Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED review part I: Unboxing and deisgn comparison vs the smd ST1080

You may not know it but hmds are the new tablets.. from summer 2011 and the release of the Sony HMZT1 to the release this year of the siliconmicrodisplay ST1080 , the Oculus Rift ( in a few weeks time) and the now in my hands Zeiss Cinemizer OLED you can see the great amount of creative energy , lab coated and t shirted geeks of all nations wracking their brains to solve a problem like the consumer hmd... for lab coated and t shirted geeks like you and me to trip some Count Zero action... 

This is not going to be one of those 3 hour company unit loan reviews that you will read with many a more serious and grammatically corrector tech site . No I am going to take my time as this is a unit I purchased, much like you will have to so the review is going to based on actual real day to day use of the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED with an ongoing comparison to the awesome ST1080 , the HMZT1 is over , gone dead , dodo and the HMZT 2 well ...fool me twice...fool me ... oh and the Oculus Rift when it arrives in a few weeks..

Although all these devices are marketed as mass consumer items, right now the technology,ergonomics,cost and supply issues really keep these as enthusiast niche devices.. If you want to test this theory try getting hold of a HMZT 2 , ST1080 , Oculus Rift or indeed Daniel Jackson..a Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED ..

Right now the consumer hmd is still in it`s Orville and Wilbur Wright phase at best displaying (!) the same level of proficiency as those old bold pilots in the intro to the Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. And they pretty much tend to look like Cylon ships too.. if Apple designed Cylon ships that is...

super conductive anti gravity A4 paper used to display the ST1080 and Zeiss Cinemizer OLED in Cylon pose (vertical)

If you are buying into one you are brave and you know this is also the most exciting time to get hold of hmds .. But the truth is there is NO hmd that will fit your face /head without discomfort or produce the clarity of image or indeed the VR experience that you were expecting .. But they are trying ..bless them..and for me these are the coolest pieces of tech to come out since some old hippy dude invented that magical device for surfing the web on your belly...

So let`s check out the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED ..and compare with the ST1080 .  I am going to be looking at design choices .

First let`s have a tour of what you get ..

Sony gave you a cinema , smd gave you 1080p and portability what revelations do Zeiss bring ?

Look closely at the above picture ...one of these things is not like the other . One of these things does not have a power supply+plug ..With the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED there is no power supply ... no PSU .. what ? Yes no PSU and I find that awesome, this is the first hmd that really is portable . You are not going to be hunting around for battery packs or charging with old fangled 3 pin and 2 pin sockets... no you just plug it into a USB port on your laptop ..and hopefully console too ( more on that when I get console gaming)  . In fact I use my ST1080s the same way connected to a USB port on my laptop .. but it is pretty radical to leave a PSU out together and it positions the Cinemizer OLED firmly as a portable device in the minds of users ..they want you to carry this around 

The battery/control unit is extremely light and as far as I can see so far does not heat up the way the ST1080s does , nor does it take up its own shelf as the HMZT1s did. And it is smaller than the ST1080s super hot control unit combining both power and display voodoo functions.. (yeah take that technical term AV trolls) ..

I just finished using the unit for around 4 hours  playing Dishonored in Tridef 3D and trying out various 3D videos (next part of my review)  and wonder of wonders the entire battery and control unit is not even warm ..in fact it is cool ..amazing this means you can actually carry this around in your pocket. Something which is not advisable with the ST1080 control box and totally impossible with the Sony HMZT1 and T2 control units... although I am sure a few AV blog trolls have tried...they tried ...and di..

Any way weaknesses of the battery control unit :  To connect your hdmi cable you need to use the mini hdmi to hdmi connector ..ok this separates the hdmi cable from the unit and should cut down on possible interference ..the ST1080 uses (ugly) magnetic shielding to get round this. However this is another lead to carry around and lose it and you lose your hdmi input option altogether. There is also no place for it in the carry case .. which at first glance looks cool but really is quite weak when it comes to taking care of your £600 hmd.. just sayin.. THE way to store your hmd is the smd ST1080 way,now that comes in a two compartment foam containing box , the uppermost unit containing your hmd , and in the lower compartment buried in two deep foam compartments all your gubbins .. none of which can damage the delicate hmd above. The Zeiss Cinemizer OLED carry case however  has you placing the the control unit ABOVE the hmd in the case wrapping it with the av cable AFTER you take off the ear locks... Zeiss obviously outsource or need to outsource their case and storage design . Any form of delicate optics needs a foam template containing case .. they do it for lenses etc why not for the Cinemizer OLED... Once you dare to pack the hmd into the case where do you put all the other leads ? whoops ... 

