3DeeSlide & 3DeeCentral review
Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 10:06 pm
I just received my 3DeeSlide for free thanks to Spatial View limited time offer, so it's time for a review of both the 3DeeSlide device and the accompanying 3DeeCentral application. Be prepared for a long read...
At this time it's only compatible with the iPhone 3GS and the iPod touch 3rd generation, support for the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation will be announced at a later date as specified on Spatial View website. The 3DeeSlide normally costs $9.99 and the 3DeeCentral application is free to download on the App Store.
I tested the application and the device on an iPhone 3GS.
3DeeSlide
The package
The device was packed in a 5"x7" bubble envelope, it didn't suffer from travel and could easly fit in my mailbox.
The package included :
- a 3DeeSlide ;
- an envelope containing one 3DeeLens ;
- a user guide.
The user guide is very short (one little sheet of paper) and does only explain how to mount the device. Simple and to the point, but nothing more.
The 3DeeSlide is made of hard black plastic and looks like a protecting case, you'll first have to slide your iPhone or iPod touch into it. It features openings so you can still switch the volume on/off or change the level, you can also plug your device with the USB cable to charge it or connect it to your computer.
The 3DeeLens is a small flexible lenticular sheet that you'll slide into the 3DeeSlide once it is attached to your device, with the bumpy side facing up.
First impressions
Overall the 3DeeSlide and 3DeeLens look a bit cheap but at $9.99 it's no surprise, and since I got them for free I would be hard-pressed to complain.
The touch screen is still very responsive when the 3DeeLens is installed which is a very good point. It seems that the problem with the previous version of the device (3DeeShell) which pushed Gizmondo to give it a bad review is no longer relevant with this update.
Although I've read that it should work in both horizontal and vertical orientations, I could only test it in the horizontal one. I didn't find any content available for the vertical mode and the screen doesn't rotate in the 3DeeCentral app when you rotate the phone. Perhaps a new version of the 3DeeCentral application will address this in the future.
Adjusting the screen
The lenticular screen is quite easy to position but the procedure is quite cheap, when you move it horizontally it has a tendancy to also move vertically. It's also a bit difficult to obtain a precise positioning since it's moving jerkily, so it takes some time to obtain the best possible alignment.
Forget about trying to obtain a perfect alignement though, I think the best solution is to have one that's good enough and then simply move the phone relative to the eyes to obtain the best effect.
You also need to have the sheet perfectly affixed on the surface of the screen or you'll see some ghosting or fuzziness in zones where the space between the sheet and the glass is bigger.
Cleaning
It's easy to add finger traces on the sheet so you can be tempted to use some cloth dampened with water to remove them. But don't make this mistake or else you won't be able to dry the sheet easily afterward. It will also be harder to place the 3DeeLens on the screen because of the adherence caused by humidity. And if you still manage to put it on the screen you'll see traces of humidty where there is perfect contact, although it's a lot less visible when viewing 3D content than with the screen switched off.
Photo taken after many attempts at drying the sheet and replacing it on the screen.
3DeeCentral
The purpose of the application is to view images and videos which can be downloaded in the store section, free and paid content is available. I only tested free content for now since there is already a decent selection available (2 sets of images and 14 videos).
I had previously installed 3DeeCentral and already downloaded some free images and videos, but the day I received the 3DeeSlide I discovered that I had lost all my downloads when launching the app again (I also had to retype my password). Fortunately they were all available in the download list so it was just a matter of waiting for them to be downloaded automatically, but it's still annoying to have to wait 10 minutes before being able to use a device you just received. Quite a bad start indeed.
The interface
The interface is quite simple and easy to use but it's only in 2D so the texts are almost unreadable when the 3DeeSlide is mounted. Removing the device to search content and download it to only put it again for viewing content is really a tedious task and a complete waste of time. That's quite a gross overlooking on Spatial View side and I can't understand why they didn't also provide a 3D interface.
The commands are quite slow and unresponsive in the main page of the store, when you tap on a button you often have to wait some seconds before anything happens. Sometimes you can see a login screen during these periods, so I guess the application may have to contact a server to authenticate the user for each action. It renders the experience quite frustrating and I really see no reason why they decided to do this.
