Customer Reviews

VIDEO, VR920 VIRTUAL GAMING 3D IWEAR

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

 

 

Let's start out by explaining what the VR920 is NOT. This product does NOT offer a all-encompassing, total-immersion experience that some may imagine from such a product.

The technology just isn't there yet... or rather, nobody has as of yet packaged the technology into an affordable consumer product. Hopefully as technology advances in the area of micro-displays, OLEDs, etc., products like this will improve. That being said, this is probably the best VR type head-mounted-displays available in the under $500 price range.

The field of view (FOV) does not totally wrap around you. It is not like you are IN a world as you might imagine or expect in a product like this. It is more like you are in a darkened room with a VGA projector. The image quality reminds me of an old 640x480 VGA projector.

It does, however, do a great job of providing a lightweight, private, wearable display that can be used in games, watching movies, or even doing some work in a word-processor, writing e-mails & IMs, etc.

Vuzix did release a firmware upgrade for this product in January 2008. A handful of the upgrade attempts by customers resulted in inoperable units. For those that the upgrade worked, the result was improved head-tracking and image clarity. As of the writing of this review, Vuzix was allegedly going to fix the units that were damaged by failed firmware updates. As of the writing of this review, Vuzix appears to be committed to the support of this product and their customers, which is comforting to me as a customer.

The design of the goggles is one-size fits all. The "ear" arms independently tilt, which is much touted in the documentation. I wish were able to tilt a little more and that there was a way to lock the tilt in a certain position. I occasionally find myself adjusting the unit for tilt. There is no focus control or control for eye distance which I found odd, but I really haven't found myself needing it. They also fit while wearing glasses or headphones.

While there are a lot of little nit-picky flaws in this product, I feel the good features far out-weighs the bad. I'll start with the bad.

The BAD:

The color is somewhat washed-out compared to a desktop monitor, there is some severe ghosting at times with pixels that have displayed an image for some time, and there is some distortion at the edges of the screen. The placement of the goggles on your face is critical to the clarity of the image. After a while you do tend to not notice these things.

The earphones are downright painful to wear, and the sound is poor/tin-can sounding with poor bass. Luckily the earphones are removable and you can wear headphone over the VR920 - I use a pair of 5.1 headphones while wearing my VR920.

Muting the microphone leaves a permanent mute icon at the top of the screen which is TOTALLY annoying to me. I don't want any possibility of anyone picking up my microphone since I don't use any voice communications on my computer. If I mute my VR920 I'm stuck with this ugly red mute icon at the top right of my screen.

The head-tracking is somewhat buggy and very dependent on your surroundings. I have a large mirror on the wall near my computer which seems to cause some strange behavior in the tracking. For example, roll to left is sometimes perceived as a 135 degree yaw to the right. If you have no walls or large metal objects within 1m of your head, you should be fine.

For typing/reading text it is only really useful in 800x600 or 640x480. While you can read most text in a 1024x768 display, it is a strain on your eyes. Some text in games at 1024x768 is impossible to read.

My VR920 sat too low on my face causing the top to blur somewhat. I had to turn the nose piece upside down. The nose piece now leaves a red mark on the bridge of my nose, but it sits much better on my face and I'm not constantly adjusting it on my face.

Natively this product is 640x480 resolution... 1024x768 and 800x600 are scaled down.

It takes some time to get used to. The first few hours I wore it I had severe vertigo after taking them off -- I find that it takes me few minutes to re-adjust to the real world.

Setup of the software/drivers for Stereo 3D is VERY confusing, and as of Jan 2008 the only drivers available from Nvidia are 6-month old Beta drivers for Win XP.... do not attempt unless you are somewhat computer savvy. If you have a non-Nvidia video card then Stereo 3D will probably not be an option for you.

Head tracking and 3D is not supported in Vista... but apparently Nvidia has promised new 3D drivers for Vista in Q1 2008.

The GOOD:

There is a bit of an adjustment period, but you do get comfortable wearing them. The image, while somewhat grainy, tends to look better the longer you use them.

The VR920 really excels displaying movies and action games, although games that display text can be impossible to read in 1024x768 resolution. The Stereographic 3D effects in games is absolutely amazing. Using the head tracking and 3D in MS Flight Simulator X is an intense experience. If you are into flight simulators, this could be a must-have device.

They are very lightweight and once adjusted correctly, they are comfortable.

I find it very easy to get comfortable while wearing these since I am not staring at a static, level, display. You can kick back in a recliner or couch and turn your head any way and still see your screen.

The space below the goggles is sufficient that you can still see your keyboard while typing which is helpful. There is a "total immersion" shield available for it, but I would rather see what is going on around me.

The privacy is also a great benefit. Although you do get some strange looks are curious questions, they are great to use while traveling with a laptop. They are also great to keep prying little eyes away from a Call of Duty game.