In three moves or less get all that into case above without damaging your £600 hmd ...

Comfort and ergonomics : The Zeiss is THE most comfortable hmd ever created or experienced by myself , really these are glasses or as close to glasses as you can get in terms of how it distributes weight on your nose and fits over your ears. The design with circular windows next to circular dioptre wheels , the sleek and featherweight temple arms and even the ear locks , with the power lead starting where it should on a hmd for a change make this a very cool looking and ergonomically functional device. 

The Zeiss is the first hmd that does not put your head in a vice grip , or require one of those rear shoe lace style head straps or the SM torture machine that accompanies the Sony HMZT 1 and T2 . You will NOT feel those temple arms at all , in fact playing dishonored when you use the beating heart item and that wonderfully soothing voice starts talking to you it felt like someone was whispering in mine ear .. I forgot the head phones were in my ears and I could not feel the temple arms pressing against me at all , a radically different experience from the HMZT1 and the ST1080..

On the nose :  on paper the Zeiss weighs just  a little less than the ST1080 but the intelligent bridge design ,ear locks and the arms that feel as loose and absent as the arms on your shades or glasses mean this is the first hmd you really could use for VR and move around without any strain on your neck or having to lower yourself to the point of justifying your £800 by posting the Fireman Helmet Mod your mother knitted for you to tempt the trolls on your favourite AV blog into buying it from you..so you can pick up that 3D LED tv instead... 


Optics ... the mechanics of the optics are great as expected :

The sweet spot issue 

The bane of hmd users (after discomfort ) is known to we happy few as "the sweet spot" . The sweet spot is the uber technical term describing the ACTUAL area of the screen you see clearly,  so forget about fovs of 120 degrees or 30 degrees or screen sizes of 70 ft at 20 m or 40 inches at 2m because what matters is how much of that screen you can see. Now move out of the sweet spot with your eyes and you lose the 3D effect , lose image clarity . The HMZT1 had a famously bad sweet spot, move ever so slightly and the optics would mess up altogether. Pain and discomfort was not the only reason HMZT1 users sat in virtual paralysis during their hmd sessions of watching Avatar in 3D ..  Looking through the viewer of the HMZT1 felt like work the optics were near useless not least because when the thing powered up it would warn you never to use the unit EVER if this line did not cross that line... oh the things AV blog trolls don`t tell  you...

The Zeiss Cinemizer OLED has NO sweet spot issues , you see a clear screen from corner pixel to corner pixel... ( albeit a on a display with a lot less of them). The optics are excellent , unshakable in fact you can look from a distance through to the OLED displays behind the optics and you can still see images and text (as long as you are at a sensible resolution) . 

Like the ST1080 the Zeiss has no optical lens distortion issues , when you look through on both these devices you see a flat screen behind . None of the curving , mind bending looking through one eye to chase text or icons of the olde HMZT1...

A matter of perspective
Another barrier to getting in lost in your 3D VR world is  offset perspective .. in order to explain this  let us consider Leonardo Da Vinci ( yes the one from Assassins Creed ) and his Last Supper which used an offset perspective that requires you to stand in a particular place and look from a particular angle  to experience the full 3D effect of his masterpiece drawing you to Christ . Yes Leonardo did in fact create ghost free 3D centuries before you got hold of your first 3D hmd .. don`t believe me ... go check out the original in the original place... it`s worth leaving your cellar for.. 

