Zalman News

Post by **mastRmind** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:44 pm

Zalman is apparently going to release larger versions of their 3D monitor: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ ... ves-almost

ZALMAN IS NEVER without goodies to show off, and this Computex is no exception. This time, the new parts are extensions and improvements of the old lines.

The first two are extensions of the Trimon line we have told you about before. There are two new additions, a 24 and 32-inch model. The 32 was shown off at GDC, but the 24 is completely new. The 24 also has a sleek new bezel showing a lot more style than the originals. They both have HDMI ins so they can be used as a TV or in HTPC situations, both are 1080p rez.

The 24-inch Trimon is coming out in early July, the 32 about a month later. 3D quality on the monitor was still as solid as it looked on the prototypes, and the drivers are for cards other than Nvidia are coming, so there is hope. Expect to pay a little more than double the cost of a single monitor, around $1200 for the 24, $1900 for the 32 when they debut.

Notice the mention of drivers for cards other than Nvidia

And the price tag

Post by **cybereality** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:41 pm

Why do they *always* have to do this!?!? I swear, as soon as I decide to buy something they gotta go announce some new bigger-and-better model! I guess its alright since those are a bit outside my price range at the moment, I think the 22" will suffice. Although I did pay almost that much for my 32" Samsung 720P not even 2 years ago so I guess its not that outrageous for a 1080P 3D set.

What really interests me is this ATI driver that is mentioned. Could this be just the usual press bungle, or is there some truth there? If Zalman is, in fact, developing their own driver then this market could get very interesting. It seems like they have already invested a lot in the product line, and do have a branded version of the stereoscopic player, so its within the realm of possibility. Not that I run ATI, but it would show they are serious about supporting their product. And if ATI ever makes a competitive video card again I would like the option to purchase. Either way, this makes me feel a little more confident about buying a Trimon since it looks like Zalman is in this for the long haul.

Post by **DmitryKo** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:00 am

Wow, a 24" 3D monitor? I'm sold!

Actually, my first thought when I heard about the 22" Zalman was "Why only 1680x1050!!! Why not 1920x1200, or, even better, 30" 2560x1600??!" I wonder what is the actual physical resolution though - I'd imagine the 32" monitor uses a LCD-TV panel with 1366x768 pixels, and the 24" is a TN+F display panel with 1920x1200 pixels.

Anyway, I feel the $600 price premium for the 24" TriMon is quite justified.... even though most modern games would probably turn into a slideshow at 1920x1200 stereo

The performance of GPUs is steadily increasing with each new generation, and hopefully future GPUs will be able to accelerate 3D stereo rendering and process the two views simultaneously. I still use my Hitachi 19" CRT monitor that I bought 10 years ago, and I expect a new monitor to last at least 5-10 as well, so I do not want to settle for anything less than 1920x1200...

cybereality wrote:What really interests me is this ATI driver that is mentioned. Could this be just the usual press bungle, or is there some truth there? If Zalman is, in fact, developing their own driver then this market could get very interesting. It seems like they have already invested a lot in the product line, and do have a branded version of the stereoscopic player, so its within the realm of possibility.

I doubt Zalman would bother developing a full featured 3D driver on their own when they just entered an agreement with NVidia by which they are bound to support Zalman solutions exclusively... Zalman could just convince ATI to either make their own driver or license some 3rd party technology.

Post by **cybereality** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 1:35 pm

DmitryKo wrote:I doubt Zalman would bother developing a full featured 3D driver on their own when they just entered an agreement with NVidia by which they are bound to support Zalman solutions exclusively... Zalman could just convince ATI to either make their own driver or license some 3rd party technology.

I don't think the Nvidia deal was for Zalman exclusivity. Theres no way a huge company like Nvidia would get pressured into that situation from the likes of Zalman. I think this is where Nvidia has caught a lot of flak, and I don't think business works like that. From what I understand (just speculation here) Nvidia decided to charge for licensing of their driver. Zalman just happened to have the latest release of a 3d monitor and thus was the first company to sign a deal. This doesn't seem all that out of place when you consider that companies usually need to license other similar technologies, such as Dolby Digital sound, for example. Its unreasonable to expect Nvidia to provide this service for free. I think that as the market grows, more companies will either jump on the Nvidia bandwagon or develop their own drivers. In this way more money is being generated into the S-3D industry and it also forces hardware vendors to support their own product. In the past many companies have used the nvidia driver as a crutch as they think they don't have to support their own hardware.