The application is also a bit buggy. It crashed on me several times while simply launching the app or tapping on a button, but it didn't happen very often. It also froze one time while playing a video but didn't happen again after prolonged use.
Several times I've found non-free content in the free section of the store, that's pretty dangerous so you'd better have a second look to the price displayed before starting a download. I really hope that it hasn't been done on purpose by Spatial View to sell more content, that would be quite a mean thing to do.
Overall the application feels like it's in a beta stage, it should have been tested more thoroughly before release.
Calibration image
Each time you want to view content, a calibration image is first presented on the screen to help you adjust the viewing angle, which is quite a nice idea. You can then move the device to minimize ghosting and fuziness before you start playing content, but a very small movement can ruin the effect in some parts of the image or all of it.
I thought autostereoscopic screens were a lot less sensible to the viewing position and I've often heard that you had some margin for the "sweet spot". Unfortunately I've verified that it's not the case, maybe it's due to the small size of the screen. Note that looking at real content is more forgiving though, a not so precise alignement seem to be less disturbing than when you look at the calibration image.
I could never obtain a crisp view of the overlay interface (cross and play button) while looking at the calibration image. Although it seems it has been adapted for 3D, there still must be some misalignement in it. One thing I don't understand is why they felt the need to put an accompanying text in 2D, it's really not informative at all and it's quite difficult to read this way.
Viewing content
Each time you want to view an image or a video, the navigation interface is displayed and stays on the screen for two seconds. It's not a very long delay but it's still quite annoying because it disturbs the depth perception of the stereoscopic content that is presented.
When you are viewing an image you can tap on the screen to hide the navigation interface, tapping on it again will make it reappear. You can view images in diaporama mode by tapping on the play button, the interface will then disappear and the images will be displayed in intervals of approx. 3 seconds.
You can also tap on the left or right arrow to go to the previous/next image, but in this case the interface is displayed on top of the content and distracts the depth perception. You can also slide your finger left or right to navigate between the images to not show the interface although it isn't mentionned in the user manual nor the interface.
Free images
The selection of free images is average, the Slam Comics serie is pointless (2D drawings converted to 3D, giving a sort of cardboard effect) but in the 3D Images-Sample selection there were some good shots. Some of them didn't have much visible depth and one of them was even inversed, so you'll need to move the device to view the serie correctly. Some images also exhibited some window violations which are particulary disturbing on such a small screen. That's really a bad way to demonstrate this device.
The resolution does suffer a little bit but not as much as I expected considering the technology that's been used. On images taken quite close (flower, bull) it's not very noticeable, but it's a little bit worse on images taken from a distance (garden, field, city). I could also barely see the diagonal pattern when the alignement was correct, which is really a good point.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjrSIOKxb3w[/youtube]
Overall these images can give a good idea of the capabilities of the device, but the content should have been chosen and edited more carefully. In this state, I'm not sure it will really convince people of buying new content.
Free videos
There is quite a good amount of free content to view with the 14 videos available (only 13 in fact, one of them is proposed in both English and French versions). With some videos I found very disturbing the fact that the first few seconds only showed a black screen, it was easy to loose the perfect spot during this time before the real content was displayed.
In several videos the frequent changes in depth and camera angles between shots were quite unpleasant (particulary visible in Human Flight 3D Trailer), there were also quite a lot of frame violations and sometimes it looked like the whole image had been pushed a little bit out of the screen to give an overall pop-out effect. That was not the wisest choice to make I'd say.
I particulary liked The Ultimate Wave Tahiti trailer, the aerial scenes in Human Flight 3D Trailer and live action scenes with CGI elements in the trailer of Legends of Flight. I couldn't read the ANA pilot scene video, it stopped each time with a message saying it could not decrypt the file. There was no option to download it again or to delete it, so I guess I won't be able to view it as long as the bug is not corrected in the 3DeeCentral application. Also the Shine Music Video was inverted.
