The company was among the first to release a 120Hz 3D-capable LCD monitor with Full HD resolution and it seems that Acer is also on track to be with another first on the 3D LCD monitor market – this time with HDMI 1.4a capable 3D-monitors. Acer is preparing to release two new models – one with passively polarized 3D glasses and another one designed for Nvidia’s 3D Vision active shutter glasses and here we are talking about 23.6″ models. However the company is also working on a 27-inch model with 3D capabilities and it seems that Acer will be there first, beating the already announced 27″ Asus monitor that seems to be getting some delays and will probably be available sometime next year. Acer is expected to officially announce and after that soon to have on the market the three new 3D-capable monitors by the end of this year or early beginning of 2011 with the 27-inch model coming a bit after the new 23.6″ models.

So far everything seems good, I mean that a lot of people were asking for 3D-capable 120Hz LCD monitors that will also support the already gaining popularity HDMI 1.4a-based stereo 3D specifications. This in theory means that you will be able to connect not only your 3D PC to these monitors and play stereoscopic 3D content on it, but also your 3D-capable PlayStation 3 console, a Blu-ray 3D standalone player or a set top box that supports 3D TV and so on. And that is actually good, considering the fact that these 3D-capable LCD monitors do come quite more affordable compared to a 3D LCD HDTV or 3D Plasma HDTV, although with not so good panel and/or display size.

When considering to use the more affordable 3D display using a special polarizing filter applied on the LCD panel and a pair of passive polarized glasses to get the 3D effect you will pretty much not have any problem (in theory) with the 3D content coming according to the HDMI 1.4a stereo 3D specifications for frame packaging the left and right video frames. There should be no problems due to the fact that you don’t need active shutter glasses here that must be in sync to the content being displayed on the screen, although with the passive solution you will have to sacrifice half of the horizontal lines in terms of resolution which is not the case with the displays using active shutter glasses.

But if we consider the 120Hz 3D LCD monitor that is designed to be used with Nvidia’s 3D Vision shutter glasses things may become a bit messy, because you need to have the IR transmitter plugged in a USB port and a driver installed in order have them working in sync with the 3D image being shown on the screen. This works without any problems on a PC, since there are drivers for the infrared transmitter available for the PC, but what happens if you want to use the monitor with your PS3 console or any other device that outputs stereo 3D content through a HDMI 1.4a-compliant interface? It seems that the 3D Vision glasses will not be able to properly sync and thus will become unusable, unless some other solution is found like for example the monitor getting a built-in IR transmitter for the glasses that can also provide the proper signaling to the glasses if it is getting 3D content over the HDMI 1.4a interface. This is still something that we don’t know and we’ll probably have to wait a bit more for Acer to give us some more details about their upcoming products and if they’ve found a solution for that possible issue.

And when talking about the HDMI 1.4a stereo 3D specs there is another possible issue that however is not present in the currently available 120Hz 3D LCD monitors that use Dual-Link DVI interface for connection the PC. The limited bandwidth and the availability of only 24Hz per eye 3D mode for 1080p resolution that is present with the HDMI 1.4a (of course designed for movies) as compared to the 120Hz mode in Full HD that is available when using Dual-Link DVI interface. I suppose that the DL DVI will still remain as a main interface for the PC users and the stereo 3D support over the HDMI 1.4a will be used for consumer electronic devices like consoles and movie players, but that is also something to keep an eye on. I’m sure that nobody will be willing to trade the 120Hz Full HD support for HDMI 1.4a connectivity with stereo 3D support, however having both on a product is something to look for. I’m going to keep following on that to keep you posted as soon as more information becomes available…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• The Acer HN274H 3D Vision and HDMI 1.4a Monitor is Starting to Appear (18)
• Review of the 27″ Acer HN274H 3D Vision-ready LCD Monitor (625)
• Acer HS244HQ is the First 3D Monitor with HDMI 1.4a Stereo 3D Support (33)
• The Acer Aspire GD245HQ 3D Vision-capable Monitor (18)
• Review of the 23″ LG W2363D 120Hz Full HD 3D Gaming Monitor (114)

I have been testing for some time already the 23-inch LG W2363D 120Hz LCD monitor, of course focusing mostly on its performance in stereo 3D mode. A more detailed review of the display is coming soon, but meanwhile I’m going to share with you some important information regarding the input lag that the LG has or actually doesn’t have. The input lag of a display does not directly influence the quality of the image you get or create issues when playing in stereo 3D mode, but the presence of input lag is not desired by gamers, because it leads to slower reaction time and thus may lead to worse results in more competitive and especially multiplayer games.