My Conclusion:

Head mounted displays and VR goggles are still a bit of an immature technology, at least in the <$500 price range. This is not the VR goggles of the movies or science fiction, but it is a step in that direction. I think that this is one of the most interesting new computer gadgets that I have seen for a long time. The technology is still too far behind current desktop displays for most gamers, especially those into the RPG genre that need to read a lot of text. This thing isn't going to beat out a 22" UXGA LCD screen for most people, but it does offer a new dimension to computing and gaming that hopefully becomes more mainstream.

PRO:

-head track

-3d

CONS:

-inconsistent support

-too low resolution

-uneven lit LCD

-bulky particularly with glass

I have always been curious about the VR and 3D. It was this interest which drew me to this product. After much research it seems that this was the best product for the money. It supports 3D vision with two separate LCD screens. At it's best, the effect is interesting, much like going to a modern 3D movie. The addition on head tracking improves the realism a bit, but overall it was not quite there for a few reasons. First of all, the LCD screens was not evenly lit, leaving the corners a little dark. Second the resolution is to low compared to modern standards. Support seems somewhat inconsistent ranging from only on or two items being 3d and the rest being flat(imagine some bushes being lifted of the screen but nothing else) to full support. Lastly, the product is a bit bulky. If you wear glasses you can use it but it will not be as comfortable and stable. Overall, it's not quite a consumer ready product (and it pains me to admit that)

The VR920 is a HMD which features two miniature LCD screens. This allows it to give each eye a separate picture and simulate a 3D world inside the computer. It also has a headtracker, you can look up or to the side and it will move in the game. Includes headphones and a mic, built-in. A very small, somewhat portable device. It looks great.

This model, the VR920, is for PC only. It will not work correctly a Mac or on the consoles. It is designed for PC gamers. It is a very cool little toy, but it only works in the games that support it. So far, there is a list of about 25-30 games that work, including COD4, HL2, CS:S, Crysis, FSX, UT2004, Portal, GTR2 and others. When you play with the VR920 you can see in stereo 3D like you do in real life. So it makes the games more immersive. It works best for racing sims, GTR2 and rFactor as pretty fun with the device. Crysis also looks pretty crazy if you have the PC to run it. If it were supported by more games I would give it a better score. It *DOES* work in Vista (they had a driver/firmware update recently that added support), and it also works for both Nvidia and ATI cards now.

However, this is not the best HMD on the market. The native resolution is only 640x480 (it can down-sample up to 1024x768). Colors are ok, could be better. Headtracking works but can be a bit inaccurate in some games. This is an entry-level device, so don't expect to put this on and jack into the Matrix. The virtual screen could be a lot bigger, its about the size of 22" monitor. The headset is somewhat difficult to wear with glasses, and can become uncomfortable about about an hour or two. This is not something you would wear 24/7, but its a fun little novelty item.

I must say I'm very impressed with these glasses.

When I play FPS games, the VR920 give me such an immersion that my body responds as if I was there in the game. I was playing Crysis and when I did that parachute jump I felt I was flying, my body was shivering! And when that bomb exploded near me, I instinctively put my hand in front of my eyes to protect myself.

I also like the integrated high quality microphone and earplugs which are very useful during LAN parties.

Some reviews complain about the look and comfort. For me they're very comfortable and I don't need fashion looks when I play games, but I do need immersion, which is all there. Also I find in-game text to be easily readable even in role playing games.

The problem I had was that the nose pad broke when I was adjusting them, but Vuzix kindly sent me a new one.

Even after calibrating the thing for half an hour, the head tracking was still a joke. The resolution isn't good, and the headset is uncomfortable and awkward. Text is hard to read, and the overall experience was disappointing. I returned the item.

I really want to love this item... and probably would if I could get the darn thing to work with my Vista OS Laptop. As I understand it, this product relies on the 3D functionality of XP drivers for the Nvidia graphics card - functionality that hasn't been included in the Vista drivers. We've had to restore the entire PC twice so far... will very likely have to return this product.