I'd say the best content was the one provided by professionals, in comparison the other videos were somewhat lacking in several departements (depth budget, interest, vertical parallax). There were some pop-out moments that looked good, but the overall depth was a lot less impressive than with my shutter glasses and my 120Hz display.
I'd like to compare this autostereoscopic screen to my shutter glasses installation using my collection of 3D trailers, but I'd need them to be available in the 3DeeCentral store or I should find a way to encode them for this device.
Health considerations
Viewing content when you are not in the perfect spot is a little bit disturbing and fatiguing, no matter what you try I'm afraid it's going to be quite difficult to avoid that.
After the first use my eyes felt a little bit tired, for several minutes I also had a weird feeling while looking at objects in my environment, probably related to focusing I'd say. Maybe it was because I didn't sleep much the previous night, so you should maybe not try using the device if you feel a little bit tired.
The trouble was less evident after several uses though, I guess my eyes or my brain got used to it after some time. I guess the fact that a correct alignement is very hard to obtain is certainly the main factor, being presented not perfect 3D must surely be the cause of such a fatigue.
Conclusion
Overall I found the experience quite enjoyable even if I've mixed feelings about it. I was really disappointed by the very limited viewing angles which I really didn't expect with this kind of technology, but I was favorably surprised by the not so apparent loss of resolution (depending on the content) and the diagonal pattern that is barely visible. The ghosting seemed to be quite low too - really better than what I did expect - but I'd need to create a ghosting test (based on the DDD one for example) before being able to confirm this.
Still it's leagues behind stereoscopic technologies like shutter glasses, and I don't see this type of glass-free technology replacing the ones with glasses anytime soon considering all the pitfalls this solution has. Once the problems with the application and the content are resolved, I guess the experience will be a little bit better, but problems inherent to this technology will nonetheless still be present.
I'd also like to test the GRilli3D or the Nintendo 3DS which use parallax barriers to compare the different glass-free options, but for now I can't really say that autostereoscopic technologies are ready for prime time. I will continue to test the device though and I will also probably try to adapt/create some content or write some interactive 3D applications that make use of it.
Anyway, since this was a free ride I can hardly complain, and even at $9.99 I'd say it's a nice technology to experiment.
At this time it's only compatible with the iPhone 3GS and the iPod touch 3rd generation, support for the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation will be announced at a later date as specified on Spatial View website. The 3DeeSlide normally costs $9.99 and the 3DeeCentral application is free to download on the App Store.
I tested the application and the device on an iPhone 3GS.
3DeeSlide
The package
The device was packed in a 5"x7" bubble envelope, it didn't suffer from travel and could easly fit in my mailbox.
The package included :
- a 3DeeSlide ;
- an envelope containing one 3DeeLens ;
- a user guide.
The user guide is very short (one little sheet of paper) and does only explain how to mount the device. Simple and to the point, but nothing more.
The 3DeeSlide is made of hard black plastic and looks like a protecting case, you'll first have to slide your iPhone or iPod touch into it. It features openings so you can still switch the volume on/off or change the level, you can also plug your device with the USB cable to charge it or connect it to your computer.
The 3DeeLens is a small flexible lenticular sheet that you'll slide into the 3DeeSlide once it is attached to your device, with the bumpy side facing up.
First impressions
Overall the 3DeeSlide and 3DeeLens look a bit cheap but at $9.99 it's no surprise, and since I got them for free I would be hard-pressed to complain.
The touch screen is still very responsive when the 3DeeLens is installed which is a very good point. It seems that the problem with the previous version of the device (3DeeShell) which pushed Gizmondo to give it a bad review is no longer relevant with this update.
Although I've read that it should work in both horizontal and vertical orientations, I could only test it in the horizontal one. I didn't find any content available for the vertical mode and the screen doesn't rotate in the 3DeeCentral app when you rotate the phone. Perhaps a new version of the 3DeeCentral application will address this in the future.
Adjusting the screen
The lenticular screen is quite easy to position but the procedure is quite cheap, when you move it horizontally it has a tendancy to also move vertically. It's also a bit difficult to obtain a precise positioning since it's moving jerkily, so it takes some time to obtain the best possible alignment.
