Folks,
I am seriously contemplating buying one of these, but after Emagin cranked the price it left the range of something I could easily purchase just to "try it out".
I was wondering if any of the rest of you actually own the unit and could provide some feedback on how you like it.
Some questions I have:
1) Does it strain the eyes or make you nauseous? How long before these effects occur, and how severe are these effects?
2) Are the images clear? How does text look?
3) Are there color or graphical anomalies?
4) How well does the head tracking work?
5) Is the resolution too low? 800x600 does not seem sufficient to me.
6) Is there ghosting in the images? What is performance like?
7) Is the unit comfortable? Does it begin to get heavy after a while?
Thanks in advance for any replies!
Request for review of Emagin Z800
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Denaris
- Two Eyed Hopeful
- Posts: 54
- Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:08 pm
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genetic
- Cross Eyed!
- Posts: 119
- Joined: Sun May 27, 2007 11:59 pm
1)a little at first but I don’t notice anymore. I feel a bit dizzy sometimes after several hours of use.
2) and 3) the image is very clear if you position it right. But that defiantly takes time. I can get a very clear image but the chosen position often leaves red marks on my nose. Also, get a hat or headband to wear under the visor or you will get a red mark on your forehead.
The image is often debated and all I can say is it may be a bit of a gamble when you buy. Mine looks great after A LOT of color and brightness tweaking. (I think every unit will be different on the tweaks it needs)
the real problem is the contrast.
Dead pixels are a bit common but not a big issue as you have two LCDs and so unless the dead pixel is in the same place on both it is really hard to identify one in normal use. (you will see them on a black or white screen)
4) the headtracking works fine, if not great……..but that’s not good enough sometimes.
If you go into an game that your computer can run flawlessly than your headtracking will run flawlessly.
If you run a game that is playable on your computer than it should work fine.
Then there are the jerk games that just hate the headtracking in stereoscopic regardless of the performance. That would primarily be DOOM3 and probably any current Id game.
Its probably a driver issue and I have no answer for that. (but the headtracking in DOOM3 works perfect with 3D off.)
So overall I would say that the headtracking is good to very good. (but remember that you will take a performance hit of about 5% to 20% depending on the game when stereoscopic is ON….I just made up those numbers.)
5) The 800x600 resolution is so not a problem AT ALL (unless you are a flight simulator guy/girl) --it is sad really but judging by the complaints at the time, it was the resolution that put most buyers off and may have caused the failure of the visor. If only most of them had had a chance to try the visor……..the fall of the consumer market z800 was a tragedy.
Oh, but the real problem with 800x600 is that it may not be a commonly supported resolution someday in the near future.
6) no ghosting as far as I can tell, and see 4) for performance.
7) I would say its very comfortable considering that it’s an HMD.
OK, so…………………………
This thing has major problems but after using it for 7 months I can honestly say that:
At the price of $550 (what I paid)----I would buy it again in a heartbeat.
At the price of $1500,-- no, I wouldn’t. I would shop around for a new unit at a lower price. Try other countries too. I saw one on a non American electronic store webpage for about $600 american about 5 weeks ago. I cant remember the page sorry.
Maybe, buy used but that idea scares me.
I would personally pay up to $900 american for a new one. Also, if you find an older visor (new or used) you may need to upgrade the firmware to ???? I forgote i think 63.E???. If so, you will need to buy from the main z800 webpage for about $20 plus shipping.
It is a gamble to buy as some people say they get lemons.
I love the thing more than I should but it will make you cry from time to time.
Remember that the microphone is trash and the earphones are trash too.
You can run your own earphones through the visor if you get a 3.5mm to 2.5mm jack. And in my case I only needed to plug my earphone into the left ear plug to get stereo sound. But I could see you having to mess around with that.
The mic is trash. I have no cool answers for that.
2) and 3) the image is very clear if you position it right. But that defiantly takes time. I can get a very clear image but the chosen position often leaves red marks on my nose. Also, get a hat or headband to wear under the visor or you will get a red mark on your forehead.
The image is often debated and all I can say is it may be a bit of a gamble when you buy. Mine looks great after A LOT of color and brightness tweaking. (I think every unit will be different on the tweaks it needs)
the real problem is the contrast.
Dead pixels are a bit common but not a big issue as you have two LCDs and so unless the dead pixel is in the same place on both it is really hard to identify one in normal use. (you will see them on a black or white screen)
4) the headtracking works fine, if not great……..but that’s not good enough sometimes.
If you go into an game that your computer can run flawlessly than your headtracking will run flawlessly.
If you run a game that is playable on your computer than it should work fine.
Then there are the jerk games that just hate the headtracking in stereoscopic regardless of the performance. That would primarily be DOOM3 and probably any current Id game.
Its probably a driver issue and I have no answer for that. (but the headtracking in DOOM3 works perfect with 3D off.)