Any way when using a hmd the shape of your head, angle of your eyes,your nose shape  is different for everyone and can shatter the illusion of 3D, manufactures have a few ways around this ,the rigid positioning and immovability of the HMZT1, the shear weight of 680g of hot OLED designed to discourage you from moving and shattering the 3D effect once you had spent several hours trying to find it... The ST1080 uses a head strap and nasal bridges and the Cinemizer OLED uses adjustable nasal bridges and attachments , it does not always work for some with the ST1080 they still have to raise or lower the hmd to get a full view of the screen. The Cinemizer OLED has NO perspective issues that I can see and it comes with intelligently designed attachments  helping distribute weight and also counter the perspective issue you find with hmds. How effectively will depend on the particulars of your face, but I think Leonardo would be proud of Zeiss` attempts. In fact I am tempted to look at The Last Supper using Tridef 3D and check out what Mr Sforza paid all that money for...there you go 3D viewing of masterpieces yet another use for the Cinemizer OLED..

Dioptre wheels of joy : Another  inspiration of genius is the inclusion of the dioptre focus adjustment wheels that can compensate for short sight ..sadly not astigmatism though .You start to wonder how all the other (ok 3 ) consumer hmd makers missed out including them. 

Also it feels very cool turning those wheels like you are using expensive precision optical equipment .. which of course after paying £600 odd you are ! The Zeiss is the first hmd that you can see and feel the quality of... on the outside of at least ..find out the quality of the picture later on ..

Using hmds for almost a year the most important issue is comfort, then optics - how it moulds to your vision. On both these counts Zeiss have the perfect design model. You will feel it when you open the glasses ... it really is just like opening glasses the temple arms move with such free action that there is 0 effort ...and none of the opening the vice of the ST1080 or the abject horror of those straps on the HMZTs and that is before you adjust the forehead cushion that is going to leave a nice sweaty imprinted 3rd eye indentation right above your eyebrows...

With the Cinemizer OLED there is no need for mods , ski goggles , pickernic basket mods .. you just put them on and go.. 

looking up the nose of the smd ST1080 and the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer

Both the ST1080 and the HMZT series have lateral adjustments for what we call in UK playgrounds "Wonky eyes" .. as you can see from the above picture the sliders are on the underside of the ST1080 and you can move them independently and to any position . The HMZT 2 has caught up with this idea. With the Zeiss I needed no such adjustment. I was worried about the lack of this option but wow they just work you put them on and see the screen behind.

Putting the Zeiss on for me or you is as easy as putting on a pair of shades.. no nasal bruising , no leather footprint embedded into your forehead that makes your head smell like polished cowhide Loafers after a long session with the Sony HMZT1.  

I used the unit for around 4 hours .. the unit did not cook my face like the HMZT1, the OLEDs weren`t heating up and I had no neck pain or dizziness. I never needed to adjust the unit for discomfort at any point.

So lets talk about the experience : 

Screen size : they say this is 40 inches from 2m . the HMZT1 is a Cinema sized screen from the back row , the ST1080 is a 100 inch screen from 10m . OK people lets get real when you place your head in darkness looking at a rectangle of bright light for a significant length of time your brain turns the screen you see into the same size ..whether you use the HMZT1 , ST1080 or Cinemizer OLED you can only use one at time and after a while the screens all look the same size. 

We have to see what Palmer Luckey does with the 120 degree fov of the Oculus Rift but as far as my experience of hmds goes the screen sizes are virtually the same, what matters is how much of that screen you can see without distortion from the optics used. The Cinimizer OLED has 0 distortion . 

There is a caveat to all this what really makes a hmd screen look bigger is the amount of detail in a scene so the 1080p res of the ST1080 really comes into its own the 100 inch screen of the ST1080 just feels bigger as you see so much more detail. 

Is that 870 by 500 res limiting for the Zeiss ?  Well you go for OLEDs for their colour and refresh and in this case the design , ergonomics and reputation of Zeiss for quality will be enough to push a few of these out . I have no doubt there will be a 1080p version at least down the line, but you are talking a year or so at least , it took 4 years to out this from Zeiss.  720p OLEDs as used in the HMZT1 have problems of cost ,heat , size and in hmds optical distortion. Whether it was down to cost issues that Zeiss went the lower res route or design preferences I can tell you the Zeiss produces an image not far off in colour from the HMZT1 , albeit at a lower res , for quick portable movie viewing this is fine ... although at some points  in my tests today I was getting diagonal banding in 3D sbs viewing of mp4 files. The one game I had time to try Dishonored in tridef 3D worked excellently, just like on the ST1080 only with lower res but offset by the rich colours of OLED tech. 

