Acer joins the 3D movie fun with a new notebook that comes complete with polariser glasses
The biggest trend in the IT market this year is undoubtedly 3D technology with several new products coming out that are especially designed to help us perceive depth in everything we watch. ESPN is already broadcasting some sports in 3D and BBC News recently reported that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa would be filmed in this medium.
Some 3D imaging products are already in the stores, among them Fujifilm's FinePix REAL 3D W1 camera, and several DVD titles encoded in 3D are now available at Amazon.com.
Now, Acer has joined the 3D bandwagon with its notebook computer, the Aspire 5740DG, which comes with 3D polariser glasses so that users to enjoy the stereoscopic images on its LCD screen.
Our brains can perceive depth when we view objects along two different lines of sight. This phenomenon is called parallax.
The 3D video requires two lenses to shoot the same image twice simultaneously and then encode them using two different colours. Polarised glasses then guide our eyes to perceive two different lines of sight from the image and the depth perception is formed in our head.
It's really fun to view photos, watch video and play games in 3D, as you can see clearly the layers of depth in the movies and pictures. Less fortunate souls may develop bad headaches from this stereoscopic imaging.
Aspire 5740DG uses a TriDef 3D screen, which is a special 3D layer attached pixel-by-pixel for enhancing 3D perception when viewed with the provided glasses. The notebook's CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD enhances the brightness for clearer perception of the images.
TriDef 3D software delivers stereoscopic video playback, photo slideshows and games. Some 3D movies clips and 3D-encoded photos are pre-installed for fun watching.
I watched the pre-installed 3D movie clips and photos using the TriDef 3D application and I was impressed. I could see the layers of depth in the movie clearly and found the pictures wonderfully bright and colourful.
If you don't have any specially 3D-encoded DVD titles, the TriDef 3D application lets you watch ordinary DVD titles in 3D by analysing the colour, position and motion characteristics of objects in a sequence of video frames then using depth estimation to render stereoscopic views in real time.
The Tri-Def 3D software also lets you play 2D games, developed on Microsoft DirectX-9 platform, in a 3D view.
And as the Aspire 5740DG uses a very powerful Intel Core i7-620M processor 2.66 GHz processor, it's also capable of rendering stereoscopic effects in real time with no performance hiccup.
I tried playing the ordinary "G-Force" DVD movie in 3D with Tri-Def 3D software. The depth layer was not as extensive as with the provided 3D clips but I could see more layers of depth and some 3D effects with any slowing of the playback.
Aspire 5740DG uses a powerful graphic processor, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, with up to 1024 MB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM memory. The graphic processor decodes high-definition movies with its own computing horsepower, so it assists in playing 3D movies and photos as well.
The notebook's 15.6" wide HD screen with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution and high-brightness (220-nit) is good for watching movies and viewing photos.
Aspire 5740DG comes with a sporty-look pair of polarised glasses plus a clip-on type of polarised glasses for those who wear eyeglasses. I had no problem putting the clip on my specs.
Aspire 5470DG is also powerful thanks to the fast processor, good graphics processor and 4 gigabyte of active memory and plenty of storage space of 640 GB of hard drive.
It runs on Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit version.
I checked it against the built-in benchmark tool of Windows 7 and the notebook got impressive scores.
On the scale of 1 to 7.9, Aspire 5740DG scored 6.9 for processor's calculation per second performance and 5.9 scores for the memory operations per second.
And it scored 6.7 for both graphics desktop performance and 3D business and gaming graphics performance. It got 5.8 for disk data transfer.
Acer Aspire 5740DG retails for Bt49,900, VAT not included.
Key specs:
Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7-620M processor (4 MB L3 cache, 2.66 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.33 GHz)
Chipset: Mobile Intel HM55 Express Chipset
Memory: 4 GB Dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM support
Optical media drive: 8X DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive
Storage: 640 GB hard disk drive
Display:15.6-inch HD 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, high-brightness (220-nit) Acer CineCrystal LED-backlit TFT LCD with integrated TriDef 3D screen
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 with up to 4091 MB of HyperMemory 1024 MB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM
Dimensions: 383 (W) x 250 (D) x 26/37 (H) mm
Weight: 2.8 kg with 6-cell battery pack