So overall I would say that the headtracking is good to very good. (but remember that you will take a performance hit of about 5% to 20% depending on the game when stereoscopic is ON….I just made up those numbers.)
5) The 800x600 resolution is so not a problem AT ALL (unless you are a flight simulator guy/girl) --it is sad really but judging by the complaints at the time, it was the resolution that put most buyers off and may have caused the failure of the visor. If only most of them had had a chance to try the visor……..the fall of the consumer market z800 was a tragedy.
Oh, but the real problem with 800x600 is that it may not be a commonly supported resolution someday in the near future.
6) no ghosting as far as I can tell, and see 4) for performance.
7) I would say its very comfortable considering that it’s an HMD.
OK, so…………………………
This thing has major problems but after using it for 7 months I can honestly say that:
At the price of $550 (what I paid)----I would buy it again in a heartbeat.
At the price of $1500,-- no, I wouldn’t. I would shop around for a new unit at a lower price. Try other countries too. I saw one on a non American electronic store webpage for about $600 american about 5 weeks ago. I cant remember the page sorry.
Maybe, buy used but that idea scares me.
I would personally pay up to $900 american for a new one. Also, if you find an older visor (new or used) you may need to upgrade the firmware to ???? I forgote i think 63.E???. If so, you will need to buy from the main z800 webpage for about $20 plus shipping.
It is a gamble to buy as some people say they get lemons.
I love the thing more than I should but it will make you cry from time to time.
Remember that the microphone is trash and the earphones are trash too.
You can run your own earphones through the visor if you get a 3.5mm to 2.5mm jack. And in my case I only needed to plug my earphone into the left ear plug to get stereo sound. But I could see you having to mess around with that.
The mic is trash. I have no cool answers for that.
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Denaris
- Two Eyed Hopeful
- Posts: 54
- Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:08 pm
genetic,
Thank you so much for your review! It was extremely helpful.
It's interesting what you are saying about the mic and the headphones. If they are selling the unit for the price they are asking, you would think that adding quality headphones and a mic (which are sold by other manufacturers for $30) would not be much of a stretch. As is so often the case, however, the secondary functions are skimped on. I'm not sure what they are thinking when they do something like that. The key to "luxury" or high end toys is to make your customers happy they purchased them so that they might be more inclined to pay top dollar for a similar product later on. If you price in that range, your target market is not trying to save every penny but is rather looking for quality across the board in your product. For example, I kind of wish monitor manufacturers would think about this when they put speakers in their monitor, because I have never found good speakers in a monitor combo.
How long have you had your unit? I am wondering about the longevity of such things... things you wear on your head sometimes crack after too much use.
Thanks again!
Thank you so much for your review! It was extremely helpful.
It's interesting what you are saying about the mic and the headphones. If they are selling the unit for the price they are asking, you would think that adding quality headphones and a mic (which are sold by other manufacturers for $30) would not be much of a stretch. As is so often the case, however, the secondary functions are skimped on. I'm not sure what they are thinking when they do something like that. The key to "luxury" or high end toys is to make your customers happy they purchased them so that they might be more inclined to pay top dollar for a similar product later on. If you price in that range, your target market is not trying to save every penny but is rather looking for quality across the board in your product. For example, I kind of wish monitor manufacturers would think about this when they put speakers in their monitor, because I have never found good speakers in a monitor combo.
How long have you had your unit? I am wondering about the longevity of such things... things you wear on your head sometimes crack after too much use.
Thanks again!
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crim3
- Certif-Eyed!
- Posts: 642
- Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:11 am
- Location: Valencia (Spain)
I have a z800, too. I have to say that this review meets my experience very closely. I have stated that all z800 users go through the same hate/love phases.
I just wanted to point out a couple of things:
The z800 uses OLED displays, not LCD. It's a very young technology, and have problems like low contrast ratio and short life time. On the other side it has very low power consumption (no backlight needed, each pixel is a light itself) and very bright colors.
The other thing is about something that shutterglasses users has not experienced: the stereo is totally flicker free, there isn't any color or bright downgrade, and has no ghosting at all. As each eye has it's very own display and can not see the other's display, stereo is as natural as it can be nowadays. It's something to try out, but not at nowadays prices. I have hope in the future for better and cheaper HMDs.
I just wanted to point out a couple of things:
The z800 uses OLED displays, not LCD. It's a very young technology, and have problems like low contrast ratio and short life time. On the other side it has very low power consumption (no backlight needed, each pixel is a light itself) and very bright colors.
The other thing is about something that shutterglasses users has not experienced: the stereo is totally flicker free, there isn't any color or bright downgrade, and has no ghosting at all. As each eye has it's very own display and can not see the other's display, stereo is as natural as it can be nowadays. It's something to try out, but not at nowadays prices. I have hope in the future for better and cheaper HMDs.