Glitches like this are to be expected , my first HMZT1 actually had dead pixels , Sony were so embarrassed they went all quiet and took 5 months to replace it ( thankfully I had a spare). The ST1080 launched with a vertical bar and no 720p scaling of 3D games and missing some 3D formats , all of this was solved within weeks of launch .. 

And Zeiss are keen for you to register with them ..for of course amongst other things firmware updates

Sound : The reproduction of sound depends on your source , the most awesome experience of my 4 hour testing today was that voice whispering in my ear in Dishonored , the headphones are not that great in quality but they are so light and comfortable you forget they are there , if you need more boom boom then you can attach your own headphones to the battery/control unit as you can with the ST1080 and the HMZT2 ( if you truly want to suffer)... The sound is nowhere near the ear shattering power of the ST1080 though , which has the best sound of any hmd to date.

Tomorrow I go through the games on PC and consoles and talk about the problems ...come on hmd fans you know every hmd has problems. Solving those problems or chasing them is the fun of being an early adopter and the whole point of this babble....

I have to say I am impressed with how the hmd is developing. disappointing yes that this is not at least 720p but nowhere as much as I feared . This is however the first hmd you can wear as easily as shades, gives you the colour and refresh of the HMZT 1 and 2 , without the discomfort or pain, you can readily use this for VR as it is so well ergonomically designed. If you have to work or intend to do more with your hmd the finest is the smd ST1080 hands down. However the Zeiss is just cool , literally and aesthetically , anyone you know could use it and more importantly wear it . 

From my initial impressions Zeiss have nailed the really vital aspect of hmd design : they made one that fits , more to follow in part II ...

feeling brave .. don`t need to read the next part of my Zeiss Cinemizer OLED experience ? Purchase  in the UK/EU the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED 3D iPack including iPhone adapter and in the USA the Cinemizer OLED , 

 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED review part III: XBOX 360 gaming in 1080p and 3D

The big question about the Cinemizer OLED is how its resolution can cope with 1080p and 720p.You probably think the screen will turn to garbage with squished text and weird scan lines aliasing  everywhere. I thought so too ... till I started playing games on the old Chevvy 360 ...

Playing Xbox 360 games using this most excellent addition to the hmd field.. is/was a revelatory experience:

First : I played around 6 hours today (not healthy for normal living organisms) and the first tale I have to tell is that once again the battery unit remained cold, no really cold, after 6 hours the only heat it had was transferred from my hands to it when I was checking to see if it heated up..

Second : comfort, 6 hours is a long time some of that was spent filming but none of the time whether playing in 3D or 2D  FPS or fast moving racing or flight sims ever generated any feeling of nausea ala the old HMZT1 ... perhaps my many months with the HMZT1 made me immune to hmd emesis .. It is also so easy to put the Cinemizer OLED on and take it off .. you do it without thinking.

Third : I wanted to address that other fear of would be hmd owners re are blacks black and how black is the black ..is the black black .. ? etc etc 

Fourthly : I cannot convey to you enough how vivid the colours are when you use the display or how sharp the picture is across the entire display, and easy to move your eyes around, this hmd needs to make no excuses for sweet spots or bleeding light issues because there are no issues. I can show you a very poor approximation with mine iPad filming some of the action. 

And now on to the testing 

Question :Can a 870 by 500 OLED hmd handle a 1080p and 3D console display?  Answer : Yes we can and in style and comfort too..

Proof : I spent 6 hours of joyous Xbox 360 gaming looking for problems like scaling artifacts , text that could not be read and other weird hmd mumbo jumbo 

Setting up the Zeiss with the Xbox : I did not need to change anything the Xbox 360 settings show the display at 1080P with 3D enabled. Simple. And wonder of wonders the Xbox interface and growing wall of weird and less and less useful services which now has taken a Windows 8 Metro appearance all displayed in perfect clarity. So no scaling issues at all so far.

You can navigate with speech and gestures   with Kinect just like  Johny Mnemonic or TC in Minority Report  only sans gloves! Gibson .. Philip K Dick what would they know right?

