The Future of Stereo 3D Part I: Nvidia Geforce 3D Vision

GeForce 3D Vision: Q&A Session

After using the GeForce 3D Vision for about 3 months and logging more than 200 hours of stereo 3D gaming, there were several questions that popped into my mind over the course of testing. I am sure you have been asking yourself some of these exact same questions and some haven’t popped up in Nvidia’s FAQ...yet. So, to answer many of my own inquiries, I ended up doing a fair bit of testing and left an email paper trail longer than War and Peace.


Will other electronics interfere with the IR Emitter?

To be honest with you I tried wireless keyboards and mice, RF remotes and ran 3 open-air systems at the same time and not once was the signal to the glasses interrupted. While my satellite radio would take a crap (granted, it doesn’t use infrared) due to the interference caused by running an open system, the glasses chugged along. The only time I was able to mess around with their operation was when I used them in the same room as my Samsung LN52A850 LCD TV. This thing kicks up enough interference that none of my IR remotes will work within the room I have it in so the fact that the Nvidia kit didn’t work wasn't too much of a surprise to me. All in all, I would say that 3D Vision is a robust solution when it comes to signal disruption.


What is the range of the IR Emitter?

First of all it is imperative that you have a clear line of site between the emitter and the location where you will be using the glasses. After setting up the emitter in a viewable location, I was able to get 22 feet away from it before I began experiencing signal degradation. This is perfect for those of you who are going to be using this kit with one of the ultra huge 67” DLP TVs it is compatible with and it exceeds Nvidia’s stated maximum of 20 feet.


Will the glasses be sold separately and how much will they cost?

There are some of you out there who are probably thinking that their friends would love to come over and have a look a 3D Vision but you don’t want to spend the price on another full kit. Or maybe your kid brother has ripped apart your glasses in a fit of jealous rage. Unfortunately, each kit only comes with a single pair of glasses and costs a pretty penny so you are out of luck since at this time Nvidia is not selling the glasses separately. Will they ever? According to Nvidia, within the next month or so you will be able to buy the glasses by themselves but the price has not yet been set. If I was a betting man I would predict MSRP to be around $150CAD for a single pair but until the announcement is made, the final pricing is anyone’s guess.


How many pairs of glasses can be used per emitter?

So your buddies come over with their 3D Vision glasses and they want to watch your get your butt whooped in Left 4 Dead. Will they need to bring their own emitters? Nope. Nvidia has designed the emitter so an unlimited number of glasses can pick up its signal. Indeed, at CES Nvidia was showing a demo presentation to groups of about 30 people at a time all of whose glasses were running off of a single emitter.


Battery Life and Replacement

Since the 3D Vision kit uses active shutter glasses, they include a battery-backed power supply which will eventually run out. According to Nvidia, a fully charged set of glasses will last for about 40 hours of gaming which isn’t bad at all but do these paper specs live up to real life expectations? After experiencing an average of 36 hours of gaming per full charge, I can say that their prediction is pretty damn close to reality.

The real question comes when we start thinking about replacing the battery. Since it is stored within a totally enclosed portion of the glasses, you would have to perform a lobotomy on your kit just to access it. So, I would have to say that the battery is not user replaceable but Nvidia’s life expectancy for it is quite good: after six years it is expected to retain a least 80% of its original charge capacity based on one full charge per week.


Is 3D Vision compatible with HDMI?

Yes and no. Current HDMI 1.0 and 1.2a standards do not allow for the necessary bandwidth needed to transmit the high definition signals needed for a true 120Hz signal. This is why Nvidia requires you use a dual link DVI cable since its 9.9 Gbps of theoretical bandwidth is about double that of the current HDMI 1.2a standard. However, the new HDMI 1.3 format will increase bandwidth to 10.2 Gbps which should be more than enough for Nvidia’s solution to be ported to LCD TVs. Also, since DLP TVs aren’t tied down by a refresh rate running a DVI to HDMI connector from your graphics card is doable.