Unfortunately I was not able to get a Acer GD245HQ/GD235HZ monitor to compare directly with the LG W2363D, so I did the comparison with the Samsung 2233RZ instead, but as I’ve already compared the Samsung 2233RZ and ViewSonic VX2268WM and found they both have the same input lag, and that input lag is almost identical to that of a good CRT display (meaning input lag of less than 1 ms if there is any at all). On the other hand the Acer GD245HQ/GD235HZ monitor has between zero to about 15-16 ms input lag delay compared to the ViewSonic and all this can help a lot in judging the results I got from the LG below, so pay good attention…

The LG W2363D monitor has a special mode called THRU Mode that has the sole purpose to eliminate any input lag when activated, but before trying if that mode really works and if it does – how well it performs I’ve tried the input lag without it being enabled. The minimum input lag I’ve managed to get with the THRU Mode disabled was 9 milliseconds delay as compared to the Samsung monitor.

And after taking a long series of photos with an exposure time of 1/1000th of a second and high ISO setting the maximum input lag I was able to measure was about 18 seconds. Have in mind that these tests are performed with the use of a DVI splitter cable instead of connecting the two monitors to the two outputs of the video card and using a clone mode as my tests confirm that using the clone mode does not provide accurate results as compared to using a single monitor output with a splitter cable. So far these results can be considered worse than what I’ve managed to get from the Acer, so lets see how the THRU Mode on the LG works and will it be able to do some wonders in getting rid of the input lag…

Enabling the THRU Mode on the LG completely eliminates the the input lag on the LG, bringing it down to exactly the same results the Samsung is showing. So the THRU Mode on the LG does exactly what it is supposed to do – eliminate the input lag completely, but you need to enable that mode in order to have no input lag as some people will most likely forget to do so every time they need it. So you should enable it right from the start and forget about switching it off again…

The good news is that whenever you switch to 3D mode the THRU Mode is automatically being enabled and you are unable to switch it off until you are back to normal mode again, so there is no input lag while playing in stereo 3D mode and that is a good advantage for the LG. And there is another advantage of the LG that you’ve probably already noticed in the photos above and that is the higher brightness of the LG (400 cd/m2) compared to that of the Samsung (300 cd/m2).

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Testing the Asus VG236HE 120Hz 3D Monitor, it Has Some Input Lag (9)
• Samsung 2233RZ and ViewSonic VX2268wm are With the Same Input Lag (11)
• Acer Aspire GD245HQ 120Hz 3D Vision-ready Monitor Review (131)
• ViewSonic V3D271 is an Upcoming 27-inch Passive 3D Monitor (20)
• The Acer Aspire GD245HQ 3D Vision-capable Monitor (18)

It seems that Acer is finally going to address one of the issues they had on their first Acer Aspire 3D-capable laptop – the 5738DG by releasing an updated 3D laptop. The new Acer Aspire 5740D 3D laptop comes with a set of updated hardware, including the most important thing – the video card as the first model was somewhat lacking in that area. Acer Aspire 5740D 3D will be available in different models equipped with Intel Core i3, i5 and even i7 processors and will use ATI’s Mobility Radeon HD 5650 GPU that is much better suited for stereoscopic 3D gaming than the previously used Mobility Radeon 4570. The screen will remain 15.6″ with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels and LED backlight with overlayed passive polarization filter to enable the usage with passive polarized 3D glasses. The new laptop is also going to use DDD’s TriDef software solution to enable stereoscopic 3D support for for 3D games, 3D movies and 3D photos on the laptop. This means that as with the previous first generation laptops when you are using the display in 3D mode by wearing the polarized glasses you’ll be getting half of the horizontal resolution of the screen per eye. Something that may bring some issues with multimedia that uses a lot of small details like for example tiny texts that need to be easily read as with half the horizontal resolution on the 1366×768 screen this might become somewhat of a challenge for you. Anyway, it seems that Acer is moving on the right track with this upgraded model and maybe their next line of 3D-ready laptops will feature a 120Hz LCD screen and come with 3D Vision shutter glasses just like what Asus did with their G51J 3D gaming laptop.

