iZ3D 22" LCD monitor review

[Oruq]

Neil, if you find my post offending or too provocative, you have my permission to remove it and I will never again post about the iZ3D monitor or anything else related to iZ3D on your forums.

Regards,
Oruq

[Neil]

It's not an issue of being offensive, it's an issue of being appropriate.

Regardless, I think I made my opinions clear, and we'll leave it at that.

Regards,
Neil

[CarlKenner]

Zalman and Nvidia are colluding to stifle the rest of the stereoscopic industry. So a little less respect should be due to them.
iZ3D on the other hand are supporting everyone that they can (but they can't support pageflip because of Nvidia's traitorous collusion).

iZ3D are working to enable their stereoscopic support for devices like TDVisor, which have ZERO ghosting (in the stereo sense. The correct term is crosstalk. They may have some monoscopic ghosting, I don't know). So they are trying.

I paid Nvidia lots of money for a graphics card that could do stereo, and I got absolutely nothing from them. I paid iZ3D absolutely nothing, and they gave me (and everyone else) free universal 3D drivers for anaglyph.

[Welder]

Man i really want to buy this monitor but they only deal with credit cards(which i perfer not to have)...hmm i'm all cashed up and ready to purchase...sigh!

That may or may not be true,

I suggest emailing info@iz3d.com about this, he may be able to help you with that.

[sharky]

Man i really want to buy this monitor but they only deal with credit cards(which i perfer not to have)...hmm i'm all cashed up and ready to purchase...sigh!

That may or may not be true,

I suggest emailing info@iz3d.com about this, he may be able to help you with that.

quote...

[Neil]

I just wanted to add, I don't want members to feel censored on MTBS. I'm going through a learning curve with this community, and it is important that everyone be allowed to speak their mind. While sincere, I should have PMed Oruq rather than posting publicly about it, so that was my error.

Regards,
Neil

[RAGEdemon]

I think one of the biggest problems with "bad reviews" is that the reviewer just doesn't appreciate the background and history of the technology... no offense to anyone intended.

New "reviewers" start reviewing the product without having experienced other technologies, with little to no experience with the drivers, and little knowledge of how it all works. All they have are their expectations which are set unrealistically high after watching movies like "The Matrix", "Lawnmower Man" and "Tron"

The comparison is made to an off the shelf product which they normally review. When it doesn't work almost perfectly straight out of the box, they give it a bad review.

Their view is "We, the consumers, shouldn't have to mess about" and to an extent, they are correct.

It is difficult to explain to them that the experience depends almost entirely on how you set it up and adjust it (considerable time should be spent attaining a good effect, not just a few seconds), and what they use as a comparison.

If it is adjusted badly (separation, convergence etc) then they will come away with very little. Of course, this is aggravated by the default driver values being mostly always completely wrong.
The comparison bit is also tricky. The reviewer has had virtually no experience with other products... they just don't know how bad the others are in comparison.

For a proper review, a first time user needs to sit down for a good half hour adjusting and experimenting with the settings to find the optimal setting that produce the best depth and pop-out for themselves. After this is found, he/she needs to go and play a game for a lengthy amount of time...say 4-6 hours, and every now and then, pop out of 3D back into 2D and play like that for a few minutes before going back into 3D. Only then can one truly appreciate the technology and what exactly is on offer. It is only at this point you realize how absorbed into the game you are. By now, the ghosting or other issues that bothered you at first glance are nothing in comparison to what you are now experiencing - your mind has filtered them out and the immersion is just so good that you just don't care.

I believe that this is the number one reason for reviewers giving mediocre to bad reviews of stereo products. The reviewer just doesn't spend enough time on it with a properly set-up game to appreciate what is actually happening.

In this particular case, if a person had spent the last 6 years playing games on a CRT with the nVidia driver like the vast majority of us - bare games without "special" effects (meh... has anyone seen oblivion with effects turned off vs on? :/) , ghosting galore, the need to tweak the game for 2 hours before even attempting to turn on stereo, the flicker - refresh and de-sync related; and then went and reviewed the the iZ3D, I think the opinion would be very different indeed.

Like everything in reality, there are no absolutes... everything is indeed subjective. But it helps to have a solid reference point for comparability and a lot of experience with similar products. A new comer with ideas right out of "the matrix" is only going to be left disappointed.


In this MTV short attention span generation, most just don't take the time to set things up properly and give things the time they deserve. If they did I am sure the experience would change them for life... and that right there is the saddest thing of all.

-- Shahzad.

[Mong]

How hard can it be to setup one these iZ3D monitors! C'mon!! while I was waiting for my monitor to arrive (2 weeks delivery) I was going around collecting valuable solutions on how to set up theses monitors. Sure it takes time but I enjoyed the challenge.....and now I've added my own tweeks on setting up, mostly on the nVidia Forceware driver.

And now with transparent ghosting on near view, yes FPS is my middle name I like to set the separation between 70 to 85% keeping the distance view nice and crisp. Not botherd by transparent ghosting, I hardly notice it after 1 week of gaming but thats my IMO.


Well it's back to gaming in fully blown Post proceeding effects turned on.


Later Dudes.