Onto gaming 

And what better way to test Ghost Free 3D than with

Ghost Recon Future Soldier 3D 

With the Zeiss we are supposed to select 3D formats before launching games, but with Ghost Recon all I needed to do was pop the game in the 360 and the console together with the Cinemizer OLED set the 3D format with the game launching in full screen 3D no black borders.. 

Now we come to the question of how the Zeiss handles this 3D game : The display in game is awesome light shafts, glints , smoke dust sand and environmental detail are razor sharp.  

I can read every piece of hud info down to the names of my squad all the little bits of info etc that decorate the HUD that the Ghosts are famous for. 

In fact I can read the lets roll tag on the Ghosts helmet , see the groove and glint on the screw that fastens the helmet, the components that make up his helmet camera and I can see the sun reflecting off the dust that is covering rust that is just on the guys head gear.. Now none of that detail would be expected to be  possible at such a low res but it is . Whatever the Zeiss folks are feeding their scaling algorithm  guys and girls is paying dividends.

The colour is mind blowing really, there is no difference in playing this on the Cinemizer OLED to the HMZT1 in terms of colour . There is one big difference though, you can play for hours on the Zeiss, move your head around ,take it off put it back on, take it with you, fitting it as easlly as a pair of glasses. With the Zeiss you actually move around, read the hud from corner pixel to corner pixel with no curvature or distortion of the image.. wait I lied there are so many differences ... Playing the same game on the HMZT1 gave a curved edge and had all the sweet spot issues as well as comfort issues ..and that's the thing  you may try out a few games on the HMZT series you wont play them.. with the arrival of the ST1080 and Cinemizer OLED you can ...

The 3D itself is very effective in this game, I filmed gameplay with an iPad, you will not see the 3D or the true colour as I am filming through the iPad lens through the Zeiss lens to the display behind this distorts the image and gives the image a slightly blue hue..but this is the best I can get out of the iPads camera.  In reality it is the most vividly coloured display I have tried since the HMZT1.

You can clearly see your character seperate from the background which itself has layers , so in the scene at the start of  the Bolivia mission you are foremost, a pillar is in the 2nd layer of 3D and your squad occupy other layers in a street that stretches out with depth.. 
I can see every little red and yellow triangular flag. Tiny details you would think would mess up but this looks and plays better than on the HMZT1. And lets not forget you really can play it without causing and kind of discomfort.

I tried to show a little of the environmental detail too check out the flames and burning trees ..

All in all my first Cinemizer OLED Xbox 360  gaming experience completely negated my fears re the lower resolution of the Cinemizer OLED compared to other hmds.. 

Is this a fluke say a well optimised scaling game ?.. lets move onto Halo, I am going to use several Halo games in this test, partly because there is nothing to play on the Xbox 360 but Halo ..nothing that you cannot get elsewhere that is  and partly because playing Halo Anniversary is going to let me test 3D again on the Zeiss, 1080P 2D in Halo Reach and the black OLED stealth of it all  in HALO ODST . All of these games use a significant amount of darkness namely black to generate atmosphere. In a normal gaming living room there is constant interruption of your gaming world you feel disconnected to it as soon as someone walks in front or the bell rings or your toast is toast or usually when your better half switches the channel .. with a hmd nothing short of you going suddenly blind or the world running out of electricity can brake the bond between you and your game.This is what makes playing FPS games so great on hmds..


Halo ODST uses black and neon as a game mechanic so is the perfect candidate to test the blacks and colours of the Cinemizer OLED. And the experience ? Uniform blacks, bright neon colours all helping you feel like you wear that ODST heads up display helmet and the claustrophobia of it all locking you into pitch black New Mombasa's deserted streets with your HUD scanning and neon framing alien prey for you.  This is the closest you will come to wearing the ODST helmet. The screens you see here and the video below cannot  convey the actual quality of colour, black and image resolution that the Cinemizer OLED attains but they should prove you can game easily using this hmd..

The screen maintains a flat image across the whole screen there is no image distortion, perfect clarity you can read everything see everything and a few things that are not there too and make you jump. I think the stealth part of ODST is the best the HALO series has ever been and playing it with the Cinemizer OLED greatly enhances  your immersion in the game world ,it is also pretty great when you are getting your Banshee on...