- For more information about the new Acer Aspire 5740D 3D-capable laptop…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Using Acer Aspire 3D Laptop with iZ3D Driver Instead of TriDef Ignition (0)
• First Impressions from Acer Aspire 3D (AS-5738DG-664G50Mn) (9)
• Acer Aspire 3D (AS-5738DG-664G50Mn) Laptop for Additional Testing (7)
• Why There Are Still No Portable 3D-capable Laptops Available (8)
• Upgrading your Acer Aspire 3D laptop with latest TriDef Software (24)

If you’ve already watched the unboxing video of the Acer Aspire GD245HQ (same in terms of hardware as Acer GD235HZ) display you should know that I’ve been testing the 24-inch (23.6″ to be exact) Full HD display that is 120Hz and 3D Vision compatible. The expectations for this display are quite high, especially after the release of the Alienware OptiX AW2310 that did not provide a completely problem free 3D gaming experience (or so I’m reading, haven’t tested it personally) as we all hoped it would as it being in the next generation of 120Hz displays. This does not mean that the Alienware or that the Acer are not better in terms of what they offer to the user and in general compared to the previous generation of 22″ displays, but also does not mean that the fulfill every expectation consumers had… probably we just expected too much to happen in too little time. Anyway both Alienware and Acer make a good step towards better S3D experience, but lets get back to a more detailed look on the Acer GD245HQ that I’ve tested and compared to the 22″ ViewSonic VX2268WM and Samsung 2233RZ (the first generation 120Hz models).

Let me start with the official specifications:

Display size: 60 cm (23.6″) Wide, 16:9 Full HD, 521×293 mm
Panel Technology: TN (Twisted Nematic)
Resolution: 1920×1080 @ 120Hz
Pixel pitch: 0.2715 mm
PPI (pixels per inch): 92
Horizontal Frequency: D-Sub & HDMI 30-83KHz, DVI 30-140KHz
Vertical Frequency: D-Sub & HDMI 56-75Hz, DVI 56-120Hz
Contrast ratio: 80000:1 (Dynamic)
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Response time: 2 ms
Colours: 16.7M (6 bit + HiFRC)
NTSC Colour gamut coverage: 72%
Internal speakers: N/A
Viewing angle CR 5:1: 176°/176°
Viewing angle CR 10:1: 170°/160°
Tilt / Swivel / Pivot: Tilt. -5°/15°
Height Adjustment: No
Wall-mount: 100 mm x 100 mm
Kensington lock support: Supported
Connections: Analog (D-sub), Digital (DVI-D), HDMI (Optional), Internal Power Supply
Power consumption: Energy Star – On 38.2W, Off 0.85W, Stand by 1.85W
Dimensions: 574.8×417.8×194.4 mm
Weight: 5.8 Kg

Note that the above official specifications do not mention anything about built-in speakers as the monitor does not have such (and why would it need), although it seems at some places selling the display you can see speakers mentioned. This is a bit misleading and the seller had mistaken the presence of a stereo audio jack on the display and cable in the kit thinking there are built-in speakers, but it is a completely different thing. Since the monitor has an HDMI and this allows you to pass audio through it, but you probably wouldn’t want to hear it through some crappy built-in speakers you have the option to output the audio from the HDMI to a decent set of external speakers. And the stereo cable is for just that, to output the audio passing through the HDMI (if any) to an external speakers, and it is clearly not for built-in speakers as there are no such in the display!

