Customer Reviews

Myvu Personal Media Viewer Solo Plus Edition (MA-0495)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I recently purchased a set of these. Personal video glasses are a difficult item to purchase because it's very hard to find a store that carries them, let alone lets you try them on before purchase, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

First impression out of the box: these glasses are amazingly tiny and lightweight. The branches fold up, and they can very easily fit into a jacket pocket. That's a very important point when it comes to a device meant to travel a lot: you will not think twice about carrying them, unlike a DVD player.

I found the descriptions of what you see in the glasses quite misleading: the panels are actually collimated at about a foot in front of your eyes, so the illusion is quite similar to watching the screen in the seat in front of you on an airplane. It's perfectly acceptable, but falls short of the pompous comparisons to watching a 44" big screen from 9 feet away. The field of view may be identical, but the focusing isn't.

The Myvu glasses do not isolate you, as you can very easily see around the virtual screen. This is probably good to address a common problem with immersive VR goggles, which tend to make the user nauseous and disoriented. On the downside, this makes them more difficult to watch in very bright ambient light conditions. Also, switching between the virtual screen and the "outside world" is difficult because of the short focusing distance of the screen.

Finally, I was surprised to find out watching videos through the goggles did not significantly reduce battery life compared to watching them on the iPod screen directly. You will want to get some sort of high capacity USB battery pack if you want to be able to watch more than a couple of movies on one charge, though.

If you fly a lot (or have a long train commute) and would like to catch up on your video watching, you can't go wrong with the Myvu goggles. They're inexpensive, well designed, take up very little space and work very well.

You should also know that Myvu is coming up with new models: the Shade 301 (an update to this model) and the Crystal 701 (with full VGA resolution panels).

[EDIT]
Almost a year later, and my rating still stands: this is a wonderful product. I have used the Solo glasses on quite a few long plane trips, and they have performed flawlessly. The biggest chore is to keep the iPod topped up with interesting movies and TV shows!

I just purchased the myvu Solo Plus and this thing is really pretty cool. I got it as a birthday present for my son who's surgically attached to his Nano iPod but I think we're going to battle over it! The myvu glasses let you watch any video that's on your iPod only it's like watching it on a regular tv and, most importantly, it's private. No more having to hold the iPod in your hand and watch movies on that little screen.

With my son's permission, I took the myvu glasses with me on a flight the other day. I just connected the myvu glasses to my iPod (which is an older model iPod but I guess the myvu works with all of them), put them on, and I'm in my own little movie-world. And no more "neighbors" seated next to me craning their necks to see what I'm looking at - although someone was very curious and asked me what the glasses were - call it "myuvu envy"! The battery lasts for about 4 hours so there's plenty of time to watch a full-length movie.

I'm definitely not a gadget girl - little too old for that - but these glasses are so fun and easy to use I guess I'm just going to have to get one of these for myself

This product works very well. The instructions are poor. You need to go to the myvu website and download the more helpful pdf version. Remember to charge it as soon as you open the package. There is a small rubber usb flap on the pendant control. Lift the flap and a usb connector is underneath. This product is well worth the money!!

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This is a video where I talk about how I use the my-vu as well as how I rigged it to fit my spare glasses and some other things I like about it. I have had this product for about two years now.

The glasses work great! Obviously as technology improves so will the resolution, but for now I'm pleased with the quality. I did as much research I could since video glasses are fairly new and found these to have the best review. I'm actually surprised how lightweight they are and don't take much space at all. The only warning I have is be prepared to have people asking a lot of questions. I travel quite a bit and these are a great addition to my ipod.

I bought these to use them at the dentist. It does not say it but you can see behind the screen a see through. When they shined the light, i could not see anything. Since then I put taped on the back and its no problem. For the price, these glasses are pretty good. I would recommend them.

I bike every day at my local gym. I hate watching football or Oprha on the TVs. I just purchased a second gen ipod Touch, just for watching training videos. Any training video that looks good on the Touches screen is great with these glasses. The only issue is with training videos that have text on the screen. If the recorded screen shot is too small, it will be too small on the Touches screen and thus these glasses. However, if the video is of an instructor lecturing, the video is great, and so is watching with these glasses. The best part is that the glasses do not cover your eyes completely. Thus, you can see over them and under them to talk to someone or adjust something without the need to take the glasses off. Very cool!

I have been thrilled with the MyVu device and quality of picture and audio. Being a nearly five to six day per week frequent flyer, which includes traveling transcon twice per week for a day trip, the MyVu makes the trips more bearable and provides for quality sound and video/podcast viewing. The only negative is the amount of interuptions I get from crew and other frequent flyers to ask about the unique looking device. The device provides for easy vision over the screen without removing, should you need to look up. A USD port is all that is needed to recharge the MyVu and it will out last your iPod.

If you get this expecting to be wowed by the size of the screen, you will be disappointed. The screen size is literally like having an ipod video screen (Or in my case a Sony Video Walkman) shoved within a few inches of your eyes.

Video quality is decent but as long as the picture is clear, I really am not too particular on the resolution.

Ease of use is remarkably easy, I really don't see anyone having trouble operating these.

One major complaint though, is that it takes some experimenting to get the glasses to sit just right so you aren't cross-eyed.

I only recommend getting these after you have done full research on the pros and cons and you are completely sure of what you getting yourself into should you decide these are for you. Just to clarify I did enough research to know that these are not the very best, but good enough for the price I bought them for.

Bottom line: if you like gadgets that do what they are supposed to do, and don't mind a few flaws then go right head and get these. These make for a great travel companion but not a great theater addition. So get these if you want a cool gadget, but pass em by if you want a theater quality experience.

This HMD is good if you want to watch a movie while sitting on a bus. You can see your surroundings around the screen. The screen is fixed and not adjustable. If you wear eyeglasses it requires a separate set of glasses that fit in the unit. Of course they cost extra. This is a severe design flaw and should be fixed with a recall. The screen is just too small and is focused way too close to your face. It uses a rechargable battery. It should draw power from the ipod. The generation before this worked well with the ipod classic and had none of these flaws. I'll keep using that one. I'll do something else with my Touch.