MTBS-TV: ASUS Talks S-3D Gaming at CES 2010!

[Neil]

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1lImS8aKxs[/youtube-hd]

Meet Gary Key, Technical Marketing Manager at ASUS. In this interview, Gary gives a personal demo of their new 27" 3D Ready monitor, and follows up with their new 3D notebook computer. Very exciting stuff!

Correction: There are typos in the model numbers for the 3D monitor and 3D notebook. PG276H is the correct model number for the 27" monitor, and G51J is the correct model number for the 3D notebook. Sorry for the inconvenience! Special thanks to Anton Belev for pointing the error out.

Regards,
Neil

[cybereality]

Wow! 27" and 1080P. Finally something worth upgrading to. And $600 sounds reasonable. I hope this isn't another vaporware product.

[DmitryKo]

So, here is the updated full list of 120 Hz TN+film monitors to be available in the near future:

• 27" Asus PG276H, 1920x1080, availability June 2010, MSRP US $550 to $600. Check.
• 23.6" ViewSonic V3D241wm, 1920x1080, LED backlight, availability Q2 2010
• 23.6" LG W2363D, 1920x1080, availability Q2-Q3 2010
• 23.6" Acer GD245HQ/GD235HZ, 1920x1080, MSRP US $500 / $400
• 23" Alienware AW2310 Optx, 1920x1080, $500
• 23.6" Asus VG242H, 1920x1080; availability Q4 2009, apparently delayed or cancelled
• 23" Asus VG236H, 1920x1080
• 22" Samsung 2233RZ, 1680x1050
• 22" Viewsonic 2265wm/2268wm, 1680x1050

BTW, a resolution of 2560x1400 becomes a standard one for 27" panels... Personally I would gladly pay $1000 for 2560 x 1600 or 2560 x 1440 @120 Hz monitor if DisplayPort were included, that would be an investment in a display that would last for another 10 years. Unfortunately, this display mode requires DisplayPort 1.2 and it means 2012 is the earliest for such monitors to appear...

[BlackShark]

In the interview, he says that the monitor has hdmi/DVI-D/VGA inputs but that they were showing hdmi.
This little phrase rises lots of questions.

Neil can you confirm this ? Is it right or did he slipped and it was DVI Dual link ? (DVI dual link is not the same as DVI-D)
Can this monitor use HDMI to display 1920x1080p @120Hz ? or is it just "compatible" at lower resolutions ?
Is it hdmi 1.4 ? or the standard 1.3 ?
Does it use standard nvidia 3D vision frame alternate output ?
Or is it hdmi framepacking ? standard mandatory hdmi1.4 framepacking transmitted@24HZ but displayed 2x60Hz or is it optionnal hdmi1.4 framepacking transmitted@60HZ ?

[DmitryKo]

they were showing hdmi. This little phrase rises lots of questions

The exact wording was "we advise HDMI" - I'd suggest this is a mistake and 120 Hz operation is only possible over dual link DVI-D connector, like they say on the product card (see the last photo in the gallery on http://www.gamingnexus.com/FullNews/CES ... 15819.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - it says there is YPbPr input BTW).

This is not a TV display certified for HDMI 3D logo, this is a 120 Hz computer monitor display intended for Nvidia 3D Vision glasses, so it doesn' have to support all these HDMI 3D formats. The monitor probably advertises itself as standard 1080p60 device on the HDMI port, but that should be about it - I don't think they bothered with supporting 120 Hz over HDMI.

If Samsung 2233RZ is any indication, 3D Vision support is featured through the 3 video modes defined in the Detailed Timings section - 1920x1080 at 100, 110 and 120 Hz, most likely reduced blanking modes with total pixel resolution of 2080x1125 pixels or something like that. Any of these should take no more than 6.6 Gbps of bandwidth - in theory HDMI 1.3 allows that, but 1.3-compliant ports are quite rare on computer monitors.

[DmitryKo]

Update: ASUS quietly showed the VG236H at CEBIT, apparently a replacement for the cancelled VG242H. Not much details are known except 23" panel, 1080p resolution and 3D Vision certification.