Sony HMZ-T1 HMD Owner's dedicated thread - Page 24

Wouldn't it make sense to use a FOV of 45?

The only headphones i have ever had were Logitech g35 and the sound was amazing. I would have paid more to get the HMZ without headphones
They were only a hundred bucks and have 7.1 surround. As to the HMZ built in headphones I have processing turned off otherwise all I hear is reverb.

I think the rez is Garbage

Seems poor if they can't even compare to a cheap pair of Grados (with the exception of the high-end, all Grados sound the sameyou're just paying for a different outer casing and tighter tolerances on channel matching) or mid-range Sennheisers. That doesn't seem close to suitable for watching films at all.


If you did that, you would have zero peripheral vision. I find that you typically need in-game FOV set to at least double your actual FOV to be comfortable.


Pretty sure you need HDMI for frame packing to work.

Pretty much says it all for me. I had this HMZ preordered, but after testing in the store, I knew it wasnt what Id hoped and would be useless for headtracking. The FOV was so dissapointing. Plus, after about 15 my nose started aching. I opted for the Optoma HD33 1080p projector and now I sit 1.5 meters from a 120" screen and THATS IMMERSIVE and it looks just as good as far as I care (something like 75 deg FOV). Plus, other people can also see what I see. This HMZ cant even hold a candle to that. To each their own, if you enjoy it awesome, but make sure you can test it before you buy. I hope Sony does make a better version down the line with a decent FOV and better ergonomics (plus built in headtracking), and then maybe Id buy one. I still say Kudos to Sony for bringing back HMDs, and I hope it continues (seems like they are selling like hotcakes tho! so thats good news for better HMDs to come!)

If I could sell this at a profit I may consider holding off until the 2nd generation and getting a similar projector.

btw if anyone with experience with projectors doesn't mine helping me, please PM me.

I have such a love/hate relationship with this damn thing.

Spent quite a bit of time with it last night and today and it's such a tough call. I'm a huge fan of 3D. And 3D on this thing is absolutely freaking spectacular and phenomenal. Shadow of the Colossus HD3D on the PS3 is unbelievable. One of the coolest gaming experiences I've ever had. I also watched Monsters vs Aliens and Avatar. All were easily much much better than the theatre or any 3D movies I've seen before.

So that's the love...

the hate is the comfort. I just know that v2 or some other company is going to fix so many of these comfort issues. There's just so many stupid design decisions. The straps are far too thing so they dig into your head. The focus works best with no forehead pad but then I have the plastic digging into my brow bone. I have no idea why they didn't put support straps that run along the top of your head.

I also play a lot of Call of Duty and actually the screen may be too big for that game if you can believe it. COD is all about noticing the tiniest bit of movement out of the corner of your eyes so you don't get surprised so a smaller screen lets you see everything at once. With the HMZ I definitely can't see the entire screen at once and so feel that I have to really 'look around'.

People say 45 degrees FOV is not enough. But Sony intended this device for both gaming AND movies. Anything more than 45 degrees would be wrong for movies in my opinion, otherwise you will not be able to see everything that is going on. I have played COD and I didn't struggle to see everything that was going on but I certainly wouldn't want the FOV any larger for that game. I can imagine that 60 or 70 degrees would be amazing for virtual reality applications though.

Hey, the SR-225s are not cheap. Wait, wait I see the problem. Let me rephrase.

*Rolls down window.*
Excuse me, sir, but do you have any Grey Pouppon?

I really meant to compare these headphones more to the sub-$100 on-ear Sennheisers. In citing that list, I didn't mean to make it sound like (ahem) the HMZ-T1 held up to those; I was just showing I knew what good headphones are. The HMZ-T1 does not compare to the Grados or high end Sennheisers. It compares to good on-ear sets. Not garbage by any means. They are good for what they are... not audiophile level (Sennheiser 650s are $400 after all), but good lightweight on-ear technology.

-Pie

It's a bit disheartening to hear of so many complaining about discomfort, especially when waiting for my order to be dispatched.

It's obvious that if there is a second version, this will have to be addressed, but if this was it, and Sony didn't follow up with another model, would you be happier with it?

It certainly seems like spreading the weight out with a baseball cap is a good idea.

It's things like this which have caused me to return/sell many headphones in the past. GS1000s in particular were just too heavy and unweildy, and I stuck with them for many months before finally deciding to sell them.