[Likay]

Agrees fully! After gaming for quite some time with iz3d my personal opinion is that the iz3d itself (not counting the drivers) IS a great product! My review was to give people a hint (or more like a feel) and trying to show people how the iz3d is. It's also true that the eyes after a while adapts to the ghosting somehow and helps you making it less. Gaming on the iz3d is way better than gaming on a crt/E-D-shutterglasses rig but it doesn't beat a dual passive projection rig. It's a matter of cost though since such rig is at least three times expensier that the iz3d itself. Zalman might be a good choice if only nvidia straighten out the driverissue. Regardless of that: The iz3d-team is really working hard to improve the total gaminexperience (things are happening all the time) and i'm eagerly looking forward to their next move.

Ps: Even if the iz3d team releases more unified driver (yes, i will buy it) to suit a polarized rig (among others) i'll still probably game mostly on the iz3d. Occasional gaming with projectors are not good since turning on and off the lamps often is a real lamp killer. Having them lit all day is of course no option. Playing newer games on that rig with fresher stuff than a 7900 with "all bells and whistles on" is quite appealing though!

cheers

[walshlg]

I just bought my iZ3D. I love it. I held off buying because of the price. Then I found a reseller selling these on eBay. I emailed iZ3d and they said that it is legit, these are brand new monitors shipped directly from their warehouse. Watch these auctions, most of these iZ3d monitors are going for a little over $400, you can do better if you don't mind waiting for the right timing to bid. Considering a comparable 22" lcd is $280, the price is now right. FWIW.

[yuriythebest]

right even though everyone who visits this place knows my position on the iz3d monitor and also has probably seen my video reviews of it I've still decided to do add it in text form


< insert explanation about what is stereo3d and a brief history of stereo3d and rant about nvidias stereodrivers here>

this monitor looks quite stylish even when turned off. However, before we go into the 3d aspect of this monitor let’s talk a little bit about the design.


It has a nice little logo of iz3d at the top left corner which instantly distinguishes it from any other flat boring monitor and tells the world that it’s the Ferrari of LCD’s. In fact I would not exchange this for

a flat monitor that is twice as big- it’s that good. However this would not be a fair review if I didn’t also talk about the downsides of this monitor. Well not so much downsides as things that could use improvement, and also some funny unique features and challenges that this monitor presents you with.

For one thing- it’s reflective- when turned off I use it as a mirror to see if my hair is ok. But when powered up apart from the slightly increased glossieness of it, which some may find is quite stylish , you soon learn to tune out the reflections and now I don't notice them at all (except not because I specifically remembered them and focused my eyes to see it).
I think this is because this glass is polarized so that you can see in 3d. So I can forgive this as a necessity.

The viewing angle in 2d mode is quite good from the sides and from below. However from high up the image does become overly bright. How ever few people work under such angles so it’s ok.




There was supposed to be an LED light , however it was just too bright so I scotch taped a piece of cardboard over it. However my subwoofers had the same problem, in fact there the light was almost like a laser. On the iz3d it’s just slightly distracting. An option to turn it off would be nice. The power button is pretty self explanatory. Next we have the menu. Now this is where the fun begins- if I click the menu button I get the option to adjust the brightness- that’s the only option! However I understand why they did it- brightness is actually directly linked to the ghosting, that is the undesired doubling effect many 3d solutions have. So instead of presenting you with many menus and submenus to adjust it they placed it right under your nose. Good thinking.

The auto buton is needed only if one of your cables is VGA- I’ve never had to use it.



If you have never seen stereoscopic 3d go to an IMAX or REALD theater to get a good idea of what it looks like.



Now lets talk about the actual 3d effect. It’s like a giant 22’ window to another world. A good analogy of what this looks like if you never experienced stereo3d is imagine if you broke everything out of your monitor and put little paper models of stuff inside- only those models run around and shoot at you!

Some games do work better than others, but if your game is in directX 9 - most new games are, it will most likely work.

Also, for those of you using shutterglasses and considering switching to an iz3d I can only say this- do you know that unfomfortable tingling sensation in your eyes when you stare too intensely at a 3d image? Also do your eyes get a little red after each game? Well fear no more! I was very surprised by this, but viewing stereo3d on an iz3d actually relaxes the eyes!! Yess!! Look at how white they are- no red dots. They used to be very red just a few days ago. Even though this monitor has more ghosting than shutteglasses, the fact that it’s so eye friendly far outweighs that problem, since you can play for as long as you like with impunity! Buahahahah!


Another aspect of the iz3d that’s worth mentioning is the tech support. This aspect is as awesome as the monitor itself. The people there are very helpful and will actually help you with your problems. In fact, the chief technical officer of IZ3d, mister vadim asadov regularly visits the company forums to help people out. How cool is that. Many companies just train people to give standard, bot-like, responses, well none of that here. Kudos to iz3d!

I have taken some time to test out many games, including team fortress 2, command and conquer renegade, star trek legacies, day of defeat source, aces of the galaxy, leisure suit larry, rayman 3, oblivion eleder scrolls and unreal tournament 3. Of course these aren’t the only games that work with the iz3d- if the game uses directx 8 or 9 it will most likely work, but my time was of course limited.