The display does come with DVI-D, DSUB15 and HDMI connectors, but you can use the 2D/3D mode in 120Hz only on the Dual-Link DVI. There is a Dual-Link DVI cable and an analogue DSUB15 video cables, bundled with the monitor, there is no HDMI cable, but as I already said you cannot send more than 60Hz as an input signal to the display through HDMI or DSUB15. Apart from that there is the audio out cable (for HDMI audio output) and of course the power cable, the expected manuals and a CD with documentation and control software for the display.

The external look of the Acer GD245HQ is quite nice, mostly black with just a little bit or orange on the monitor stand. And not to mention that unlike the 22-inch ViewSonic and Samsung displays here with the Acer, the stand is much more stable preventing the monitor from starting to swing around at the slightest vibration of your desk. A bit of a disappointment for some people might be the lack of height adjustment in the stand and that is kind of reasonable, especially having in mind that Acer’s display is with aspect ratio of 16:9 as compared to 16:10 for the ViewSonic and Samsung. This might not seem too significant, but when you compare a 22″ and the 24″ monitor side by side they do not seem very different in terms of size at first look, the ViewSonic is even a bit higher as you can see on the picture above. For me personally the 16:9 is better for stereoscopic 3D gaming as there is the wider aspect gets better coverage for the peripheral vision, but this might differ from person to person and it seems that people even want 1920×1200 displays with 16:10 aspect.

And now of to the bleeding of the LCD panel of the Acer GD245HQ. The above image is taken in a dark environment with the display showing a completely black image with a camera set a very high ISO and afterwards the image has been processed with an image editor just to enhance the visibility of the bleeding. In reality there is not that much light passing through the LCD panel from the backlight, but you can clearly see that the most light bleeding is coming from the left side of the panel, some from the top and just a bit from the right and bottom parts of the screen.

Now, don’t think that there is no bleeding on the first generation of 120Hz displays, there is as there is on a lot of other monitors. On the picture above you can see that the ViewSonic display has the most bleeding coming from the bottom part of the screen and some from the left top. This picture comparing the Acer and ViewSonic displays next to each other has not been enhanced in an image editor, just shot with high ISO settings on the camera. As you can see the light bleeding here is less apparent and it is still more visible than what you’ll probably see with a naked eye directly looking at the display. In order to get more uniform backlight and less bleeding we’ll have to wait for the first 3D-capable displays to come out that use LEDs for backlight, but this also does not guarantee better results… it still depends on how good the implementation is.

As with the previous generation of 120Hz 3D-ready displays the Acer GD245HQ is also using a fast response TN panel with 2ms response rate for the pixels compared to 3ms (for 3D mode) in the first generation. As a direct result of this we can expect to have less ghosting and this is true, the ghosting is actually less as you can see on the image above. It is taken through one of the lenses of the 3D Vision glasses in order to show you how much from the second image (the one for the other eye) is actually visible and thus creating the ghosting effect. Look at the center part of the pictures as some of the outer parts are not covered by the shutters lens because of it being too small for the camera lens. The important thing is that the ghosting is less, making it more comfortable to enjoy 3D content without annoying “shadows” lurking around some objects on the screen, or so it seems…

I’ve noticed something else you can see on the pictures above – the weird red/green ghosting that rarely appears on some images, it is probably related to some specific colors present. The both Ghosting comparison images were made from the game Tomb Raider Underworld on Lara’s boar before going underwater, but there are some other games and scenes where you can see the same strange ghosting. I’ve also seen it present for a brief moment on some videos, but I believe that this is something related to software issues and thus can lets say be fixed with a driver update for 3D vision for example. The above images are sent to Nvidia and lets see if they can figure out what is the issue and provide us with a fix, but as I said the above issue is rarely seen and you might not even notice it if you are not playing enough attention.