I'm thinking about doing the same thing with a pair of B&W P5s right now too. They sound surprisingly good, but the clamping force is quite high, and the memory foam padding is just too thin and after a couple of hours they can become quite painful to wear.


Perhaps I went too far, but like I said, anything but the high end Grados just use the same drivers.


Haha


Hm, still seems disappointing.


I guess that's regional pricing for you, the HD650 was 1/4 the price of the HMZ-T1 here, not 1/2.

I solved a lot of it by using thin cotton pads, one on where I pulled off the forehead pad, and a couple in the nose groove. I bought some velcro to make a more permanent solution.


The fit can be frustrating, but it is such a wonderful device! And I have long since realized that all display technologies have limitations/issues. The HMZ-T1 just has this unique problem of fit. But it's also not just a gen1 device, it's the pretty much the first of its kind!


Hmmm.... you're definitely going to have issues with the HMZ-T1 then. Though it does attach very differently than headphones.


Construction makes a huge difference. Grado RS-2s make a big deal about the use of wood (I've never heard them though). The Sennheiser HD580 and HD600 use the same drivers, but differed in price by over $100. The 580s used a plastic grill while the 600 used metal. Yet this made a noticeable difference in sound quality.


Remember the context. "Garbage" was the claim, and I was making sure to counter that very extreme statement. They sound good. Not amazing, I'm selling my Sennheisers! good, but still good. And they were limited by design here, so I'm very impressed with how well they sound within those limitations.

-Pie

I have noticed a very small issue, but wondered if others had noticed.

There is a very slight hum/buzz in the left earpiece. You can only hear it if the room is absolutely silent and of course the movie you are watching is silent (or paused).

Certainly not enough to be concerned about and 99% of the time you wouldn't notice. But I was just curious if it was mine or everyones. I have overly sensitive hearing so some may not hear it at all anyway.

I am puzzled by those that think the audio sounds muffled. I find the audio very clear. The "cinema" preset does not seem to add reverb. It sharpnes up the dialogue making it even clearer. With a movie like Tron it can distort with the extreme bass track, but that movie is a bit exceptional. Overall the surround is quite convincing, the sound is fairly balanced, and I have no problem understanding dialogue. High-end headphones? definitely no. But it is no slouch either...and in my opinion, certainly not garbage.

I take onboard the point that the cable running to each ear piece is very very thin. As you put the headset on and off of course you move around that earpiece. I hope it is not a weak point over longterm use.

I wonder if the reason these are not available anymore is that Sony is working on ver 1.1 to revise strap design...

There's no logical explanation why one earpeice would have noise yet the other side, which is identical and uses the same electronics, wouldn't. Have you tried flipping your source material, left for right, and then seen if the problem migrates over to the other ear?

Some display panels, including the electroluminescent display on my wristwatch, make a faint buzz noise when placed immediately close to the ear. Are you sure the display panels of the product aren't making the noise you hear? [and you just happen to be more cognizant of it from one side only?]

[emphasis mine]

No it doesn't; thats just marketing on their part. [not to imply resonating surfaces are acceptable, but plastic can do just as good a job, if not better]. The Japanese culture especially falls for this baloney which is why so many of their highend products are made with urushi. Is it truly better? No, its marketing.

Just like with loudspeakers, the cabinetry's job is to have nothing whatsoever to do with the the sound generation; that's the job of the drivers' motion only, however many marketing people stupidly promote the idiotic notion that, much like a violin, (where the vibration of the sound box does indeed contribute greatly to the sound generation), the cabinetry of a loudspeaker, or in this case a head mounted loudspeaker (HML ?), can be "musical", "have great timbre and a deep sound stage", and all the other garbage they'd have the public think.

Of course if one does use a resonant material such as thin metal, instead of ridged and inert plastic or wood, the cabinet may indeed contribute to the sound and we have a specific term for this. It's called, "distortion".

Sonus Farber, an otherwise well regarded speaker maker, is equally guilty of promoting this myth. Their lit often invokes analogies between musical instruments with sound boxes, such as most string instruments, and their cabinet designs. Pure marketing BS.

Just curious but can it convert 2D video into 3D, and if so how does it look?

I made it on Engadget

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/19/s...upgrade-video/

nice one.. you need to edit the video to mention skyrim wont fully allow trackir to work. because we need more degrees of freedome than mouse emu mode.