First off the ghosting in these games- after some testing, it becomes apparent that the ghosting on the iz3d behaves very differently from the shutterglass ghosting. Ghosting in shutterglasses is usually visible in dark areas, here it’s most apparent in games, or game areas, that is, that have very high contrast and bright areas. The ghosting is especially visible in bright, colorful games with plenty of visible blue skies- that included team fortress 2 and day of defeat. However while the ghosting was visible, it didn’t really disturb the gameplay in any noticeable fashion because the actual level doesn’t really ghost- it’s mainly the skies and you sort of learn to ignore it.

Command and conquer renegade had some very nice 3d, along with ghosting in open areas but inside there was little to no ghosting. I always find that older, blockier games like half life 1 have a very noticeable and exaggerated 3d effect. I have not yet been able to get the original half life to work using the iz3d but hopefully half life source will work, which is basically the exact same game with the exact same graphics only the water reflections and some other junk was improved.

Now one thing I did find that helps with severe outdoor ghosting is taking the clipons and using them together with the regular glasses. However iz3d going to start beta testing some better glasses with less ghosting quite soon now, so hopefully that will take care of that.

Now, of all the games I tested, 2 really stood out, that was aces of the galaxy, an obscure game I admit, but when viewed using an iz3d it does wonders. And also unreal tournament 3- that was probably the most realistic gaming experience I have had thus far. The game is very dark and grey, which unintentionally eliminates almost all of the ghosting. In fact unless you specifically look for ghosting you probably won’t see it in the game. The gameplay in stereo3d was just amazing. That game alone justifies having the iz3d monitor.



Iz3d is a very interesting company to keep track off. Soon we will have glasses with less ghosting, iz3d is also planning to release a 26 inch version sometime in the future. No information yet if that monitor will be somehow different hardware wise and if it will have less ghosting. Also everyone with shutterglasses will be pleased to know that iz3d will release shutterglass drivers any time now. They will of course cost something but your only other choice is to use some drivers from nvidia or endimensional.

Also, I’ve been reading a review somewhere that I shall not name which said “one of the downsides of owning an iz3d monitor is always being tied to the continuous string of driver updates”- as if it is a bad thing! I guess he would rather have that company say “oh here are your drivers for the next 10 years, go away and play now, chop chop!”… right.


Hope you found this review informative!


EDIT: one awesome thing that just dawned on me is that I no longer have to instantly disable 3d mode and lift/take off my glasses for fear of causing more damage than necessary to my eyes, which was sort of an instinct from my shutterglass days. I can now not take off my glasses when working on and off with stereoscopic imagery (saving to desktop, renaming, etc). Those of you with shutterglasses will understand how awesome this is.



EDIT2: added a stereophoto. Reverse left/right if image looks "wrong"

[LukePC1]

You realy put a lot of effort into this review. And I like the 3D pic without ghosting. But it is the 'wrong' direction to view it crosseyed. But the advantage of viewing it crosseyed is, that you don't add any additional ghosting. How did you do the 3D pic? Through the glasses?

And every solution has pros and cons, so you always have to choose and think about everything. I'm glad you talked about them, too.

[yuriythebest]

thanks- it's actually a slightly modified version of the script for gamerus cleverus episodes 8 and 9 - I just though rather than it just lying around on my hard drive I'd post it here.

How did you do the 3D pic? Through the glasses?

using photoshop

[LukePC1]

How did you do the 3D pic? Through the glasses?

using photoshop

were you modding a 2D image? Or did you use photoshop to put the two pictures form your digicam together?

If you want to cheat with the ghosting you could also display the picture for left, make a picture with a digicam, change the picture on the screen and take the other picture from the side.
That way you could get every screen to show 3D

[yuriythebest]

How did you do the 3D pic? Through the glasses?

using photoshop

were you modding a 2D image? Or did you use photoshop to put the two pictures form your digicam together?

If you want to cheat with the ghosting you could also display the picture for left, make a picture with a digicam, change the picture on the screen and take the other picture from the side.
That way you could get every screen to show 3D

just some basic 3d compositing

[LukePC1]

so you were cheating... otherwise it would have too much reflections

[phil]

Nice! That's the first time I've seen a 3D image of a 3D monitor - great idea I had no idea it was a composite.

[navratilova]

Well friends, when I hook up the M1530 to an LCD monitor using HDMI-to-DVI, the screen looks like shades of green and magenta. I've tried several different cables and two different monitors. I'm also interested in any opinions about buy at a store, or buy online. How do you hook up a Dell XPS M1530 to an LCD Monitor going HDMI to DVI? Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

[cirk2]

have you tryed different adapters? it sounds like one color-component is missing

[StereoGaming4Me]

I just ordered one from newegg.. $319.99 total and free shipping. $30 discount and $50 promo code discount at the top of the page from $399.99.... order fast folks as other online retailers are selling them at $399 + shipping. The z800 would sell like hotcakes at the one previous price point of $549(rather than a ridiculous $1,400.00 that it went BACK up to) if S3D were more mainstream and more people saw it in action - no ghosting on it whatsoever but using the head tracking = insta-nausea.

