ProView Professional Anaglyph 3D Glasses

[cybereality]

I just bought a pair of ProView professional quality anaglyph glasses, and they are simply awesome. Up until now I've been using those silly paper glasses you get for free through the mail (and I'm sure many people probably are too). It never occurred to me that maybe the reason anaglyph looked so shabby was because I was using some throw-away glasses that cost like 5 cents to make! These ProView glasses are a complete different experience. If you ever need to use anaglyph, just put down those paper specs and buy something decent.



The glasses I got are the clip-on version and sell for $9:
http://www.3dstereo.com/viewmaster/gla-aco.html

There is also a standard plastic frame version for $7:
http://www.3dstereo.com/viewmaster/gla-pvu.html

The thing about these glasses is they allow a wider color spectrum through each eye. So looking through them the colors on screen are barely tinted, it looks almost like normal (once your mind merges the images). A major upgrade from the paper glasses that just ruin colors. The glasses also keep everything nice and sharp, very crisp image. Of course, they are still anaglyph glasses, so they come with all the limitations of the technology. But these specs are at least 10x better experience than those cheapo paper ones. I am being totally honest here, COD4 with these glasses and the iz3D anaglyph driver may look almost as good as shutter-glasses in some respects. Night-vision was not much of a problem. Really I am just blown away (especially on my HDTV which won't work with shutters). I can't believe I never bothered to buy a real pair of anaglyph glasses. Really its worth the $8 bucks.

Ok, now for the bad. Since these glasses allow for a wider color spectrum, it also means they don't block all colors either. So ghosting is actually worse than with standard anaglyph. If I could adjust the colors in software, that could help I'm sure. So you cannot achieve great depths or out-of-screen effects with these glasses. It must be a very minimal amount of seperation/convergence to get a solid image. I could get more depth even with the paper glasses, but not the quality of picture or color. So this won't compare to the type of S3D effects you get with an advanced solution. I would totally recommend these glasses to new-comers looking to game in Stereo3D for under $10. They work with any monitor, and almost any hardware setup and should give you an idea of what to expect with a more expensive solution. Really, I had no idea anaglyph could look that good.

[Freke1]

Sounds great . It's astonishing how the eyes merge/compensate the different colors.
There's no fuzzyness through the red lens? Or do You have to buy the diopter version for that?
Red/cyan is better than red/blue, right?

[LukePC1]

red/cyan has more colors, but it's still very bad with the paper glasses.
If you choose not too much popout and depth with IZ3D driver, the ghosting is acceptable, but imho worse than shutter glasses...
and I can't recognize the world very good.

It seems, that you get more colors, but equal or worse ghosting with your 'expencive' glasses. That could work for the beginning, but is nearly nothing compared to working SG solutions.

[cybereality]

It seems, that you get more colors, but equal or worse ghosting with your 'expensive' glasses. That could work for the beginning, but is nearly nothing compared to working SG solutions.

Yeah, in general the ghosting is worse. For some games, like UT3, the color palette is so bright that the ghosting becomes too much. At bare minimal seperation its not too bad. Some other games and demos worked with varying success. HL2 looked good. COD4, in particular, looked almost perfect at the default iz3d stereo settings. Also that 1080p train clip from the Stereoscopic Player looked very nice. Although it is still anaglyph, I'd rather gain a bit of ghosting to have no flicker. So I didn't mean to say that the picture quality was better than SG. Just that overall, I found it to be a more comfortable experience (the flicker kind of bothers me). And you really can't get high depths or out-of-screen effects with these ProView glasses. But with only subtle 3D effects it is comfortable to watch and may be a good solution for beginners getting into 3D.

@Freke1: No, the glasses are not fuzzy really at all. The blue side is definitely more clear than the red, but it does something different when the images combine it your mind. Much better picture than using cellophane.

@Moderators: I actually meant to place this in the "I'm new to S-3D" sub-forum. If you can move this thread that would be cool. Thanks.

[LukePC1]

I know you are sensetive to flicker (and low FPS --> fps < 60).
But there are other (more normal gifted) people, who don't bother having 50hz flickering with 25FPS per eye (like me aparently).

So this solution seems to have it's pro's as well

[cybereality]

I've taken some photos to illustrate the quality of the proview glasses. Below are cross-eye viewable images. Notice on the last photo night-vision is enabled (worst-case scenario):

[LukePC1]

I've taken some photos to illustrate the difference between these glasses and the standard paper specs. Notice on the last photo night-vision is enabled (worst-case scenario):

sorry I don't understand, which picture is captured with which glasses.

The one in the middle has most colors I'd say, if I watch it crosseyed. Seperation is only minimal, as you said before...

The smoke is still viewable, so you get a point there

edit: I tested crosseyed and with glasses, and I would say my glasses take even more color from the pictures, so I assume, you used only your high quality glasses for these pictures. Am I right?
If not, I won't get better anaglyph glasses

[cybereality]

I tested crosseyed and with glasses, and I would say my glasses take even more color from the pictures, so I assume, you used only your high quality glasses for these pictures. Am I right?
If not, I won't get better anaglyph glasses

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention. Those are all cross-eye photos taken only with the quality glasses. I can take pictures with a paper one too, but it should give you an idea.

[yuriythebest]

I like the non-blurriness of the red eye otherwise not much more I can say since no way to test em.

[cybereality]

Here are some back to back shots. COD4 running at 1360x768. iz3D driver, higher stereo seperation. No other settings were touched or changed, photos taken back to back.

Just so you know I'm not pulling your leg:



The first is a shot taken without glasses so you can use your existing anaglyph glasses. Other two are cross-eye comparisons.

[yuriythebest]

yeah It's really hard to judge the comparisons but the clip ons seem more clear. In any case I believe you, in my statement above what I meant was its impossible to really see the difference without the actual glasses, same as with the pinhole glasses or iz3d monitor. Still, awesome review as always and thanks for the info.

[LukePC1]

I think anaglyph is still no go for me

And I get a good image, if I watch at the 'original' picture. Maybe I have different colors at my CRT. I think it makes a huge difference.
I'm shure, you could optimize colors a little for least ghosting, too. I have to admitt, normal 2D looks a little funny then. My monitor is a little redish, because it has less ghosting with SG, but in most cases it's no problem, as long as you don't exagerate...

I think I'll retire from this thread, because we are turning circles here... especially, if no one else joins in

[artox]

Why don't you try using the optimized mode from the iz3d driver. It completely ruins red (meaning it apperas yellow) but you can get great levels of separation without that much ghosting. I've just ordered my colorcodes, but if separation is limited I'll stick with the anaglyphs.

[BlackShark]

Looks like there is much more ghosting through the proview glasses than the cheap plastic ones.

I'm stuck with anagyph for a few month now since i'm waiting for christmas (at least) to buy a 3D monitor. i was hesitating to buy these kind of high quality anaglyph glasses, but since there is so much ghosting, i think i'll stick to my cheap ones.