Forget about trying to obtain a perfect alignement though, I think the best solution is to have one that's good enough and then simply move the phone relative to the eyes to obtain the best effect.
You also need to have the sheet perfectly affixed on the surface of the screen or you'll see some ghosting or fuzziness in zones where the space between the sheet and the glass is bigger.
Cleaning
It's easy to add finger traces on the sheet so you can be tempted to use some cloth dampened with water to remove them. But don't make this mistake or else you won't be able to dry the sheet easily afterward. It will also be harder to place the 3DeeLens on the screen because of the adherence caused by humidity. And if you still manage to put it on the screen you'll see traces of humidty where there is perfect contact, although it's a lot less visible when viewing 3D content than with the screen switched off.
Photo taken after many attempts at drying the sheet and replacing it on the screen.
3DeeCentral
The purpose of the application is to view images and videos which can be downloaded in the store section, free and paid content is available. I only tested free content for now since there is already a decent selection available (2 sets of images and 14 videos).
I had previously installed 3DeeCentral and already downloaded some free images and videos, but the day I received the 3DeeSlide I discovered that I had lost all my downloads when launching the app again (I also had to retype my password). Fortunately they were all available in the download list so it was just a matter of waiting for them to be downloaded automatically, but it's still annoying to have to wait 10 minutes before being able to use a device you just received. Quite a bad start indeed.
The interface
The interface is quite simple and easy to use but it's only in 2D so the texts are almost unreadable when the 3DeeSlide is mounted. Removing the device to search content and download it to only put it again for viewing content is really a tedious task and a complete waste of time. That's quite a gross overlooking on Spatial View side and I can't understand why they didn't also provide a 3D interface.
The commands are quite slow and unresponsive in the main page of the store, when you tap on a button you often have to wait some seconds before anything happens. Sometimes you can see a login screen during these periods, so I guess the application may have to contact a server to authenticate the user for each action. It renders the experience quite frustrating and I really see no reason why they decided to do this.
The application is also a bit buggy. It crashed on me several times while simply launching the app or tapping on a button, but it didn't happen very often. It also froze one time while playing a video but didn't happen again after prolonged use.
Several times I've found non-free content in the free section of the store, that's pretty dangerous so you'd better have a second look to the price displayed before starting a download. I really hope that it hasn't been done on purpose by Spatial View to sell more content, that would be quite a mean thing to do.
Overall the application feels like it's in a beta stage, it should have been tested more thoroughly before release.
Calibration image
Each time you want to view content, a calibration image is first presented on the screen to help you adjust the viewing angle, which is quite a nice idea. You can then move the device to minimize ghosting and fuziness before you start playing content, but a very small movement can ruin the effect in some parts of the image or all of it.
I thought autostereoscopic screens were a lot less sensible to the viewing position and I've often heard that you had some margin for the "sweet spot". Unfortunately I've verified that it's not the case, maybe it's due to the small size of the screen. Note that looking at real content is more forgiving though, a not so precise alignement seem to be less disturbing than when you look at the calibration image.
I could never obtain a crisp view of the overlay interface (cross and play button) while looking at the calibration image. Although it seems it has been adapted for 3D, there still must be some misalignement in it. One thing I don't understand is why they felt the need to put an accompanying text in 2D, it's really not informative at all and it's quite difficult to read this way.
Viewing content
Each time you want to view an image or a video, the navigation interface is displayed and stays on the screen for two seconds. It's not a very long delay but it's still quite annoying because it disturbs the depth perception of the stereoscopic content that is presented.
When you are viewing an image you can tap on the screen to hide the navigation interface, tapping on it again will make it reappear. You can view images in diaporama mode by tapping on the play button, the interface will then disappear and the images will be displayed in intervals of approx. 3 seconds.
You can also tap on the left or right arrow to go to the previous/next image, but in this case the interface is displayed on top of the content and distracts the depth perception. You can also slide your finger left or right to navigate between the images to not show the interface although it isn't mentionned in the user manual nor the interface.
