flexible (supporting not only 3D Vision on PC) 3D-capable monitor with the idea to use it with more different stereoscopic 3D devices, including consumer electronics. Not to mention that it can be considered as a good 3D HDTV alternative, smaller in size, but also more affordable and flexible as it supports 120Hz at 1080p on your PC, unlike all of the currently available 3D HDTVs ;)

Acer HN274H 3D Vision and HDMI 1.4a 3D Monitor Unboxing Video

Bloody — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:33:38 +0000

Here is just a short teaser in the form of an unboxing video of the first 27-inch 3D-capable LCD monitor that should soon be available on the market from Acer. The unboxing video is of a sample of the Acer HN274H 3D Vision-ready and HDMI 1.4a stereo 3D capable monitor that I just got for testing, so you can soon expect to also get a detailed review of the monitor. The 27-inch Acer HN274H can turn out ot be the perfect 3D display that will eliminate the need of getting a 3D HDTV if you want to play 3D content not only from your PC, but also from PlayStation 3, a 3D-capable Set-top-box or a standalone Blu-ray 3D player for example. The monitor comes bundled with a pair of 3D Vision active shutter glasses and has a built-in infrared emitter for the glasses. It is with native Full HD resolution and LED backlight and my first impressions from the monitor are quite positive, but you will have to wait a bit more for more feedback until I finish testing it… for now you get the video teaser.

Review of the 23″ Planar SA2311W 3D Vision-ready LCD Monitor

Bloody — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:14:50 +0000

The 23-inch Planar SA2311W 3D Vision-ready LCD monitor is one of the newer 3D display solutions designed to work with Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology that just became available on the market and I already had the chance to get one of the first units available in Europe to test. When Planar, a company that is specialized in high-end professional stereoscopic 3D displays announced that monitor I was quite eager to test it and I was already set with high expectations for the performance it should offer. Have in mind that the SA2311W monitor is Planar’s first consumer oriented 3D product, designed for use by both professionals for work as well as by gamers. As usual the review is focused mostly on the stereo 3D performance of the monitor, although I will cover some general aspects as well that might be interesting for gamers that prefer to play with 120Hz refresh rate in “plain 3D” instead with 60Hz per eye in stereo 3D mode.

Planar SA2311W is a 23-inch 3D-capable Full HD monitor with a height adjustable stand that makes it more flexible to different work places. The display comes with Dual-Link DVI, HDMI (1.3) and VGA ports, but for stereoscopic 3D use you can only rely on the DL DVI interface. Below you can find the full officially available specifications of the monitor…

Planar SA2311W Specifications:

Panel Size: 23″ (58.4cm) Wide Screen 16:9, TN
Native Resolution: 1920×1080 pixels
Pixel Pitch: 0.2655 mm
Brightness(Max): 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio (Max.): ?
Viewing Angles (CR≧10): ?
Response Time: 2 ms (GtG)
Video Inputs: Dual-link DVI-D, HDMI, VGA
Power Consumption: ?
Monitor stand: tilt +20°~-5°, swivel and height adjustment
Dimension (WxHxD): 21.5″ x 14.8″ x 8.3″ (546.33 x 377 x 210.5 mm)
Weight: 7 kg

Here are the two menus you have available for control of the monitor in 2D mode through the DVI interface. Notice that the monitor has an ECO mode that can reduce the brightness level and also save energy, the default brightness and contrast settings for 2D mode are a bit high anyway, so activating the ECO mode makes the image more easier on the eyes. Another useful feature is the option to enable and disable the OverDrive (OD) function and also the ability to control the sharpness, the display does not have problems with over-sharpening with OD active, but you generally don’t need the overdrive mode active in 2D mode anyway. In stereo 3D mode of course the OverDrive function is active by default as you need the faster response it gets you and thus you get reduced crosstalk/ghosting, and we’ll see the level you can expect from this new monitor in a bit. When in stereo 3D mode most of these controls are being disabled and you are pretty much left with controlling the contrast (the actual level of brightness) of the display with the default setting being at 80.