Been waiting forever to try the iZ3D stereo solution and heard it is very good... uncertain about the popping out effect, however.




Peace

[yuriythebest]

uncertain about the popping out effect, however.
Peace

hopefully with the new glasses pop out will improve. atm it's more or less just pop-in with slight pop out but in some games like Red Alert 3 the v2 rocket really flies out of the screen almost hitting my teeth.

[StereoGaming4Me]

The monitor arrived yesterday but I didn't hook it all up until today. For $319.99 total for a 22" ws iZ3D as a standalone regular ws lcd monitor.. wow. I haven't even tried the 3D yet as I'm waiting to hear back from David at iZ3D about using strictly an nvidia driver pair instead of their own proprietary drivers. The 93.71 combo works perfectly for the z800 and diy planar on a 7950gt 512.

If anyone is still reading this thread.. do you know if it only has brightness controls, or does it have contrast as well? This lcd is above and beyond bright! It did a manual, but haven't found out where I put it yet. I had to the the brightness to 12 just to see if comfortably(have had LASIK surgery so sensitivity to light, especially fluorescent) but as stated I have yet to try the 3D effect so I won't know how 12 brightness will affect S3D effect.

I almost wished this had the same "sparkle" effect as the one 17" I saw awhile back... some people didn't like it but I thought it was a masterpiece to look at.

Regards,
Carl

[Neil]

There are no direct contrast controls, but maybe through the NVIDIA driver you can control this.

As for the stereo pair, it's a tough call. You will have to experiment. You may have to set up a dual boot to get the best of both worlds. I think tech support for you would be tough if your display drivers are unnaturally out of date.

Regards,
Neil

[ssiu]

One positive and one negative (correct me if I'm wrong):

Positive: if your graphic card is not fast enough for S3D gaming in 1680x1050, you can game in a lower resolution and S3D continue to work! (By contrast, I don't think that will work on row-interleaved (Zalman Trimon) or checkerboard (DLP HDTV) S3D formats.)

Negative: no HDCP support! So if you're upgrading from a CRT monitor and want it as the single/universal 2D+3D monitor (which makes it easier to justify the premium over a regular 22" LCD monitor), you won't be able to play Bly-Ray movies, when the time comes that you want to adopt Blu-Ray. Or if you have a PS3 and want to use the iZ3D monitor for it (until you buy the right S3D HDTV that will support S3D console gaming and S3D Blu-Ray etc.), using HDMI-DVI cable and outputting 720p resolution and let the monitor scale it up, then you won't be able to view Blu-Ray with it.

[chimchim]

I'm somewhat unclear on how exactly the IZ3D software + hardware is functioning.

I understand how the polarization screen can increase/decrease relative intensity of a given pixel for each eye, IF the pixel is the same color. I also understand how each eye can perceive a full 1680 x 1050 if viewing a 2D screen.

What I don't understand is what the effective resolution perceived by each eye is for a frame that is full of 3-D objects. A given pixel that is red for the left eye can't be blue for the right, can it? In an extreme example, if the left eye is supposed to see only red pixels, and the right eye only blue, then the total resolution available for each eye is 1680 X 1050 X 0.5 pixels. I don't know if the IZ3D algorithm makes it 1680 X 525, or 825 X 1050, or if it uses something like a checkerboard pattern (I would guess the latter), but I think that IZ3D is somewhat evasive on the resolution issue.

Apparently, this works well, whatever the algorithm is, and it's worth pointing out that screen-depth objects, such as text, would have full resolution available to both eyes, making it largely moving objects that have reduced resolution.

I'm also unclear on whether a pixel that is equally bright in both eyes in 3-D mode is as bright as in 2-D mode. Wouldn't the polarized glasses reduce the light (to 0.707 brightness, perhaps)?

[yuriythebest]

but I think that IZ3D is somewhat evasive on the resolution issue.

no not really- there is no resolution loss in 3d mode. Also the glasses, while they do have some dimming it is very slight and you don't really notice it- shutterglasses are much darker I think. Regarding the technology behind it, some links:

http://iz3d.com/t-3dproductex.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and

Suppose we need to show white to the left eye and black to the right eye. In this case the first panel of the monitor displays white and the second panel is set to a polarization of 0 degrees. As a result, the left lens lets the light pass while the right lens obstructs it.

What if the picture is then inverted so that the right eye saw white? The first panel doesn’t have to change anything. It is only necessary to turn the polarization plane by 90 degrees in the second panel, and the eyeglasses will show you a different picture.

And what if both eyes must see gray? It is simple: if the polarization plane is rotated by 45 degrees with the second matrix, each lens will let half the light pass and each eye will see gray. Note that this can be done for each out of the 1,764 million pixels individually.

To cut it short, the adjustment of the angle of polarization with the second matrix from 0 to 90 degrees changes the distribution of light from the first matrix between the right and left eyes. Thus, two things are needed to create a stereoscopic image on the iZ3D:

* The pixels of the first matrix show the total of the images for the left and right eyes.
* The pixels of the second matrix define what percent of light from each pixel of the first matrix comes to the left and right eye respectively.