Good work

My experiences with the HMZ-T1 thus far:

- 3D is fine for me. I experienced several moments of genuine pop-out.
- Fit is fine. It took me a few days of perseverance but I got it perfect.
- No blur. At first it was bad, but once I found my fit, no more blurring.
- No strain. My forehead, nose, and back of head are equally supported.
- No motion sickness. Never get sick even if I twist my head all around.
- Text and pixels are fine. I did my best work ever in Photoshop with it.
- In general it's become my favorite monitor, both for games and work.

All that said, I've got a problem I haven't seen before: I seem to have dirt on one of the inner optics (not the outside glass). It's a white spot on the left side of the left eyepiece. Seems to have been there since I first got the device. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but when the viewer is worn, it appears as a blurry white blob almost directly in front of my eye.

I know better, but I keep feeling tempted to remove the plastic cover with a screwdriver and use a dust blower to clean around inside. It seems like such a waste to send the device to Sony (and probably not get it back until 2012) just because of a speck. Has anyone else had (and fixed) a problem like this?

(Yes, I signed up just to ask. You guys seem very smart, heheh. )

I'm also in the pre-order boat. I ordered from www.abt.com on Oct. 3rd and they originally said they would ship on Oct 11th. They've since pushed back and are currently reporting "Launch Date ETA- Late November or Early December 2011"...I'll post back after I get more info.

FYI - I have a US mailing address thanks to the US military (APO/FPO), ABT supports shipping to APO/FPO

I'm at a similar spot. It now fits me well enough, and I actually got everything to be clear simply by cleaning the lenses. For a long time. Now I can tell that they came to me dirty. But now I see a tiny little black thing in the left side that looks like a bug! It's not a dead pixel... I'm okay with it... but sure wouldn't mind getting rid of it.

Sorry to say, but if Amazon or Best Buy couldn't procure any stock, I'd guess there is next to zero chance ABT will be able to. It doesn't seem like Amazon would have canceled their undated preorders if Sony had any possibility of making Nov/Dec shipments to third parties.

I would contact Sony support and send it in for service. But if you are brave enough to disassemble the device, I would be very interested to know how the lens span adjusters are 'connected' and if there is an easy mod to allow for independent adjustments

I personally treat games like COD and Battlefield like virtual reality applications. I use realism mods where i can as well as play in a way i consider realistic and I also try to ignore goofy bits in games and/or try to fill in the blanks where needed. I just don't get why there havn't been more VR surround screens without the bars of multimonitor setups. I just hope there is a high FOV gaming version of this that comes before im 80, they can always scale a movie down.

Heres a video I made yesterday to try and demonstrate the benefit higher vertical FOV has for immersion, like IMAX, which i think is really underrated. Might as well post it here too. (You have to put your eyes pretty close to the screen to match the highest FOV)

That's what I'm worried about, but I'll update when I hear more

I heard the buzz when I had it in 1080p when I dropped it down to 720p it was gone. I like it in 720p anyways, 1080p gave me too much eye strain.

I thought the FOV was like a 22" monitor, I'm happy to report i was wrong, i went back to check them out for a forth time.... Luckily they had a 22" monitor right next to the HMD display and I was able to do a proper comparison. Its much bigger, probably bigger than using my 30". But it still seems small compared to my 46", which i use from less than 1 meter as a PC monitor alternative, which i why i think i perceived it as small before. Oops.... :embarrassed:

The right speaker in the righthand display was coming in and out though.

I live in Japan and Sony here has it back ordered until some time around March. After reading allot of the comments in this thread and actually tying them on in Akihabra Tokyo, I agree that the design on how these fit my nose and forehead wasn't to great. Searching a Japanese forum I found these photos and comments from Japanese posters that have the same issue with an uncomfortable fit. After seeing these home made modifications from users I am sure that some one will market a comfortable head mount solution to these.







and another idea that the user stated that the nose pad and forehead pad can be removed for a comfortable fit. Not sure if it works, if some one gives it a try let us all know if this improves comfort,

Alternatively contact Sony and ask them if there is any way they could talk you through a repair that would save you sending it in, but leave you protected in the event it goes a bit wrong. The key would be to convince them you are know what you are doing!

Out of interest, what does the warranty say about dust/beasties etc in the optics?