3D

When we stopped by the Marchon3D EX3D booth at CES I have to admit that my reaction was more skeptical than enthusiastic. Sure, their passive 3D eyewear worked, and at $35 a pair was not terrible, but it seemed like a hard sell to the theater-going crowd where the glasses have to compete with “free”. Now that I have had the chance to try the EX3D AMMO glasses in a real environment, my opinion has changed – keep reading to find out why.

If you have purchased a 3D-capable display or plan to then you will undoubtedly need to acquire 3D glasses unless you are buying one of the few glasses-free displays or don't plan on watching 3D content. Most displays requiring 3D glasses sold to date utilize a technology known as active shutter (explained later). Obviously, you could choose to purchase active shutter glasses provided by the display manufacturer, but currently, those glasses will not be compatible with a different manufacturer’s display.

This wouldn’t be so bad if the glasses were inexpensive, but when they cost over $100 each, not too many consumers are going to be stockpiling for a rare group viewing. Furthermore, those 3D glasses might be worthless if a second 3D display or replacement 3D display is purchased from another manufacturer. This is where XPAND steps in and attempts to alleviate the problem with their line of universal 3D glasses. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the XPAND X103 universal 3D glasses.

The XPAND X103 glasses offer universal compatibility with all major manufacturers’ 3D displays utilizing active shutter technology. There are also a number of cinemas where the glasses are compatible. With competitive pricing and promise of upgradability, the X103 glasses could potentially deliver a greater value than the display manufacturers’ proprietary designs. Let’s find out!

Introduction

It is not that often that we get a chance to take an early look at the next generation of Blu-ray (BD) playback software for the home theater PC (HTPC) so when ArcSoft offered us the chance to review TotalMedia Theatre 5 (TMT5) we could not say no, even though the timeline was very aggressive.  To help account for that, and the general difficultly of adequately testing all the different platforms, we are doing this review as a collaboration between the editors at MissingRemote.  What makes this approach especially interesting is that we all have a different mix of software and hardware in our home theaters and they are split evenly when it comes to the players of choice between the earlier version of TMT and Cyberlink’s PowerDVD 10 (PDVD).