I own an Acer H9500BD DLP 3D projector which comes with a pair of 3D glasses. I bought an extra pair at the cost of $70. These are "no frills" glasses. They are non rechargeable and come in a cardboard box. If the battery goes out, you have to buy a new one. Since most people who buy a 3D home projector want to have more than one pair of glasses, I got to wondering what the best overall value is for DLP glasses. I have a pair of IR glasses for my Mitsubishi from Dimensional Optics (DO) and decided to find out whether or not they carried DLP glasses. When I found they carried them, I got a pair (they cost $50 each) and decided to do a comparison.
Which glasses work best is a very, very subjective subject, but here's what I found after comparing them.
Comfort -
This depends on the size and shape of your head, but I've got a pretty good sized melon and the DOs stay on my head much better than the Acers. The Acers feel like they kind of bow out at the front of your temples where the DOs fit more along the side of your head; much more like what you would expect from regular glasses. I'm guessing that others find the Acers will slip off pretty easily too. That's not too big of a deal if you're sitting still, but if I happen to get up and bend over, mine will fall off my dome. This has happened to me on a couple of occasions and I've gotten used to taking them off when I move around. I really don't want those $70 glasses hitting the ground or anything else that is hard. The DOs fit more snugly without being too tight. I find the DOs much more comfortable.
Weight -
The Acers feel like they are just a hair lighter, but the DOs are by no means heavy even after you've worn them for extended periods of time (I know this because I’ve used my IR DOs for my Mitsubishi TV for well over 2 hours and the DO IR/DLP glasses are virtually identical).
Color-
This is very subjective and "may" very well depend on the movie you're watching. I picked out "Hugo" because it is, with one “possible” exception, the best 3D cinematography out there ( can’t say for sure because I won’t pay scalpers prices for a 3D Blu Ray disk). I used an early scene in the movie where it's snowing and very blue. The Acers have a decidedly blue tint to them and the DOs are a shade yellower. In this sort of scene, I think I'd give the Acers an edge. Then I compared them in the scene soon afterwards where you first go into the train station and there are a lot of browns and golds. In this scene it was pretty much six of one; half a dozen of the other. When compared to the screen without glasses on, the Acer looked just a shade more blue and the DOs looked just a shade more yellow, I guess I prefer the blue tint over the yellowish, but I was switching the glasses on and off within seconds . If I hadn't been doing that, I don't think I could have told the difference.
Style -
Let's just be kind and say the people who designed the Acer glasses are either sadistic, blind, or just didn’t care what they looked like. No one's going to think you're wearing Oakleys when you're rockin the DOs, but at least you don't look like a refugee from a 1970s Elton John concert. No one will probably care much about this, but don’t answer the door while you’re wearing the Acers.
Utility-
I much prefer the rechargeable batteries to the non-rechargeable. I found out that the DOs have Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries which have a long life (2-3 years) even when charged regularly. This leads me to believe they'll last a lot longer than that in DLP glasses. They'll (both) probably outlast our projectors. Li-Ion batteries, by the way, do not suffer from the memory effect (which keeps them from fully charging), but you can't just leave them lying around uncharged for long periods of time or you can run into problems. If you prefer non-rechargeable batteries, buy a bunch of CR2032s??? You don't want your glasses to start messing up halfway through a movie and not have spare batteries around. If you put them in the freezer, it will only slightly extend the life of an alkaline battery. I "really" like the DOs case. It is sturdy and rigid and will protect your glasses. The DO glasses come with a cleaning cloth and a USB charger which will allow you to charge the glasses from any computer with a USB port. The USB power adapter, which you can plug into the wall socket (kind of like the little gizmo for your IPhone), is $10; as are extra cases.
I can't really speak to the durability of the Acers because I haven't had the opportunity to use them that much, but have used the DOs on my Mitsubishi pretty extensively with no problems. I don't suspect either are going to fall apart in the near term.
Price-
A no-brainer. The DOs, case, USB cable, and glasses cleaning cloth are $50. The Acer glasses are $70 (plus you'll have to buy batteries at some point).
Light Transmission -
I used the light meter to measure the light the glasses transmit. What I did was stand about 6 feet from the screen, sync'ed the glasses, pointed them at the screen, and measured the light level coming through the lens. It would have been nice to have a more sensitive meter, but I could get no reading whatsoever on the Acers. On the DOs, I consistently got a "1". While that may not be much, I take it to mean the DOs block less light than the Acers. It also "looks" a little bit brighter to the eye. That may be important for some of you, but I've never found the Acer projector to be too dark.
Overall-
I’ve mentioned that the Acer projector comes with a pair of glasses. If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn't have bought the extra pair of Acers and would have gone with the DOs; especially if I was going to get more than 2 pair of glasses (which I did). I’m not suggesting that you spend a lot of money on a 3D projector and try to save a few bucks by buying cheaper glasses, but if you have a pair of DOs and a pair of Acers, you can decide for yourself which you like best. If you do like the Acers better, you can still decide whether the in-laws, mooching friends, or demanding children are worth the extra $20. In actuality, the DOs are probably $25-30 less when you consider the cost of the case, the cost of batteries, and the nifty little cleaning cloth (which comes in handy). That’s a pretty substantial savings.
Since I don't use the emitter glasses anymore, I put the Acers I've been using in the old case and feel a lot better about having them in there. I don't like the idea of my unprotected glasses resting against hard plastic or cardboard because they're too expensive to replace. If I had to guess, I'd say most people would probably prefer the blue tint of the Acers, but, like I say, the projector comes with a pair anyway. You can always commandeer them if they end up being your favorites.
Hope this was helpful.
Edited by InCali - 7/19/12 at 7:30am