Halo Anniversary 3D : On the Zeiss the game boots up and the hmd selects the correct 3D format, after a scary Bungie logo that only played in one side of the screen everything went fine. The 3D which I cannot show you is totally believable, corridors stretch out, your gun hand occupies a different layer, particle fx go off everywhere, people do the poking the broomstick or in this case boomstick 3D effect at you every time they speak to you. Cortana looks great etc etc. The screen is flat no curves no distortions end to end colour. When you fight and sparks fly , shields flicker and wee and large shimmering beasties attack in 3D it is most impressive. The technicolour light show you get with the Zeiss is worth the admission alone. But the most impressive aspect is how it handles the dark, the darkness has depth too in ghost free 3D. 

Halo Reach 1080p : shame on me a year after or 2 years after getting Reach and still not playing through it ..for with the Zeiss I finally have something to just play the game with without interruption. Playing Halo Reach on a glasses sized display that is actually being powered by the Xbox 360 through 1 simple USB cable ...did I mention your Xbox can charge the battery whilst you use the Zeiss ?

Now 1080p should mess up on this res display yes? Well no actually the game is razor sharp, it looks the same as on the HMZT1 only with clearer edge to edge picture with no distortion.

F1 2012 1080p  : the cars appear photo realistic in Codemasters annual update and viewed through the Zeiss there is an insane level of fidelity, there is not just one shade of black there are vivid shades of black with all the F1 Cars and drivers livery and decals easily discernible. The most impressive part though is when you step into your virtual cockpit and start your engine, this is out and out the most impressive experience I have had with the Cinemizer OLED, you can feel the speed are closer to the sound and without anything to interrupt your view you are in your own holodeck racing around Monza. If you are worried about the native resolution don't be, you can read every detail on the driving wheel all the telemetry data, speed, gear shift changes, see every reflection and glint on the paint of your car and every piece of gravel that flies up at you as you skid off track or sticks to your tires. Now if you add head tracking via Kinect you have your own wearable F1 simulator.

Check the videoS, again just an illustration, these are not the colours you will see using the Cinemizer OLED  , they are far more vivid and you cannot see the 3D effect but it should show you black is black and that 870 500 Cinemizer OLED handles scaling down hi res content without effort when it comes to Xbox 360 gaming.

feeling brave .. don`t need to read the next part of my Zeiss Cinemizer OLED experience ? Purchase  in the UK/EU the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED 3D iPack including iPhone adapter and in the USA the Cinemizer OLED , 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED review part II : Brightness tests, PC gaming with Borderlands 2 and Prometheus in 3D...

My second day of owning the Cinemizer OLED and since my 5th PS3 phat has died and by that I mean everyone of my PS3 phats ..all 5 of them have died ... once again following a software update ...I am testing on PC and Xbox 360 as I cannot get hold of another PS3 till after the weekend and I have to decide..replace the phat or embrace the super slim...  lets get going. 

The following video attempts to show you three things :

1.how bright the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED display is via the playing of Borderlands 2 on the PC .. It is not going to give you the hmd experience as there is no way to film that ..but it should show you the images the Zeiss is throwing out hold up under bright illumination. 

2.It should also show you the excellent minimal optical distortion that Zeiss have managed to incorporate into their hmd, what I am trying to demonstrate is the minimum of effort your eyes have to go through to focus a clear image using the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED. You should be able to see the game titles and text in the video, this is in bright light with a lamp shining onto the Zeiss, now imagine the clarity of the picture when you actually place it on your nose. The Zeiss gives a perfect corner to corner flat ,uniform brightness, uniform colour picture with no lighter or distorted edges or areas as some have reported with other hmds.

and 

3. Take a look at me moving the Cinemizer OLED around .. I can do it with one hand the device is THAT light. A second day into owning it and the design and quality really show through. I love the way it looks, the curves the circular windows ,dioptre wheels and feather weight temple arms. It is all very steampunk .. I would love a Mahogany framed brass dioptre wheeled version . Play around with the Zeiss and you come to the conclusion this is the first hmd designed to be aesthetically pleasing and functional too. 

Borderlands  running in 1280 by 720 in 2D off my Intel HD3000 powered X220T under direct illumination.