Here is how the service menu of the Planar monitor looks like in 2D and in stereo 3D mode with its default settings as a reference should you mess them up in some way without having recorder their default settings. If you’ve read the Acer GD245HQ/GD235HZ monitor review from last year, you’ll see that the service menu is very similar to that of the Acer, and you can get into it the same way too. But there is no need for you to mess with the service menu of the monitor, except for seeing the hours the monitor has been used as a reference. What is interesting as information that I’ve learned from the service menu however is that the Planar monitor is using the following LCD panel SEC LTM230HU01, apparently Samsung Electronics has a new 23-inch 3D-capable LCD panel that they are not yet using in their own products. And here comes the question how good is the new panel as compared to their previous 22-inch one?

Accessing the Service Menu on Planar SA2311W LCD Monitor

- Turn off the monitor by pressing the Power button
- Press and hold the Menu button and then push the Power button to turn on the monitor
- When you see the image on screen you can release the Menu button and press it again to call up the Service Menu
- When you finish with the service menu you can turn the monitor off and then on again to be back in the normal mode

The gamers that prefer to play in “plain 3D” and not in stereo 3D might not be very happy due to the fact that the Planar SA2311W monitor exhibits some input lag, the values measured vary from 0 to 24 ms with an average of about 10 ms, something which is quite good considering that most of the 3D-capable 120Hz monitors do have some input lag. Next comes the question about backlight bleeding, the Planar unit I reviewed has quite even backlight with a slightly brighter areas at the top center corner and the lower end a bit on the left, but nothing that is seriously disturbing. So you can consider the new Samsung panel to be quite good, but not quite there yet in all areas, especially considering the fact that their early model had no input lag at all, but it also was not with a perfect backlight distribution. But Anyway, these are not serious issues, so we can move on to the color accuracy next and after that to test the performance you get in stereo 3D mode and the part I’m sure you are most eager to find out about – the level of crosstalk you can expect.

The default settings of the monitor show colors that are a bit of from their optimum, however the gamma and color temperature is with much less deviation. And the maximum brightness measured was 259 cd/m2 with the monitor not being pushed to maximum brightness which means that it can push up to 300 cd/m2 as an absolute maximum. The contrast level is 952:1 which is very close to 1000:1 that this panel from Samsung should be rated at |(non dynamic contrast) and the black point measured was a bit high, due to the higher brightness, measured at about 0.28 cd/m2. Visually, aside from the higher brightness, the display looks quite good even in its factory settings, but let us see how things change after calibrating it.

Have in mind that the calibration results above were achieved with a setting that is trying to preserve the maximum possible brightness level of the display, so if you are going for a lower and more comfortable brightness level for work in 2D mode then you might be able to get even better results. Even though with an average difference of just 0.6 and a maximum one of 1.4 (partly due to the higher brightness), the color deviation is quite low, making the display rate as a very good one after being calibrated even for work with colors. But this is related only to working in 2D mode and doing tasks where color reproduction matters, as when gaming in plain 3D or stereo 3D mode the color reproduction is the least of the things to worry about.

I’m starting with one of my more recent tests using special photos for finding the level of crosstalk by going to black and white, the test photos are available here, so if you wish you can compare your monitor as well. As you can see quite good performance as compared to other monitors, but there is still some crosstalk present, not that I expected it to magically disappear, as this is something that is still a technological issue. And even though things develop and the level of crosstalk gets lower on a newer LCD monitors, we a re still a bit far from getting completely rid of it. This however is a specially developed test to show the issue and actually does not represent the real usage scenarios, as there the situations are usually not as extreme as with the test photos. In this test I’ve noticed something strange and that is the slight gradation in the white as you can see on the left part of the image, so I went and investigated further in this…

Unlike in the tests above, where I shot the test photos only through one of the lenses of the glasses, on this test photo I’m not using the shutter glasses, but instead I shot directly the monitor showing a 3D image. So do not use the photo above to judge for level of ghosting as it is not intended for that, but it is to investigate the strange gradation of white I’ve noticed in the the above test photos. This photo uses black on white for the two eyes as this makes the strange color gradation of the white to be most apparent and it turns out that this issue is somewhat related to the OverDrive function as well as the current level of brightness (the contrast setting) of the monitor. If I disable the OverDrive through the system menu the problem with the gradation of the white disappears, but in turn I get a lot of crosstalk which is to be expected. If I push the contrast setting (the brightness) of the display to the maximum value of 100 again the problem disappears and the white is even again, but then I get more ghosting and more specifically color ghosting. The best choice I’ve found to minimize the issue was to lower the contrast setting a bit to about 50-60 which almost gets rid of the white gradation and lowers a b it more the crosstalk as well, but the image on the screen also gets slightly darker in stereo 3D mode. I should note that this white color gradation issue is only noticeable in some specific extreme scenarios that normally would not appear in real world use, so you should not be worried about experiencing it normally. Meanwhile I’ll see if it can be resolved in another way by also talking with Planar about it, so stay tuned for more information. And now lets wee how things look like in real world usage of the monitor for stereoscopic 3D entertainment…

