Palmer, pierreye – thanks for the feedback on the battery pack, looks like a very flexible option.

It does sound like there are a few reasons this pre-order is a gamble:

Startup company with no existing products
No ability to try before purchasing
Limited first hand user reports
Somewhat questionable specifications (HDMI version, supported 3D input formats, battery)
Unknown warranty (or even if the company will exist in a year)
Relatively high cost

However - I’m almost certain that I’m going to get on the pre-order. I’ve been waiting for a portable, HD resolution HMD with an HDMI input for YEARS – and don’t think I’m going to wait any longer. A 720p OLED Zeiss with an actual release date might have made me hold off, but I don’t think there is anything else really on the horizon.

And I’m feeling pretty good about this from Palmer’s positive yet balanced review.

I hope they take AmEx. I’m guessing that they will not have a huge first production run, so as a worst case there should be a decent interest on the used market.

I'm very curious due to the HD resolution of the ST1080 but otherwise the Sony is all around a better HMD. HDMI 1.4a support, better FOV, OLED screens.
The only downside to the Sony is fit, but if you adjust the straps correctly some of that can be mitigated.

Also, no one here has talked about the color break up you're going to get with the ST1080. With fast motion and scanning of your eyes you'll see the color separation due to sequential color.
Probably not a major issue but you'll notice it. I've used and tested displays with 180fps sequential color and you can definitely see the color separation. Maybe at 240fps it will be slightly better.
Your peripheral vision can see upwards of 100Hz. 80fps per color may not be fast enough.

thanks for the heads-up on the sequential color - I really didnt realize that until now. one of the big benefits of lcos front projectors is the three chip design, but guess their really is not room (or budget) for three chips in the hmd.

so would a 240 hz sequential color rate be equivalent to a 4x color wheel speed on a dlp projecjor? I'm not that sensitive to dlp rainbows, but this is definitely something to think about.

A crucial question is how quickly this company plans to iterate to the next version. I would hate to be an early adopter only to find out that in 9 months I could purchase a much improved version of this device (HDMI 1.4, SBS mode, fully opaque, integrated head tracker, etc.) Palmer, did you get any impressions when you talked to those guys that they were on a fast-track to newer versions?

Also I'm a bit curious about Sony's next move. The Sony FOV would be great to have, but only a complete physical redesign of the product would lure me to it instead. I'm going to gamble a guess that their next version is only going to slightly improve on the original product, so the Sony is not appealing to me personally.

and finally...
Palmer - you've been teasing us that there may be PRx kits available for purchase at some point in the future. Want to give a rough estimate as to if and when this might happen? That could alter my buying behavior as well. I'm a patient guy. I could wait a year if I knew I was waiting for something really good.

No-one who has tried the ST1080 has mentioned anything about the color separation, which makes me think its probably a non issue.

From what I can see, its only the high FOV that the Sony does better... What are the advantages of HDMI 1.4a? I've seen a few references say that the brightness of the ST1080 is better than the Sony...

What's color separation? And why does the HMZ not have a problem with it? Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be a problem with the ST1080 either, since no one's mentioned it.

Mellot is right to mention color breakup. For reference, LCOS based HMDs like this are basically using a monochrome panel and a 3 color light source (red, green, and blue). It flashes those lights in sync with the LCOS panel, and you perceive color as a result. In contrast, OLED and LCD based HMDs use a continuous light source with individual subpixels for each color.

I did notice it in the ST1080, but only because I was looking for it. It was only visible in the most extreme circumstances (Very rapidly swinging my head, or swinging my eyes across the entirety of their rotational capability), less pronounced than most DLP projectors I have seen, and definitely better than the other LCOS based HMDs I have (Cy-Visor and Eyetop Centra). Maybe I should have mentioned it in my initial review, but it is quite a topic to delve into, and might scare away people who think the problem is worse than it is.

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I don't think they are on a fast track. They seem to be doing a great job of moving forward, like with their 4k prototype, but it would not make any sense for them to compress their release cycle so tightly, not when they already have the highest resolution on the market! As far as HMD kits, ask in one of the PR threads and I will give a detailed answer, don't want to derail this thread.