And now off to some measuring of the Acer GD245HQ with the help of an X-rite i1 Display 2 colorimeter. Calibrating the display colors does bring a bit of improvement in color reproduction (we are talking about a TN panel after all), but the most serious area where we have trouble with colors still remains – the very dark areas. There are not that much adjustments being done to the primary colors and the color reproduction before and after calibration changes just a bit – there is not a big difference. The brightness level after calibrating however might be an issue, as you can see the display brightness measured after calibration was just 171.6 cd/m2 and that is not that very good for when you wear the 3D Vision shutter glasses and play in S3D mode as there is an additional brightness drop. The maximum level of brightness I was able to measure was about 240 candelas per square meter which is still a bit less that the 300 cd/m2 stated in the specifications. The black level was measured to be about 0,2 cd/m2 which in turn resulted in quite good contrast ratio of almost 900:1, which in turn with the good sharpness of the display makes it noticeably better performing especially when watching videos in 2D or stereo 3D. Even when setting up the max brightness the display still manages to maintain a contrast ratio of about 900:1, so you don’t need to worry too much even if you play in stereo 3D mode with maximum brightness. After all by wearing the 3D Vision shutter glasses you are loosing some of the light and the black seems darker and closer to true black and the lightest objects are not so light anymore.

The next important thing for every gamer is the input lag, or at least it should be, no matter if the games will be played in 2D or S3D mode. In my last input lag tests I was able to confirm that the 120Hz Viewsonic has little to no input lag compared to a good CRT monitor, so how well does new 120Hz Acer GD245HQ compare to that, you can see on the video. Use the pause button to compare the numbers on both displays, the video is shot with a camera recording at 240 fps which is more than enough for the displays 120Hz (120fps). Slower response (lower number of milliseconds) means input lag (delay) of the image because of the processing before being show on the screen. The Acer shows from zero to about 15-16 ms delay compared to the ViewSonic, but have in mind that both displays are running a clone image (using DVI splitter) with resolution of 1680×1050 which is not the native one for the Full HD Acer display!

The next video shows the top/bottom screen ghosting issue on the Acer. As in the first generation of 3D capable 120Hz displays the second generation Acer GD245HQ still has some ghosting at objects show on the top and bottom parts of the screen as opposed to seeing the same object in the center part of the screen. Notice the shadow in front of the wind turbine in the video when it is being moved to the top or bottom parts of the screen. But generally as the ghosting is less on the Acer the top/bottom ghosting is also less.

This here is another interesting effect that I’ve noticed in the game Borderlands, look at how if you leave the cable onscreen and then move a bit there is an afterimage left for a bit that fades in another moment. This issue is also present on the 120Hz ViewSonic displays, but it takes more time with with the cable static on screen for the afterimage to appear. So far I’ve noticed this only in Borderlands, so it might be something related just to that game, but it is there and it handles differently on both 3D displays. The above is of course visible when you shoot the video through the shutter glasses in S3D mode, not when you look directly at the screen without them. Also watch the HD version of the clip to see it more clearly!

Another thing to note is that the “grainy texture” or more like a scanlines look (brighter lines) that could be seen on some scenes when in 3D mode on the first generation of 120Hz screens is now gone, or to be more exact much, much, much… harder to notice, so it should not bother you anymore, if it was bothering you on the ViewSonic or the Samsung displays.

So to sum up all things said so far, the Acer GD245HQ is better designed, better built and performing better than the first generation 120Hz displays from ViewSonic and Samsung. It has an updated list of parameters, offers less ghosting, and although it brings some other new possible issues, in general it is more of a good improvement. If you wanted this to be the perfect and absolutely problem free monitor for stereoscopic 3D gaming, like a lot of people did, you might be a bit disappointed, but that is because we all probably had set too high expectations for it. After testing it personally I’m ready to make the switch to the Acer, when it officially becomes available on the market next month, as what I tested was a testing sample produced in November 2009. I might’ve missed something in the review above so please feel free to ask if you want to know something else or to try on the Acer as I’ll continue testing it for a few more days before having to return it…

- Acer GD235HZ/GD245HQ is already available for $399.99 USD at Amazon

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision Kit (0)
• New NVIDIA 3D Vision Driver CD 1.20 with Tripple/Quad SLI Support (2)
• Acer GD245HQ 120Hz 3D-capable Gaming Display Unboxing Video (34)
• A Little About the Input Lag of the LG W2363D 120Hz LCD Monitor (21)
• ViewSonic PJD6531w is a New 3D-ready 120Hz DLP Projector (10)