Now, moving to one of my favorite tests – the sailboats stereoscopic 3D test video, finally a real world crosstalk test to show you that the specific issue described above does not create problems with normal use for stereo 3D content. Planar SA2311W is actually the first 3D-capable LCD monitor that I’ve tested and that does not show any, and I really mean any ghosting in this video, the previous monitor from Asus I’ve tested was almost there, but there was still some slight ghosting. So in this test the Planar SA2311W performs as good as a good 3D HDTV like the Panasonic VT20E for example that also does not show any ghosting in this test video. But lets see how things move on with some more real world applications like game sin stereo 3D mode.

Moving to Tomb Rider: Underworld and one of my favorite scenes in the game that I use for checking the 3D monitors of the level of top and bottom ghosting due to the contrasting scenes that are more prone to having crosstalk/ghosting. Starting with the top ghosting, again surprisingly good results with a very faint afterimage leaking at the top of the screen and again making the Planar the best performing in this test monitor that I’ve tested so far.

Moving to the bottom screen crosstalk/ghosting test, again by using the game Tomb Rider: Underworld, this time looking for color ghosting… another issue that is caused by the OverDrive function that leads to pixels not appearing as faint dark shadows in terms of crosstalk, but as much more apparent brightly colored afterimage. Again very good results, probably the best so far as although there is some color ghosting it is quite faint again and much better than the previous results I’ve got. Of course pushing the value of the contrast setting in 3D mode to the maximum can make the top and bottom ghosting more apparent, the default factory setting of 80 does produce really good results.

As I’ve mentioned above already, by lowering the level of contrast (the brightness of the display) from the default factory setting of 80 to something in between 50 and 60 you can get even slightly less crosstalk with the image getting a bit darker, so you have an option to get even better results. But as I’ve mentioned, even at the default settings the Planar SA2311W performs very good with the smallest levels of crosstalk I’ve seen so far through all the 3D Vision-ready LCD monitors I’ve tested. It has become somewhat of a tradition that every new model of a 3D-capable LCD monitor I test here is performing better than the previous and has less crosstalk than the previous one and Planar SA2311W is no exception. With that said I think it is about time that I replace my old and trustworthy Samsing 2233RZ monitor with the one from Planar which also uses an LCD panel made by Samsung Electronics.

- The 23-inch Planar SA2311W 3D Vision-ready monitor is available here…

Planar SA2311W 3D Vision-Ready Monitor is Now Available

Bloody — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:53:23 +0000

Planar’s 23″ SA2311W 3D Vision-ready monitor is now available in USA with a price of $495 USD and is very soon expected to be also available in Europe. In early January to be exact, when I hope that I will also be able to test it and compare it to other competitive products that are already available. I’m quite interested in the product, because it has been made by Planar, a company that is specialized in high-end professional stereoscopic 3D displays. And the SA2311W monitor is their first more consumer oriented 3D product that is designed for use by both professionals for work as well as gamers for entertainment, but the waiting is almost over and I’ll soon be able to see if it managers to live up to my high expectations. So stay tuned for more on this…

Nvidia With a New High-end GPU, Namely the GeForce GTX 580

Bloody — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:01:36 +0000

Today Nvidia has officially announced their new top model, the GeForce GTX 580 GPU that is to be the successor of the previous high-end GPU of the company, namely the GTX 480. What Nvidia is saying about the new card is that iy is faster in terms of performance, more energy efficient and with quieter cooling that the GTX 480. The new cards has some architectural “power-ups”, like for example bumping the number of the CUDA cores to 512, 16 PolyMorph Engines as well as faster default operating frequencies of both the GPU and the video memory, which of course brings the level of performance up as compared to what you get from a GTX 480. At the same time the power consumption has been improved as well as the default air cooling solution that supposedly will allow higher performance while maintaining lower power usage and quieter cooling fan operation. The new reference cooler for the GTX 580 uses the so called Vapor Chamber Cooling Design that is a key moment for improving its efficiency and lowering the level of noise coming from the video card even when it is fully loaded.

