Saturday 28 December 2013

Glasses free 3D mobile screen resolutions

From top left to bottom right: 
Sharp SH003, Sharp SH-12c, Sharp 01D,
HTC EVO 3D, LG Optimus 3D, LG Optimus Cube 3D







Bloggie 3D



Fujifilm W3





Sharp SH01D






Sharp SH003





Sharp SH-12c 





 HTC EVO3D





LG Optimus 3D 






Monday 9 December 2013

HTC EVO 3D stops bullet and saves a mans life!


Seriously? A 3D phone saves a man's life? OK, so maybe "any" phone could have the same effect, but factor in that 3D phones include a parallax barrier that lesser 2D only phones would lack. Could this crucial component of the 3D screen have slowed the speeding bullet enough before reaching the battery to have made a difference? Makes you wonder how well the rivalling LG Optimus 3D would fare when catching a bullet in it's face ;)

http://gawker.com/gas-station-clerks-giant-cell-phone-stops-bullet-durin-1453951900


Monday 2 December 2013

Free 3D Gameloft games for the LG P920 Optimus 3D!

I just acquired this LG P920 Optimus 3D glasses free 3D screened phone already knowing it comes bundled with three 3D optimised games from Gameloft: N.O.V.A. , Let's Golf 2 and Asphalt 6.
However, what I did not know and was very happy to find that there is also a handy link included on the phone to a special Gameloft page offering O3D owners an additional SEVEN FREE full featured big title games likewise optimised for 3D! Assassins Creed, Spiderman Total Mayhem, GT Racing Acadamy ...
No need to create an account with Gameloft. Just click and download any or all SEVEN of the free 3D games! Who knows how long this offer will last...
Suggest you do so via WiFi and that you have plenty of storage space cleared for the games.

The EVO 3D I have came bundled with three 3D games, Spiderman 3D, The Sims 3D and Need for Speed 3D and that's all so far as I am aware. Some countries also got the Green Hornet 3D movie bundled (mine didn't). Let me know if there are any other EVO 3D specific freebies I should be aware of. Till then I think LG beats HTC on the sheer number of free 3D games on offer!


[url] http://wapshop.gameloft.com/lg3d/?
ms_sid=2405032009&phoneId=4897&fr
om=IGA&igagame=P103&game_type=D
M&emb=1&hitId=8062821699&setCooki
e=true&sv7497=11b358e5b89923e4a0f0
[/url]

I am looking to buy all the remaining Gameloft 3D enhanced titles  to complete my 3D game collection. Avatar and N.O.V.A.2 look especially attractive. Only a bargain basement 10HKD a piece. Very pleased with this Optimus 3D regards these freebies.

You can thank me if you have an O3D
and didn't know about this page of free
3D Gameloft games already.

Sunday 11 August 2013

Shopping for an 3D LED edge lit LCD TV in 2013... Active or Passive

As of writing, there was still no glassess free, living room 3D TV's on display in everyday high-street electical stores. Once those things become common place and their prices come down to an acceptable level, I will surely upgrade whatever my current TV is accordingly :)
For several years I've actively used a selection of 3D capable cameras, we have created a fair sized collection of 3D family/ holiday photo's and a handful of 3D videos. Up to now, the most convenient way to see this content would be for me to transfer it to my LG Optimus 3D phone. It's 4.3" autostereoscopic screen (AKA glasses free 3D) that could then be passed around the room for viewing, one person at a time. The glasses free aspect is truly fantastic in its convenience. The colours are very vibrant. The parallax barrier simultaneously gives separate views to left and right eyes. Your brain then works its magic to fuse the 2 viewd into a single 3D scene. It works! Being a mobile phone screen held in landscape mode, the LG Optimus 3D has 800 x 480 pixels of display area. So at most even in 2D, the vertical resolution is a pretty lowly 480 pixels. In 3D, it can render 400 x 480 3D image per eye, where the horizontal is stretched to maintain a 16:9 format. And given many of my 3D pictures are at least 1080 in height, I did long for a better way to see more resolution from my 3D photos. It is about time I bought home a 3D capable TV so we can enjoy them together at the same time on a big(ish) livingroom screen.

To that end, I recently went to several local showrooms in Causway Bay Hong Kong to help me decide what bespectacled 3D TV I'd be buying in the year 2013.

