Questions about HeadPlay unit

[Isenyne]

Hello--

I've got an old HeadPlay HMD that I've been messing around with and I want to get the most out of it, but there are certain features I can't seem to access and documentation is hard to come by since the company went bunko. Hopefully, someone here can answer a few questions for me.

1. Does the HeadPlay support 720p? I've read here and there that the HeadPlay will accept a 720p signal, but I haven't been able to send it one that it supports through VGA, and its PNP monitor profile doesn't reveal a 720p resolution.

2. What 3D input does the HeadPlay natively support through VGA? The HMD has an "automatic 3D" mode where it will presumably detect and decode 3D signals, but I don't know what to send it. Interlaced? SBS? What resolution? There's a "force 3D" mode that's page-flipped, but I also have a hazy memory of sending it interlaced output of some kind a few years back and being surprised when the "auto 3D" detected it.

Any additional info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[geekmaster]

Cross-posted here:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=18974

Which means that any discussion about this could get fragmented, besides violating forum etiquette.

You can find more discussions about the HeadPlay here:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/search.php? ... mit=Search

I will have to dig my HeadPlay HMD out and play with it one day RSN...

I used it mostly for 1600x600 SBS videos that I had transcoded for it. Now that I have spare IMUs kicking around, it may be worth attaching one to it for head tracking. I think I had to do a firmware update to add 720p support...

I remember getting 720p VGA working on it, but it was a bit finicky getting the timing just right, as I recall. And I had to order an adapter cable (cheap 99-cent chinese ebay cable, I think). Google finds more info:
http://old.rangevideo.com/index.php?mai ... cts_id=231
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1688857
http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/12/04/ ... ema-system
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.p ... 8&start=15
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=13065

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTpgM2LrFn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-TtFqasAkU

[Isenyne]

Nice, thanks for the info. I'll spend some time digging through this. Sorry for the crosspost, I pointed it back here.

Hmmm... Maybe the HeadPlay only supports component 720p through a VGA->component cable. I was hoping to send it a 1280x720 VGA signal from a PC, but it seems like that's a no-go.

For anyone curious, I've been messing around with modern stereoscopic gaming on the HeadPlay, and the page-flipped 3D still works perfectly well with a DVI-to-VGA adapter, an emulated USB device, and stereoscopic drivers and video card from a certain company. I'd really like to mess with other 3D modes through its inputs if they're supported, though. Still curious what exactly the "automatic 3D" mode is looking for.

[geekmaster]

Nice, thanks for the info. I'll spend some time digging through this. Sorry for the crosspost, I pointed it back here.

Hmmm... Maybe the HeadPlay only supports component 720p through a VGA->component cable. I was hoping to send it a 1280x720 VGA signal from a PC, but it seems like that's a no-go.

For anyone curious, I've been messing around with modern stereoscopic gaming on the HeadPlay, and the page-flipped 3D still works perfectly well with a DVI-to-VGA adapter, an emulated USB device, and stereoscopic drivers and video card from a certain company. I'd really like to mess with other 3D modes through its inputs if they're supported, though. Still curious what exactly the "automatic 3D" mode is looking for.

The VGA component cable is passive. It just feeds the component video signals into the VGA connector. The HeadPlay unit does the color conversion, as I recall. The firmware update was required to support that, so be sure you have the latest firmware update. As I said, I would need to dig out my HeadPlay HMD to figure this out again... The point was that you need to feed HD video into the VGA jack, and the cheap passive component adapter cable did that (assuming you are using firmware that supports it). You also needed to select it in the HeadPlay onscreen menus, as I recall.

[PalmerTech]

It does support SBS video played back from a USB stick or CF card, IIRC. Not through VGA though.

[geekmaster]

It does support SBS video played back from a USB stick or CF card, IIRC. Not through VGA though.

Thanks for the reminder. I got mine from Dell too. The filename determined whether it was SBS stereoscopic, as I recall, I was considering emulating a USB stick and feed an external streaming video source (pretending to be a file on a USB stick) that way. (Or was that from another project? I have not had my morning coffee yet.)... Depending on codec, that method could have serious latency issues due to frame lookahead during compression.

An alternative method might be to hack the firmware. But then the Rift kickstarter began and that was all shelved...

Time to make some coffee so I do not post silly stuff...