3D Roundup

Does the Zalman ZM-M220W 22" LCD live up to it's manufacturer's claim of "Ultra Clear 3D Imaging?"  Yes... for a single viewer who's noggin is exactly in the correct vertical position for viewing. With that caveat, the Zalman’s integrated XPOL micro-polarizer filter, combined with the included circular-polarized passive glasses deliver a nearly ghost-free, bright, well color-balanced 3D image.

The Zalman manual says that the acceptable vertical viewing angle is 12 degrees from dead center. In practice, initially finding the sweet spot requires a concentrated head bob-and-weave maneuver. Once you’ve narrowed in on it, the two stereo images will fuse and you’ll be good to go. After a few viewings, the maneuver will become second nature. You’ll subsequently notice the bob-and-weave when showing-off your 3D-coolness to friends and family who are viewing the display for the first time. If you are sitting in a fixed position in front of the display, the sweet spot is somewhat easier to locate. It is worth noting that a narrow vertical viewing angle is common to all XPOL filter-based displays, making these poor choices for casual or group viewing. Another downside to the filter is that, in 3D mode, the horizontal resolution is cut in half (to 525 pixels). The resolution loss is not dramatic, if noticeable at all, as each eye is getting unique spatial information.

The Zalman ships with Peter Wimmer’s excellent Stereoscopic Player for viewing 3D movies. For gaming, you’ll have more options than with most displays. If you have a nVidia GeForce 7000 series card, you can use the provided ForceWare graphics card driver and Stereo Driver with Windows XP and quite a few DirectX-based games (visit MTBS3d.com for supported game info). If you can stomach Windows Vista and have an nVidia series 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000 or 200 card, you can use the state-of-the-art nVidia GeForce 3D Stereo driver. This combo is as good as it gets in stereo 3D and supports over 100 DirectX-based games (game list can be found at http://www.nvidia.com/docs/IO/801/GeForce_3D_Stereo_Games_List.pdf). The Zalman is, in fact, the only 3D display currently supported by nVidia’s latest drivers. If all else fails, or you have an ATI video card, the TriDef driver (www.tridef.com) is supposed to work with the Zalman and supports 19 games including Crysis (yeah, baby). 

The display physically cables to a single VGA or DVI output from your video card (both cables are supplied).  As the stereo image transmission format its interlaced, the video card is not tasked with "page-flipping" 60 times per second.  This does result in better video performance for some applications.

For the 3D filmmakers among us, this display has a lot to offer. It’s fairly portable and can easily be bolted into a pelican case for carrying into the field. For reviewing 3D dailies, it’s the cat’s pajamas… the color is fairly true and it’s big enough to get decent stereo separation. There is even a Mac 3D video player that supports the Zalman, but we can’t talk about that yet. Put to work at your NLE station, the Zalman will serve just fine as a high-quality 2D display and will display your stereoscopic content whenever you are ready. There MAY even be some integration with NLEs on the horizon for live stereo 3D preview/editing… but, again, we’re supposed to keep quite for now.

The best news might just be the price… the Zalman streets for about $650 and is widely available from retailers in the US.