Free images
The selection of free images is average, the Slam Comics serie is pointless (2D drawings converted to 3D, giving a sort of cardboard effect) but in the 3D Images-Sample selection there were some good shots. Some of them didn't have much visible depth and one of them was even inversed, so you'll need to move the device to view the serie correctly. Some images also exhibited some window violations which are particulary disturbing on such a small screen. That's really a bad way to demonstrate this device.
The resolution does suffer a little bit but not as much as I expected considering the technology that's been used. On images taken quite close (flower, bull) it's not very noticeable, but it's a little bit worse on images taken from a distance (garden, field, city). I could also barely see the diagonal pattern when the alignement was correct, which is really a good point.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjrSIOKxb3w[/youtube]
Overall these images can give a good idea of the capabilities of the device, but the content should have been chosen and edited more carefully. In this state, I'm not sure it will really convince people of buying new content.
Free videos
There is quite a good amount of free content to view with the 14 videos available (only 13 in fact, one of them is proposed in both English and French versions). With some videos I found very disturbing the fact that the first few seconds only showed a black screen, it was easy to loose the perfect spot during this time before the real content was displayed.
In several videos the frequent changes in depth and camera angles between shots were quite unpleasant (particulary visible in Human Flight 3D Trailer), there were also quite a lot of frame violations and sometimes it looked like the whole image had been pushed a little bit out of the screen to give an overall pop-out effect. That was not the wisest choice to make I'd say.
I particulary liked The Ultimate Wave Tahiti trailer, the aerial scenes in Human Flight 3D Trailer and live action scenes with CGI elements in the trailer of Legends of Flight. I couldn't read the ANA pilot scene video, it stopped each time with a message saying it could not decrypt the file. There was no option to download it again or to delete it, so I guess I won't be able to view it as long as the bug is not corrected in the 3DeeCentral application. Also the Shine Music Video was inverted.
I'd say the best content was the one provided by professionals, in comparison the other videos were somewhat lacking in several departements (depth budget, interest, vertical parallax). There were some pop-out moments that looked good, but the overall depth was a lot less impressive than with my shutter glasses and my 120Hz display.
I'd like to compare this autostereoscopic screen to my shutter glasses installation using my collection of 3D trailers, but I'd need them to be available in the 3DeeCentral store or I should find a way to encode them for this device.
Health considerations
Viewing content when you are not in the perfect spot is a little bit disturbing and fatiguing, no matter what you try I'm afraid it's going to be quite difficult to avoid that.
After the first use my eyes felt a little bit tired, for several minutes I also had a weird feeling while looking at objects in my environment, probably related to focusing I'd say. Maybe it was because I didn't sleep much the previous night, so you should maybe not try using the device if you feel a little bit tired.
The trouble was less evident after several uses though, I guess my eyes or my brain got used to it after some time. I guess the fact that a correct alignement is very hard to obtain is certainly the main factor, being presented not perfect 3D must surely be the cause of such a fatigue.
Conclusion
Overall I found the experience quite enjoyable even if I've mixed feelings about it. I was really disappointed by the very limited viewing angles which I really didn't expect with this kind of technology, but I was favorably surprised by the not so apparent loss of resolution (depending on the content) and the diagonal pattern that is barely visible. The ghosting seemed to be quite low too - really better than what I did expect - but I'd need to create a ghosting test (based on the DDD one for example) before being able to confirm this.
Still it's leagues behind stereoscopic technologies like shutter glasses, and I don't see this type of glass-free technology replacing the ones with glasses anytime soon considering all the pitfalls this solution has. Once the problems with the application and the content are resolved, I guess the experience will be a little bit better, but problems inherent to this technology will nonetheless still be present.
I'd also like to test the GRilli3D or the Nintendo 3DS which use parallax barriers to compare the different glass-free options, but for now I can't really say that autostereoscopic technologies are ready for prime time. I will continue to test the device though and I will also probably try to adapt/create some content or write some interactive 3D applications that make use of it.
Anyway, since this was a free ride I can hardly complain, and even at $9.99 I'd say it's a nice technology to experiment.