Nvidia has released a new Full driver CD version 1.20 for 3D Vision owners containing both the GeForce and the 3D Vison drivers version 196.21. What is the most significant change in this driver release is the addition of beta support for Tripple/Quad SLI VGA setups for owners of really high-end PCs (beta means you might still have trouble making it work!). The new driver also support for Alienware OptX AW2310 120Hz LCD monitor and Acer GD245HQ/GD235HZ 120Hz LCDs, although they worked with version 1.18 too. There are also fixes that are supposed to resolve the issues for people having problems with using the Generic DLP mode or CRT displays with 3D Vision (anyone with such please report if they fixed the problem with detection). And as last, there is also a new game profile for the recently released game Dark Void. Please note it is recommended that you disable dynamic shadows for this game!

- To download the NVIDIA 3D Vision Driver Full CD 1.20 (32-bit/64-bit)…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• New NVIDIA 3D Vision Driver Version 195.81 Beta is Available (10)
• Acer Aspire GD245HQ 120Hz 3D Vision-ready Monitor Review (131)
• The Acer Aspire GD245HQ 3D Vision-capable Monitor (18)
• Nvidia Verde Notebook 3D Vision Driver CD v1.24 Was Just Released (7)
• Nvidia GPU and 3D Vision Driver 197.41 with GTX 470 / GTX 480 Support (2)

If you are an owner of Acer Aspire 3D AS-5738DG laptop you should know that this mobile computer uses DDD’s TriDef software to provide Stereoscopic 3D support for pictures, video and games, but since it is using a Horizontal Interlaced mode to create the stereoscopic 3D effect you can also use other software. This made me try the Aspire 3D laptop with iZ3D’s driver instead of the bundled TriDef software just to be sure and to check if there will be any significant difference when using one or the other software. You should know that both TriDef Igniton and iZ3D Driver still do not support DirectX 10, although both are working on adding this support and we should have it pretty soon, and as for DX11 it is still too early.

When you install the iZ3D driver you need to setup it to use Interlaced, Horizontal (optimized) mode in order to have it working as it should with the Aspire 3D laptop. You can as well use the normal Horizontal mode, but the Optimized version is supposed to provide a little bit of improvement by doing some minimal vertical anti-aliasing as opposed to just skipping the unneeded lines in normal mode, although the difference it is hardly visible and there seems not to be any significant difference in terms of performance.

The next step was to try a game that is not completely problem free when played in stereoscopic 3D mode and to measure the performance difference by using both programs to see if any of them is better. The game I choose was X-Blades, because it looks quite good in S3D mode and is not too heavy so the Radeon 4570 video card in the Acer laptop could handle it. But at the same time X-Blades also has an issue when HDR is enabled and you try to play in stereoscopic 3D mode that becomes apparent when you move the camera with the mouse around your character. It turned out that the weird “wash out” effect is present with HDR enabled on both iZ3D and TriDef Ignition and then again the performance I got from both solutions was pretty close to each other. When playing X-Blades in normal mode, at maximum details, with no AA at 1368×768 resolution I get average of about 40 fps, but when switching to stereoscopic 3D mode with the help of iZ3D or TriDef Ignition the framerate on both goes to an average of 24 frames per second. There is just a slight difference if you turn the Autofocus function of the iZ3D driver On, resulting in about 2-3 fps drop. Have in mind that these results were achieved with PowerPlay disabled for getting the top performance from the laptop as I described here Optimizing your Aspire 3D Laptop for Best Performance in S3D Mode. The end result from the comparison between the programs that allow you to turn a normal 3D game into a stereoscopic 3D game is that they perform pretty much on par with each other in terms of quality, performance and even features. Of course each of these solutions has its own small advantages, but if you’ve bought an Acer Aspire 3D laptop there is no reason for you to additionally buy a license for iZ3D Driver as you won’t get a significant improvement at this moment. When iZ3D Driver version 2.0 comes out things might get improved, but also don’t forget that DDD’s TriDef is also being updated quite frequently and you can upgrade your Acer Aspire 3D laptop with latest TriDef software for free.