Aside from the higher operating frequencies, as already mentioned the new GTX 580 GPUs also have additional functional units for tessellation, shading, and texturing as well as some architectural enhancements for full speed FP16 texture filtering and improved z-cull which in terms results in the higher performance you will get from the new video cards. According to Nvidia the architectural improvements of the GTX 580 GPU help you get an average of between 5% and 10% faster performance and the 512 CUDA cores and higher operating frequencies will get you another 10% to 15% for an average of 20% to 30% higher total performance from the GTX 580 as compared to GTX 480.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 Specifications:

Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB
Graphics Processing Clusters: 4
Streaming Multiprocessors: 16 ⁺¹
CUDA Cores: 512 ⁺³²
Texture Units: 64 ⁺⁴
ROP Units: 48
Graphics Clock: 772 MHz ⁺⁷²
Processor Clock (CUDA Cores): 1544 MHz ⁺¹⁴³
Memory Clock (Data rate): 4008 MHz ⁺³¹²
L2 Cache Size: 768KB
Total Video Memory: 1536MB GDDR5
Memory Interface: 384‐bit
Total Memory Bandwidth: 192.4 GB/s ⁺¹⁵
Texture Filtering Rate (Bilinear): 49.4 GigaTexels/sec ^+7.4
Fabrication Process: 40 nm
Transistor Count: 3 Billion
Connectors: 2x Dual‐Link DVI‐I, 1x Mini HDMI
Form Factor: Dual Slot
Power Connectors: 1x 6‐pin, 1x 8‐pin
Recommended Power Supply: 600 Watts
Thermal Design Power (TDP): 244 Watts ^-6
Thermal Threshold: 97°C ^-8

* The superscript numbers in green show the change as compared to the specs of GTX 480.

The additional performance you’ll gain from the GTX 580 is definitely welcome if you play games in stereo 3D mode with 3D Vision, and especially if you already have a 3D Vision Surround setup with two or more video cards in SLI as there more performance is more then welcome for the ultra high total resolution you get with the 3 combined 3D monitors. However if you just got your system equipped with a single GTX 480 or let alone with two or more of these cards you probably won’t be very keen on replacing them and especially if you’ve added full cover water cooling blocks on the 480 and integrated these into the loop of a fully water cooled computer just like I did. However inspecting closely the reference PCB of the GTX 580, I’ve found out that it is pretty close to the one used for the GTX 480, with just some minor differences and that can mean that the GTX 480 water blocks from EK have a chance of fitting over the GTX 580. And the other thing that kind of worries me a bit is the new power monitoring hardware introduced with the GTX 580, not that it is not a good thing to keep the power consumption in a specific level, but what about if you are an enthusiast and overclocker and get a good and more efficient water cooling on the card in order to squeeze every last bit of performance possible out of the video card? I mean that this new power monitoring dedicated hardware circuitry on the graphics card that is performing real‐time monitoring of current and voltage on each 12V rail (6‐pin, 8‐pin, and the PCI‐Express edge connector) might as well turn out to be a bit limiting factor in terms of overclockability of the new video cards and although I hope not, this is yet to be confirmed.

I do hope to soon be able to test the new GTX 580 when it becomes available around here, to see how well it performs in stereoscopic 3D mode and how it compares to the 480s. But I seriously doubt that I’ll be replacing the GTX 480s in my test system with the new 580s for now as after building the test PC with GTX 480 and getting a 3D HDTV, the upgrade budget is way over the limit for this year. So while waiting for the GeForce GTX 580 to become available in my region sometime probably at the end of this month, I’ll direct my attention to another product that gets officially released today and that is the game Call of Duty: Black Ops – an official 3D Vision Ready title that I’m sure a lot of people besides me are eagerly awaiting… ;)

- Amazon is still a bit short on GTX 580 listings, but the first are there…
- At Newegg however there are more GTX 580 and there is promotion with 10% off…

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