The guy over at veda is up to review #4 now.
He still writes like he's strapped to a Red Bull Intravenous line, with a stick of dynamite in his mouth, thats set to blow-up, if he types less than 80mph. Or is that words per second...LOL

From reading it, it does sound like the ST1080 has better 3-D pop-out effect than the Sony HMZ-T1.

Want to see what cybereality thinks of the ST1080 with the Fuji W3.

Ok, totally confused right now. In his #4 Review of the ST1080 the Veda-guy goes into detail concerning console gaming and 3D console gaming in particular. Despite of the excellent 3D he states that the ST1080 should NOT be your choice if you are a Console-3D-Gamer because the screen will be minimized to 60" instead of the full 100" due to the 720p-limitation of the Consoles which causes the ST1080 to display only a smaller picture.

As far as I remember he mentions this 720p --> smaller screen problem only for Console-3D-gaming and not for PC-3D-gaming. That is the point that confuses me. Afaik using Nvidia 3D Vision you are bound to 3DTV Play to enable your ST1080 - PC connection. But 3DTV Play is also limited to 720p @ 60Hz in 3D mode. Shouldn't the problems with the small screen the Veda-guy mentions only for Console-3D-gaming exactly be the same for the PC - ST1080-3D-Connection?

How is it possible that he didn't mention the small screen when wrote about PC 3D gaming in conjunction with the ST1080?

Because that is a driver limitation, not a limitation of the ST1080 or even graphics card. I am not sure if nvidia's driver can be set to the proper modes, but AFAICT DDD Tridef should be able to pull off at least 1920x1080 side by side. Could people with experience with the different drivers tell us which modes they support? Also, SMD did already announce the upscaling for a future firmware update.

Can someone confirm that 1080p 3D@24Hz is bearable for gaming?
You might know Bloody's 3D-Vision-Blog and he tested several games in 1080p@24Hz (long time ago)with really positive results. In that case there would be no "small Screen"-problem with the ST1080 and you could even game @1080p 3D since 3DTV Play also supports 1080p@24Hz.

Dunno about 1080p 3d 24Hz, if its anything like Frames Per second though; used to play a lot of flight simulator on online servers, formation flying and all that jazz. We'd actually limited the game to 20 Frames Per Second to reduce lag issues, But then you cant pull any neck breaking moves of actions. Anything below 10 to 15 frames would be considered choppy.

On a note; I have just ordered my ST1080, I'm using a Nvidia GTS 250 Green at 1 GB, double GPU's, Dunno the exact Driver version but I'll post how it turns out playing a game on it (Battlefield 3 Enough of a game to test it?). Just gotta wait unit I get a confirmation email of my purchase and of it being shipped, plus about 7 to 10 days for shipping itself... I CANT WAIT!

I just need one solid review of the unit and my order will be placed. I was disapointed with my HMZ - comfort and 3d effect has not what I hoped (in terms of 3d effect it did not have the same POP that our passive TV has). The ST1080 appears to have more pop (based on one review) however I am still hesitating on pushing the button lol until I read a better review!!!

Only two so far.

Review list:
http://www.siliconmicrodisplay.com/community-forum.html#/20120523/list-of-st1080-reviews-1606670/

Yeah. What are the odds? Luckily it's not "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"

There are some additional comments posted from an individual who received their unit (see below) - seems like blacks are not as black as the HMZ (more grey) however the 3d is strong (however he can't compare to the HMZ). I am hoping that one of you receive your unit in the next week or so - once I receive a review from here I will sned over my order!

From the SMD "comments" section in the 5/15/2012 Blog:

Rearranged for better Q&A clarity:

George: 1. Colors (compared to HMZ or compared to anything you tried, TV, PJ etc).
Jeffrey: 1. Colors seems to be a bit worse than my LED/LCD laptop screen. But still more than good enough for watching movies/playing games etc.

George: 2. Blacks (compared to TV/PJ, whatever).
Jeffrey: 2. Not great, Black is dark gray. It also seems to be having some light bleeding issues on the sides.

George: 3. Sharpness of the edges (is text uniform across the screen, legible in the corners)
Jeffrey: 3. Text is very sharp, good readable. Only the corners are a bit out of focus. If you focus on them they are also sharp.

George: 4. Perceivable distance to the screen compared to HMZ-T1 (is this really 100" at 10' away, or smaller/larger?)
Jeffrey: 4. Don't have the HMZ-T1, So can't judge on that. But it looks like a big screen.

George: 5. 3D pop effect in movies in 1080p. (don't care about 720p until scaling is added)
Jeffrey: 5. Depends on the movie. For some movies it is hard to see, and some are just amazing with floating stuff towards you and everything. For PC games you can sometimes adjust the effect to make it stronger. I liked the 3d effect in Unreal tournament 2004 (in combination with iz3D) the most. Especially flying with the redeemer .