The advantages of this design are obvious. To start with, this monitor can work as an ordinary 2D monitor. It has a full resolution of 1680x1050 for both 2D and 3D modes, and a full refresh rate of 60Hz in 3D mode. It works together with passive eyeglasses.

hope this helped!

[chimchim]

I understand how white-grey-black can be represented to both eyes by the same white pixel on the back panel. It is the same color, with different intensity levels. But I don't understand how red:left/blue:right, green/yellow, etc., could be represented by the same pixel on the back panel.

Looking at the linked IZ3D page, http://iz3d.com/t-3dproductex.aspx, bottom graphic, obviously white can be represented to both eyes without issue (except for some diminishment in intensity, compared to not wearing polarized glasses), but when the objects overlap, you run into issues. IZ3D chooses to show identically colored objects in their graphic, but this will surely not often be the case in a dynamic 3D game. We are dealing with 32-bit colors.

IZ3D must, IMO, be using some kind of smoothing algorithm for overlapping, unique images, such as checkerboarding contiguous pixels. (Who knows, maybe they displace the checkerboard pattern every 1/60 sec. to smooth it even more.) I don't doubt from the reviews that it works well to fool the eye, but it does somewhat belie the "full 1680 X 1050 for each eye" selling point.

I hope there's an answer to this, by the way, and I'm genuinely trying to learn about this. I got an IZ3D for Christmas yesterday (still in the box), so I am a customer.

[BlackShark]

Color and polarisation is adjusted at the sub-pixel level. But it's easier (and shorter) to talk about pixels rather than the independant RGB sub-pixels.
It's the way all LCD pannels work.
So the pixels are exactly the same as all LCD monitors, so the resolution is exactly the same as on other LCD monitors equipped with TN technology based pannels.

The only thing i wonder is if the iZ3D monitor is able to keep the 24bit color depth through the back/front conversion (32 bit color is RGB+Alpha, monitors use 24 bits : 8 bits per RGB subpixel).
I've heard somewhere that almost all LCD pannels were able to work with 10 bit precision but it was just the electronics (monitor, cable and GPU) that were limiting (i think the quadro and FireGL GPUs have 10 bit precision outputs and the nvidiaGTX280 is the 1st mainstream GPU with 10 bit precsion but no content uses it)

So i was wondering if the iZ3D monitor had something in the internal electronics that make the iZ3D monitor capable of keeping the 24 bit color depth in 3D mode ?

[chimchim]

So each pixel on the front panel has 3 polarization filters, for the sub-pixel R-G-B?

What brought this to mind was the following quote from Andrew Fear, senior product manager at NVidia:

Right now we truly believe that our solution – the active shutter glasses — provide the best quality for an end-user. The technology that exists for passive polarized is typically only given to you at half-resolution per eye. If you imagine you’re running a monitor at 1680×1050, each eye will only see 1680×525, effectively, because of how the polarization technique has to be done on the LCD in order to show the right eye and hide the left eye. Certainly over time that can be improved; right now, that’s what it is. If you’ve ever seen half-resolution per eye, you know what happens is that the quality of reading text, and the quality of the image, is not as good as you’d like. Some people just don’t think the quality is that good.

http://www.gamecyte.com/is-your-gaming- ... oscopic-3d

Does this NVidia Senior Product Mgr. have it completely wrong? That may be the case, but it would be surprising to me.

[chimchim]

Another quote from Andrew Fear, showing that he was explicitly refering to IZ3D:

I think if you look at the solution they have versus ours, IZ3D has some pluses. Some people like passive solutions, they don’t like active solutions, so that’s one reason they might choose them. The downside of that is like I talked about earlier, you’re going to get less resolution, less quality for the game.

[Tril]

Color and polarisation is adjusted at the sub-pixel level. But it's easier (and shorter) to talk about pixels rather than the independant RGB sub-pixels.
It's the way all LCD pannels work.
So the pixels are exactly the same as all LCD monitors, so the resolution is exactly the same as on other LCD monitors equipped with TN technology based pannels.

There's only one angle per pixel, not per sub-pixel. This was said by BlackQ (iZ3D employee) in the iZ3D forums here (see third post).

I understand how white-grey-black can be represented to both eyes by the same white pixel on the back panel. It is the same color, with different intensity levels. But I don't understand how red:left/blue:right, green/yellow, etc., could be represented by the same pixel on the back panel.

For the back panel, the intensity of each sub-pixel is averaged (average of red left and red right, average of green left and green right, average of blue left and blue right).

For the front panel, the polarization angle is decided based on comparing the brightness of the original pixel of each eye (red, green and blue of left eye added together, red green and blue of right eye added together; the two numbers are used to choose the polarization angle).

[chimchim]

Tril, so there is no way for a single pixel to show as red in one eye, and blue in another? You would average them and both eyes would perceive purple? That seems like a significant problem.

That's why I was wondering if there was an algorithm to checkerboard in such instances.

[BlackShark]

There's only one angle per pixel, not per sub-pixel. This was said by BlackQ (iZ3D employee) in the iZ3D forums here (see third post).

That's quite surprizing, i wasn't expecting this.
Especially since the example iz3d shots shown on iz3d website contain colour in the polarisation image.