What the video cannot convey : 

The colour reproduction on the Zeiss is awesome, you may see a lot of blue in the video above, when I use the device I see ice, shimmering and gleaming, brilliant radiant colours as the day night cycle kicks in the game. There is not a pixel of the screens where black is not black which should satisfy AV blog trolls no end.. wait what am I saying ..they can never be satisfied...

And does the 870 by 500 res diminish the experience ? No I can read all the text playing at 1280 by 720  and the beauty of the OLED colours with it`s awesome refresh rate makes playing Borderlands 2 a joy to play ..bodes well for all Unreal based games. 
There is no pixelation , you cannot see pixels. I played the game in 2D as I have yet to figure out a Tridef 3D setting that works with my hardware. Some people have speculated whether you can play FPS games on this , to that I say well hell yes from Dishonored in 3D to Borderlands demoing 2D the OLED tech used in the Zeiss makes it perfect for this type of game. Unexpected? Well they do say expect the un.. You could happily take this to a LAN or PRO gaming event or your copins house and be wearing a display that weighs less than your gamebro or gamegirls pro gaming headphones... 

What you are getting here is almost the exact experience of the HMZT 1 or 2 in terms of colour but in something so light and portable that you can lift it with a finger.The picture is distortion free ,has no sweet spot issues just watch me pan the camera around.  Does it come close to the awesome res of the ST1080 .. no hmd can compete on raw resolution terms with the ST1080 I could and have sat typing blog posts using it . On the ST1080 you can read text and HUD details in games effortlessly. But you cannot carry that control unit around without burning something, With the Zeiss it is magical how the battery pack/control unit does not heat up, I spend a significant amount of time tapping it to see ..and cool ... nothing seems to change the temp . With my ST1080 I have to place the control unit onto a solid plate to insulate it from the surface it is on, there is no way you could put it in your jacket pocket. smd always have the option of updating it though...

Video : I watched Prometheus in Tridef 3D, yesterday I saw banding in some side by side mp4 encodes I had watched using Windows media player. However using Tridef 3D player the picture was perfect. Prometheus looked great in 3D with all the black is black blacks an AV blog troll could want, the rolling opening scene looks amazing in Tridef 3D on the Zeiss. Again you are getting a Sony HMZT1 or T2 experience in terms of colour , but beyond HMZT1 or T2 in terms of comfort and portability and picture clarity. There is no picture distortion , no sweet spot issue just a flat large screen 3D ghost free film experience. With the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED  you finally have a device you  can take with you anywhere, with no fiddly PSU unit and a control unit that stays ice cool. The video res was 1080p  scaled down on the Zeiss you really cannot see the difference that you would expect from this lower resolution. For film viewing this is a fine device and frankly the only device you really can wear and carry around without burning a hole in your pocket, or being Harold and Kumar`d on the plane whilst attempting to assemble it ( do not take your HMZT1 or 2 onto planes people).


Yesterday I promised to touch on the problems the Cinemizer OLED arrives with.

PC setup 

The Zeiss is quite fiddly to set up with a laptop, there seems to  be no way of turning off of the laptop screen when you have the Zeiss connected. I cannot tell if this deliberate or something which requires a firmware update. You have to take time to find the correct resolution and as the device resets every time you disconnect. 

In contrast with the HMZT1 and ST1080 you just plug and play, no messing with 2nd monitor resolutions or frequency  and you can switch off your laptop monitor whilst you use the hmd. With the Zeiss if you try to switch off your laptop monitor and use the Cinemizer as your sole screen the device resets and your laptop monitor changes res to become your sole screen even though you just made it clear to Windows 8 that you want the hmd as the sole screen.

With this hap hazard and totally manual set up I have managed to  play Dishonored in Tridef 3D at 1280 by 720 on the ST1080 it takes seconds and you have no resolution setup issues.  Setting the display to higher resolutions on the Zeiss has to be done through the monitor properties from Windows ,stepping up resolutions and frequencies as you go with some frighteningly fuzzy results on the way. You cannot start at 1080p it will just revert to the lowes native res of the Zeiss , you have to go through and up the resolutions step wize.. 

This is where the ST1080 shines , you  just plug it and go and it is very likely it will be higher res than your laptop any way. You can send it beyond 1080p too if you have the gpu to do it but then you will run into text reading problems.  