George: 6. Were you able to play a game in 3D in 1080p 30Hz top-bottom full frame mode? How was the image quality? How was framerate (tolerable for fps games like Call of Duty or not)?
Jeffrey: 6. Didn't got that mode to work yet (Have to play around with programs on my laptop, to get different modes to work). NVidia Vision 3D detects it but only for bluray playback. 3DTV Play from NVidia does not seems to work right now (all options disabled). I personally prefer 1080p 3D SBS 60Hz (half resolution). Its 60Hz and still looks very good.

George: 7. Is focus easily attainable? Do you just put it on your nose like regular glasses and everything's immediately in focus, or do you have to adjust it to a sweet spot... and if so how big is it?
Jeffrey: 7. At first you really have to get used to the HMD. You can adjust 2 slides for your pupil distance. After that it is just putting it on and have fun. Ofcourse there is a 'sweet spot', where you can see most of the screen perfect. But you can still see everything good when moving the HMD around. You can even shake your head while the screen stays good .

TheGameVeda is up to review #7....

http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/

Ok, I dont like Veda's writing style much, but I am giving him some serious credit for effort.

Yeah, its pretty painful to read but he is definitely putting together a very detailed review.

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy one of these soon. Perhaps this weekend.
The reviews are sufficiently good, and I am encouraged by those who reckon that I can probably use 1080P SBS @ 60hz. I have lots of SBS movies and the quality is fine - the loss of 1/2 the horizontal resolution is not so noticable as it seems to antialiases itself with the other eye. Assuming that SBS mode is going to be useable from 3D Vision, 3D Play, or TriDef...

Hopefully the scaling issue will be sorted soon, although it may well be better going with 1080P SBS than scaled 720 anyway.

Does anyone know, about how long it would take, to get an order, if it was placed today.

SMD is telling people that they will probably be done shipping the March 1st orders by next Tuesday 29th, and that those orders constitute a huge portion of their backlog. The rest of the pre-orders are supposed to be shipped by June 8th. I estimate that it would take 2 weeks after that to get the remaining orders out - so let's just round it off and say that it would take a month from today to get your order.

PS. I think I'm on track for the first week of June. gimme gimme gimme

I ordered on the 2nd. I'll post when I get shipping confirmation.

I asked SMD if a unit was ordered today when were they estimating when it would ship - I was surprised to hear that it would be mid June... looks like they are catching up to the pre-orders!

I am thinking more and more that I might as well place my order tomorrow.

FWIW, I still haven't received a shipping confirmation, so there are some 2012-03-01 orders left. My receipt from paypal is marked Mar 1, 2012 08:11:17 PST, while SMD confirmed the payment Sun, 4 Mar 2012 20:36:40 -0500. The next shipping batch is supposed to go out on Tuesday 2012-05-29.

One thing I have noticed with the veda pic's of the ST1080's screen and I believe the Palmer pic's from some time ago, is that even when the camera is held farther back, not tight in and really close to the screens, it seems you can still make out a picture. Seems with the Sony it would just show a blob of colored light if you tried to snap a pic from that far back. So you would think, it must also be very easy to focus on the ST1080's screens with your eyes.

Veda's reviews are getting slightly less crazy. Maybe he has calmed down a bit after his initial excitement. One thing that is encouraging is his confirmation of PalmerTech's impressions that the exit pupil is indeed large, and that motion does not easily move the image out of focus. Maybe the stability of focus is what is giving him the perception that the FOV is larger than the HMZ because we know that is not technically true. It is nice to think that the subjective difference in FOV between these two units is not significant, since that is one of the strongest selling points in favor of the HMZ. Or maybe he is just a fan-boy deluding himself. I am anxious to read a more rigorous comparative review of these two units.

hint hint cyberreality...

I seem to remember that the 'horizontal vs diagonal' fov was just being based on blog stats and nothing official.
Can someone find an official Sony spec list saying 51 degrees diagonal, or 45 degrees horizontal?

On their store, which you'd expect to be a more accurate source than blog statistics, or even the wiki page, since there are no citations. Its probably true, but I wont really believe it either way until I've seen it somewhere official or heard it from someone trusted. Its entirely possible the whole HMZ has bigger FOV thing, is based on nothing more than incorrect stats.

Not exactly first, here.. but I finally got my shipping confirmation (via paypal). I ordered March 1st, and DHL picked the package up 2012-05-29 16:23 in South Korea (I'm assuming local time). I believe this week should cover the last of the March 1st orders. I'll do some comparison with the HMZ-T1 when I get it, including timing with a cloned signal.

Great! Can't wait to here a more informed and technical review.

First day shipments are done! I just received confirmation a few mins ago, I ordered 3/2 at ~7PM.

That's great. They should blow through the rest of the month's orders very quickly now. I'm still hoping that my March 16th order gets processed in this Friday's batch. Also a more technical reviewer is finally putting up his impressions...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=22081888#post22081888

I'm totally waiting for a line by line comparison type review of the two units. I'm leaning towards the ST1080 but I don't want to buy the wrong one!