[Tril]

If you take a screenshot with printscreen and paste the result in a drawing program, you'll see that the front panel picture is using greyscale. You can try with the dynamic test.

[ssiu]

There's only one angle per pixel, not per sub-pixel. This was said by BlackQ (iZ3D employee) in the iZ3D forums here (see third post).

That's quite surprizing, i wasn't expecting this.
Especially since the example iz3d shots shown on iz3d website contain colour in the polarisation image.

That was very surprising to me too ... and I think that explains a lot of the ghosting problems ...

[Tril]

There's only one angle per pixel, not per sub-pixel. This was said by BlackQ (iZ3D employee) in the iZ3D forums here (see third post).

That's quite surprizing, i wasn't expecting this.
Especially since the example iz3d shots shown on iz3d website contain colour in the polarisation image.

That was very surprising to me too ... and I think that explains a lot of the ghosting problems ...

Not completely. If you display in S3D a picture that has only one color (red, green or blue), you'll still get some ghosting so sub-pixel polarisation would not solve everything.

[arccos]

I had a few concerns before buying my 22in iZ3D, so after a little while with it, here's what I've seen so far, in case you're considering a purchase.

Grainyness/Blurryness in 2D Yes, it is just slightly more blurry than a mid-range 22in LCD. It's still much better than a CRT. It is not bothersome in the least, and doesn't interfere with work or give you a headache. It's almost like having just a small anti-alias effect on the screen. I may not even have noticed if it had not been pointed out in reviews. Some people may prefer it over the harshness of an LCD.

Ghosting/Crosstalk/ Color Differences in 3D
There is some crosstalk. You will notice it. It doesn't prevent you from playing in 3D, and it doesn't give you a headache. You can mostly tune it out after about 5 minutes of play. Between the ghosting and adjusting for 3D depth, it will slightly affect your response time. At least until you get used to it. The only problems I experienced as a result of the crosstalk was when everything was very dary and there was alot of activity on screen. It was hard to instantly tell what was a target and what was a crosstalk effect.

That said, I was just as competitive, and possibly more so, in all games once I adjusted to the 3D and tuned out the crosstalk. It sounds like the new glasses in beta testing will be a big help with the crosstalk. Tilting the monitor up really helps with this, too.

Price
It's about $100 more than a mid-range 22", so that's not really a whole lot if you're in the market for a 22" anyways. You would spend more than that for a pair of 3D shutter glasses, so save yourself the pain of those things and buy this instead.

Development Activity
You can look around the forums and see almost every single thread has a response from iZ3D. That really says it all. This was the biggest deciding factor for me... knowing they're actually listening to gamers and improving the drivers based on problems we have. There's a couple of 3D companies I could name that don't really care once they have your cash.

Overall Effect
This isn't some cheap, gimmicky 3D. I've been able to do more 3D depth on this than any other 3D system I've tried. It's not just a hint of 3D if the object is close to the monitor, it's fully 3D. The other systems I used always seem like flat objects on a 3D plane, but you perceive 3D objects on a 3D plane with this. It still looks great without eye strain as far as I would want to take the 3D effect. If you have used other 3D systems before, throw out those experiences and think of what your ideal 3D would be, and this is pretty much it.

[Sulix]

As requested by yuri on the iz3d forums, I'll post my (p)review here :

Review - First Impressions (Keep in mind, those are only the first impressions! ) : Time - 1 hour + 30 minutes playtime
I will post another long term review soon

Please keep in mind, that graphic artefacts are quite apparent to me as a cg student (You keep developing a sixth sense for those artefacts ). Some of the drawbacks mentioned here may not apply to other people.

Ok, lets sum it up at the beginning :
I'm overwhelmed and little bit disappointed at the same time.
Fortunately, I'm overwhelmed enough to keep the monitor!

Now let me explain why.
Ok, first thing I did was examining the glasses. I used some of my LCD displays to look at the glasses behaviour. I realized quickly, that the glasses design was far more complex than I thought. The glasses show some very interessting patterns when viewing the LCD screen and rotating the glasses at the same time. Now I understand, why it has to be that difficult to optimize those glasses.
I have to admit, I have no idea why the glasses polarize this way. I have only a basic idea of polarization, and for the rest I've got my math skills . In the general case of linear polarization, after considering all view rays to the screen plane at a given sitting position, the glasses should block out the light uniformly (also considering the glasses curvature). However, this is not the case for iz3d-glasses with an usual LCD. I guess there's going on some magic stuff behind the polarization by the front panel, the implicit hardwareside screenbuffer->polarization conversion seems to be not uniform over the whole screen.
Nah, I'll be honest, I have no idea

Well, enough glass-talk. Let's see how this screen performs. I tried Mass Effect with 1.09. Deactivated shadows and motion blur.
Ok, game menu pops up : Oh ma fuggn god! I was sitting there starring at the screen for about 30 seconds with my mouth wide open. This was great! No comparision to the half-res Zalman. Not at all!

Ok, let's go for one savegame...Loading...Ouch! Well, this was the moment I realized conversion and separation are the stereoscopic users best friend! My eyes poped out because of the color trash. After fiddling a bit with the settings I came to the result : Oh well, that's not that bad at all!