Related posts you might be interested in:

• First Impressions from Acer Aspire 3D (AS-5738DG-664G50Mn) (9)
• Acer Aspire 3D (AS-5738DG-664G50Mn) Laptop for Additional Testing (7)
• Optimizing your Aspire 3D Laptop for Best Performance in S3D Mode (10)
• Acer Updates it’s 3D-capable Laptops with the New Aspire 5740D 3D (15)
• Upgrading your Acer Aspire 3D laptop with latest TriDef Software (24)

If you are an owner of Acer Aspire 3D AS-5738DG laptop you should know that this mobile computer uses DDD’s TriDef software to provide Stereoscopic 3D support for pictures, video and games. The laptop comes preloaded with an OEM version of the TriDef 3D software that is already not very up to date and if you use the built-in update checker you’ll get information that there is no update available for your software. But on the other hand you can download the latest TriDef 3D Software version 4.1.3 (just released today) and install it over the version that came with your laptop. The good news is that the latest software will work on your laptop and you’ll be able to take advantage of the latest features available in TriDef 3D Media Player 6.5.5 and TriDef 3D Ignition 2.4.6.

The only thing that you need to do after updating the TriDef software this way is to select the type of display the Aspire 3D laptop has, because the software will not recognize it automatically and in the OEM version only the needed mode was available. In order to do that you need to run the TriDef 3D Control Panel and select Line Interlaced (1366×768) mode or just Line Interlaced if you are going to use other resolutions than the native one by the laptop. But if you consider doing that you’ll also have to disable the automatic scaling of the image to fill the whole screen when using lower resolutions, otherwise you’ll lose the Stereoscopic 3D usability because of the different size of the stretched pixels.

- To download the latest TriDef 3D Software for your Acer Aspire 3D laptop…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• TriDef 3D Media Player for Video Playback and 2D to 3D Conversion (10)
• DDD TriDef 3D Software Just Got Updated to Version 4.2 (5)
• DDD TriDef 3D Software Has Been Updated to Version 4.5 (1)
• DDD TriDef 3D Software Has Been Updated to Version 4.4 (4)
• DDD TriDef 3D Software Has Been Updated to Version 4.2.3 (5)

Do you remember that some time ago I’ve mentioned Acer is preparing a new 24-inch Full HD 120Hz gaming LCD monitor that will be compatible with Nvidia’s 3D Vision? Well this display is now officially called Acer Aspire GD245HQ (on the picture above) and information about it is already available on Acer’s website, although we’ll probably have to wait a bit more before being able to buy it. It seem that Acer is having some delay with the official 3D Vision certification and we are most likely see the monitor on the market in early January…

Here are the full specifications for the Acer Aspire GD245HQ:

Display size: 60 cm (23.6″) Wide, 16:9 Full HD, 521×293 mm
Panel Technology: TN (Twisted Nematic)
Resolution: 1920×1080 @ 120Hz
Pixel pitch: 0.2715 mm
PPI (pixels per inch): 92
Horizontal Frequency: D-Sub&HDMI 30-83KHz, DVI 30-140KHz
Vertical Frequency: D-Sub&HDMI 56-75Hz, DVI 56-120Hz
Contrast ratio: 80000:1 (Dynamic)
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Response time: 2 ms
Colours: 16.7M (6 bit + HiFRC)
NTSC Colour gamut coverage: 72%
Internal speakers: N/A
Viewing angle CR 5:1: 176°/176°
Viewing angle CR 10:1: 170°/160°
Tilt / Swivel / Pivot: Tilt. -5°/15°
Height Adjustment: No
Wall-mount: 100 mm x 100 mm
Kensington lock support: Supported
Connections: Analog (D-sub), Digital (DVI-D), HDMI (Optional), Internal Power Supply
Power consumption: Energy Star On 38.2W, Off 0.85W, Stand by 1.85W
Dimensions: 574.8×417.8×194.4 mm
Weight: 5.8 Kg

- To the official website of Acer with info for the Aspire GD245HQ 3D Monitor…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Review of the 23″ LG W2363D 120Hz Full HD 3D Gaming Monitor (114)
• BenQ Also With a 120Hz 3D-capable LED Gaming Monitor, the XL2410T (9)
• Acer to Soon Have More Interesting 3D-capable LCD Monitors (15)
• Acer Aspire GD235HZ will be Another 3D Vision-capable Monitor? (2)
• Where to Get the Planar SA2311W 3D Vision-ready Monitor in Europe (3)