For the 3D feature, Samsung LCDs are exclusively an active only option. While LG LCD's are similarly exclusively passive. No single TV of any brand supports both active and passive at the same time. You have to make a choice of one or the other.
Noteworthy that both Sony and Panasonic showrooms currently exhibit overlapping sets with either Active or Passive 3D glasses supported from within their own brand. It allowed me to make a what I consider, a fair evaluation of TVs of the same size and same brand, with the only difference being use of either active or passive glasses for 3D. And what a difference I found... from around 2m or closer to a 42" passive 3D display, I simply could not get near the screen. I was seeing very distracting horizontal black lines that would break-up the stereo image. Especially while viewing 3D still photos (the black lines are still there with moving video, just a bit less obvious). The lines introduced heavy step-laddering with curves and diagonal lines in images. I had to get up to some 4m or more from the medium sized 42" screen before the black lines become less noticeable for me. The issue is exaggerated with even bigger 3D displays. You have to be an even greater distance from the screen to resolve the 3D effectively vs same sized active 3D. What's more, the often written claim that passive 3D has no crosstalk or ghosting is nonsense. Covering up one eye, I could still see residual traces of the image intended for the other eye on passive screens. Try it for yourself in any showroom. I was even pleasantly surprised to find that often, the crosstalk was even less apparent for active vs passive sets! This negative experience with passive matched my many demos previously with the commonly found LG's 3D TV's.

Personally for living room photo gallery TV sessions, I tend to view photos from afar to begin with, and then naturally want to get closer to the display for a closer, more detailed look. 3D photos tend to have this power, drawing me into the pic. Unfortunately, when you get close to the current gen 1080HD passive 3D screens, the image simply falls apart. That's why I had to begrudgingly exclude LG's many 3D TV offerings. Begrudgingly because I have an LG 3D Optimus smart phone with 3D camera and 3D glasses free screen which I am very happy to keep using. An inexpensive LG passive 3D TV with cheap, light weight flicker free glasses would have been an awesome match, however, the drawbacks of passive TVs was a deal breaker unfortunately. You'd simply have to keep from getting too up close to the current passive 3D displays. Instead, active 3D glasses, allows you to physically get nearer your 3D display and in return, to appreciate the much greater vertical resolution vs a passive at the same screen size and 2D resolution. Drawbacks of active 3D are with the glasses. They need batteries(they last several dozen hours and replacements are just a few pence each ), need to be turned on, even the lightest active pairs are weightier vs passive, more expensive (around £20 for 2pairs at the time of posting. Much cheaper than they used to be). The greatest hurdle is the flicker. If you are sensitive to active 3D flicker, then go with passive. No arguments there. However, if you are amongst the lucky ones who don't experience any flicker, or are not overly bothered by its presence, you will be rewarded with actives much better vertical resolution 3D that you can get up close to, vs what passive 3D can offer. Try it for yourself before you buy! I did... And am fully confident I made the right choice for getting the most out of my 3D family pics today. Till glasses free 3D TVs arrive...



Sunday 5 May 2013

New firmware update LGSU870-V20F-10-2013 for LG Optimus 3D Max

New firmware update for LG Optimus 3D Max today! Firstly it's over-the-air 30M wireless via my home WiFi which is nice vs a USB tethered update. Took about 15min including the application optimizations. No issues encountered.

No idea at this moment what the update does more than what I had since the last one. It is not JellyBean (rather overly optimistic if you are expecting that) but it is still gratifying none the less that LG has not forgotten this phone entirely.

http://csmgdl.lgmobile.com/swdata/WDLSW/LGSU870/ASKTBK/V20f_00/V20F_00.kdz Link from XDA forum

Saturday 6 April 2013

DIY Spray booth

A bathroom extractor fan,
cardboard box,
Filter cloth,
Rubber band,
Sticky tape
Sharp knife

I have a small white plastic clothes bin bought specifically for this, but dread the thought of the effort needed for cutting a circular hole in the back of it. It should make a sturdy setup and the semi transparent plastic body would allow in some welcome ambient lighting. For a short term solution, I went for a big roomy cardboard box instead, which was easy to cut out a hole in the back.  Drawbacks are that it's a bit dark inside and there are bits of lint floating around from the cut surfaces of corrugated cardboard. Lots of sticky tape to cover the cut edges fixes that, but I do wish I just spent the extra time and effort and went with plastic to begin with.
The wife had these filter sheets. Turns out they are perfect for fitting over the back of the bathroom extractor fan. Tied down simply with an elastic band. I can see the sheet is catching the paint spray particles sucked through the fan. I point the back of the box at an open window. A hose would allow more flexibility in placement.

Works fine for the effort put into making it. An inexpensive quickly made prototype, but it won't last too long before I switch it for the plastic clothes bin.