Let's make a small break at this point : Mass Effect wasn't probably the best game to start with. Especially the savegames I tried had a very high contrast, especially in structure details. Of course this is quite difficult to manage with a polarization screen, as the color bleeding problem is nearly unsolvable afaik. Simple said : Don't consider this review to be fair, results may be far better in a game with a more limited color range (Like the Mass Effect menu for example - you have to love those minigames ).

Let us go on. After about 20 secs I got some settings which were satisfying. I just tried to set the convergence so that the maximum object separation in the whole scene didn't exceed an intuitive threshold. After that I matched the separation so that it focused at my character, as I'm looking at her the most time ( I'm a guy....come on, you have to understand that Very Happy )
If you keep focusing on your character, and just look at objects in a near focal plane, you'll get a very good 3D experience (honestly, it's great). The rest of the scene which you are not focusing on will contribute enough to the 3D experience, as long as you don't keep focusing on it. However, if you do, the color bleeding becomes quite apparent.
The next thing I was interessted in was the tinting problem. This was a great suprise, and I have to agree with the community : It's sausage! Really, I looked at my characters arms, closed the left eye, than the right ... quite apparent difference. But as soon as you open both of your eyes, the brain compensates this problem. Good work on this one iz3d guys ( Actually not only on this one, but I have to accent this point).

But! This problem comes into play in combination with color bleeding. These color artifacts make the color bleeding more disturbing. At this point I also have to agree with the community : Ghosting is priority number one! Reducing this problem to a certain point should help a lot. A certain improvement should also eliminate the need for tinting reduction.

Another thing some users meant over at mtbs3d : Using gaze tracking to improve the results. Well, I now understand what you mean, but I have to disagree (at least to a certain degree). Yes, of course you could set the focal plane at the gazed at depth. But this will slide the scene towards/away from you every time you gaze at a different depth. Currently most users are adjusting their settings in game, they do it consciously. However, doing this automized would lead to a lot of irritation I think. But I agree, as long as there are no objects with a huge depth difference in the proximity of the object you're gazing at, this would eliminate ghosting.
My eye tracker is nearly finished, I could give it a try. One problem is, I didn't think the glasses are THAT reflective. I don't know if I can deal with that, but I'll try my best (still far better than with shutter glasses).

Custom improvements advised by the community : Tilting back the monitor helps in my case, confirmed! I'm sorry yuri, but your suggestion didn't work for me. It DID bring some improvements, but also some drawbacks, which made the overall results worse for me.

I also tried some darker levels in Mass Effect, the impression was very good! However, Mass Effect seems to hate stereoscopy . At each point of this game there is some singularity with a very high contrast.
Also I have to confirm : The black range of the iz3d is improveable. It isn't tragic, not at all. But the overall image contrast suffers in dark scenes. As already stated, this is nothing urgent, but for sure something that should be improved in future hardware releases.

Allthough the monitor has a high resolution, at some points of the game (small details with complex structure) aliasing becomes apparent (To clarify : more apparent than aliasing on my Samsung LCD ). I'll stick to my previous statement -> future improvements.

Next point : the drivers. I have to admit : Good work! I'm impressed. The effects work quite good, and the billboards are not too apparent. There were some bugs with the dialogs which you told you're going to fix with 2.0, but this isn't tragic at all (there are also some extreme situations considering the depth in dialogs, I don't know what the Bioware team was messing around with to have such inconsistencies between two camera positions )

I would like to skip the feedback about the installation and all the configuration stuff difficulty, as this wouldn't be objective enough. This is my everydays stuff, it was easy to me, but I don't know if somebody else feels the same way. I think it was quite intuitive, but of course, it could be difficult to someone with no stereo-experience to get started with all the setup stuff.
My personal feeling : You did a good job. I think this big explanation chart helps alot.

Let's come to an end : I'll repeat my first words. The iz3d is an impressive piece of work. It is very difficult to offer such a low cost fullres polarization solution compared to a shutter glass solution. As I said, I have no idea how hard the maths behind the polarization stuff is, as I have no insight into your approach. But my impression is, that it was a lot of hard work. I guess, the iz3d is a adorable piece of technology.
The screen has flaws, I can't deny. Most of these flaws are irrelevant, but sadly, the color bleeding is a quite disturbing aspect. But I don't think, that this aspect is that bad, that you don't give it at a least a fair try.

At this point I have to say, that this is only a first impression. You have to consider one thing ( all newcomers ) : Every technology needs at least at the beginning some compromises. Think about it. You are used to your high res LCD screen with a very high contrast, and you expect exactly the same experience from a stereo solution, just with the freaking awesome 3D experience! This isn't going to happen soon! Not with any solution on the market! So, the thing you have to consider is, as you get used to the monitor, you get used to it's quality drawbacks. On the other hand you get rewarded with an awesome 3D experience (and the experience is really awesome, this isn't just a gadget! ). If this reward justifies the quality drawbacks, the iz3d will be your best friend. I'm quite sure my long term review will be even better than this one. To me, the rewarding experience has outweighted the flaws + the 500 bucks (europe). Also, the experience was better than most of the stereo solutions on my university, except the stereo projector rig.