Surfing and reading text : 720p res or 1366 by 768 is fine for surfing using the Zeiss. Smaller text can go the way of gibberish but if you use sensible text sizes i.e. larger ones you should be fine, this is true of all hmds even the ST1080 gives you less grief if you pick sensibly larger font and icon sizes.. Whilst the HMZT series has a higher res, this is really quite irrelevant when reading text because you have the sweet spot issue, outside of which you cannot see text or icons clearly so it is irrelevant that the HMZTs do 720p if you can only see the centre two thirds or less of the screen and that is only if you do not move whilst wearing your 0.5 kg to 0.68 kg hmd.

I see the diagonal banding and pc set up issues as firmware problems. Zeiss need to work on getting an update which I am sure they will do once they get feed back from users. 

Know then that , in this my second day of owning the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED  I have shaken off my fears of the lower res been amazed by the ice cool battery pack , confused by the power on power off, switch to 3D, PC setup mechanisms and fallen in love with the curves, steampunk design, colour and brightness reproduction as well as the light weight of this device..

When I first wrote about this device I pondered if I would be seeking a refund soon after receiving it.  Refunds and returns are a big thing in the world of hmds .. the Sony HMZT1 is one of THE most annoying devices to be sold by Sony Centres as there are significant returns due to comfort issues and in my case due to dead pixels . With the ST1080 again there are people seeking refunds as they do not know what to expect from a device like the ST1080 and indeed the HMZT1. This is to be expected , the hmd format is alpha and baby if you just bought one you are part of that alpha test.  Looking at the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED in front of me I can literally comfortably say, that short of receiving a damaged one very few people will ever look for a refund or return the item.  Yes it cannot compare to the 1080p res of the ST1080, but it has the colours of the HMZT1 and comes without any of the comfort , optical distortion, immovability issues. 

The firmware though and the way the device sets up on PCs needs working on, but hey that is just software. 

What is thoroughly jump in an ice cold Norwegian fjord after sitting in a sauna for 2 hours way about the Zeiss is they got the physical ergonomic design , optics , power supply and portability right. You know these are going to get better along with the resolution of the screens used. So it really is just a matter of time before everyone from film fans to gamers to those who need to work on high res portable displays are satisfied..

I love the ST1080 it is the finest HMD of this generation but there is still room in my life for the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED. We need this competition, all this competition will eventually lead to those retinal projecting VR contacts that the great Steve Jobs was working on ... whoops let the cat out of the bag..

More to follow .... next up part III Xbox 360 gaming with the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED... now leave me I have to bury or return my PS3 phat...they always leave you in the end..

feeling brave .. don`t need to read the next part of my Zeiss Cinemizer OLED experience ? Purchase  in the UK/EU the Zeiss Cinemizer OLED 3D iPack including iPhone adapter and in the USA the Cinemizer OLED , 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

HAWKEN Closed Beta : Playing in ghost free 3D using the Cinemizer OLED hmd and Tridef 3D

In my previous post I was playing Hawken in 2D in ultra settings at 1280 by 720 using just an Intel HD3000 powered tablet pc. What I needed to see was how it copes with being played in 3D , thanks to Tridef 3D and the Cinemizer OLED hmd I managed to do just that.. 

To set up the game for 3D play use the generic settings for Tridef 3D , connect your hmd of choice or 3D display of choice and then launch the game from Tridef . Ignore the warning about Direct X ..and keep calm and carry on .. As this is a beta we will forgive the menu screens which render garbage , for when you get into playing the game with your hmd or 3D display that`s when things start coming together.

Mech games are crying out to be played in 3D, to get this one playable chose the low settings , turn of particle fx, physx and I took down Anisotropic filtering too. The game still looks great on the Cinemizer OLED thanks to the colour production and high refresh rate. You will have to use the force a little with some of the menus which Tridef wrecks atm... 

So here it is , this is actual 3D game footage captured with FRAPS , set your 3D viewers to top down or over under as they say and check out Hawken played in 3D . Currently the game seems locked to one level unlike the Alpha ..oh no I said too much ... haven't said enough .. that's me in the cockpit ...  to view the video and these screen shots in 3D set your 3D display ST1080 , HMZT 2 or Cinemizer OLED to over under :

sign up for Hawken here 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached