3D Computers

3D Success Still Coming Into Focus

As we move further past the one-year anniversary of the first 3D TV sets launched in the U.S., it’s clear 3D hasn’t leapt to the forefront of consumer technology market. But it hasn’t fallen completely into the background, either.

The recent announcement by Nintendo that it would dramatically cut the price of the Nintendo 3DS could be seen as another tough break for 3D products. In fact, Nintendo’s newest handheld gaming system overcame two of the most commonly cited objections for 3D–high prices for hardware and the need to wear glasses. Read more…

LG launches 3D tablet

Korean company LG is set to launch a new tablet with 3D recording capabilities at the World Mobile Conference.

There is no official announcement from LG yet on the Optimus Pad, but several sources are claiming to have confirmation of the specification, which includes a 3D camera and 8.9 inch screen capable of displaying autostereoscopic 3D content.

Tablets may well open up a new avenue for 3D content, with the small screen sizes they are ideally suited to glasses-free 3D, which at present is only really possible on smaller screens, and on devices which users tend to use facing directly at the screen, unlike a TV.

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AMD HD3D Technology – What You Should’ve Know from the Start…

After a few days of trying different things and with the help of other readers I was finally able to make everything work as it should with the new AMD HD3D Technology by displaying a stereoscopic 3D content from a PC equipped with ATI Radeon HD 5970 video card to a Panasonic 3D HDTV with both the iZ3D Driver and DDD’s TriDef software.

There were quite a few issues and a lot of things unknown from the start, but after trying out a lot of different things finally everything seems to be working alright, so below I’ll just summarize some of the important findings we had to figure out by ourselves to make it much easier for others. The one thing that puzzles me however is why the hell AMD did not summarize these things right from the start to make the process as easy and as painless for the end users willing to take advantage of their new AMD HD3D Technology? Maybe their concept for openness means something different than what everyone else considers an open initiative, which should also mean open communication with your customers and not being so “full of holes” to call something open…

So in brief what you need to know should you decide to connect your computer with an ATI/AMD video card inside to a 3D capable HDTV by taking advantage of the AMD HD3D Technology, although I suppose that the same may apply to when using a 120Hz LCD monitor too.
- You need to have an ATI Radeon HD 5000 series or AMD Radeon HD 6000 series of GPU, older video cars are not compatible with the AMD HD3D Technology.
- You will need to download and install the latest Catalyst graphics driver, which is currently Catalyst 10.10c Hotfix

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NVIDIA Launches 3DTV Play, Bringing 3D Vision to the Big Screen

Earlier this year, NVIDIA quietly announced 3DTV Play, a driver add-on for 3D TV owners that would allow them to take full advantage of the HDMI 1.4a port on their 4xx GPUs / 3D Vision GPUs by enabling 3D over HDMI. Without 3DTV Play, the NVIDIA 3D PC experience had been restricted to NVIDIA 3D Vision capable monitors with specialized glasses, and for 3D TVs the experience was limited to just Blu-Ray 3D. Now after some months in limbo, 3DTV Play is finally being released and shifts this experience to the big screen.

Introduction

It is no secret that TV makers are heavily betting on 3D becoming popular to drive sales. However, the market reception has been lukewarm at best due to two reasons. First, 3D TVs are not the ideal home experience due to the necessity for glasses and the health warnings associated with 3D content viewing. Secondly, there is a lack of content from the perspective of both console games and Blu-Ray movies to shift consumers to 3D TVs. There are very few channels broadcast in 3D, and the cost associated with covering events and programs in 3D is much more than the standard 2D broadcast. Studios are unwilling to invest much further in this till the consumer demand for such channels increase. In this scenario, the PC platform emerges as the leading provider for 3D content. In addition to a large number of 3D game titles, we are also starting to get user generated 3D content such as those from the recently introduced Fujifilm 3D camera and Panasonic camcorders. With years of development for the 3D ecosystem behind them, NVIDIA has taken up the opportunity to bring it to the TV platform with 3DTV Play.

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World’s first 3D TV tuner card – 3D TV comes to your PC

If you want to take TV on your PC to the next level, there’s only one way to go – add the world’s first 3D TV tuner card. Together with some other necessary accessories (a 3D-capable monitor, 3D graphics card and 3D glasses kit), AVerMedia’s AVer3D CaptureHD will let you watch 3D TV broadcasts on your PC that are as good as anything you’ll see on a proper 3D TV.

While 3D broadcasts are still relatively rare – launched in Australia in 2010 when Channel Nine screened the NSW vs Queensland State of Orgin rugby league series – many more are planned by the TV networks in 2011. The conventional way to see one is to buy one of the 3D TVs now on the market, from vendors like Samsung, Sony or Panasonic. These TVs won’t leave you with much change from $4,000.

Or you can spend around $1,000 to get 3D television on your PC. The AVer3D CaptureHD card itself retails for $199. Distributed in Australia by Altech, the PCI-e card lets you tune into 3D broadcasts and also record and manage them with its 3D Media Center software. In all other respects it’s a standard HDTV tuner card, able to display and record full 1080p HDTV. AVerMedia says a USB dongle version will be announced soon.

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Nvidia Launches GT 430, Touts HTPC, Blu-ray, 3D, and DirectX 11

Nvidia hopes to put integrated graphics to rest with their official GT 430 launch yesterday.

Nvidia announced on Monday the official launch of the GT 430 lineup with several OEM system & video card manufactures, including board partners EVGA, ASUS, Zotac, and Palit just to name a few. The system OEM partnerships for the GT 430 has already been going on for a few weeks as some may have noticed in laptop and desktop system builds, these include Acer, ASUS, Dell, Samsung, Lenovo and Samsung, with relationships with MSI and Sony for laptops only and HP for their desktop lineup only.

What this means to the average user is that Nvidia has once again focused on the lower end price market for video cards, These GPUs are primarily sold through distribution to system integrators (less than 10% of these GPUs are sold through classic E-Tail or retail outlets).

GeForce GT 430 offers a great upgrade from integrated graphics solutions, providing the horsepower needed to power today’s digital media experiences from photo and video editing, to Blu-ray 3D, to mainstream gaming, and to the next generation of GPU-accelerated Web browsers. With GeForce GT 430 and 3D Vision you can also experience your HD media in stereoscopic 3D.

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Acer Aspire 5745DG 3D laptop announced

Acer has announced the new Aspire 5745DG 3D laptop, promising ‘totally immersive’ visuals.

The Acer Aspire 5745DG offers a 15.6 inch 16:9 screen along with Nvidia’s GeForce GT425M graphics.

There is an optional Blu-ray drive, and a ‘large capacity’ hard drive, along with a card reader and the usual connectivity.

“The new Aspire 5745DG is the ultimate home and mobile entertainment centre,” insists Acer.

“Watching any 3D multimedia on this sophisticated notebook will make everything else seem dull.”

The processer can be chosen from Intel’s core range, with the i3, i5 and i7 mobile CPUs all offered along with up to 16GB of DDR3 memory.

“The Aspire 5745DG is graced by a streamlined profile and chic design, adds Acer.

“A textile patterning peaks through the glossy finish of the black cover with smooth rounded edges.”

source: http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/acer-aspire-5745dg-3d-laptop-announced-900369

LG’s A510 Laptop Converts 2D to 3D

As there’s barely any 3D content about, LG has very kindly equipped the A510 laptop with TriDef software which upscales 2D video to 3D. It’s not going to be the best 3D experience, but you know…it’s a start.

The LED LCD screen measures 15.6-inches, and inside there’s an Intel Core i7 processor with an Nvidia GeForce GT425M graphics card pumping away and 1GB of DDR2 of RAM.

Included in the pack is a pair of polarized glasses, plus a novelty clip-on pair for spectacles wearers such as myself. While price hasn’t been mentioned by LG, we do know it will go on sale first in Asia, South America, the Middle East and Africa next month.

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Acer to Soon Have More Interesting 3D-capable LCD Monitors

The company was among the first to release a 120Hz 3D-capable LCD monitor with Full HD resolution and it seems that Acer is also on track to be with another first on the 3D LCD monitor market – this time with HDMI 1.4a capable 3D-monitors. Acer is preparing to release two new models – one with passively polarized 3D glasses and another one designed for Nvidia’s 3D Vision active shutter glasses and here we are talking about 23.6″ models.

However the company is also working on a 27-inch model with 3D capabilities and it seems that Acer will be there first, beating the already announced 27″ Asus monitor that seems to be getting some delays and will probably be available sometime next year. Read more…

HP ENVY 17 3D a 3D-capable Multimedia Laptop by the End of the Year

It is now official as HP has announced their plans to release the HP ENVY 17 3D, a 3D-capable multimedia laptop for the holiday season this year. There were a lot of rumors going on about HP getting a 3D-capable laptop since quite a lot of time, at first for a professional solution, but now we actually get a quite powerful consumer laptop. And if we are lucky enough we may also see the HP 2310g 120Hz LCD monitor too, as apparently HP is finally ready to also jump on the 3D wave.

It is interesting to note the fact that the HP ENVY 17 3D is actually the first 17-inch notebook to support 1080p 3D, meaning Full HD 120Hz screen for gaming and Blu-ray 3D movie playback apparently. But more interesting is the fact that the laptop is based on an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 graphics card and that means no Nvidia 3D Vision, but an alternative solution also based on active shutter glasses.

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