Some criticisms of the device. Each person experiences different amounts of blurring along the corners and/or the edges. Also some light "bleeding"/reflections reported on the sides of the image. This affects the clarity of the unit when used as a desktop replacement, but is probably a minor issue during gaming.

http://www.siliconmicrodisplay.com/community-forum.html#/20120601/quick-review-1644434/

Some more reviews are starting to roll in and they are making my decision harder - seems like the unit is also have the blury issues I experienced with my HMZ (which I improved with the welding helmet mod however still had to consistantly adjust to get the right sweet spot). I am hoping for a direct HMZ comparison review and I will go from there... I really do miss my HMZ...

The impression I get is that the "sweet spot" problem is vastly improved over the HMZ. Different people have varying experiences but only one of the guys mentions that he notices blurriness in game HUDS - and most of the reviewers praise the unit's ability to maintain focus during motion. I think the problems are mostly noticeable when using the unit on the desktop - one review lamenting the fact that he could not use it for writing code. That's disappointing but not a deal-breaker for lots of people that want to use the device for gaming.

I got my unit, and have started putting up a few notes: http://yann.vernier.se/2012/06/01/silic ... pressions/
Sorry it's not much yet.

I am getting worried - the results are coming in now - there is a pic posted on the AVS forum which seems to display an incrediable amount of light hazing. Also Yann below seems to have received a defective unit. I went through the order process today however ultimately decided (once again...) to wait for some additional reviews. I am really hoping the users on here start to receive their units and provide feedback as your experiences will be more in line with what I want to get out of the unit.

SMD has been incredible in terms of customer service and answering any and all questions - I am just really hoping that the unit is what we are expecting (or hoping for)!

Thanks all!!

It sounds to me like it has a bigger FOV then the eye can take in, and I think that would be a good thing. It just would not be as good for desktop work but great for Games, Movies & VR.

Well, well

I read some reviews or a least some early feedbacks and impressions.

I was like everyone else disappointed that no model was sent for review and that's the reason i didn't jump on the preorder and i am still not sure to buy it yet.

Though it appears it is still a huge improvement over sony HZ-TM1 prototype, from what i read there are problems with light bleeding which seems huge,some blurring issue that might depend more of the viewer than of the googles, the rainbow effect because the screen alternatively displays the 3 primary colors!!!and a fix to be coming at a later time to scale 720p or lower resolution.
Also i do wish they had put an additionnal dvi dual link connector to permit 3D @1080p Full HD@60Hz.

Finaly the stickers solution seem only so-so but better than none.

I do not know if all those issues apply just for the first bunch of googles and if a solution or a better conception could improve that?

There seem to be a lot of issues but maybe not that significant on dayly usage.

However, as unperfect as it is, it still seems the best hmd around for public.

Also the company seems very commited to deliver performance and support for this product.

Thanks for the info. I'll be looking forward to hearing your thoughts after a weekend of usage.

Oh man - this is getting really discouraging... there is another user that posted a review directly on the SMD sight... his review just plain out scares me... maybe I should not have sold my HMZ after all... Basically viewing angle issues, audio issues, poor blacks, and controller heats up so much that he can't hold it... here is his comments... this really sucks if all the units are like this...

Just got mine via DHL today. This is a quick review

1. Unit is lightweight and relatively compact
2. The fit of the glasses and the view angle is a bit off. I can only see the bottom half of the picture when I sit the glasses squarely on my nose. The only way I can see the full screen is if I lift the frontpiece upto my forehead but then the arms press so tightly against my temples, it hurts terribly. I tried the head supports(a strap which comes with the set) but it doesn't really work
3. Picture quality wise - Blacks are not good. Looks kinda grey and it could be only my set but there's like a glass in front of my eyes where I can spot reflections. Not a good viewing experience. Image wise I don't see any pixelation which is good but the corners look a bit blur.
4. 3D performace was pretty ok. No noticeable ghosting but because you don't get the total immersion feel (i.e The screen looks pretty far away), the effects don't really pop out at you.
5. The audio is not good either. I get a buzzing sound with the supplied earphones. Haven't tried my own set yet.
6. The controller box gets really hot and I worry for the electronics in there as it might get fried. I can't even hold it for long.


Don't know whether I got a defective set but the viewing angle is really bugging me to the extent that I might contemplate a return.

There seem to be a variety of opinions from different users about focus. Seems like some people have no problem just putting the glasses on with no fuss and seeing everything clearly. Others have to position and adjust the unit a bit and still have problems seeing the upper and/or lower edges. Maybe it's a quality control issue? Maybe it's just differences in the shape of people's heads? I will be curious to hear from Palmer, because he is the only person I know that has sampled two units - the one at CES and his purchased unit. Getting some comparative analysis between those units will be helpful.

Those points are all pretty minor really. The audio is the biggest one, but you can just use your own headphones. I'm not going to worry about stuff like 'hot controller box' or 'view angle being a bit off'.
The view angle one might be head shape related and could probably be modified pretty easily. The reflections etc would be the most concerning to me.

The viewing angle thing can probably be solved by hanging the unit off the top of your head with the strap (I had to do this with some Vuzix HMDs).

Does this support SBS at all?

It does support side by side, but currently only in 1080.