Finally, lets look into the future. Iz3d steadily prepares to release their new glasses. They seem to be promissing according to the community ( which is great in turn. I have to agree in almost all aspects ). If those glasses reduce the ghosting significant, I will fall in love with this screen.

Also, my experience with the iz3d support is very good. If you're a motivated developer, I think this is the best way to go. You've got a good communication platform, and I'm quite sure, that if you want to go into specific details, the devs at iz3d will answer them gladly over PM ( at least if there are not to many people asking at the same time ). All the developers over here could also improve this solutions attractiveness. Lot of ideas, lot of innovation. You never know, maybe you're the next coming up with a good idea compensating some problems on the software side.

Thank you for reading this, stay tuned for my long term review!
Oh yeah, sorry if I sounded bit arrogant, this wasn't my intention. I'm still lucky that I'm not that experienced as all those guys in the industry. It must be horrible to them watching cg-movies




edit : UPDATE

Review 2nd part - playtime about 10 hours ( I've got much free time right now )

Again, I'll give a small résumé at the beginning :

The monitor definitely is worth it's money.

As you already probably guessed, my oppinion changed to a more positive one since my first review.
Well, let's go a bit into the depth.

My main criticism I mentioned last time was the color bleeding. However, I need to clarify some things. In most of the cases, this problem doesn't disturb the 3D effect at all. This mainly depends on the objects size and the given image contrast. You'll get a really good 3D experience, without any headaches (at least in my case ).

The problem about this crosstalk is, that it reduces the image resolution, depending on the amount of the perceived ghosting. The worst case is, if the object you are looking at is separated by about 0.5 inches (screenspace). This jittering effect has a similar, but less displeasing effect as any convolution kernels like for example a gaussian filter. It reduces the perceived resolution, so in turn the image quality is reduced.

I'm playing most of the time with separation settings about 200%. This value gives me the best result in most cases, as my eye distance to the screen is also pretty small. With such settings, most of the objects in the scene are separated by such a huge amount, that the color bleeding isn't that apparent anymore. The leaked images from the other eye seem to be compensated by the brain, as it cannot relate this information to any 3d information. Anyways, all the objects with a absolute separation ~0.5 inches look quite ugly, sometimes you even cannot recognize what the object really is. The impact of this artefact depends actually on the image contrast in the given area.
In most of the cases, this effect won't distract you, but sometimes you won't get around it.

Some games seem to really like the iz3d, as psychonauts for example. The 3D effect is overwhelming, and in this game for example, most of the time you won't even realize the color bleeding.

In general I have to say, the game experience with the iz3d is much better than with an usual LCD. I really enjoy gaming with the iz3d, makes a lot more fun. With a pure conscience I can recommend this product to everyone willing to spend some money on innovations.
But the color bleeding is a problem, that one cannot deny. I'm quite sure, if this crosstalk could be reduced by about 50% it would be already a huge step forward. I'm really excited how crucial the new glasses improvement will be.

[nubie]

I just had a chance to demo the iZ3D at a Fry's Electronics in Roseville, CA.

It was really really disappointing. I talked to the floor person and the person managing the entire section (pre-built PC's and monitor display models).

They said that they had no control over the system, somebody else "installed" it. And claimed it was "locked down", although it had a USB mouse on it that I plugged in and was able to navigate the system.

Impressions:

Poor contrast, right eye was bright to the point of bleeding, gamma was through the roof, nearly maxed.

Left eye was dim to the point of not being able to see anything half the time. (The display was about 5 feet off the ground, I could see nothing but a reflection of hundreds of HID lamps out of the left eye most of the time.)

I did try to tip the screen down so that I was looking "down" at the screen, that helped a little, but made the right eye more over-GAMMA, and the left eye dimmer. Plus it took a lot of muscle to hold the screen at that angle.

I don't know about the effect, I thought I may have seen it a couple times, but I am not sure.

The specs on the system were:

Vista
Q6600
Sis Chrome 440 one DVI, one HDMI cable coming from the back of the card.
iZ3D Media Player Classic 1.4.0.0

I tried to change the settings, but there weren't any visible. The Chrome drivers were set on defaults, with the secondary monitor "disabled" in windows settings ("extend windows desktop onto this screen" was unchecked).

I was very disappointed because it is an hour and a half drive with lousy traffic, and there was no instructions, the store staff would make it appear that they couldn't do anything. (the floor salesman actually told me that there was a "viewsonic 3D monitor", but I only saw an ATi system demo'ing a joystick, no Nv3D.)

I am considering starting a new thread for this, but I may PM some of the guys from iZ3D first.

EDIT:

Almost forgot, the glasses are very tight, would not fit over my prescription lenses, poor move for the demo in my opinion.

[Welder]

Hello Nubie, thank you for your input.
The systems are not supposed to have mice installed. So, this would explain the issue. Also, you stated that dual monitor was not enabled, that would explain the no 3D.

We are very close to a new software rollout, which will have a new demo video, as well as deepfreeze installed. So that any changes that may end up happening get reverted with a system restart.

Thank you again for your input, and I'm sorry that you had a bad experience. I will forward this to the team.