While we are still waiting for Acer’s first 120Hz LCD gaming display (beginning next year if there is not additional delay), the company is going to make us happy with making available the first affordable wide format 1280×720 (720p) native resolution projector with support for 3D Vision and DLP 3D. The projector was one of the recently announced three new Stereo 3D compatible models from Acer that got officially certified by Nvidia. The projector started appearing on some markets already and is expected to be widely available in December… and at a good price point.

What is making this model interesting for people wanting to watch movies and play games in stereoscopic 3D is the fact that H5360 is with 720p native resolution… finally a wide aspect projector with 3D capabilities. There is also an HDMI connector present with the projector also accepting 1080p signal, but of course downscaling it to 720p, although I’m not yet sure if the HDMI will be able to accept 120Hz signal from the PC in order to be used in S3D mode. So far the other 3D-compatible DLP projectors have used the analog D-sub connector for sending the 120Hz video signal to the projector, but this needs to be verified.

The main specifications of Acer H5360:

Display Technology: DLP, Digital Light Processor
Native Resolution: Native 720p (1280×720)
Compressed Resolution: Maximum UXGA (1600×1200), 1080p (1920×1080)
Typical Colors: 1.07 Billion Colors
Brightness (ANSI lumens): 2500 ANSI Lumens (Standard), 2000 ANSI Lumens (ECO)
Contrast Ratio: 3200:1
Throw Ratio: 58″ at 2 meter distance (1.55 ~ 1.70:1)
Noise Level: 32 dBA (Standard mode), 27 dBA (ECO mode)
Lamp Life: 3000 Hours (Standard), 4000 Hours (ECO)
Lamp Type: 200 W user replaceable P-VIP lamp
I/O Connectors: Analog RGB/Component Video (D-sub) x 1 Composite Video (RCA) x 1 S-Video (Mini DIN) x 1 Component (3 RCA) x 1 HDMI (Video, Audio, HDCP) x 1 PC Audio (Stereo mini jack) x 1 RS232 (Mini DIN) x 1
Dimensions: 268 x 192 x 80 mm (10.6″ x 7.6″ x 3.1″)
Weight: 2.2 kg (4.9 lbs)

- More information about the Acer H5360 3D-capable 720p projector…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• VIP 3D-Gamer is an HDMI 1.4 to 3D DLP Projectors Video Converter (5)
• ViewSonic PJD6531w is a New 3D-ready 120Hz DLP Projector (10)
• ViewSonic PJD6241 is yet Another 3D-ready DLP Projector (0)
• ViewSonic PJD6211, PJD6221 and PJD6381 Projectors and 3D Vision (9)
• Using Acer Aspire 3D Laptop with iZ3D Driver Instead of TriDef Ignition (0)

Thanks to Acer I now have one of their Acer Aspire 3D laptops for more extensive testing, so you’ll also be seeing some useful articles regarding this laptop and its stereoscopic 3D capabilities along with the frequent 3D Vison posts. Just to remind you that unlike the 120Hz display and active glasses used by 3D Vision, Acer’s laptop relies on passive polarization of the display and passive circular polarized glasses worn by user. As for the software part, the 3D-capable laptop is relying on DDD’s TriDef Ignition software that offers video card independent stereoscopic 3D support – works both on ATI and Nvidia hardware.

- If you want to read my first impressions from the Acer Aspire 3D laptop…

Related posts you might be interested in:

• Using Acer Aspire 3D Laptop with iZ3D Driver Instead of TriDef Ignition (0)
• Optimizing your Aspire 3D Laptop for Best Performance in S3D Mode (10)
• LG R590 3D Notebook With Passive Polarization 3D Technology (1)
• First Impressions from Acer Aspire 3D (AS-5738DG-664G50Mn) (9)
• Acer Updates it’s 3D-capable Laptops with the New Aspire 5740D 3D (15)