The VR920 is exactly what I was looking for. I din't get the eye strain other users experience but this might depend on the lenght of time you use them (15 minute break every 2 hours works well for me) It has the highest quality of all brands I have seen and tried, and it is extremely affordable and easy to use. The ones I got are even a bit better since it's an updated version that fixes some tiny kinks such as the nose pads (wide open works better than close and tight) and the earphones, making it much more comfortable and practical. The most popular and affordable brands of head-mounted displays are Vuzix and Myvu and I would definitely stick to Vuzix since the feeling and quality of the product is much better than the cheap plastic quality of the Myvu Crystal that I also bougth a while ago. You won't get high definition quality but 640x480 (native resolution) or even the 600x800 and 1024x768 (which are shrunk down to fit the native 640x480) are way more than enough to enjoy a video device like this. Be aware that this is not made for reading but rather for watching video or movies and video gaming. If you play MMO games, then you might be able to occasionally read your friend's instant messages but most MMO gamers prefer to use a regular screen or monitor for these type of games. Definitely recommended for MS Flight Simulator 9 and X. With these video goggles you sacrifice high resolution in order to get the immersive experience they offer, with made me feel like watching a movie theater screen from the back row, although with a bit less quality in sharpness and colors. The screen is so close to your eyes that you actually don't need any higher resolution than what the product offers. Brightness and contrast was a bit tricky but once you set it correctly you won't have much trouble at all with it. Sound is good, about the average quality of many headphone brands. I love the fact that it doesn't need batteries. It has one cable hanging from the goggles that splits into two connectors: VGA and USB. All you do is connect the one to your computer or even Xbox 360's VGA connection and the other one to your computer or Xbox 360's USB port. Although you will only get sound through the included detachable headphones when the goggles are connected to a computer, you can still de-attach the headphones and use your own pair if you decide to use it with an Xbox 360 (Attention Xbox 360 users: You will require a $40 original Microsoft Xbox 360 VGA adapter cable which you can buy on Amazon in order to connect the video appropriately, plus a $10 female stereo white/red rca to female stereo miniplug converter cable in order to connect a standard pair of headphones which you can find at any Radio Shack. If you have a stereo system in your room then this might work even better than the rca adapter since you will have a way to control the sound volume). If you have thorough audio/video knowledge and are a hardcore Xbox gamer, then you can use this product for a immersive gaming experience. If you are into pc gaming, then the realism is even better since you get some extra options such as head movement detection and built-in USB headphones and microphone. If you want to watch movies and videos in a more personal way using your computer or Xbox 360, then these are great. If you are looking for Sharp highly defined super clear images with the best vivid colors and brightness, then a huge HDTV/Monitor would be a better choice instead.

Im very happy with it and I do not regret spending the money since it delivers even a bit more than what I expected.

Muy buen producto, para juegos 2D y 3D

tal vez un poco baja la resolucion y el audio no es muy bueno, pero se puede desmontar y dejar el de tu PC

Muy recomendada.

Si usas gafas puede ser un poco molesto por la distancia focal.

Got them threw main Vuzix website, used them for 2 weeks, decided to return, good concept, to early... kind've

Field Of View is one of the immersion factors and we just aren't there, lower resolution = harder to see at a distance

Tried them with games like world of warcraft and hl2, ect, enjoyable.... but for the price of entertainment i'd expect more, they're really uncomfortable and the ear pieces I HATE THEM. Maybe because i'm a headphone person?

stereoscopy is one of the main factors that impressed me, but then recently i found most games have anaglyph stereoscopy and you can just buy a $3 pair of red and cyan anaglyph glasses to get the same visual result that these provided.

I'd look at vuzix in another 5 years and expect something worth trying again.

Honestly if i was in the position to i would donate to this company in excelling this form of eyewear =)

When working in Windows the VR920 worked reasonably well. Some of the free games were interesting, but trying to get the settings right for anything that was not immediately supported was a pain. Also you had to enable 3D by hitting a key combination once you were in the game and this seemed to work about 30% of the time.

The contrast of the LCD was low and as another has stated the brightness is uneven. I also experience a lot of "bloom" from either reflected light from the LCD inside the housing or light directly hitting the lenses which may have some contamination on the inner surface. The lenses are not that great and cause the LCD to look bent in towards the center of the top, bottom, and sides. The weight on the bridge of your nose can get uncomfortable after a while. I found the built-in earbuds to be too short to reach to the outside of my ear canal where I would normally place any other earbuds.

At 640x480 they aren't useful for anything but video/games. They accept a 800x600 and 1024x768 signal and 800x600 is useable with text, but not enjoyable. I attempted once to power the device with my PC's USB and hook up my old Xbox through a VGA converter just for fun and VR920 didn't respond. It acted like nothing was there and showed only a blue screen.

The Mac support is nearly nonexistent. Over a year I waited (fairly patiently at first) and inquired about promised improved Mac support. Early communications with the company were promising but when nothing materialized I asked again. I was told that they had lost a developer and the Mac support was on hold. I took it upon myself to dig into the support directly. The problem? The framework that interfaces the VR920 with Mac OS X doesn't support the stereo3D mode. Poking around I found everything else worked except the ONE function for 3D. Head pitch/roll/yaw? All good. Built in USB sound device? Works fine. Stereo3D? Error: Not supported on this hardware. What? Why not? How hard is it to send a single magic number to tell the device "Hey! The left eye frame is up change the shutter!" which is essentially what needs to happen. So I asked once more about the support saying that even with my terrible programming skill I could probably compare the Windows source for the driver and how it was implemented with the Mac OS source for the framework and implement at least 3D flipping so applications could be written to target the device. (There is no way I would even know where to begin to hijack and override the OpenGL calls to do two views in a program that only did one natively, such as how it works in Windows). No response. Over a year later the Mac framework is at ver 1.0. With OSX 10.6 I noticed that the color calibration profile of the LCD exhibits some strange effects with certain programs when running. A specific range of colors will get mixed with too much green, but it doesn't effect the whole screen or even every window.

Overall?

It is too expensive and I got mine for $200.

The screen resolution is too low especially when looking at a virtual 50in screen.

It should have been widescreen.

Even on Windows my success rate with running supported software was low.

I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.