Did they say anything about pricing and a release date for the 4K HMD? I hope they release it within three years.

They have no plans to release it, currently. They did mention that the yield of usable 4k panels is low, which is going to make it expensive at the moment. If I were them, I would not even think about releasing it until a competitor releases something 1080p or higher.

It's amazing that they're even developing 8K.

So the pre-order page is live! Looks like they are also shipping to a bunch of countries including Canada but interestingly the shipping cost is $60 something when shipped to Vancouver, BC but $30 something to Point Roberts, WA which is a 20 minute drive away haha.

It also appears like they want the full payment upfront for the special early bird pricing. I'm a little nervous about this. Anyone made the purchase yet?

ps. one thing I noticed about the earphones is that on the Buy page the picture of the ST1080 looks to have very standard ear buds but in the ST1080 image gallery the earphone seems to be an in-ear type. I wonder if this means the earphones are removable, especially with so many of the pictures not even showing earphones at all.

Sorry if this is a stupid question; if i plug a 3d blu ray player to the unit will it play 3D movies?

That usually means they are trying to raise a bit of money up front - probably to pay their manufacturing bills!

It's not very encouraging; if they don't get enough pre-orders they may wind up with a cash-flow problem.

Avo, it should play 3D Blu Ray discs, but it looks as if it won't handle any side-by-side or over-under material - which pretty much rules it out for any Broadcast 3D.

What is the refresh rate of light? I have a Mitsubishi HC3100 (One of the best 720p projectors ever produced) with 5x color wheel when watching a 24p movie @ 48hz I get 240hz color wheel speed.
Ive never notice any rainbow effect with that speed when watching movies in a normal fashion, and I use subtitles so i move my eyes down to the subtitles from time to time when they are mumbling too much, and I have never noticed any rainbow effect.. Only with high contrast (White subtitle on black background) and if I move my eyes / head rapidly (ie not normal usage) I see the rainbow effect, if the refresh rate of the ST1080 is anywhere near a 5x DLP projector you will have no problems with this (That is if you even can compare the two technologies, but I guess you can?)

Well their manufacturing price per unit should be less than $699 otherwise they'd be losing money on each unit. I don't see a cashflow issue with their current pre-order system.

I can buy the HMZ now, in my country, for NZ$1,199.95.

Or, I can buy this, for $860 or so.

The only thing holding me back is the FOV. I want every scrap of FOV... but I dont know if the extra fov is worth another $340, and a drop in resolution.

I want them for VR. Someone please convince me either way... ;-/

I’m back on the fence thanks to the full payment upfront, PayPal and the very scary terms and conditions page.

This language in the return section sounds concerning:

SMD is asking for a ‘deposit’ equal to the full price – so, this reads as we need to pay them an additional $125 to return a unit. I really want to give these guys the benefit of the doubt, but this sounds sketchy.

The $125 restocking fee is a bit high, but sounds reasonable. I was hoping to be able to use my credit card purchase protection as a secondary ‘insurance’ option, but having paypal in the middle makes that much more complicated.


Any manufacture is going to have some minimum order quantity. If they don’t generate/have enough cash to meet the cost of the MOQ, then it might not matter much if they are making a ‘profit’ on each individual order.


I wish SMD and everyone who preorders the best of luck. Really looking forward to seeing this actually shipping and some first hand user reports.

The HC3100 has a 6-segment color wheel - so, each color is displayed twice on each rotation. There is a picture of the color wheel in this review.

so, I think the effective color refresh rate is closer to 480Hz. And it might be actually higher, because a 48Hz refresh should have noticeable flicker. Imo, most projectors will internally refresh at at least 72Hz even with a 24 or 48Hz input signal.

True, didnt think about that each color is displayed twice

If you are willing to mod the HMZ-T1, I don't see why not getting one now!

Let's look at this analytically.

1. If you keep on dreaming about VR setup, then get one now!
2. 1080p vs 720p. If you use this for gaming, 720p 60hz 3D is the only mode supported, so no advantage for 1080p. For movie, I would go for 1080p panel.
3. FOV - HMZ > ST1080.
4. Comfort - ST1080 > HMZ. With the mod I'm not sure if HMZ is comparable to ST1080 but no problem for me to play for 3 hours straight.
5. Exit pupil - ST1080 > HMZ. You need to have patient to find you best position for HMZ.

Back to first question - can you wait? I know I can't which is why I pay for eBay price and no regret. Totally new experience playing FPS and Skyrim in VR.

pierreye- Once you start playing, does the HMZ stay in place or do you have to adjust it alot? Especially in skyrim where you would be moving your head around alot. Also, how hard would it be to mod it to go into a a different helmet, ski goggles, etc?

With the latest mod, once I got the right position, it seldom will move around. Comfort wise it's fine for long hour gaming, the only con is it will mess up your hair. As for ski mod, need to wait for Palmer feedback as I'm afraid if I go for ski mod, I can't get both eye pieces parallel.

The external headphone mod is more comfortable than build in headphone as it no longer press against my ears.

when talking about the FOV difference between HMZ and ST1080, does that mean the HMZ will have a much bigger simulated screen size?

Not a whole lot bigger...but yes FOV directly corresponds with simulated screen size.

Does anyone else think viewing a 720P image on a 1080P screen might look *worse* than viewing a 720P image on a 720P screen? I know from experience with LCD monitors the image quality looks like crap if its anything other than native resolution.

Also, the HMZ has a decent advantage when in comes to virtual screen size. Although it is "only" 6 degrees more of FOV, that actually makes the virtual screen area over 20% larger. Seems significant to me.

It depends on the scaler. If you have a good scaler, 720p looks quite good on 1080p panel but no 1:1 pixel mapping. I don't think a HMD will include good scaler due to cost and power consumption issue. Also, the lag might increase due to additional processing needed for scaling. Someone had done a testing on projector that 720p had higher latency compare to 1080p on a native 1080p projector.

so has anyone made a pre-order yet?

I haven't. The $125 return fee just for opening the box made me pause.

Good point re scaling. I suspected that would cause it to look blocky, however, it doesn't look too bad on my 1080 monitor when I drop it down to 720P, so maybe its not really going to be a problem...?

Maybe SSAA downsampling from very high resolution to 720p would help, some folks get great results with it.

There is a tool provided by german 3d Center forum wich works with any modern graphics card, well, you need enough FPS performance overhead to keep games playable though.

http://www.forum-3dcenter.org/vbulletin ... p?t=481802

1680x1050 native



5040x3150 downsampled back to 1680x1050



I've seen even better examples without shiftet colors, i'll try to find em if there is interest.

Scaling down is not what I was talking about, that can look good. I'm talking about up-scaling, especially if the hardware uses a cheap algorithm. On the other hand, it could use a better method but introduce lag. Hard to say without seeing it and comparing.

Couldn't you use scaling down to offset the scaling up though? Displaying the 1080p version scaled down to 720p which is then scaled up to 1080p. I agree with your concern when it comes to displaying a 720p image on an LCoS display which is native 1080p if there is bad hardware scaling, but downscaling may help with the overall image quality.

Also, is GPU hardware scaling an option when it comes to 3D? There are some options with GPU scaling which make up-scaling look a bit better for standard output.

Didn't Palmer say these things rocked? I trust him

You can't use GPU scaling as we need to output 720p60hz 3D. 1080p is only at 1080p24hz 3D which is too slow for gaming.

I have no doubt they are awesome - I have pre-ordered a pair.
Thanks for the info on GPU scaling, I wasn't sure on that front.
Do you think in 2D mode 1080p runs at 60Hz (or higher)?

I have no doubt it will run on 1080p60hz @ 2D but you are missing out half of the fun without 3D. 3D is just perfect for dual screen HMD. Not sure on ST1080 but HMZ-T1 does give some sort of 3D illusion even in 2D mode, like 2.5D.

This phenomenon was discovered over 100 years ago. It was called the Synopter.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... aches.html

Yes I'm enjoying this effect, even in all games I feel more in the game. This thing has made my games more fresh lol. I don't play for more than an hour at a time, even with comfort band it is a tad heavy. Maybe version 2.0

Sounds exactly like the same effect achieved by collimated/fresnel displays.

Didn't know there is the term for this effect. I should try to watch The Matrix using HMD and see if I get the same effect.